[speedingpenguin]

KEY WORD: BUDGET

A buddy of mine and I have decided to build a rat-rod. Theres a junkyard in our area that has TONSSSSSS of cars and trucks from the 30's-70's, so our initial idea was that we'd pick up a G-body (Monte Carlo, Cutlass, etc.), take the body off, and somehow rig a 30's or 40's body onto the frame. It ain't gonna be pretty, but our goal is just to be able to drive around town in a car with a 30's or 40's body. I know some of you will bash the idea for not doing it the "right" way, but any suggestions or advice is appreciated. Any other ideas are welcome too.

 

[Henry Highrise]

First of all.....I do not like rat rods. But a 30's body is way too narrow for any modern frame....your going to have a frame too wide for your body .

 

[poncho62]

And, who is going to certify this thing to be driven on the street.....Not any mechanic I have ever known.

An S10 or Ranger frame may be narrow enough, but would still take tons of modifications to make it work.

 

[38mag]

30s car on modern frame

I put a 38 Plymouth body on a 93 Dakota chassis. The car turned out great. It passes PA state inspection. It has got 2 Goodguys picks.
I say go for it.
JIM

 

[Good Frosty]

Why switch to a different frame? Just use the one under it, or find one. 50's Chevy/Ford pick-ups have narrow rails and solid front axles. Pretty good start there. Get a decent frame and running gear together, put your body on...and uhh...your done.

Mini-Truck/Car frames usually just turn out ugly. I've seen too much of them actually. The engine is usually rammed over the front wheels, track too wide, radiator in front of the wheels, frames too wide, ugly, hard to cover up.

Keep it simple.

 

[farna]

38mag, we need pics of that thing!!

It can be done, but make sure you use a body with fenders. A small truck frame is doable, a car frame would need a lot of work. That's why the front clips are usually cut off and welded to the existing frame.

 

[Good Frosty]

Anything fenderless must have a straight axle.

Err...let me find some horrible examples here.

 

[cboy]

Anything fenderless must have a straight axle.

Personally I wouldn't go that far. Kugel makes a beautiful, non-straight axle, front suspension which many have run sucessfully with fenderless cars. Also, there are some home-grown versions of the Kugel which look fine in open frame situations.

 

[cboy]

Here's another...

(Note: photo credit to Dave Lindsay - SoCalCarCulture.Com)

 

[home brew]

Here are the links that Arrowhead came up with awhile back:

http://www.server7.com/images/tbucket/106.jpg

http://www.server7.com/images/tbucket/a654.jpg

http://www.server7.com/images/tbucket/a116.jpg

http://www.server7.com/images/tbucket/a940.jpg

http://www.server7.com/images/tbucket/702.jpg

http://www.server7.com/images/tbucket/b846.jpg

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[Good Frosty]

Oh...I know, IFS can be made presentable (which...uhh...your cars show) but most OEM set ups look pretty horrible. And on a budget, or without too much engineering, their usually not the way to go.

A straight axle instantly looks "right", but presents a problem when it comes to mounting/steering/brakes.

I've seen...a few mini-truck fenderless cars turn out somewhat decently proportioned, and Caterham's look fine with IFS anyway. Still...not something to go for with any 30s/40's fenderless car or truck.

 

[home brew]

Oh...I know, IFS can be made presentable (which...uhh...your cars show) but most OEM set ups look pretty horrible. And on a budget, or without too much engineering, their usually not the way to go.

A straight axle instantly looks "right", but presents a problem when it comes to mounting/steering/brakes.

I've seen...a few mini-truck fenderless cars turn out somewhat decently proportioned, and Caterham's look fine with IFS anyway. Still...not something to go for with any 30s/40's fenderless car or truck.

I don't think you were refering to my post were you?

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[Good Frosty]

nah...Cboy's. Somehow you must have replied before i was done.

Anyway...IFS is kind of a nightmare when its low budget.

 

[luckyfasteddie]

lots of things to think of

Speed are you serious or just BS ing around with people? You are 19. broke ,and want to jump into a fad. Who will own the veh ? At your age will you be able to get ins that you can afford. How many cars have you built ? Do you have a shop full of tools ? How many shows have you been to and how many pictures do you have to study ? Have you ever talked face to face with someone who has done this ? What do your parents think of your idea.? Is your dad a car person? Do you live at home , if so will your parents let you use their garage to build this car? Have you been to the motor veh office to find out what their requirements are ?When shopping at the junk yard do you know the difference between junk and parts that can be used? Most of the time junkyard parts need refurbishing do you know how to do this. Buying parts that are no good is costly.Does your neighborhood allow cars and parts to be stored outside. Not trying to burst your bubble but you need to do more than post on a car board to be ready to build a car.Remember if you dont build it correctly you can DIE. FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANING TO FAIL.

 

[Augusto]

I have a '46 chevy fleetmaster sedan over a '79 C-10 chevy pickup frame, I regret using this frame because it ate up most of the rear passengers floor room but I drive it from the front seat anyway, I handles great, very rugged takes a lot of abuse and ultra reliable, I also built a '52 International pick up with the front clip off a '77 malibu, very good results, go for it just make sure it is safe, if you like it then it must be beautifull, ignore bad looks comments, it will be "your" car.
Personally I like the looks of straigth axle but some ifs look awsome.
Augusto.

 

[farna]

A couple of the cars in Home Brew's post wouldn't look to awlfully bad if they had used tubular arms instead of stock, and coil over shocks instead of stock springs. They'd have been more presentable anyway. All of the ones that would have looked somewhat acceptable (IMHO) with tubular arms had the radiator in FRONT of the ungainly looking crossmember. A tight budget could mean only upper arms are tubular, but even that would make a night-and-day difference in appearance without to many $$$. Stock springs could be kept if the budget didn't allow coil overs, but the stock upper arms would have to go at a minimum to clean things up a bit.

 

[yknot]

Are you guy's st**id or something, the poster told you it was to be a very, very low budget car, meaning they an't got no money. What good is it to show Kugle front ends and the like when the whole damn thing is likely to be less then that one piece.
Look I don't know how to say this, but it you and your friend feel the need to build a 30-40's type car of some cheap late model then do it, but You won't find much help in here. The car your talking about is not a hot rod, street rod or anything else. The only other phrase that comes to mine for a car like that is a junk rod. Me, I would rather save my money and read the magazines, rather then invest what little I do have in junk, but thats me. Also, while we are on the reality trip, be careful with this partnership, they never seem to workout and you only get hard feelings with them.

 

[poncho62]

Are you guy's st**id or something, the poster told you it was to be a very, very low budget car, meaning they an't got no money.

Awfull opinionated for a new guy................The discussion was started and ended up here......That's the way it works. We dont need the derogatory remarks.

 

[Good Frosty]

If your looking to use a late model frame, trucks from about 48-late 50's would be the easiest. But keep the fenders. Actually, keep the fenders on any thing that you use with IFS.

Use a straight/solid/beam axle (all the same) on anything fenderless. Actually, you could throw together an 50's truck on a late model frame, then use the truck's chassis chassis (with its straight axle), an older cab/body to be made fenderless, and another donor to throw together an decent looking, but cheap fenderless car. So...your kinda doubling up there.

 

[cboy]

Are you guy's st**id or something, the poster told you it was to be a very, very low budget car, meaning they an't got no money. What good is it to show Kugle front ends...

I don't believe anyone was suggesting that Speed go out and buy a Kugle. The Kugle was brought up as a response from another poster who stated that ONLY a straight axle can work (look good/correct) in a fenderless car.

By showing the Kugle there is a chance the original poster might be able to mimic this type of suspension on the cheap, so I don't feel the subject was inappropriate to this thread.

However, that doesn't mean you didn't hit the nail on the head regarding my intelligence level.

Dewey