1964 Dodge A-100 Hot rod sort of rat rod build thread.

Well the struggle was real today for sure. I was one stressed out and pissed off dude. Put some wood shims under the motor mount so the back end could pivot down. Dropped the rear cradle down about 4 in and I am able to remove the wheels. Still a complete pain in the ass and not easy but really the only way to do it. At least I can get them off and on. So the process will be; number one wood shims under the motor mounts. Number two drain partial coolant and remove the rigid upper radiator hose. Number three disconnect the cold side intercooler charge pipes both sides. Number four remove all of the bolts holding the cradles to the frame in the back. The back pair of bolts underneath cannot go back in because the fuel tank will block them in. These are bolts I had added in addition to Rick's bulkhead mounts and we're really just Overkill anyway. Number five disconnect the sway bar once I have built that. Number 6 remove the four bolts from the front fuel tank mount to let the cradle drop away from the fuel tank. I will need some way to hold the front of the fuel tank up. Number 7 remove the rear cover plate and fuel cap to get to the frame to cradle bolts underneath it. It looks like I am also going to have to cut off the bulkhead fitting plate I just made and do another one. Those fittings are going to be in the way of those two bolts going through the frame and the cradle. Now I will have to be careful making my throttle cable and transmission cable flexible enough to not have to remove those. Same with any wiring harness. Make sure any fuel lines will flex as well. Probably something else I am not thinking of.

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WheresHotBoat said:
What if you use a lug bolt, vs a stud and lug nut?
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Bobalos said:
or just cut the studs down some???  IIRC you were not too far off of getting them out.
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The problem was never really at the studs but where the tire comes down through past the bedside of the truck. That in combination of hitting the ball joint. Obviously it was a long long way off from ever coming out as you can see from how far I have to drop the rear cradle. I'm just really glad I'm not going to have to disconnect suspension pieces every time. This is maybe a little more work this way but it's all fairly easy stuff to do. If I have a flat on the road I will have to tow this in and get it on a hoist.

 
That cradle was wanting to roll forward and backward and flex at the transmission mount. So I think when changing tires a simple fix will be just some flat small pieces of plywood clamped on the front side of the cradle so it can't do that. One more item that will be added to the list of removable and replacement will be the rear skid plate. I thinking about making that out of 1/8-in aluminum instead of steel. Another option would be some of this plastic stuff that is on all the side by sides. Not sure what to make that fuel tank skid plate out of at this point.

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Just sent this message to Billy@gforce in regard to axles.   Good morning, although it will be a lot of work I am able to get the rear wheels off in a different way versus disconnecting the suspension components. I am able to unbolt the entire cradle. Let it pivot up at the motor mounts and drop the transmission and cradle down at the back to remove the rear wheels. When I mounted this cradle in the truck I set it up as exact and close as I could to my 2002 ZO6 corvette. Attached are a couple of photos using a 1 inch steel shaft to simulate the half shaft. At the five and a half inch drive height of the truck which is the same as my Corvette the angle on the axle is three degrees going down from the transmission out to the wheel. With the airbags on this which were a specific C5 Corvette kit I bought it actually has less travel than the stock Corvette suspension. So there's not going to be a lot of angle change there. I can always run it up and down and check it with the air out of the bags and also aired all the way up if you want me to. Right now that axle is 1 3/8 away from the airbag which I think should be plenty of clearance. From the end of the output shaft coming out of the transmission to flush where the splines start at the hub I am measuring 20 and 1/4 in. As mentioned before I narrowed this rear cradle just under 6 in so each axle should end up very close to 3 in shorter than stock. Let me know what you think is the next step to getting some axles built. Just a reminder this will be 600 horsepower. Probably about a 3,600 lb truck. And a 345 wide rear tire on a 19 inch wheel.

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And yes I have upped my estimate for weight from 3300 to 3600 lb. Bolting a lot of steel on this thing.

 
the SxS or rock crawler crowd uses UHMW typically either 3/8" or 1/2", but they have all the standard thicknesses

Delrin would also be a good option

 
onanysunday said:
Just sent this message to Billy@gforce in regard to axles.   Good morning, although it will be a lot of work I am able to get the rear wheels off in a different way versus disconnecting the suspension components. I am able to unbolt the entire cradle. Let it pivot up at the motor mounts and drop the transmission and cradle down at the back to remove the rear wheels. When I mounted this cradle in the truck I set it up as exact and close as I could to my 2002 ZO6 corvette. Attached are a couple of photos using a 1 inch steel shaft to simulate the half shaft. At the five and a half inch drive height of the truck which is the same as my Corvette the angle on the axle is three degrees going down from the transmission out to the wheel. With the airbags on this which were a specific C5 Corvette kit I bought it actually has less travel than the stock Corvette suspension. So there's not going to be a lot of angle change there. I can always run it up and down and check it with the air out of the bags and also aired all the way up if you want me to. Right now that axle is 1 3/8 away from the airbag which I think should be plenty of clearance. From the end of the output shaft coming out of the transmission to flush where the splines start at the hub I am measuring 20 and 1/4 in. As mentioned before I narrowed this rear cradle just under 6 in so each axle should end up very close to 3 in shorter than stock. Let me know what you think is the next step to getting some axles built. Just a reminder this will be 600 horsepower. Probably about a 3,600 lb truck. And a 345 wide rear tire on a 19 inch wheel.

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If you need help with axles, I'm just down the road :hapy:

 
parker@gearone said:
If you need help with axles, I'm just down the road :hapy:
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Can you make axles for this? Corvette c5 splined pieces on both ends? I assume 300m to handle the horsepower. I figured this was a specialty item that you didn't fool with. I would rather buy them from you in a heartbeat.

 
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Felt like I was working on all these trim pieces and screws forever. It has been weeks off and on and talk about a lot of hours. Finally got the rest of my screws from China. Now at about $110 just for those screws! :makerain: Each screw was a little long so I had to cut them off with a cut off wheel one at a time. Then I had to drill each hole a little bigger than those gold screws I had. Then run a drill down deeper because the screws were longer. Then I welded a nut to the head of one of the screws and ran it in and out of every hole. I thought for sure the head would break off of that Chinese screw at some point but it never did. Amazing since I TIG welded it and that whole thing was cherry red. Weird smell on that coating so I wore a respirator. Whatever that black coating is on those screws does not scratch. Killer stuff. All the trim pieces around the wood, the cab, battery and master cylinder covers, and the fuel tank cover I am counting 500 exposed Allen head screws. I absolutely love this thing. It is so different from what I originally had in my head but I think it is coming out killer. Now I can start tearing everything down and prepping for paint on a bunch of these pieces. I took my quart can over to Old School paint and got three more cans mixed. So now I have I think seven spray cans left to try paint all of this. That includes the cage inside. I think I will paint underneath the fenders flat black rust-oleum. Before I paint I do have to figure out a way to seal this gap between the intercooler and the intercooler box.

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onanysunday said:
Can you make axles for this? Corvette spline pieces on both ends? I assume 300m to handle the horsepower. I figured this was a specialty item that you didn't fool with. I would rather buy them from you in a heartbeat.
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Yeah, just did a set for an 05 GTO and a set for a new supra last month. Pull the stock axle shafts bring them down and I can check tooling. Wouldn't be surprised if its the same tooling as that GTO

 
parker@gearone said:
Yeah, just did a set for an 05 GTO and a set for a new supra last month. Pull the stock axle shafts bring them down and I can check tooling. Wouldn't be surprised if its the same tooling as that GTO
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I can't find them. I might have thrown them away which I can't believe I did. What billy  @gforce was going to do was send me the splined pieces, have me measure and then send them back for him to build the axle shafts.

 
Dune-Track-N said:
the SxS or rock crawler crowd uses UHMW typically either 3/8" or 1/2", but they have all the standard thicknesses

Delrin would also be a good option
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I was thinking about bolting the front of that skid plate using the original mounting bolts for the mono leaf spring. Those bolt pads have a 9° angle and also the lower arms look like they have the same angle of sweep back. So if I did it out of 1/8 aluminum it would have a bend in it and have that 9° where it bolts up and then go flat under the fuel tank. I'm guessing I cannot do that with the delran.

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onanysunday said:
I can't find them. I might have thrown them away which I can't believe I did. What billy  @gforce was going to do was send me the splined pieces, have me measure and then send them back for him to build the axle shafts.
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If you dont have the cv joints (stub axles) probably best just to go with g force

 
Summertime is here. Had to bring out the big gun for my paint booth.

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I want to be driving this by Halloween. That gives me 6 months plus 13 days. It will be very tight 

 
I need to buy one of those Bondo cheese grater thingies. Just using a scraper now. I would not want to do a lot of regular body work. Boring and tedious

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