Building My 28 Tudor Rat

[Montana Rat]

First off.. Thanks Guys for the warm welcome! Well to start with I had been looking for a car body for a few months when I found my 1928 Ford Model A tudor sedan body, Stored away in a shed for the past 10+ years here in my home town. It was a cold -20 deg January day when I Looked a my sedan for the first time... The guy I bought it from said if I would do something with the body he would sell it to me. He didn't feel that he would do anything with It and asked if $100.00 dollars was a fair price... I could not dig the money out of my pocket fast enough!!![cl Wasn't until the end of February that I got the car body home. The first of March I started putting the body back together. As seen in the pics... at some time during the cars life it had been cut at the windshield pillers and sill plates. car body came from a ranch so it may have been used as a fence post hauler [S More to come soon!! Scott

 

[BillM]

Great score...especially for that kind of money....[cl

 

[kkadams123]

Great project. I also picked my car off the side of a hill in Montana in the snow. I found it just up the road from my house after looking everywhere else! Good luck. Hope to see you at a show in Montana when we both get ours running.

 

[Montana Rat]

Great project. I also picked my car off the side of a hill in Montana in the snow. I found it just up the road from my house after looking everywhere else! Good luck. Hope to see you at a show in Montana when we both get ours running.

Sounds Great! Looking forward to meeting other rat rodders at shows.

 

[Montana Rat]

Part 2

At this point with the body back together I needed to decide what I wanted the rat to look like.... so I made a mockup of what I was hoping for. With the thoughts of building a budget build I was shooting for a price of $2500 - $3000... not complete, But a driveable car. The front axle is from a 1963 Ford Econoline van and the rear axle is a 10 bolt posi from a 1978 Pontiac Bonneville. One of my goals was to build as much of the car as I could from scratch. Not having a local salvage yard made it hard to come up with used parts. I bought most of the parts I needed from Ebay and Speedway. Part 3 coming soon! Scott

 

[andyspinstriping]

Great looking project!!!

 

[Montana Rat]

Part 3

With the general plan for my rat I started building the frame... Z'd the front 9" and 16" in the rear. With this frame design I did not have to channel the body. I plan on driving my car long distance's... so comfort is important. Front and rear axles are mounted on a buggy type leaf spring set up with shocks to be added later. More coming soon, Scott

 

[earthman]

....................[P

 

[MACKAZ]

Got yourself a nice starting point. Body looks really tidy. Building a cheap rod rules!

 

[Neverdone]

Good looking project!!! I too want to be able to drive mine long distances, well, 150 miles one way in a shot (to mom and dads) but that is probably about as far as it will go at one time. My original budget was about the same as yours. I missed it but not by much I will be just under $3500 when I am done ish.... (these things are never done)

 

[Montana Rat]

Part 4

The body was set very carefully on the chassis by the help of 6 co-workers... then I was able to finish setting the rear axle into place and finishing the mount for the spring. Next came the suspention radius arms. I was able to make nice long front arms... but the rear was a different story. Not a lot of room for mounting made the rear radius arms shorter then I wanted... but they will work fine. Building the bat wings was a challenge... mostly for the front. I wanted to keep the akerman steering correct by keeping the tie rod to the rear of the axle. As you can see in the pics... I got it to work and clear the bat wing with out hitting the tie rod. More to come soon! Scott

 

[Dirtyrat]

Looks like you are making some progress, I do have a question, when I looked at my ford axle with the rear steering tie rod, when turning the steering tie rod moves quite a bit forward, how close is it to your bat wings?

Thats where I was running into issues when I was designing my front suspension...

 

[Montana Rat]

Looks like you are making some progress, I do have a question, when I looked at my ford axle with the rear steering tie rod, when turning the steering tie rod moves quite a bit forward, how close is it to your bat wings?

Thats where I was running into issues when I was designing my front suspension...

With the steering turn to full lock I have 1/4" clearance... very close but clears!

 

[Dirtyrat]

Cool, I really like this build, can;t wait to see more!

 

[Montana Rat]

Part 5

Steering was the next thing on my list to get done. I used a Vega steering gear box with no blind spline... which made it easy to center the pitman arm. Vega gear box's are for cross steering... but works well turned 90 deg. pushing and pulling on the left front wheel. Spent some time thinking about how I wanted to build the mount so I didn't have alot of angle into the steering column. Built the steering column from a mazda pickup column tube...added rubber bushings and brass sleaves to support the 3/4" steering shaft and a Grant classic steering wheel... Oh and that is a chevy 350 connecting rod holding the column. More to come soon. Scott

 

[Dirtyrat]

I like what you did with the connecting rod!

Yea, with the steering box you used, you had to run the pitman arm up, with the box off the bottom of the frame, thats a cool solution, looks like you have plenty of room too, and decent angle on the column.

I was going to run a custom steering link with a toyota end on one side and the ford on the other, but not 100% on that, looking at your heim joint, that looks like a nice solution too...

 

[Montana Rat]

I like what you did with the connecting rod!

Yea, with the steering box you used, you had to run the pitman arm up, with the box off the bottom of the frame, thats a cool solution, looks like you have plenty of room too, and decent angle on the column.

I was going to run a custom steering link with a toyota end on one side and the ford on the other, but not 100% on that, looking at your heim joint, that looks like a nice solution too...

I really like the heim joints... very flexable with angle changes.

 

[Montana Rat]

Part 6

Brakes... The next step. I used a frame mounted master cylinder. I used a dual resevoir Master cylinder from a 67 chevy pickup with manual brakes... and residual brake pressure valves both front and rear. I have heard of guys having trouble with there brakes with this setup... but no problem here! At the start of this project in March... I set a goal of completing a rolling chassis with brakes and steering by the first of September. I was surprised when I finished that goal by mid June... Thought I should take advantage of my extra time and roll-on! I had my mind made up that I wanted to run a chevy drive train... So I found a bare sbc block and a THM350 trans bare case to use for mock up. I built the motor mounts and transmission mount. More to come soon. Scott

 

[kkadams123]

Nice work. I am enjoying checking out your build and ideas as I progress on mine. Brakes are next for me. I think!

 

[Montana Rat]

Nice work. I am enjoying checking out your build and ideas as I progress on mine. Brakes are next for me. I think!

Thanks... and good luck with your build!