Full Build: Watch A '29 Ford Roadster Turn Into A Raunchy Rat Rod

well a lot of great memories after 10 years of horsepower you know we've had a lot of great project cars on this show too well like the supernova here big inch motor big visual statement that thing attracted attention everywhere it went hey old man quit living in the past you know some of these project cars were really cool but we've got one in the works right now that i'm sure you haven't seen built on a show like this it's a little wild a little dirty and definitely on the edge [Music] a lot of people do sneeze at this but uh we really like the rat rods it's just something we can bring them out here not to worry about ropes and please do not touch signs and scratches and things doesn't really matter in a way the first hot rods were mostly rat rods junkyard bodies pillaged parts and homemade horsepower the kind of cars that invaded the bonneville soft plants back in the early 50s like our parents came back from world war ii you know they started building hot rods you know and that's kind of what this stuff represents yeah today rat rods are back and hotter than ever and the craze covers many generations it's all thanks to guys like the owner of this 37 ford truck that sits on a 36 ford frame and it's powered by a flathead of course is it beautiful to you oh i love it i've got some other cars that are shiny and i'm tired of cleaning them when you're sitting behind it you get some people shaking their heads yes and some people shaking their heads no but all in all you know it's what street rodding came from and i think that's what it's going back to rat rods are like rusty snowflakes and some of the differences come in the cool creative touches the battery's in the military box it's a gel racing battery it's just plain old twine took us six and a half hours we drilled all the holes and webbed it and then my mother's got about 13 layers of lacquer on it to make it hard well this rat is the proud possession of greg jordison what is it a 1927 faten on a model a body and for power a simple but solid 283 it's a project that converted he and his buddies from slick street rods to the rat revolution hey you know this is a lot of fun let's just start building hot rods instead of just building street rods and the main difference probably you don't have to worry so much about the fit and finish go for an attitude some people said well what color you're going to paint and i said man it's already got paint on it you're going to finish that i said it's finished you know i wouldn't drive that that thing's kind of ugly i said well heck we have a lot of fun in them but by now my horsepower huncho and i were ready to have some fun too so back home we set out to find the right rat candidate to start our own project that was sold anyway the perfect well-worn body among this rusted sea of candidates we want rough and not that rough what do you think 28 29 roadster yeah this was it a 29 roadster body still solid enough to enjoy new life as the beginning of the official horsepower rat rod well ain't she a beauty now some people like to paint them some people like to put them in primer but we're leaving our model a pretty much how you see it that's right now our next move though is to find a suitable frame for it and well since finding a safe solid original is pretty tough these days we got a plan for this rat we'll share with you next week meanwhile stick with us we've got another bang for the buck combo test coming up after the break that's right we got to get a name for this thing what do you got in mind [Music] today rats rule in the horsepower shop and why not rat rods have been around for a long time but now they're more popular than ever this 41 ford pickup getting ready to roll in is a perfect reason why and this one like any true rat rod has a classic v8 for power an original real steel body of course and more than a few personal creative touches we like the pepsi sign floorboards oh and how about that rubber rat for a shifter boot and the ever popular skull for a shifter knot oh and the inverted beer bottle well that's the gas gauge a few weeks ago we found this 2829 model a ford at a local rod shop and we think it's a great start for our own horsepower rat rod project the only thing now though is a frame and for that we need something that's stout safe and definitely serves a purpose yeah it's a pretty important step so to do our homework we went away from home at the annual street rod nationals up in louisville kentucky wow that's pretty cool yeah 95 grand let me write a chat yeah man if we can't get some cool ideas and a jump start on our rat rod project here something is bad wrong yeah and if you've never been to the street rod nationals it's not just about rat rods it's pre-49 american iron and just to let you in on it there's a little over 11 000 of them yeah they've got an eye full of cool cars here but galley and i were on a mission they've got a little bit of everything you see we had to find the right chassis for our roadster body one that we can channel for ride height and here inside this building loaded with vendors we found two allies to make our project work the first was here at pete and jake's booth this company's been helping out hot riders for over 30 years offering everything in the way of parts they were among the first to fill the rat rod craze the popularity of them is just phenomenal i get more and more calls on the rat rod or rat rod style i sell parts to guys where they want them in plane and they take them and set them outside get them as rusty and as patina as possible then bolt them on the car we discovered they could hook us up with everything from a bare chassis to one that's fully tricked out like this 32 now this was our choice until jason slover gave us a heads up it's one of those situations where in doing it you typically wouldn't want to channel the body because a 32 frame is aesthetically pleasing in its its looks i mean it's a very very nice frame it has that it's the only frame henry ford put the reveal in the side so most of the time if you see a 2829 on deuce rails it's usually kept up it's kept up on the rail itself it's not then channeled down over most of your channels are done with the model a frames primarily okay a model a frame that we can channel sounds good and for that jason sent us over to honest charlie's booth where a pete and jake's version was right on display it's sort of like building a house if you start with a good foundation you're likely to have a good result similarly with an automobile particularly a street rod if you if you start off in the wrong direction it's hard to get on track so i think uh particularly in this case you started off with a good platform you're going to have a wonderful project at the end of the course we're working on a vehicle that anybody should be able to complete hey you guys ought to be able to complete it too you think we can do it i think that there's a good probability here's what we wound up with now it may look like a rusty model a original and that's exactly the idea but this is a brand new one from pete and jakes like the one you just saw we just had ours powder coated in this natural rust that's even got texture now bare frame is a great way to start that way you don't spend all your money at once and you still won't make mistakes you see it's got brackets already welded on and check this pilot drilled mounting holes with nutserts all right next step make this thing a rolling chassis with more parts we got from pete and jake's we'll get started by hanging this nine inch rear end now this thing comes with our axles 11 inch drum brakes and a 300 rear gear we're going to mount it to the frame with this ladder bar kit it's got urethane bushings up front here and out back these adjustable clevises of course these brackets welded onto the rear end at the right angle make this job easy and fool proof next we can bolt up a pair of these alloy gas shocks made especially for hot rods now we like these because they have a five position dampening adjuster to give us the ride we want well finally this panhard bar is going to keep the rear end from moving laterally it too uses urethane bushings and it's adjustable here on the end hey guess what that's it for the rat rod's rear end of course we'll finish making our chassis a roller and show you how we channel the body to sit on it but speaking of channels don't go switching yours we'll be back right after the break hi and welcome back to the horsepower shop and our model a rat rod build up now just in case you've joined us late here's what we've been up to we first found us a topless two-seater body to start the project then headed to the street rod nationals where we found a frame we like from pete and jake's hot rod parts after getting our bear frame powder coated in natural rust we started building it up first with a 9 inch rear end equipped with 11 inch drum brakes and 300 gear we hung it under the frame using ladder bars and coilover shocks and to keep it centered we added a panhard bar to finish making this thing a rolling chassis we need to assemble the front end and we'll start by hanging these hair pins now these things locate the front axle and they're made out of a 7 8 steel tubing and just like the rear ladder bars they have adjustable clevises we just went the extra step to have ours chrome plated the axle we got from pete and jake's is a super bill now this is an i-beam design with a four-inch drop and it's been cross-drilled it also accepts a ford spindle and it gets attached to the hair pins with this spring perch next we can install the lower shock mount which bolts on the bottom side of the spring perch below the axle well now we can bolt up the spring pack which is a super slide from posey that lowers the vehicle about three inches and here's a cool feature that accounts for part of that they've rolled the pigtail upward instead of downward which is the conventional way it installs using shackles that attach the spring to the axle then the center of the spring mounts to the bottom of the front cross member and it's held in place with this plate now the front shocks which attach down here on the spring perch and up top on the frame i just pre-assembled our brake kit and spindle now the spindle is a 37 to 48 ford passenger car that allows you to adapt to 78 to 86 gm passenger car caliper it attaches to the axle using a kingpin which is secured with a through pin hey remember the chevy vega from about 1971 to 77 they weren't very famous for much except this it's a steering box that's compact strong and very adaptable to hot rod buildups like ours now this one's going to mount here on the bracket inside the frame rail it's a cross steering setup with a drag link that connects the steering arm of the passenger side spindle over to the steering box and a tie rod connected to the driver's side spindle then to control lateral movement we use a panhard bar to connect the axle to the frame now this rat rod chassis is a true roller but the wheels and tires are just temporary eventually we're going to get a set that gives this thing a lower stance and maybe even a little bit of color well for my money can't go wrong with these coker red spokes and white walls but we got plenty of time to deal with that later right now our pete and jake's frame comes with this bracket designed to mount up our master cylinder which of course has the right bore for our disc drum setup then we can run our brake lines using mounting hose on the frame finally we even got a brake pedal that's designed to work with our master cylinder well that's it for the chassis buildup ought to be even easier next time that's right this was just a mock-up to make sure everything fits right we'll have to take it all back apart have some of the bare metal pieces either painted or coated and put it all back together again but not before we get started on our rat rod body we're going to do some grinding a whole lot of cutting and even fit it to the frame right after the break so stick with us hey welcome back to the horsepower rat rod build up we just finished mocking up a chassis for this 29 roadster now we're going to make this well seasoned body fit onto it yeah and i'm bracing the body using some one inch square tubing now this is going to keep it from flexing and twisting when we cut the floor out to channel it now what this involves is cutting the area of the floor where the body is going to sit on the frame we're also going to lose the entire floorboard and replace it with something special later on [Music] as you can see it took several pieces of square tubing to build this structure that also doubles as a stand for the body now it may look like a little overkill but this body weighs close to 500 pounds and when we're working under it i don't want it to fall on my skinny butt we're sitting our body on some of this snap lock flooring to protect our black and white tiles when we use the plasma cutter right now time to take some measurements on this chassis using the nut search as a reference this way we'll know where to make our marks on the body so we can weld up some body mounts well we can tell now that the mounting holes on the body here are about a half inch wider than the nutserts on the chassis but it's not going to matter because all this material is getting cut away from here on back first we'll plasma cut the floor pan out of the way by the way anytime you're cutting this much old metal with a plasma cutter you're going to create a lot of fumes so a piece of equipment like this plymouth multi-fume caddy comes in real handy now we can also make our cuts along the inside of the original rail now that the floor is cut out of the body i place these mounts down here on the frame now we're going to attach these using some more one-inch square tubing on the inside and outside of the frame rail we're using more tubing to attach the two sides of the body mount frame together now what this will do is keep everything squared when we weld it into the body itself and this front piece well it's only temporary it's going to have to go when we drop in the engine and transmission now that it's all welded up i know it's going to fit over the frame rails because it was built on the chassis now all we need to do is get it squared up with the body once it's aligned you can start bracing it and welding it up [Music] with the upright supports welded in we're ready to set this thing on the chassis but first we need to get the stand out of the way [Music] now we need to clearance the back of the body for these shock mounts so after that a little more cutting with the plasma cutter [Music] man it was a lot of work but we got the entire floor cut out of the rat rod not to mention most of the bracing done to support the body looks great and where have you been with my keys i got to tell you that brush guard on your truck comes in real handy when you're out gathering uh new floor pants what do you think here's my personal favorite that is too cool nobody saw you do it did they i don't think so you won't see this thing for a while which is officially now called the raunchy rat but we'll be back in several weeks to build the motor transmission and we're gonna have fun with all of it meanwhile stay tuned because we got more horsepower coming up what do you think about this one that's gonna be the firewall yeah that is cool [Music] hey our rat rods back in the shop today to get some classic american horsepower now we kicked off the build of this thing we called the raunchy rat several months ago catching a wave of a fun new and old rat rod craze in fact here's how it all went down we first found a topless two-seater body to start our project then headed to the street rod nationals where we found a frame we liked from pete and jake's hot rod parts after getting our bear frame powder coated in natural rust we started building it up first with a nine inch rear end equipped with 11 inch drum brakes and a 300 gear we hung it under the frame using ladder bars and coil over shocks and to keep it centered we added a panhard bar we finished the front end by first hanging the hair pins then a front axle with a four inch drop we put in a super slide spring pack set of front shocks brakes and spindles and we also installed a chevy vega steering box later we welded together square tubing to brace the body and keep it from flexing and use the plasma cutter to get rid of the four pans soon we were able to set the body on top of the frame for a test fit well the raunchy rats been waiting long enough it's time to give it a motor that's worthy of the image now guys are putting all kinds of engines and rat rods these days and that's part of the fun but for us the only way to go was with the motor that started the whole hot rod craze the classic ford flathead during its 31-year production run there were several displacement versions of the fable ford flathead though none made more than about 125 horsepower it took the imagination of post-war gear heads and new performance parts to make it the preferred power plant for early hot rods today the flathead enjoys a revved up revival the cool look powering all kinds of vintage hot rods high boys restored classics and last but not least rat rocks but it took a lot of ingenuity and innovation to make it more powerful and dependable for modern day use and that's where motor city flatheads comes in a few years ago i met the founder and flathead guru mark kirby who's come up with more improvements for the motor than any gear head going today well like a main strap that adds strength to the three main rotating assembly oversized valve guides that help prevent oily a free-flowing oiling system with a remote oil filter that never existed on the stock one well the list goes on but the result is a flathead that's not only classic looking and durable but one that makes over 250 horsepower and over 300 foot-pounds of torque it all starts with an old block that has to be stripped baked and carefully cleaned before machining and for that we took our bear block to hardcore racing in flint michigan under the guidance of john lahome the block was decked on a cnc machine to ensure the heads are exactly 90 degrees then onto another machine that bores the cylinder bores so they're exactly perpendicular to the deck and to the bore center line vital for perfect piston movement next cylinder honing ensures a proper finish so the rings will seal with no blow button these guys are thorough even checking each new cylinder rod to make sure they're exactly round and to size that it's about one and a half two tenths small it's in the red that's already out to the zero then john goes over here to measure the three mains before he line hones them next step weighing all the valve frame components and this tells the tech what bob weight to use so the crankshaft can be balanced properly it's pretty flat that means it's pretty close to balance and here's our freshly machined block all painted red and ready for a build up with the help of our buddy mark here of course 75 years since they introduced this thing amazing talk about bill ford tough boy just at the test of time didn't it it sure did speaking of time they haven't built one in a long time what's your take on the resurgence and popularity of the flathead for things like the rat rod uh for so many years people beating up the junkyards trying to find parts and now with stuff readily available over the counter and all the state-of-the-art ignitions what have you i think it's making people go back to flatheads good answer well we're going to show you how to use some of the new stuff to build a classic old motor it's going to be fun those guys did a good job here yep sounds like it's going to be a fun project [Music] well it's flatheads forever today in the horsepower shop as we build our own for the raunchy rat back there well here's what goes in the bottom end of our flathead block it's a complete rotating assembly from honest charlie's that includes the scat crank shaft set of forged pistons and billet connecting rods that you saw getting measured earlier on now it's for a three and five sixteenths inch bore by a four and an eighth stroke and well that equals 286 inches of course the kit also comes with a complete set of bearings and rings for our flathead pistons here's the super deluxe cam kit we picked up from goalers hot rods now it comes with everything you need to install in the camshaft well it's a tried and true grind for motor city flatheads just check out the ramp angle on the cam lobe after plugging the oil galley here we can install our camshaft first notice how we installed this aluminum cam gear on the front of it all right speaking of that mr expert some guys are still using this old style gear made of phenolic why not here not a good plan though they used the phenolic because it ran a lot quieter and of course they were concerned with being quiet the way that's fastened to this aluminum hub we're doubling the spring pressure going to a modified cam and it will come apart here so for that reason we always go to a one piece just a solid aluminum cam gear don't have any problems good tip we've already tested our crankshaft to make sure it spins freely now we need to install this end seal over some silicone now notice this kevlar-like material this will cause a little drag against the crankshaft which will make for a good seal now we can drop in our crankshaft for reel this time and notice how we've installed this gear oil slinger and sleeve on the end of it before installing the main caps line up the dots on the crank and cam gears to make sure they're in sync after dropping on the three main caps we're going to use a center cap strap like this for extra strength now notice how this cap's been milled flat to accommodate this foot that's going to spread the load out now it's important to use moly lube on these arp main studs to get the right torque value which by the way is 85 foot pounds finally the center strap bolt goes in finger tight only with the gasket in place and some molle lube on the thrust surface and the seal we can install the front cover well next with the motor turned over so this surface is flat and i can see straight down to the crank i'm going to install the pistons and rods and here's something important see that little tang on the rod bearing make sure you have it pointing to the outside then we carefully tap in the piston making sure the rod doesn't nick the crank journal on the way down now with some oil on this bearing and making sure the tang matches up we can install the rod cap by the way the torque specs on these boats is 45 foot-pounds we're using a set of edelbrock's aluminum flathead cylinder heads for our motor now these things have a larger water capacity excellent breathing characteristics and they'll give us a compression ratio of eight to one now we're not going to bolt them on right now but we are going to make sure we have the proper piston to head clearance to do that make sure the bolt holes are lined up and while holding the head in place turn the motor over and you'll feel the piston slightly lift the head off the deck the minimum piston to head clearance on a flathead is 30 thousandths so mike and i are gonna place feeler gauges of that thickness under each corner of the head now all i got to do is press down on the head spin the motor over and listen and feel for any contact well it feels like we're pretty good shape so now i can remove the head and we can move on to the valve tray the valve and spring assembly is totally unique to the flathead so we're going to show you how they get assembled first take a lubed up valve slide on the valve guide with installed o-ring shims spring and retainer and finally your locks hey mark i noticed you chamfered the top edge of this o-ring what's all that about when you go to put this in the lifter bore there's a sharp edge a lot of times if you don't chamfer this as you go in it'll catch and tear this thing then you got a problem after you drop in each valve assembly you need to secure it by compressing the spring and sliding the horseshoe clip into the guide next after adjusting the valves here's something that's really important the camshaft lobe sprays oil out of these holes this baffle allows that oil to be captured in the upper part of the valley that's the only way the upper part of the engine gets lubrication so that is a mandatory piece finally we need to install this mechanical fuel pump bushing and since we're using an electric fuel pump we have to plug it anyone who's run an original flathead motor knows the oil filtering system or lack of it was a big drawback here's how mark solved that problem he takes a stock oil pump like this blocks it internally so the oil is forced up to this new plate out the plate to a bulkhead fitting through a hose to a remote filter and you can mount this anywhere then the oil goes out another hose onto the back of the motor as you've seen so far there are a lot of small pieces that can fall through the block of a flathead engine that's why we waited to put the pan on until now now we got this specked out from goeller's hot rods and it came off of a 49 merc now phil goeller actually came up with this dipstick flange repair kit that consists of this plate being tack welded on the inside of the pan it allows this flange to be bolted on the outside instead of using rivets like in the old days well now we go ahead and tighten up the bulkhead fitting on the pan and check this out as long as this slot here is pointing toward the bottom of the pan we know there's no kinks in the hose that's inside the pan with the pan bolted up we can install the dipstick flange and screw in the dipstick tube now we'll button up our old flathead and get to work on its new age power adder make sure you stick with us [Music] hey welcome back to more flathead fun here in the horsepower shop here's something cool i just learned if you turn the motor over so that number one cylinder is at top dead center on the compression stroke there it is well you can bolt up the cylinder heads knowing that your timing is right on since the heads go into water we want to make sure we treat them to a coat of sealer and we'll torque them down to 50 foot-pounds flat heads use two water pumps you can get either new or in this case rebuilt original now notice how we got the balancer installed with the timing mark lined up with the pointer the crankcase on these old flatheads only had one way to breathe and that was out of a breather up until now goers hot rods came up with this unique pcv kit and it consists of a bushing that presses into the block a pcv valve that screws into it connected to an oil resistant vacuum hose you know for our money the only thing better than a flat head is a supercharged flathead so we're going to install this magnuson root style kit that comes with a cast aluminum intake with cross flow equal length runners before bolting it up though we've got to connect that vacuum hose to this fitting underneath the blower itself is made with eaten components and can make up to 60 more power we'll probably run ours with about three to four pounds of boost to feed it we're using a 500 cfm edelbrock carburetor with a manual choke now here's a fabbed up hard line we ran from the intake to a vacuum port on the carburetor with the pcv hardline attached gases are going to be reintroduced into the induction system and burn rather than being introduced into the atmosphere when using an original style breather well next we can install the alternator bracket the idler pulley a 102 amp alternator we got from power master and then route the belt our distributor is an msd pro billet ready to run made for 49 through 53 flatheads along with a set of their eight and a half millimeter wires that we've cut to the proper lengths but finally here at the back of the intake instead of the old grommet breather that used to blow oil all over the firewall growers fabbed up this little piece that has three purposes it's a baffle breather and even a filler for the oil well now that we've got the flatty finished time to get it off the engine stand so we can install our flywheel clutch and and for that you might be a little surprised we're gonna set the engine on our old steel table then bolt up a center force flywheel made for the flathead along with one of their dual friction clutches you know it wouldn't be a righteous rat rod with an automatic transmission so we gave shadow rods a call and they sent us one of the world-class t5s with an s10 tail housing now they stuffed it with a 295 main gear set and fifth gear has a 37 percent overdrive plus it'll be plenty to handle the power we're making in our old flathead to make it all work though we need to use one of their adapters that allow us to bolt the t5 to the original bell housing finally we can install the transmission and the original inspection plate we'll install the starter in a few weeks when we drop the motor and transmission in the car but in the meantime we've got to go right a couple local junk yards and even go through some old barns you see we've got some pretty crazy parts in mind to give this old rodent a real [Music] personality hey welcome back to the horsepower shop where we just built a classic flathead for our raunchy rat here starting with a cast iron block but if you want the ultimate flathead you might want to start with one of these man check this out 70 pounds an aluminum block that mark developed for his joint venture with shadow rods and hey man i know this is just a rough prototype but what are some of the features you got well you know being that it's aluminum block it was difficult to get sleeves in here and know you're going to get them to seal so we developed a way to come in from the bottom and screw the sleeve in seated underneath the deck cool we also developed all the ports on the flow bench it'll have hardened seats and bronze guides you won't have to do any port polishing relieving that will all be cnc machined uh the studs that go right around the cylinder that directly affect upper board distortion now go deep down into the block totally eliminating upper board distortion cool we'll send this one anytime you want to hey man we'll do that you are the man when it comes to flatheads thanks for your help been a pleasure remember real hot rods don't have valve covers i will looks can be deceiving and fun when you're building an old rat rod or a street rod now here's a power master power gen alternator that's made to look like an old style generator it's got a one wire hookup produces 75 amps and you can get it in either black powder coat like this or in a polished version now the casing and all the brackets were designed to resemble an old style generator all you need to do is generate about 370 bucks out of your wallet to have one well here are a couple of more new items to give a retro look to your street or rat rod these come from honest charlie's here's an aluminum-finned air cleaner for your carb that measures four inches in diameter and would look great on a three new setup in fact you get a set of three for 110 bucks then there's this matching custom coil cover that looks great wrapped around a mallory style ignition coil this piece goes for about 30. now as mike mentioned earlier the rat returns in a few weeks so we can finish it up and go out and terrorize the neighborhood meanwhile something totally different something very cool for you next week come hang out with us [Music] the rats back for another round of work here in the horsepower shop hey we're glad you joined us now we call this project the raunchy rat although it's really a 29 ford roadster that we're transforming into a cool retro rat rod last time it was in here we built it a motor a ford flathead of course using parts we got from shadow rods and golder's hot rods oh we also pumped up the power with a magnuson supercharger we've got the body back off of the frame so we can put the motor and transmission into place now we're going to go ahead and bolt the transmission mount up and use that as a guide to weld in our new motor mounts now in case you've looked close enough we've already got mounts on our pete and jake's chassis but they're set up for small block chevrolet so they've got to go okay i better start loading it now that's right on it after bolting the transmission to the mount we square up the front of the motor between the frame rails and measure for the new mounts then after cutting them to the proper width we can weld them in place now the mounts and bushing kits to cut down on the chassis vibration both came from chassis engineering well we've got plenty of broom with body off we're going to make sure the raunchy rat has brakes and a clutch all thanks to this kit we got from pete and jake's that includes a dual brake master cylinder a single aluminum clutch cylinder and aluminum slave cylinder plus we got the pedals we need and last but not least this frame mount with a welded on pivot tube but before we can install this stuff this original bracket for a single master cylinder has to go then the bracket welds up through the frame an inch from the top and we can bolt up the master cylinder and the clutch cylinder then the pedals slide onto the pivot tube and with supplied hardware we attach the plunger to the brake pedal and connect the clutch master cylinder to the clutch paddle finally the slave cylinder which is what activates the clutch pressure plate when you shift gears basically here's how it works you press in on the clutch that moves fluid from the clutch cylinder over to the slave through this fitting pushing a cylinder up and moving these pieces together and that's what activates the throw out bearing okay while we're down here i'm going to go ahead measure from the transmission seal to this edge of the oak so we give us a drive shaft with that handle we're ready to set the body back onto the frame this time though we're going to take some measurements so we can cut the firewall to let it clear the engine now that we have the frame back under the body man i'd have to say this thing looks awesome even without the body all the way down now after taking a closer look we're going to go ahead and remove the whole lower section of the firewall and we get rid of it by removing some rusty bolts and drilling out a few rivets next we'll lower the body again to check for clearance and build a tunnel out of square tubing so the transmission will clear now with the frame off again i'll lay in the firewall i just fabbed up trim the recessed area for the oil filler relief and lay in this top plate finally after marking the area for the transmission we can cut the excess firewall so the transmission will clear got the rat down on the ground now so we can do something about a floor board for it this starts with some sheet metal cut to links so we can first just lay them into place and with the last piece down we can drill and pop rivet in place then we laid down a layer of this hush mat material for insulation against noise and heat now comes the fun part you might remember a few months ago we went souvenir shopping on the streets for these well really we got them from a friend at the police department but wait do you see how we use them to finish the floorboard oh just in case you're thinking about the remote there you go hey welcome back to the home of the raunchy rat now we just got done recycling some old street signs to finish up our floorboards what do you think now i know it ain't exactly artwork but it's definitely different and that's what rat rotten is all about hey to get the full effect though let's lay in our new seats and for these we hooked up with a guy named richard amy out of manteca california who hand makes these bomber seats with 50 52 aluminum using real aircraft rivets nice very nice next we got to get the body back on the frame so we can measure for some modifications for our clutch and brake pedals first they need to be a lot shorter for our channeled body then after cutting a hole for them in the floorboard we can weld them in at an angle to make room for the throttle pedal which mounts to the firewall with two bolts we also cut a hole in the floor for a shifter now we picked it up from b m and it's a sport shifter that's actually made for an s10 now the hole may look a little large but we're actually going to mount our ignition switch back here by the way that long handle is going to be even longer after this modification now remember those pistol grip shifter handles from the 60s those mopar guys ain't got nothing on us hey now in case you're a little concerned that pistol only shoots blanks just like you joe i hope and it's got a boat through the barrel now so not to worry okay now that we got the body bolted to the frame and got plenty of clearance good time to bolt up this starter which is a power master xs torque starter and don't believe what they tell you about size matters this mini starter can churn out up to 200 foot-pounds of torque next i'm going to jump back in the car to install some gauges now when building a rat rod retro is the only way to go so we picked up these old-time gauges from auto meter that give you a nostalgic look with the accuracy of a modern core meter just check out the needle and the chrome bezel since there's no way to get the wiring inside the stock dash we're mounting the gauges right here on top of the center console [Music] with the holes cut we can drop our center console back in place and install our gauges now we can move on to the fuel system we're going to start it out with this little pony cake now i went ahead and cut the top of the keg where the handles are off so it would fit in the car next thing to do is go ahead and drill and tap it for a dash 6 fuel line [Music] now the keg is just the right size to fit in our trunk with the trunk floor slid underneath the fuel tank and it bolted in place we're ready to finish the rest of the fuel system but that'll come after the break so make sure you stick [Music] around hey welcome back as we attack our raunchy rat here with some more work in fact we're getting ready to fix up a way to feed this ford flathead however let's roll the recap and show you what we've been up to so far we installed a new hydraulic clutch and brake assembly laid down a floorboard with some sheet metal hush mat material and top that off with a ball thing street sign we modified the clutch and brake pedals to properly fit in the car and installed the throttle pedal and we modified the new shifter which got a shifter knob that aims to get attention then we bolted up the starter cut some holes for the gauges that we installed in our homemade console and finally mounted that beer keg fuel tank now we can install our holley hp 125 fuel pump with the built-in regulator and billet base now this thing flows 125 gallons per hour here's a tip for you anytime you build a fuel system you want to make sure to run a filter after your tank and before your pump if not you could run into a few problems one get trash in the pump and kill it or two get trash in the carburetor and starve the engine for fuel so we went ahead and picked up this earl's inline filter and we're going to install it after the tank and before the pump next we can complete the fuel delivery system by running some earl's prolate hose that will cut to fit well now that we got a system to feed our flathead let's do something about cooling it this is basically a stock 29 radiator that walker shortened for us and you see on the back it's got inlets on top and two outlets on bottom that'll match up with those dual water pumps it bolts up in the stock location then with hoses installed from the radiator to the water pump and on top from the engine to the inlets the system is finished since we're running our flat head with forced induction thanks to the blower we need an ignition box like this msd6 btm now it not only offers a more powerful spark with an adjustable rev limiter but also has an adjustable timing that works off of boost pressure now i know a lot of normal people would mount this on the outside of the firewall or somewhere near the engine compartment but we're going to be a little different since it is a rat rod this is where the fuel tank used to be now it's going to be home to the ignition box which will secure from the top with hex nuts next after disguising it in an old can and using a hose clamp we can mount our msd coil on the firewall well for wiring on our rat we're going with a painless performance eight circuit modular t-bucket wiring harness it's got all the basics for the headlights tail lights brake lights and so forth and it's color coded for easy install now here's a good feature the fuse box itself is modular so we can add circuits later if we need to well next time you see this thing it's going to be wired up and with any luck we'll be firing up that flathead [Music] well we're going to miss the good old raunchy rat but it's finally time to button it up fire it up take it for a ride and say goodbye for a while it's a rat ride that started with an old original 29 ford body that we dropped over a new reproduction chassis from pete and jake's that we got from honest charlie's what makes rat rod so much fun is you get to throw out the rule books and radically make yours one of a kind in recent weeks we built a ford flathead motor for ours using an original block and some new aftermarket parts we also installed a magna charger root style blower and made it up the power plant with an s10 transmission later on we installed a new hydraulic clutch and brake assembly laid down a floorboard consisting of sheet metal hush mat and street signs modified the clutch and brake pedals to fit in the car installed the throttle pedal and modified the new shifter then we bolted up the starter cut the poles for the that we installed in our homemade console and mounted that ever popular beer keg fuel tank then we finished the fuel delivery system with a new pump and filter mounted a radiator to cool our flat and boated up the ignition in what used to be the gas tank then we installed a basic street rod wiring kit now last time it was here we finished up the exhaust including these headers that got modified we also added some deet style headlights and some old impala tail lights we stole from a muscle car project oh and underneath we installed our drive shaft a custom made piece from cci drive line one of the biggest challenges with this ride was the steering now due to the size of the motor there was no way to make a straight shot to the steering box with an aftermarket column as you can see we've already tried that once so we moved on to some borgeson double d shaft and heim joints for a z-shaped configuration now it ain't pretty but hey it's a rat rod and it works as you might remember the flathead uses a remote oil filter so after shortening the hose we'll mount ours right here on the firewall to fill our tank we thought about using this nice jazz filling unit but it's a little too nice for the rats so we made a trip to the tractor supply store came up with this galvanized goodie that's a lot more appropriate and a couple hose clamps is the only hardware we need to make it stay put well you know it's not exactly ready for the road yet but we could at least fire it up you want to no i'll give you the honors since you're almost as old as the car oh very funny i love that sound [Music] [Music] [Music] oh boy just when you thought it was safe to go in the street again the raunchy rat goes for a cruise hi everybody welcome to the shop today we're going to pay off our ongoing labor of lunacy last time we had it in the shop we gave it some center dump headers from ankenbrat with a pair of cherry bomb mufflers for tail lights well we borrowed a pair from a 61 in powwow that was parked outside the muscle car shop we installed a reproduction deck lid to be coated in natural rust of course then mike went to the lower 40 to rummage through tractor parts for something we could make a grill out of that was also the time we installed these deet style headlights that were used but not quite used enough to match the rest of the rat so today we're going to show you what we come up with to give these things some real character yeah but first even though a rat rod's a no-frills ride you don't want to get dirt in your eyes or bugs in your teeth while you're driving one so we picked up this original model a windshield off of the internet which we're going to install on the raunchy rat to install it we just bolt in the frame hinge at the top and attach the bracket to this stud using washers and wing nuts now this is what they called air conditioning back in the late 20s and early 30s i guess there's no way to really be comfortable in a rat rod is there since you last saw the car we had our production assistant and resident artist hutch sketch out some artwork that was fitting for a horsepower rat rod of course the idea was to make our logo look like it was as old as the body itself after painting both sides we turned him loose on the deck lid painting the official name of the car and even a mascot rat who had apparently overdosed on 40 weight motor oil why da vinci himself couldn't have done better all right the next challenge is getting this old ferguson tractor grill i picked up able to fit on the front of the rat we've also got another little problem we still have to powder coat these old spoked wheels in time to make it to a cruising later tonight looks like i'm going to go grab tech center tommy for a little help tommy gets in gear by first cutting the grill insert out of its original assembly while tommy does his thing back in the shop i'm going to go ahead and get started powder coating these new wheels we got for the rat rod now there are 52 spokes street rod wire from coker tire they measure in at 15 by 5 up front 15 by 7 in the rear now we let joe pick the color since he is so classy he opted for cream they've already been blasted and wiped down with acetone so after giving each one a good coat of powder they can go into our oven for about 10 minutes after reaching a 400 degree cooking temperature meanwhile tommy's fitting the old tractor grill insert into the hood and sides then he clamps and tacks everything in place before welding it all up now he's taking measurements so he can cut the top of the hood to make a new grill assembly [Music] next some relief cuts on the hood to clear the blower and finally he uses bolts and wing nuts to keep it all in place well tommy sure did plow through that tractor metal in a hurry now we've got two options this look or this look which i like cause if you got a flat head might as well flaunt it well the wheels turned out pretty good too but just wait do you see the retro rubber we're gonna have mounted on them now i'm going to go ahead and take care of that while joe makes a little barter with our neighbor so that's pretty much how you make a run you got it red for stop green for go yeah pretty simple but not that simple a little trade-off now you and ryan can use the dynojet have your way with it but man you got to help me make this thing look like the rest of the rat rock okay have you thought about fotina not for a long time i dated her in high school that's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about creating an aged look with new paint oh yeah okay let me show you what i'm talking about okay i think she had an aged look too you know okay this is super easy all you're going to need is some red scuffing pads to prep the surface some 600 grit sandpaper a shop towel you can throw away and three different colors of primer a little bit of water to help you sand so i'm gonna put you to work okay let's go okay we're gonna start with the black primer and put a pretty thick coat on and we'll let that dry for a few minutes now we'll put a coat of red on to make it really wet and fat here's where the fun stuff happens take your shop towel and you just sort of make a mess and finally we'll give a thick coat of gray primer looks like you're ready for your next coat too how come i got this old garbage can and a box and you got that nice tool box and a vise for yours well it's kind of to illustrate the point that you don't really need a paint booth and it doesn't matter if dust gets up in the paint job so stop whining after your primer is dry use water and 600 grit sandpaper and wet the surface pretty liberally and sand it down until you get the faded look that you're looking for all right mr kevin how did bettina and i do here what do you think it looks like you did good and you know sanding through the layers kind of creates the illusion that the sun has beat it to death for about 40 years it does it works man thanks a lot let's get them back on the car i got to go back and help ryan get the truck ready for the dyno knock yourself out that's much better now everything's evenly aged and trashed well it won't be long until mike's back with those wheels and tires then it's off to the local cruise inn for the raunchy rats public debut [Music] hey welcome back now we got our tires mounted up on our 52 spoke powder coated wheels just in time for tonight's cruise in for rubber coker sent us these skinny ribbed firestone dirt track tires to use in the front and then we capped it off with a v8 center cap powder coated rust and then the rear old style firestone deluxe champions with a groove tread they're four ply tube tires and they're an inch or two lower than the original tires we had on here for mock-up giving us even a cooler stance [Music] this is fun well here we are the weekly friday night cruising sponsored by the murfreesboro hot rod club all right joe said he had to go cover an orska race down in huntsville alabama but i actually think he was a little afraid to ride shotgun with me so we had buddy come along now we're going to go see what we can find man i need to get me something like this we got a woodwork on that thing it's unbelievable wow that's that's not pieced together that's form yeah like most local cruisins you can see a little bit of anything and everything here from street rods to classics from the 50s but obviously nobody's seen a car here that looks quite like our raunchy rat i like rat rods one thing wrong with it it's not mine looks like it'd ride a little rough but it looks pretty cool i like supercharger on it you don't see that too much on flathead you know what that is a tetanus shot that's what that is a tetanus shot as with all events like this there's no competition but if they gave out trophies for attracting stairs the raunchy rat would be a first place shoo-in all right the cruising tonight has been a blast but i've got a little problem i can't find buddy but make sure you guys stay tuned and we'll see if joe really did go to a heads up drag race i'm gonna go find buddy and give people a little longer chance to look at the car

Channel: Gunpowder & Gasoline

Views: 502,810

Keywords: powernation, powerblock, powernation tv, powerblock tv, how to, cars, trucks, do it yourself, rat rod, horsepower, '29 Ford, ford, hot rod, raunchy rat, Ford Flathead motor, supercharger

Id: PQTbHB2lbj4

Length: 58min 17sec (3497 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 10 2021