The Peoples Rat

[Shea Laking]

Well I mocked up the 283 and powerglide, built motor mounts and trans mount. Also bolted on a set of headders that were left over from a 3rd gen Camaro project that's long gone. With some tweekin I think they'll work. Will fab a crossover pipe into a Y pipe then run a single pipe to the back.
I made the trans crossmember low so there will be room for the exhaust pipe to go between the floor and crossmember. looks like I have enough room for distributor clearance and still have room for a radiator. I plan to use the Baja hood and build a homemade grill over the radiator. The wheel base is 114 inches in order to accomadate front mounted motor and stuff.

This thing's cool as heck! If you're only running one pipe, you've just gotta put one of those old-school "stinger pipes" dead centre out the back!

Can't wait to see more!

Regards,
Shea

 

[fuzz]

Thought I'd post some progress pictures and chat alittle. I got some coilover shocks for VWs by Empi, they look like they'll work well and could be used on many rat rods, $68 delivered. Next I started fremming the floor and fire wall using 3/4 square tube and some 3/8" round bar.

 

[cantwell.colton]

i seen a volksbug/truck the other day - almost went out and bout a bug that moment.

 

[fuzz]

Had to wait a couple weeks for the front spring cuz I needed to mock up the axle and radius rods to figure how long the spring must be to fit my combination of 40 axle and bat wings with spring behind setup. So after mocking up the spring I had to make some changes for the spring frame mount and had a few modifications that always need to be made when building a rod with custom parts. I noticed that the shakle pivots were 1/8" wider than the spring eye causing the shakle plates to be out of alignment. No big deal just had to grind off 1/8" from one side of the pivots. Then I decided the spring mount needed to be 1" higher and 3/4" closer to the frame in order to get the ride hieght I wanted. I like about 6" ground clearance so stuff don't drag but still be low enough to be cool.. Had to remount the radius rod frame mounts cuz now it all had to be moved rearward!! And need the radius rods lower in order to get 7% positive caster.[

 

[bell]

I'm diggin this!

 

[fuzz]

Next step was to put the disc brake kit together. Speedway kits are excellent and priced right but are not exactly bolt on. I'm using 48 Ford spindles and got the speedway flat steel steering arms. They don't clear the spindle where they go around the kingpin boss and the area where they bolt to the spindle has to be ground flat so the arms will fit flush. If you don't grind the area flat, tightening the bolts will distort the kingpin boss and cause the pin to bind. Also the bolts included with the kit are too short to go thru the caliper bracket and the steering arm so I had to find a longer bolt. I'm not nitpickin, just saying this is normal when you buy any aftermarket stuff and build a rod. You old timers know this but just trying to alert the new guys to few things they will run into. ..[P Any hwo it's comming together..

 

[fuzz]

Got most of the sheet metal installed. Only three cuts on my fingers and at least as many burns from spot welding. ...[cl