Projects OT: Ratrod reckoning

van, it varies by state. Here in South Dakota we have no inspections. We have some of the poorest counties in the country, many folks could nopt get to the nearest town. Plus, we like small government and our freedoms

Typed with a shotgun next to the desk..........going to get that damn skunk! And rattlesnake protection!

 

just spent the afternoon reading this thread,WOW good job putting this old POS out of it's misery,and taking it to whole new level.Outstanding!!!.car deserves to be takin all the way to shiney paint
subscribed.....thanks

 

Absolutly beautiful fabrication and engineering! I have the hardest time getting people to ditch work that has been already done but as you have showed, sometimes the most cost effective solution is to just ditch the crap and get on with it.

I've been following and can't wait for the coffers to replenish so we can see more. Great work as usual!

 

Ya know I feel like someone, (ELP) waived a trashy novel in front of me...and then I just had to read it.
The front frame rebuild evolved into a thing of beauty. Great thinking here, the original work was "death-wish revisited" build category.
Thanks for the pics Mr. P., much obliged sir!

 

If the car has a good, current title that has not been put into any type of non-op / salvage status, no inspection is required.

 

Great thread, great rebirth and some good comebacks to the idiots......this thread has everything.
I do however feel for Mr Funk......it's not the greatest intro to the rodding world that a man could have.....as a consolation however....once your wallet recovers you are going to be a happy man, burning up the hydrocarbons on the freeway......in a safe rod.....
The pain will recede. Roadtime will cure all.

 

X2

ELpolacko... Nice save!

 

Inspection/mot/etc are not there for our safety, are there to get revenue to the state.
It might be cause i come from a country were you cant even spit on your car if your saliva wasnt tested at the factory, but i say...screw inspection.
With the same emphasis i'd say lock up jerks like the one that built the original car. Specially if hes a shop owner.
Sorry for the rant. Waitin patiently for next installment.

 

I can't agree with this, other than the part about locking up the guy that built the car. Where I am we have annual MVI's and they do keep pieces of shit like this off the road but there are always shops that will write one up with just a quick look without doing a proper inspection.

The cost of an MVI is $25.00 + tax, less the cost of the paperwork and stickers, which in my opinion is too low, how many shops can do a proper inspection, pulling 4 wheels to check brakes and wheel cylinders, calipers etc, plus check everything else in the time that less than 25 bucks will pay for? Which leads to dishonest shops fixing stuff that don't need to be fixed just to make a profit on the inspection.

As for the guy in the shop doing the MVI, he's stuck in the middle, can't please the customer if he goes by the book, can't please the boss if it goes out the door without making any money on it, plus the mechanics name is on the paper that says the car is safe to operate, so in my case I went by the book to keep my ass covered as best as I could.

Don't do them anymore and am quite happy about that.

 

ElP is my hero.

 

some of the ones being done overseas are run by a group consisting of car guys, instead of bureaucrats, this was done to save the hobby from regulations, eventually there will be regulations here, mainly due to some of the crap on the roads, would you rather have the government making all the rules or a system run by fellow car guys who understand what they are doing? if we don't stand up and police ourselves to keep the dangerous junk off the roads, some politician who knows nothing about cars is going to try and do it for us. I'm all for pretty much any kind of car you want to build, but when people start building rolling abortions, it gives everyone a bad name, the general public doesn't understand the difference between a well built car and a pile of junk, when someone gets killed due to one of them,they are going to scream for anything not factory to be taken off the roads, nothing wrong with basic safety inspections, check tires brakes,lights etc, anyone who has put together a well built car has nothing to worry about. I spend a lot of time in the import community too, they have this hella crap stuff they are doing, the cars with the tires at weird angles and the fenders rubbing the tires, there have already been people killed by these pieces of shit that blow tires and are nearly impossible to steer, and a lot of states are cracking down on imports now due to this, the same thing is going to happen in the Hot Rod community unless we take a stand and do something about it on our own. cars like the one in this thread,speaking before it was saved of course, are what are going to get all the new laws put in place. I'm just glad the owner of this car lived to give it another chance, as bad as it was, it was a matter of time until he would have died

 

Yet, oddly, my state inspects that things like the lights, horn, and brakes work, the tires are good, the windows aren't broken or cracked, the frame isn't rotted out and about to break, heck I had one turned down because the brake hoses looked old on it even though it stopped perfectly fine.


Oh, they hit emissions on newer cars and a couple of more anal states, and that's mostly a money grab, true. But for most of us for cars on topic on this board, those things aren't an issue.

 

Holy sweet jesus....I haven't laughed so hard in a long time..... Nice job on the triple bypass surgery though, you've parted the red sea with this one

 

Inspections used to be about lights and brakes and common sense, and that was fine and good as long as it was geared at keeping cars roadworthy and, therefore, on the road.

By stages, however, and at different rates in different places, the concept of type approval crept in - or effective type approval where the only affordable way to demonstrate compliance with a requirement which is so structured that compliance cannot be demonstrated without expensive equipment and much risk is to demonstrate conformity with a type deemed to satisfy the requirement. The intention here is pretty clear: only mass-produced, corporate-developed, State-approved types are legal; and these may only be manufactured by those afforded the privilege by the prevailing system of intellectual property legislation.

This is not primarily a money-grab in the form of fees etc. - though it certainly produced the opportunity for it - but a way to ensure that there is enough demand and few enough suppliers to maintain the existing industrial power base. Anything that messes with the design of the product, i.e. everything we do, messes with the designs of industry and is a threat to its continued existence.

A few of us have digressed. Back to you, Steve.

 

That brass shit is for Steam Punk Rods

 

I have seen some POS but this is in a class of its own, what were they thinking!!!!!!!! F@#K !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I like ELP too...!

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UeQsZOQqO6I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Nedd nailed it.
If my language was as well articulated as his i might have tried to say it myself...
I get turned down at inspection garages all the time BTW, just by the car's look. They dont give half a rats ass if its all working great, theyre too scared of losing their job by allowin a modyfied car on the road.

 

I would of been more impressed if you would of fixed the car with some scrap parts/steel you had laying around .. JMO

It is possible to use parts left over from industry to make this type of vehicle and have it be safe.

You have over the top skillz and can do some fantastic fab work!

But definitely not a ratrod anymore. I really don't see any corrective work being done. You have basically redone the entire vehicle!

 

Seeing nothing was correct when he started, I'd have to say that it's all corrective work.

 

LOL I have that much faith in him that he could of perfected the cantilever piston rod air bag system / CPRABS for short.

 

Evidently you haven't followed any of Steve's build threads in the past as he isn't in the habit of using "scrap parts/steel that he has laying around for anything he does. Even the shop equipment he builds for his shop rather than buys are all works of art that he designed from scratch.

He does however build suspension pieces and subframes that use common production pieces to build strong reliable vehicles for folks.
Raiding scrap bins and welding on tools in place of fabricating parts doesn't make you a car builder.

I would have to believe that saving the car from being a "rat rod" was part of his plan along with making it safe to drive under any conditions and any place. I'd have to think that it will still have the rough and underfinished exterior that the owner wanted along with having it safe to drive.

 

That was the point.
Might have gone over a few heads.

EVERYTHING needed to be corrected.
The chassis was all crap.

 

Very cool man. Just saw the videos


Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Re: the rear suspension

This style of triangulated 4 link is a well proven design, was used on GM full size coil spring cars since 1958 and Fords since 1965.

Lower links locate the axle fore and aft, the upper links hold it from turning and locate it side to side by being at an angle.

Yes the diff will rotate as the axle moves up and down but don't forget the angle of the front universal will change as well due to the changing angle of the driveshaft. If done right the driveshaft and universals will work smoothly at all times and the rear axle will be free to move up and down but remain accurately located to the frame.

This is a suspension that works well and does so with a minimum of parts. Don't know why it isn't used more. Maybe because it is harder to figure out than the more usual styles.

 

The pinion angle changes very little in relation to the frame. It is only at the extreme rebound position that the pinion starts to point down, but this only happens in the last 1/2" of it's 8" of travel.

 

So what are you doing to your car now? Still the repair from the fender bender?

 

Still... Incorporating a few left overs from industry could of been done and kept the theme or what originally drew the customer to purchase the ride in the first place inplace. The idea of using left over parts to build something is downed quite a bit. But one should recognize not all people develop the abstract thinking strengths needed to incorporate an item into a design. By no means am I saying what was done to this vehicle was correct or safe. There was ideas in place that needed to be corrected not completely redone. Unless the customer just really wanted a "air ride" hotrod and if so why not just go buy one in the first place.

 

Seriously dude, let it go. You obviously have no idea what El P does.

"Incorporating a few left overs from industry' WTF does that mean? Use some leftover crap. Theme? He is de-ratting it not building an OCC chopper.

 

Or more like a OCC Rat Rod