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RAT-A-TOW-E
19th April 2009
My quest to build a miniature rat tow truck (wrecker) has had a crap start. i didnt think this body and its fenders were too bad at first glance, but loading *what was left of* it onto the trailer, left a fair bit of it behind hahahaha.
Oh well, the only thing I wasted in getting it home was a bit of petrol, and time, and respect from dad hahahaha! Man, he's gonna skitz when he sees what's in his trailer tomorrow when he gets home from work hahaha.
Over tightening of ratchet straps and bumpy roads didnt do much good for what was left of the cab.
Might be able to use these guards to repair the 52's front fenders, or even use them for rear fenders. I might try and use them on my rat project, but 5kg's of MIG wire now costing $180AUS, i dont see them being fixed too soon.
I don't think I'll bother with this thing, MIG wire is too damned expensive. The amount of mig wire i'd use, i'd be better off getting another cab and stuff from somewhere else. DANG IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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20th April 2009
The cab is definitely no good for anything. I'll cut it up and throw it away. Today I attempted to remove the instrument cluster but the nuts holding it in were too rusted.
The instruments are rusted anyway so I gave up. So instead I cut all the wires out, removed the push button and heater switch from the dash.
I gave the headlight glasses a wash and they are in perfect condition, bar a few rust stains, but there are no cracks or chips.
I'll have to get my old friend Hotrod Attempt 1 ( aka HRA 1 ) back from the cattle yards (remember my 1980 Ford Falcon page here?) and start cutting the rollbars off it.
It was going to be my dirt speedway car, but I never had the money at the time to work on it, since I was only 13 and still at school hahaha.
Nissan Navara chassis, modified tailshaft to suit Ford Falcon 250ci crossflow straight six, and BW35 Borg Warner 3spd auto.
Left photo: Rear bumper is a piece of 8in channel section, the two rails above the chassis rails are railway line sections. Hahaha Needed the weight to try help me get some traction (wasn't enough but!!!). Right photo: A true straight thru exhaust system. 1 3/4in, about 3 1/2ft long, exiting just below my right ear...rather loud!!!
Right photo: Wired the ignition system all by myself!!!! (13y.o) Yerr!!!!
Left photo. My trans cooler. It's to the right of the drivers seat, I made it from the pipes from the back of a fridge hahaha. Right photo:.....That's where the tailshaft was rubbing on the drivers seat HAHAHAHA safety plus!!!!!
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3rd May 2009
I've been giving this thing plenty of thought over the last week. I got so bored and desperate for a cab, i photoshopped one onto HRA 1 hahaha.
I cut the jailbar cab up a bit with the oxy-acetylene torch, just all the twisted pieces off the back. Now I just have the firewall up to the top of the windscreen, and back to the back of the roof, which i might cut off anyway and use to patch up the guards or any other panels. I'll take a photo tomorrow.
I'll have to try and think up a bed for it, and the crane. I'm gonna try use the jailbar guards as well, since they aren't all that bad, might have to cut the fronts of them off about 1 to 1 1/2ft back, then fold the front edges over or weld some pipe over it .
The radiator/front guard support frame is fairly solid, just have to do a bit of patch up on it. Checked the width of the support and the width of the David Brown tractor grille i was thinking of using. Have to take some photos of the David Brown i'm talkin about.
The grille is only 1ft 10in wide, whereas the radiator support is 2ft 5in wide. Might have to just stretch the tractor grille's rear edges out to suit.
Have to line the guards up over the front wheels of HRA 1 to see how close together they are going to be.
Had a crazy idea of using my Dad's spare '75 F100 cab on this thing today. I was thinking of cutting the cab down to a 40's-50's style truck cab size, and fill in the fillets half way up the cab/doors. May have to if I cant find a 40's-50's cab.
I'll take some pictures of HRA 1 and the 75 f100 cab I might use tomorrow.
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4th May 2009
Jailbar cab and pieces I cut off.
David Brown tractor I might steal the grille off.
Our wrecking yard haha.
'75 cab I'm thinking of using. It's a bit far gone and was used to patch up dad's 1975 f100, so theres a fair bit of panelwork missing.
Stupid grass!!!!
Yess.....seatbelts......eeerm? *scratches head*
I wonder what gave them the impression that it's NOT registered? hahaha!
Left: My trans cooler. Right: OH NOOOOO!!! My beautiful leather seat!!!!
It's a pretty solid frame. Tailshafts were joined together really well, considering what the folks are like in the backward town it came from!
Because it had next to no weight in the back, it used to spin the wheels all day on our stony ground. Hence the lovely gouged rings in the tires!
A few reasons I think it's a Navara chassis; I've seen the 6 stud wheels on quite a few Navara's around the place, the Nissan shocks, and the torsion bar suspension. But, I could be wrong, could also be a Datsun 720 chassis, but I havent seen too many 720's with these wheels.
The other beast that came with it that i'm currently using to stand my guards on is pictured below. I might steal the 'box, or maybe even the "log" engine too. G-box is supposed to be a 3 on the tree. Pain in the rear to change gears with the two sticks the way it is, so i'll have to make a new shifter assembly for it if I decide to use it.
The guards after cutting some of the rubbish off them, the worst one is on the left.
Where i'd probably be if I had the shed to myself, and a cab!!!!!!
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9 May 2009
My mate Simon rang me up and asked me to come over his old folk's property out the back o' town, had something he thought I may be interested in for my rat.
1948 Austin Truck front end sitting on a trailer made from the rear half of a truck (donno if it's the Austin's). Front end consists of the engine, gearbox, remains of the front fenders, radiator, grille, front suspension/brakes, and the chassis which probably would've been cut off just behind the cab which is missing. Trailer consists of a diff with dual tyre rims.
http://truck-photos.net.s3.amazonaws.com/782.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3549/3334287737_c9717e8a44.jpg?v=0
I'm very interested in the diff/duals, and the grille, and maybe even the guards. The guards are a bit too far gone I think, and i'm not too sure of the condition of the diff assembly. Might be too hard to find replacement brake parts. Might pick up that trailer when the work really starts on this project .
Also found the back wall of cab (with windows still intact) and roof of cab of an old FJ Toyota Landcruiser. Will use it on my 'rod. Have to find some FJ doors and adapt all this to the Ford firewall.
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13/14 May 2009
Got bored, so I built myself a gearknob using a nut and a pile of 309 stainless hardfacing welds. Weighs just on 1.5lbs! (600g) Should look a bit better after a nice brush up with the wire brush on the bench grinder.
You can see the nut that i started with here.
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20 May 2009
List of engines/gearboxes I have to choose from:
Combination 1: Ford 250ci Crossflow inline 6cyl, BW35 auto gbox
Combination 2: Ford 250ci "Log" inline 6cyl, BW 3spd man gbox
Combination 3: Ford 250ci "Log" inline 6cyl, 5spd man 1975 Ford F100 gbox
Combination 4: Ford 2BA Flathead V8, 4spd (5spd?) man 1952 Ford F-1 gbox
Combination 5: Crossflow with combo 2's box (if the 'box has the right bolt points on the bellhousing)
Combination 6: Crossflow with combo 3's box (if the 'box has the right bolt points on the bellhousing)
Combination 7: Chrysler 225ci Slant Inline 6cyl, (TorqueFlite?) auto gbox
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7 July 2009
Bought some Holden Rodeo rims and tires off e-Bay for $150. With a bit more research, found out that the wheels are standard off Holden Rodeo utes from about 1995-2000. These will be used to make the dual wheeled rear end. Will mock them up and take measurements to design an adapter to bolt the secondary wheels to the wheels already on the car.
Only problems i can see with doing this is the design i have in mind might be too weak once holes are drilled in the metal for the 6-stud patterns of the two wheels. This idea was my first, which places the 6-stud patterns of the wheels in a 12-stud pattern in the end view of the adapter. I could go for a 6-stud patterned end view, which would make the adapter itself stronger, but the only problem there would be finding a strong enough bolt to hold the wheels together.
One problem i didn't think of, which my mate Luke pointed out, is that the inside tyres will wear quicker than the outside tires of the duals, which he sees a lot of since he is doing a heavy diesel mechanic apprenticeship at a busy trucking company with road train semi trailers. The camber of the roads does that to the wide trucks, but i'm not sure it will affect my narrow rat pick-up.
Had a good look at some Navara's at the wrecking yard in town to see if i could find what year/model my chassis was from. While I was there, I checked out the Rodeo chassis', and they had torsion bar front ends too! Took some photos of all the Navara chassis' and Rodeo chassis' to compare with my chassis. Took my motorbike for a run over to my wrecking yard. Had a look at the photos I took with my mobile phone, and it most closely resembles one of the Navaras I looked at. With wirebrush in hand I cleaned back the chassis and found the chassis number. Will look online to see what model Navara it comes from .
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26 August 2009
Got some Landcruiser doors. Measured them up and compared them to the 1952 F-1 doors. Theyre a bit narrow and short in the panelwork, but are larger in the window area. Don't know what i'm gonna do.
I'm thinking of going suicide style with the doors, but i'll probably leave that till I get the cab together and built properly. These are the steps I'm going to take when doing it.
1 - I'll hang the doors on the 42 Ford cowl, level with the windscreen, then build up the bottom door rail of the cab to make up the difference in size of the Cruiser doors compared to the 42 doors.
2 - I'll then cut off the windscreen pillars and cut down the old window frame to level the top of the ford cowl.
3 - I'll cut the Landcruiser roof and angle it, getting an angle on the top rear corners close to that of the angle of the rollcage/roof of HRA 1.
4 - I may have to take some segments out of the roof to narrow it and angle it to match up with the 42 cowl width.
5 - The door's window frames will need to be chopped and angled to suit the roof.
6 - I may have to make up the fold-out windscreen frame to support and hold down the front of the roof while I build the remaining absence of back wall of the cab.
7 - The floor will then get constructed, then i will think about making suicide hinges for the doors.
Should look a little like this:
I need someone to measure me up some 42 ford pickup doors, or some that would fit a 42 cab. I measured up the 'Cruiser doors and compared them to the 52 F-1's doors, but apparently theyre bigger than a 42's. Here are the measurements i got anyway, i need someone to measure up their 42 doors and give me the measurements within the nearest 1/4 of an inch:
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