Rat rod project . . .

today I worked on the tie rod ....
it was too thin, too bent and not the right length ....
I used the 1/2" heim joints it had and cut them off and got a larger diameter tube that I was able to fit over them....



cost me $50 just to buy 4' piece of this tubing...cromoly









here is the old black colored tie rod and I cut the ends off, cleaned it up...




I fit it into the other tube with a few good whacks of the hammer, that means it's in there solid....




cleaned and ready to be welded...


I welded the heck out of it...

 

That looks a lot stronger, Mo. :Handshake Did you get the PM I sent you about a month ago about RatRodsRule.com?

 

I did! thanks for that website, I went on there and looked around quite a bit but never got around to posting. I'm sure I'll hit enough road blocks to force me to get on there

 

Is it spring yet ?

I got the mav out to the track a couple of times, and got to make 8 passes on a all new set up.I was very pleased with the way the car runs, for just having a 11 to 1 compression 347 cu in and procomp 210 heads.I plan to work on the suspension this winter.Oh ya it ran 10.73,10.73,10.74,and10.80 at summit motorsports park, I let off on last pass . stroker mav

 

got the cab off again ....





this is the master cylinder and pedal assembly I ordered from Speedway but looks like I will be sending it back since it's not gonna work....


I have to remove the steering box in order to get the cab off and in this pic I have the master cylinder placed approximately where I would need it to sit



then we got one of Chuck's (CNC) setups and that looks to be a better fit.


drove over to CNC and got this little bad boy


however....that may not work quite as well as we hoped, we'll see when I mock things up on Friday

 

cut off the pedal and was able to mount the pedal assembly directly on top of the frame rail....



cut out a slot for the pedal to travel through



here is where the assembly will sit with really easy access to the reservoir...






sounded down the frame rail....those holes were already there....decided to weld on an angle bracket so that when I tap holes for the bolts there would be more material....without the extra metal I only would have gotten 3-4 threads in there...






after cleaning it up it welded up nicely, the welder recommended a lower wire speed by I am running 25 wire so it would melt as soon as it came close to the heat and I was getting crappy welds, increased the wire speed (to 5 on my machine) and it came out nicely...




painted it and tapped the holes which all went pretty smoothly...


here is the final....came out way better than I expected...


it's hard to see but there is a slot in the floor and the pedal is sticking through really nicely....

 

does anyone know anything about airbag installation in order to get more ride height?

 

Don't like airbags...Choppy ride especially on something as light as this...Are you looking to raise the whole truck or just the front?...

 

I wanted it as low as possible and raise it just enough to clear speed bumps or really bad roads...I guess I could just do the front

 

WOW! Don't know how I missed this thread but I'm caught up now - Great stuff

 

the drive shaft was apparently hacked together...
dropped it off at one of the shops that we take our drive shafts to...
looks like it's gonna be about $200....pricey but it will be a good job!

 

found these spacers, about 2" in height....



previous owner was planning on using these long bolts...


found fender washers....


my awesome welding table has holes so I dropped the bolts right in there...these are 1/2" bolts..welded them up so they stick up through the spacers....

 

the cab itself isn't too bad...
have to do a lot of clean up on the bottom and finish up some welding...



my welder cart now has the welder and the plasma cutter on it ....very convenient...


if you looks closely you can see the two spacers/mounts sitting on the frame....


front spacers....I wanted them beefy....

 

Bry helped me get the engine off....











the suspension needs a lot of work still, have to go over the bolts and the alignment...

these are the engine mount tabs that the PO used...they were on really solid but I still don't think it's solid enough so I'm gonna do a little more work to them....


I cut both of them off, next going to figure out what angle the engine needs to sit in, going to raise it up a few inches.

 

Love it - Love it - Love it