Projects OT: Ratrod reckoning

thanks! that thread has a lot of the basics i have been looking for.

 

I'm blown away by your fab/engineering skills. Great built

 

Sure, drag my ass into this! Nice chat as always man.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post pics and showing us your mad skillz!

 

Hey Tman,
I've seen threads and pictures of your work here on the HAMB too. You rank up near the top too. It is always good to drag your a** in here too.

 

understood, but i hate Z's except maybe in Zephyr

 

Steve, thanks for taking the time to document this build and sharing it with us!
I really feel sorry for the owner. The fortunate thing for him is he will have a good understanding of what a good build consists of now. After his brush with death he will probably love the car when he gets it back.
Everything you and your partner have done looks absolutely first class.
Thanks for raising the bar!

~Alden

 

I happened to make an unfortunate comment about NeedLouvers car when ELP had it on his table he refers to above. It was some snarky comment about Mustang II front ends and ELP repairing them all the time. Well needless to say I was chastised by ELP. NOW more of that remarkable tale comes to light. Maybe we need a separate thread on ELP and NeedLouvers build of Chip's car.

ELP and others are correct about being able to do a lot with a few tools and a whole lot of planning and thinking. A lot of people don't know that when Bill Neikamp built he famous roadster, the first World's Most Beautiful Roadster winner, he didn't use an OA torch to cut the brackets out of plate. He cut the brackets by hand with a hacksaw. He didn't believe in using a cutting torch because, he didn't want to induce stresses in the parts from the heat. We might think that to be wrong-headed; but look what he built by HAND.

 

beanbag pulled up, beer in cooler next to me and pizza ordered, this looks like its going to be fun to watch...

Awesome skills being shown building a decent rod out of the pile of junk that was given to you

 

Dude! That thing has earned every bit of it's ugly over the last nineteen years of life. It's been a DAILY (as in the ony running car I have owned) for at least seventeen of those years. And not just to the grocery store and back kinda daily, like wake up and drive to Yuma at 4:00 AM and back by 9:00pm and repeat tomorrow kinda daily! On top of being tank indestructable, it handles better than some of the topline exotic cars I have driven over the years, and can out run most of them, too (at least up to 140 when the aerodynamics go all wiffle-ball). Other than three rounds of urathane bushings and as many sets of ball joint ball joints, in all those years and miles I have had no problems like some with the Mustang II. That's well over 200,000 miles, possibly 250,000. Now, Granada rotors... Well that's just different! Somethings gotta give coming down from the speeds that thing has routinely gone! Snark away!!! Oh, and you pressed the right button with the mention of Bill Neikamp. one of my heros for sure!

 

No, I am a hack compared to Steve, Alex and others here. I just know when to stop and not make it any worse! But thank you, now that I think about it that is very flattering.

 

That is a GREAT POINT! The Neikamp anecdote has bee posted here before but not enough!@ Yes, guys back then cared about quality and that is the core of this thread, QUALITY AND INTEGRITY!

 

Steve, you my friend are like my mother inlaw. My wife and mil both sew. My wife much like myself plan and painstakingly take our time to make exactly what we want. My mil on the other hand is "snip snip snip here's a perfect ninja turtle costume" to quote my wife. Meaning it is quick and perfect
And yes I do like my mil.
Not sure if that makes any since or not.
In other words your work is awesome!

 

Great save. Excellent understated writeup, too. Please carry on in the same vein.

And what happened to the nickels? Did anyone try to cash them in?

 

Total hero. Dude you are like Superman or something.... I bet you cut out all that stuff with your eyes!

T-man is like lois lane.... haha

Seriously amazing work!

 

Damn it! Its midnite and I've just spent the best part of the last two hours going through this barely day-old thread. Thank you,I'll be picking my jaw
up off the floor and carrying my ass back in the house but sleep will come no time soon the way my head is spinning right now. Nothing short of incredible both pre and post op. Subscribed. At the very least,for the rest of my life,anytime I hear a weld described as a stack of coins I will have the mental vision of the nickels from this former train wreck... Bastards!

 

Amazing work. I think Ryan should have you write tech articles for jalopy journal from time to time. There is a lot you could teach...

 

Steve is nothing short of a hotrod god, and one of the nicest guys around. When ever I need help on a project or just have geometry questions he never hesitates to help. I have seen this car first hand and WoW. what it started out as and has become is astonishing. Steve I am blown away by you and Mr J's work.

 

Bob, some day you will come up with a true, witty response to something I post.

 

Where did you get your facts an figures from?? you obviously know alot about the state of rod building in Oz And NZ which has a similar system but is far less stringent.
Keen to know where you got your info from as I wasn't aware there were very few cars being built over this way,because they were so damn expensive. Guess you learn somthing new every day.
In short, if you don't know what your talking about its best to keep your loud mouth SHUT!!

 

He should be embarrassed, he paid someone to build that pile of crap.

 

Hey he's only had 26,500 tries at it so far.....

 

I just wasted all moring at work studying all the new tech feats of your frame/suspension set up.
The rear bag on arm set up is pretty much genius. The pivoting lower mount could make for a scary dangerous ride, but the "brake arm" is gonna turn a bad situation into an awesome feat.
Ive seen a picture of a bag that was on a 60s t-bird, and was mounted on the stock pivoting bracket. The outcome was an airspring torn at the base!!!

Anyways, i only own O/T rides, but i come here to look at the kool kustoms and tech threads like this one. So much we can learn by just watchin these pictures. Thanx ELP!

EDIT: not gonna ask who built this orignally as if yoy wanted to say it you would have already, but i want to know if it was a real shop or some guy's backyard barn in which he does work. I have a hard time believing that crap came out of a supposedly proper shop.

 

Epic build. Epic thread. Looking forward to seeing how this looks rolling out the door. You should leave one conrod on it somewhere just so Mr. Funk NEVER forgets the lesson that he learned here.

 

Hmmmm......I think I need to call you about re-doing mine!!

 

I don't. Last year there was a guy with a (buick?) that a "proper shop" was working on with some of the suspension supported by the trans tunnel

Every once in a while I get a ride in someone's car. 9 outta 10 rides, they're pretty bad. Shaky suspension, wandering, engines that run like shit, sheet metal rattling, interior parts loose, and the owners many times just don't know any better. "It's an old car, they're all like that."

No, they're not. Not long ago I spent a few hours under the hood of an old Packard sedan. The people thought I had "hopped it up" and were curious as to what I'd done. "I simply adjusted everything to spec."

The "go for a ride" fever is almost incurable. Sadly, that slapped together rush ends up permanent in many cases. Just the other day I'm seeing an early Mopar pull into a cruise night. The front suspension was so outta whack I couldn't believe it. Well, I could, but I felt bad for the guy, but not bad enough to ask him about it. That in itself, even with the best intentions, can be taken as an insult. Sad...

 

Oh yeah i remember that Buick!
And, my interior parts are loose, there are rattles, front wheels aint aligned properly, and at times it has no wheels on it.....of course its a project. hahah, bet i had ya for a second there

 

Great job on fixing and making this car roadworthy. Keep the progress coming.

 

Fair enough, my point was poorly made. Let me try again.

Maybe they need a tech inspection down under to prevent this type of thing:



But here in the USA, I shudder to think about scheduling a tech inspection, no less 3 of them. I have heard plenty of horror stories about city and county inspectors for home construction or remodeling. If you own a business or a shop, I hear dealing with government inspections and regulations is a pain in the ass. I think this type of thing is better policed within the Hot Rod community. If there was a widespread problem with people being hurt or killed because of poorly built rods, then maybe I would feel different.

 

Steve -
I felt compelled to write and say "thanks" for taking the time to make this post. OT or not these are the types of threads I constantly scan the HAMB for. I am a novice builder. I always appreciate seeing precision and craftsmanship on display. Threads such as this inspire me to dream of what can be done, and inevitabally I learn something along the way.

Keep up the amazing work and thanks again for taking the time to put it on display.

Marc