And people that know me well know that this is usually bad Anywho i couldnt sleep so my mind was wondering and i thought of all the junk i have behind my dads shop. Then i starting thinking of peicing all that junk together. And the Junk Rod concept was born. Now the only piece that might be concidered non-traditional would be the frame i have back there, its a 1978 Isuzu mini truck. But i think the rest of the idea more than makes up for that. A buddy of mine has an old Chevy coupe tub that he wants gone, i have no idea what it is was or has been, but that niether here nor there. Its a body thats all i care about. I would set that on the Isuzu frame, then take the 51 Pontiac flathead 8 i have in the shop and work it in there. I would then convert the 3 speed thats behind the 8 to a floor shift (how hard would that be? i dont know becouse i dont have it in front of me) and run that to an old GM 12 bolt rear axle from a 64 C-10 i have. And theres the Junk Rod concept. Its kinda scary how much crap i have laying around, but is it more scary that i think of combining all of it into one package that would most definetly scar old people and small children?
My opinioin is to not leave it as "junk", ya' know??? Sounds kind of like a "rat" rod (insert cloudy skies and lightning here)... I would say to fabricate your own frame, too... it'd be a lot cooler in my mind to have at least a traditionally made frame... that motor sounds bitchin', too... if you're ever willing to sell it, let me know... the rest of it sounds kool... remember to paint it more than flat black when you're done! troy.
I'd say build it with what you have. I think if your worried about whether it's an old frame, or a new old style frame . . . that's kind of getting into the lemmings attitude. If the truck frame is stout enough it's going to be a lot easier than building your own and probably ride better IMHO.
Oh, and red wheels too!! (patiently waitin' on the "rat" rod thing to blow up...heheh) Sounds like a good idea! I'd go w/ a fab'd frame as well.
...yessir...nothin' says "I'm white trash and I live in a trailer" more than a good old rat rod built on a mini truck frame... ...and make sure it's 4WD...
WTF? Build the car how you want it . . . screw what someone else thinks. If you don't have the money or experience to build a frame now, you can enjoy the car and get it on the road now. If you search the classifieds, I think raven61 has a frame for sale pretty cheap if you absolutely are so afraid that some "It has to look old so I paid 10 zillion dollars for this old Flathead " guy gives a crap.
Well ya know i was just kinda thinking of utilising parts i had. And why does it have to be a rat rod? Why would it have to have red wheels? Just becouse somebody looks at essentially a pile of junk and sees potential that makes him/her white trash? I get kinda tired of this whole "traditional" hot rodding attitude. Isnt traditional hot rodding about taking what you have and making it go fast and look cool? Im getting kinda tired of some of the elietest attitudes that seem to run rampit in the traditional hot rodding comunity. And whats more some of those guys arent even traditional themselves! Running 350s and air bags. Correct me if im wrong but wouldnt traditinal be running a 283 with blocks in the back and collapsed coils up front? Or am i just completely missing some point here?
Sounds like a great start - I'd ditch the IFS for sure Take what you got for a start and trade for the rest
Something like this, Larry??? Just imagine it without fenders and you get the idea... NO - it's not mine!!
screw what everyone else thinks. If you like the idea then start welding! for the record, I personally think its a cool idea.
You're in the wrong place then. 3W Larry has one of the best cars on the planet and deliberate care went into the aesthetics. (see below) Resourcefulness is nice, but if you end up with a pile of pieced-together crap, is it worth the effort? Life's too short to build a junk rod, unless that's what you really want to do with your time. How about selling off some of that junk and collecting parts to build a car that will really make you happy? I've been collecting parts for 8+ years to fulfill the vision I have. I won't settle for less. If that's elitist, so be it. Which car would you rather drive ... the junk rod, or THIS?:
I'm sick of it too. But I guess I could also be considered white trash. I say build what you like/can/are able to afford and don't listen to everyone else's bullshit. The main thing is, build the best you can with your resources. The people that "don't get it" in my opinion are the people who have the money/equipment/skills to build something nice but build something that is crap because it is "the hot trend" right now. Did that make sense?
use what ya got man. That's the coolest part just put some detail to what you are doing that's what it's about "the details"
if you can live with yourself and sleep at night, have fun building it and driving it., not my cup of joe but i got my style you got yours. if you can pull it off, have fun with it. you do it, it looks good, you got my props for if i had the time on my hands, i would do it just for shits and giggles. my .02 lance
Just Think 25 Years From Now All Trad Rods/ Rats Will Be Isuzu Frames And Basket Case Bodies...start A Trend... I Just Looked Thru About A 5 Year Span Of Asst. 50's Car Magazines And They Were Building Some Ugly Stuff ... Only A Handful Was What We Consider The Basics Of Rodding .. So Build What You Want.. Some One Always won't like Your Stuff... Or What You Say.... Its Human Nature.. The Difference Of Opinion's Are Motivation Or Theyare Heart Stoppers Paperdog
I should also mention that I think it would be worth your while to start from scratch on the frame. Up to you though.
Here's the skinny...You asked. My first post on this thread was in complete sarcasm. Build what you want...And a word of advice, if you start slamming the "elitests" around here, don't worry about getting help with shit...take advantage of the HAMB, and the fact that you have access to every possible piece of information ever available, all at the click of a button. Some these guys might knock you, but it's probably for your own good. Ditch the frame. Sell it to start to fund a chassis build. BUT if junk is what you want, then that's all it'll still be when it's assembled. Just my $0.02.
Don't let the guys hiding their street rods under flat black paint to ride the traditional bandwagon or the other assorted goofballs ruin your good time....do what ya want with what ya got and enjoy it! If you get it running and actually DRIVE it, you'll be miles ahead of half your critics anyway! NOW... On the other hand, don't take all the seemingly neagative comments so personally, either...there's been such a plethora of horrible e-bay rat rod abortions posted for laughs here that many people conjure up frightening images of such things when you start talking about random old car bodies set on mini-truck frames with antique engines and such...because there truly is some hideous "junk rods" out there! Surf e-bay for five minutes and you'll see what I'm talking about. Just to suggest a slightly DIFFERENT approach...go get that Chevy body and bring it home. Take a few pictures of it and post them here. I'm sure someone will know what it is and can point you to some pictures of similar cars built into pretty cool rods to draw inspiration from. Using the mini-truck frame under a full bodied car, or at least one with fenders might not be so bad...but if you plan on running the thing as a fenderless, traditionally styled hot rod, even I would suggest re-thinking the use of that frame. (And I'm usually very open to screwy, oddball build ideas!). I like the idea of running the old mill you mentioned, but I have to agree with others who say to do it on a different chassis. You'll be much happier if you plant that motor and tranny into a custom built frame, or an actual early car frame...most Chevy frames of the 30s used parallel leafs up front on straight axles and they can be picked up pretty cheap if you look around. That would give you a better basis for your project, and since you have a Chevy body and those early Chevs normally came with inline sixes, it shouldn't be a big deal to get that motor of yours into a 30s Chevy or Poncho chassis, and the body would fit it nice as well! One of the things you'll likely run into will be the bracing for your body...those early Chevs used wood structural supports that often times are long since rotted and gone...leaving you with a flimsy shell of a body that will need either wood or metal structural reinforcing to not collapse in upon itself as soon as you open the door or take a corner! Building a "junk rod" can be lots of fun, but you should know going in that it isn't going to be as cheap and easy as you're probably thinking it is right now...even when you start with things like a free body, engine, transmission, rear axle, frame, etc...you can bet that you will be spending at least three grand on the stuff required to put it all together and make it go, steer and stop...and believe me when I tell you...you'd have to be REALLY good to pull it off for just three grand...it'll probably cost more like five before you go for that first test drive...TRUST ME! So, what I'm trying to say, and what I beleive others were wanting to instill in you, is that if you really want to take a run at this project, it will make you far happier in the long run to formulate a solid, sensible plan and to work towards building something pretty cool using your own skills and the basic parts you have on hand...but also try to learn from the mistakes of others and avoid the pitfalls that could leave you sitting on the next horrific hillbilly e-bay abortion that everyone's cracking jokes about behind your back! There's enough of that going on already without staoically working your way towards joining such ranks! I think you're onto a good idea...and an old heap powered by one of them old GM inlines could make for a pretty neat ride, so long as it doesn't look like you built the whole car after a dumpster-diving marathon with no solid thought given to what the end result will look like. You don't have to build a high dollar rod to have a cool car, but a cool car is more than just some old junk heaped together, too. You've got all the help you could ever need right here if you get stuck on something, need an oddball, hard-to-find part or just need ideas and advice thrown your way from time to time, but it's you who will ultimately have to do the work...it's you who will be spending long hours alone in the garage, shop or driveway creating your new ride, and you who will be financing it. So, it pays to make all that effort worthwhile in the end by working towards something you can rightfully be proud of. It doesn't have to be pretty, and nobody but you even has to LIKE it, but it should be something that can be driven anywhere without a second thought, and...honestly...it should be something that you can genuinely take PRIDE in once it's built. I mean...after all...if you just lump a bunch of completely random old parts together, odds are that you'll soon lose interest in such a contraption and will walk away from it without knowing the satisfaction that comes from cruising the streets in something you built yourself and thumbing your nose at the nay-sayers! I'm just offering a little advice to help get ya there, Man!
My opinin is: It's MY car and MY rules. You don't like it...well FUCK OFF! There's a wHOLE lot off difference between SUGGESTING you might wanna do this or that differently than to saying that you suck and your parents weren't married because you don't do it MY WAY. There's enough assholes out there bad mouthing us and trying to take our cars away without us beating the shit out of one of our own. I remember stories of ONE guy that thought he had all the answers about how people were supposed to act. He got nailed to a cross. LIGHTEN UP folks, DAMN. They're CARS. There's over a billion folks in China who couldn't give a damn about how you build your car.
Yes, I'm a new guy here at this very good and imformative site .But I am remained of what my Grandpaw said about advice .He said it was like the chickens who followed the cows in the pasture, They had to pick throught a lot of shit to get a kernnel of corn.
...leave it to Hack to eloquently put into words the diplomacy and tact that I lack. Basically when I read a thread like this, I read between the lines and realize this guy is day-dreamin about a pile of parts and he's throwin' out ideas for us to bounce off of...no harm in that...but when you realize that this guy is young and strapped for cash, I for one am not going to encourage him to build this thing, especially if he doesn't even know(or care, obviously) what kind of body it is, or has any plan of attack as to what it will ultimately look like. I for one do not want to be responsible for tellin' this guy "Hell yeah, dude, build whut ya want, man, and don't listen to anyone tellin' ya different, dude"...
People that have nice show type cars and look down on people that build low (safe) budget hotrods because it's all that they can afford are CRAP. They have no place in my world. If you do have a nice (show) car and treat people with low budget (safe) cars like they're not a lower life form, they're a true hotrodder. There are times a new to the hobby guy building a car needs some constructive critisism, just make it clear what it is, don't downgrade. There are a few guys in my neck of the woods that have really, really nice cars, know the type of car I build, and encourage me. My cars are not Show quality, but they're safe, and I (along with a few others) like they style. Then there's some people with nice cars that are total pricks.
Looks like i kicked a bees nest here. Let me clerify, dont for one second think i dont have huge respect for the work you guys do. My beef is when people come out sounding overly judgemental and thier running non traditional stuff as well. I was just a little peaved with being called white trash. I was asking for opinions true. I got opinions, I just dont feel people should be so judgemental sounding all the time. By the same token im probly guilty of this myself in the last post but anyway. So the frame i have is a bad idea I dont know like i said, when i get thinking it can be vary bad, i do have a bad habbit of thinking out loud and thats what this was... I jumped the gun with the original post and with my reaction, but i read through the other posts and have leaned a thing or two. So its not all bad.
Don't worry guy . . . I've been called white trash and trailer trash on here and that for what I've wanted to do and build. I'm glad other people have either piles of money falling out of their pie hole or they have oodles of time/friends/etc... that they can just build whatever they want with their overabundance of resources. It's like anything else, there's good/bad with everything. I watch guys go out boating/fishing . . . some guys go out to have a good time, unload their old boat and go have a good time . . .then there are ones that roll their zillion bucks machines with custom trailers, stickers and all sorts of fishing sponsors. Who has the most fun? Depends on what your doing and in the end, you've only gotta please yourself. If it isn't fun, don't do it.
Ala Kart had bags if i'm correct... anyway... I never said you couldn't use the frame, i'd just find it cooler to have built your own frame... besides... i think that may make it easier on you to be able to z it if you want to... instead of having to get the metal to fit the frame you have, you can use square-tubing, and bam, you have no trouble getting the frame to look uniform... I agree to build what you can, but, if you can build a more traditional hot-rod, then build it...
If you learn anything from this project if you do it, it always goes to the better.......stuff you do seems to stick with you better that just the stuff you read or look at (for me anyway) I have done something simular before......used 87 shortwheel base frame...cut a lot of crap off of it.....put a 350/th350 with engine set back......the balancer was even with ft cross member.....and put an old cowl i had got from some in laws years ago on it...ft fenders were crap and i cut them to fit the IFS......i sank the cowl down to help hide the frame....and made my own door frames and body frame out of scrap angle iron from old bed rails.......was going to wood it out to make a woody.....never did.....made a great field car to play with.....i eventualy found the body i have now.......wound up pulling the engine and trans and putting it in my 55.......the body was sold to a friend of mine...and the s-10 chassis i still have.....make a dam good body dolly.........i had fun and learned from that project.......had less than 500 dollars in it....got most of it back in useable parts........if you want a learning exp....go for it....just don't waste money......i could have done a lot of other stuff to that 31 but now looking back it would have been a lost money wise.......but learned good bit about good steering linkages and brake mockups......clear your head and see what you want out of it.....a toy......a learning experince.......a waste of resources that could be used on a car you really want......just take a deep breath and enjoy.........it will be better in the morning........
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