Hot rods.

[Olivia_jason]

over the last few months, my days off have been consumed with pinball. time well spent i must say.
but have had a few days away from pinball, and working on a blokes model a coupe hotrod.
its half ford steel, half fibreglass, he bought it as a banger, in average condition. as the guy builds high end performance engines for a living he has built a monster of a car. he has in the past built engines for my cars. he rang me up to come work in his shop and tub his rod, as its fiberglass he didnt want to do it him self, ive built heaps of race car parts for him in the past, so i agreed to do it on my days off,  i want him to tune my car on his dyno, as i had done a heap of mods since i last got tuned its out of tune badly so i always take advantage of an inspiration for me to get off my but and work on my bloody car lol.
anyways the rod is running a 700hp small block chev, and thats allot for a light car, lol, 2speed powerglide with ford shortened 4:11 nine inch. its body is still rough but thats what i am fixing up, and today cut the inner guards out for a mini tub and glassed it all up to take the shorter axils and wider tyres, tomorrow is cut the outer guards and extend the flange where they bolt up so they can fit drag tyres under them. as the previous owner did allot of dodgy things to try and make it look correct and were very bad eye sight on aligning guards and other body bits, gotta say its lots of fun getting out and doing work on cars again, especially a serious car like this. ill try and get some pictures tomorrow, of the project, but man that engine sounds fantastic, especially having full 3.5 inch system, but having an electric solenoid exhaust cuttoff that when opened makes the exhaust come straight out of the header pipes out the side of the engine bay. nothing better for a day off than hanging out in a performance shop working on a hotrod talking shit and playing with cars when the shop is closed for his holidays so he can build his own car for once no customers no others workers just mates modifying cars best day ever, coming close second playing pinball and talking shit, will do that next week once the job is done i think, im interested to know if there are any hot rodders here and how much of a buzz you get from working on them. this isnt even my car and its bloody good fun

[pinmadd]

Great to hear, Another Petrolhead like me   

[ddstoys]

I enjoy working on cars when i get some free time.   Have helped build a few rods with the old man.  Built plenty of cool cars for friends etc.   

   I have my Rod lined up but sadly can't do anything till my old man promise dies along with him  !!!E

[Olivia_jason]

I enjoy working on cars when i get some free time.   Have helped build a few rods with the old man.  Built plenty of cool cars for friends etc.  

   I have my Rod lined up but sadly can't do anything till my old man promise dies along with him  !!!E

got any pictures?? ive never owned a hotrod. dont know if i ever will but ive worked on heaps, i love looking nat hotrods love working on them. not sure ill ever own one. but then again if i retire and ever feel that urge to drive around Australia like most oldies seem to do these days, i recon a hotrod would be the best way to do it, so i might own one. lol.

this one I am building is a ratty, but not that fail type of ratty where they only made it a ratrod because they couldnt make it neat, lol thats what it was when he bought it. boot not aligned gaurds not aligned they trimed things up wrong and it was a mess. thats why im fixing it up and making everything all aligned and putting and tubing it. he has got to repaint all matt black once finished, its a neat ratt rod, prety much the scull and spider web type, with a big power plant, its cool and i like it even though im not a ratrod fan usually.

my rod would be clean all covers over the engine, fuel injected ford v8, 3 speed, body lines very straight and just perfectly clean looking and simple but shinny Monza red paint job, no pinstriping just red.

oh and pinmad i love cars they are just the best thing, close second pinball they both fit together so nicely

[ddstoys]

Mine will be a rat rod in a way.   It's an all original 1931 improved a model roadster pickup all I'll do I drop a flat head v8 in and drive it.   Post some pics when I get home tonight. 

[Olivia_jason]

probably sounds simular style ratrot to the one where building atm, except different engine. you going matt black lots of chrome?? thats what this one is prety much. i like that, dont like junk looking ratrods, a proper built ratty looks great, you can see a good one from a bad one. ill get a picture or two today, im about to leave for his shop now to do some work on it. i wish i had the entire week off from my shop so i could just work on cars all week, lol. good thing about hotrods is they express your self and your own likes. when i build other people rods i have to put away my own likes and listen to their ideas, and work to that, as they are a very personal thing. i seem to be able to do that, that seems to be the reason i get called up to get these sort of jobs even though i dont have allot of time to do it. but you would be a fool to bag some one elses rod out you always have to look at a rod through their eyes and see what and why they did it that way for, lol thats why rods are so interesting imo

[ddstoys]

I won't even touch the paint on mine of leave as much of it the way it is to keep it original but add the small v8 for the noise

[Olivia_jason]

heres the rod wit hthe engine all in it, all is coming out for repainting as this shit paint from the previous owner, needed to settup the new engine to know where to cut to make fit and what not, the engine that came with the rod is long gone lol, not bad for a little chev i recon. all ally race heads, high rise manifold, electric water pump, one very aggressive cam, after market crank shaft, big nitrous settup and way to much shit to list. got it all tubbed today and that part finished, had to cut the rear and do some work to that, guards will get finished monday or tuesday, as I cut and are widening them. the diff came out and going to powder coaters, seeing i have the measurements now.  its absolutely the funnest thing to do

[ktm450]

Cool looking good!
I have always been into cars, love hot rods but love muscle cars more 

[Olivia_jason]

Cool looking good!
I have always been into cars, love hot rods but love muscle cars more  

yer im a street machine fan my self also. but working on a hotrod is fantastic fun. especially something serious like this, it even has wheelie bars, with a 2sp powerglide and a transbrake this thing wont want to stay on all four wheels lol

[ddstoys]

Here are a couple of photos.

  The first one is a hot rod we finished a few years back sadly some one made a stupid offer and dad took it i never even got to drive it on the road.   Did get to see dad lift the front wheels off the ground taking it out of the shed (i think he might have pooped his pants  )

Second one is the A model that he promised the previous owner he wouldnt hot rod it...  That deal dies when its mine will leave it mainly as is (As much as possible) and just drop in a small flathead V8  for the noise

Third is one of the pontiacs all original 68 pontiac was stored in a shed for about 20 years from memory cant remember exactly but the lastego sticker ran out when they parked it

[ktm450]

Nice cars mate 

[Olivia_jason]

that pickup certaqinly has allot of potential, being all steel that is a bloody good score

[ddstoys]

All steel and all original the previous owner still drove it six month before we bought it.    Dad has a photo of it when it was brand new Had a canvas canopy on the back it belonged to an electrician.  Ill see if dad can dig out the photo for me.

[Olivia_jason]

ok finished the gaurds after cutting it and widening it, realigning the stuff ups the first owner did, I rectified the horrid lines from what ever mold this came out of. most of the time guards are widened from the outside edge, however if you do that your side running boards wont line up with the wider gaurds if you widen from the outside edge, i have learnt a trick to widen from the inside edge that goes to the body which ment i could do only one cut and fix the bad joining lines, this still allows the runner boards and guards to line up on the outside edge, this may not make sense as you think widening the inside would still push the edge out, which is correct, but there is a trick that is very hard to explain, lol. any ways its now an extra inch wider on the guards. seeing the diff is shortened and wide drag tyres are being installed, the inside wheel arch that is in your boot, needed to be tubbed, so i removed that area and have widened by another 4 inches, so you would consider this a mini tubb. the previous owner had a horrible dicky seat setup and thought it would be a good idea to fully cutoff the bottom drain lip in the boot for a reverse hinge lid lol, so it had no structure and no way to catch water so i needed to completely straighten the entire bottom edge and add construct a completely new lip to catch water and actually seal the boot. i still need to do allot of work to the back end from the un straight molding, this is often the problem with hotrods they are built by amatures, and its amazing how dodgy hotrods can be, when taking on a previously owned hotrodd be prepaired to do allot of work to rebuilt them. lol, ive seen hundreds like this over the years, but this also allows you to buy a bargain and cheaper than buying a kit.
the deal is it also this car now needs to be bloody strong as this is a serious drag car, ill post more pics up as i get there, will be doing allot more work on the arse end for the wheelie bars, and para-shoot.
 heres a few pictures,