1967 Dodge A-100 Hot rod sort of rat rod build thread.

[onanysunday]

Give network alignment a cigar. Damn. Add probably 40 to 50 lb for the rear sway bar and the rear skid plate and this thing will be 4,100 lb. Nose of this truck will still be heavier with one or two passengers in it. And if I remove the rear rack ice chest and lawn chairs that is probably 45 lb. Although balance front to back is darn close. Pushing 3,000 hours labor and 27 months of work it's pretty amazing to have the truck that balanced. I literally guessed on everything.

 

[onanysunday]

Had a couple guys here in the shop buying some parts and they helped me roll it up the ramps on the scales. I said out loud I'm going to guess 2500.

 

[onanysunday]

I guessed 2750 and each of the other guys guessed 3000 and 3200. This car is light and that's why it is so fun to drive. Virtually the same weight as the Funco. Look how much weight is on the nose with that all iron mid 50s 241 hemi. Smallest hemi they ever made from Chrysler, DeSoto, or Dodge. This car will go up to Mormon lake and stay up there after we have the shop property sold. Summer car to goof off in. Drive it to Flagstaff and get some lunch. Carry a big tarp if you get rained on.

 

[onanysunday]

I was guessing 3200. 100 lb lighter. Don't think you can get much more balanced than this. Morrison chassis. L83 all aluminum late model direct injected motor. 4l65 four-speed automatic trans. 9 in rear with four link. 400 horsepower. This car drives so good it's ridiculous. Although my knees are jammed into the dash. Car is filthy with a layer of dust on it.

 

[rivermobster]

Getting very very close. Still a lot to do but in the scope of this entire project not very far to get this truck on the dyno. I can now actually make a list. Some wiring left but that is probably 95% done on the truck. Seal the floor with a rubber boot and uniball bearing where the steering shaft comes through. Power up the airbag system and get that working. Put brake fluid in and bleed both Master cylinders to get the braking systems working. Of course later on do the auxiliary brake system which includes pulling the rear wheels off which sucks on this truck. I need to make a cover that goes under the center console to hide the wiring from the big holes in the side of the console where the seat belts come through. Fuel tank is bolted in but I need to tap threads on the fuel cap lower piece and get that all installed. Finish wiring and get the electric power steering unit functioning. Do some grinding and deburring under the front and then put some flat black paint behind the grill. Then install the front grill. Install my little heavy duty brackets under the rear fender wells so as not to just trust all of the Allen bolts going into the wood. Install the seat belts and seats along with harnesses. Finish the sound system. Speaker wires are run to the door but need to go through rubber boots into the door and be hooked up. Seal the floor or the transmission shift cable goes through. Put the truck on the dyno and tune it. Then it needs to go to alignment to have the front and rear toe in set and then alignment done. I think I will just have them set all of the camber and angles just like a stock C5 corvette. Still need to build the rear sway bar once I get those parts. I need to make a foot box for the passenger side so my wife's feet have something to touch. LOL. Have my buddy plasma cut out and bend some little boxes to go on each side of the seat on the floor for wallet phone and small items. I thinking about having him cut Chevy logos and Dodge penstar emblems alternating going around the edges of that. Have him bend that since I sold the brake and then I would just finish weld it. Then of course down the road dynomat the interior put carpet in it and finish the headliner.

The last 10 percent of the job is 90 percent of the work.

Your dedication here is unreal.

 

[ROBERT L]

The last 10 percent of the job is 90 percent of the work.

Your dedication here is unreal.

Damn that is so true.

 

[onanysunday]

Homeless people trying to burn our shop down tonight. I had three guys here luckily and we were about ready to start dragging vehicles out of the shop with my truck being first. In the last month they had stole the backflow prevent her out front which was $3,000 to fix. In the back they have stripped all the plumbing off and cut holes in our fences. I have an insurance claim in on that right now. What a s*** show.

 

[onanysunday]

Sneak peek of two parts I've been working on for the last 2 Days in between some other stuff. These will get installed tomorrow. Took me a month trying to figure out how to do this project.

 

[onanysunday]

I stared at that hole in the floor for at least a month scratching my head trying to figure out how to seal the steering shaft. All kinds of wonky compound angles there. Finally started looking at Spicer driveshaft boots. Man I got that thing laid way over so hopefully it will hold up. Right now the shaft is actually spinning inside the spherical bearing. Trying to decide if I want to try to shove something down in there and make the bearing turn instead of the shaft inside the bearing. Either way for now it should seal the floor.

 

[onanysunday]

Big beefy sway bar links for the front. $127 for the pair of those. Stupid what stuff cost now. I fought with this for 6 hours today. Tweaked and massaged and now I'm happy with it. Now not worried about it breaking the ears off the lower arms. All this and it may or may not work. Two pictures showing travel One direction and two showing the other end

 

[onanysunday]

..

 

[onanysunday]

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Z7Kw9CARU/

 

[onanysunday]

No glove box in this truck so I am doing two boxes for phone, wallet, sunglasses, keys, etc next to each seat. I had the idea very early on to try to mix the Dodge and Chevy logos together somehow. My buddy that cut this all out for me is really good with design and he made my idea better for sure. Just need to run out pick all the pieces up. I'm hoping on the corners I can cut some piece of pipe and weld it all together. All out of 1/8 inch thick steel. If it ain't steel it ain't real.

 

[onanysunday]

Well that was quite a project. Paul Horton sway bar kit all put together and built. 1-in solid bar about 39 in long. If it ends up being too stiff I can buy all the pieces and build a three quarter inch but he thought this would be the best place to start. It has to be serviceable and one end has to come off. They have had a couple failures with just the roll pin so I added two set screws in addition to the roll pin. Built heavy duty 1/8 wall tube vertical struts to tie the ends together. Although the main tube is quarter inch wall and my upper brackets bolted to the aluminum a arms are quarter inch steel as well. I wanted to make it as robust as possible and not risk hurting the aluminum a arm as that thing all flexes. I only drilled one hole through the bottom inside web of the arm for a 5/16 bolt. Then we're most of the load is it has a half inch bolt and big block Chevy harmonic balancer bolt washers. That is where the original mono composite leaf spring bolted up to the arms. All these pieces weigh 32 lb. Definitely heavy duty.

 

[onanysunday]

..

 

[onanysunday]

Had this old skid plate from a Jeep laying in the back of the shop. Was able to modify it to fit nicely. Nice piece of 1/4 thick 6061 t6. Dang that stuff is gnarly to bend. At first I stood on it with all of my body weight to put a slight bend on the front leading edge of it. Just bounced up and down. So finally resorted to using a 24-in crescent wrench. I have a quarter to a half inch gap between the skid plate and the tank. Need to put some kind of rubber strips underneath there between it. The rear brackets and entire skid plate needs to be removable along with the tank and everything else to get the rear tires off the truck. Photos are at ride height. When the suspension is compressed all the way the very outer pods on each side of the tank are vulnerable to getting hit. If something in the road is coming at me I need to actually keep it in the center of the truck if I can. Airbag system is completely working and the truck jumps up and down like a 5-year-old on a trampoline. I was too busy to get any video. All the brake lines ended up being wrong when we tried to bleed the system. They have a 10 mm metric end on them so I had to reorder with a -3 an fitting. Sitting on the rack bringing the motor up to 195° oil pressure is 80 at idle and 115 when you rev it up. Certainly too high. I still have the driven br40 break in oil in the motor and that is coming out for some 5W30 mobil one. See if that will drop the oil pressure down. Had an issue with the electric power steering module and trying to get that sorted out. Very possible we get this truck on the dyno by the end of this week. Good guys is a week from Friday and I'm going to try get it there.

 

[onanysunday]

17 lb on the skid plate and hardware so along with the rear sway bar let's call it 50 lb. Add in the subwoofer and I'm just going to call this thing about 4,150 lb total. I am adding a little more in for dynamat and carpet when I do the front.

 

[onanysunday]

..

 

[Kat-A-Tonic]

Our Sty Wagon? LOL, I kid, I kid.

 

[onanysunday]

Got in several light runs today to start breaking everything in. Mainly the transmission and gears. No way we were hooking straps under this truck even with the bags aired all the way up. Had to hook above on the bar above the fuel tank. Steering is going to be a little on the tough side. Even with the electric power assist sitting still I would not be able to turn the wheels. Truck has to be moving. Hopefully will be okay and I will have to live with it without a full redesign.