A real "RATROD"

[Oneofthegreats]

I haven't been on here much as of late as I've been pretty busy with work & also this project on & off over the last few weeks.

I thought I'd throw this in here after the response from the last wiring project.

My friend has been building this ratter on & off for over 3 years now, using a bit of imagination, ingenuity, bits & pieces from here there & everywhere.

The car is set to debut at the Phillip Island Kustom Nationals in early January.

He started this car with only a cowl & nothing else. Meaning the firewall section. No cab.

He built everything else incl. the complete chassis, rest of the cab, tub, 4 link, rear airbag setup, brake setup, seating (an old cut up couch!) steering the works.
The few bits he gathered along the way was the I beam front end, wheels, & Model T rad shroud. He still doesn't know the whereabouts of the cowl or its origins as to what it is exactly. So its dubbed the "Hammond!"

Once he’d finished build the cab & tub, he sat them outside to rust the normal way! haha

Its got an engine out of his old HJ ute, 253 & Trimatic & a modded Torana diff. The engine also blows smoke too! It was pretty shagged! haha From what he can remember he had the ute for several years & not once changed the oil! haha

I was blown away from his workmanship, as hes's a plumber by trade, not a mechanic, fabricator, boiler maker or engineer!
Its obvious by looking at all the pipe work! Its awesome in real life!


After he seen the job I done on the HG Prem http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newf...ad.php?t=38083, he asked me if I'd do the same job to get his car going.

I jumped at the chance obviously, cause I enjoy doing this sort of work on cool cars.
It’s also a good part of the process, cause your the one who actually gets the cars going for the first time & are there for first start up too!

To start with he just wanted it "wired" but I said, dude. If you going to all this trouble, lets make it all as invisible as possible.

Nothing worse than spending all this time on how the car looks to have dodgey looking wiring hanging out all over the place.

The only thing he said was he didn't want to drill holes in the chassis.

The basic system consists of an On/Off ignition switch which kills everything so no kid’s can walk past & press either the start or airbag push button's. The brake lights are wired up to constant power as most cars are wired.

The power board has a Power supply which is the main power feed for everything & also where the Alt. charges the battery too!

There is also a Earth point as seeing as how the cab is so rusty, I couldn’t get a could connection at all! Haha. So its linked to the chassis which is perfect.

The Thermofan also has a constant power source so he can park the car, walk away from it & when heat soak sets in, it will automatically cut in & start cooling everything.

I used relay's to power most things, as I didn't want to be loading up the little push button switches with the high current that's caused by the things like the starter, airbag pump & thermo's etc.
The lights are all fused with the thermo fans & Airbag pump wired through circuit breakers.
Everything else what a matter of making it all look as neat & as hidden as possible.

Once the fuse box it tucked up under the dash, all you can see is one single wiring loom running from the floor up under the dash.



Ignition, Start, Airbag pump & Headlight switches



The red light in the centre of the dash is the alternator light. This is covered by an old school cast alloy grill from some car! Early 50's sort of style. The wiring you can see get's tucked up along the bottom of the cowl & won't be visible at all.



I also fitted a main isolater electrical kill switch for when it sits for a long period of time.



Starter & power supply lead. Note the headlight, Thermofan & engine harness running along the underside of the chassis





Chassis/engine earth connections & the wiring looms going into the cab.



Engine harness. Thermofan temp switch & Alt. wiring



Thermofan wiring tucked away



Headlight wiring

[Oneofthegreats]

Battery



Rear light loom running along the chassis. Didn't have to really hide this, but we mounted it with copper saddles to keep the theme
Note all the chassis work, 4 link setup & airbag setup/





Rear lights



Pedal's! Peterbuilt truck accelerator pedal as the brake! haha
The old saying "Ken thought it was worth it, so Peter built it!" haha




The copper piping & valve is the airbag dump pipe! It doesn't have enough room to run a airbag tank & just runs off the compressor through a check valve/one way valve. So the pump isn't under constant pressure all the time.



You can just see the open pipe where the dump exits!



Fuel lines



Nice little touch is the olds rocker cover /spark plug trims! I like them & space the ignition leads nicely out too!



Carb's on adapter plate!

[Oneofthegreats]

Once everything was wired up, all the fluids filled (except the engine. It still had crusty old oil in it!), fuel system primed it fired up straight away & ran like a champ. Oil smoke & all! haha

Those exhaust pipes are straight out. No mufflers in this thing! haha







Note the HAND! haha



Then it was onto a quick lap around the court. (this isn't a street car, just a toy he wanted to build for something different)

Note the "massive" trans shifter! haha Awesome!



I'm very happy how my part of this all turned out & everything worked without fault.

There are still a few bugs to sort out, but he's still got some time to get it all sorted before the Kustom Nats

To say he was happy is an understatement!

Once I was done with all the wiring, he was just standing there & shaking.

I can't take any of the credit for this build, but its nice to be there for a mate who has been building something for so long & your there to help him out & get it going after being so long in the build.

I was pretty satisfied when another bloke came around & was looking over the ratter & he asked "how does this thing run? There are now wires!" & that's when my friend said to me, it was worth it to get you in & do the job properly!



Enjoy!



P.S. Now onto the next project!

[c-issler]

That is ridiculously cool. Such a great mix of the old, new and individual style. Well done on your part; I hope for his sake this gets lots of attention at the show.
C-issler.

[Preen59]

That's cool as man. I love seeing how people of different trades approach things differently!

Love the copper stacks on top of the '97s! That's freaking cool as!

[Peter Jones]

Might have to pop out to the island and take a look.

Neat project.

Pete

[Jarred]

that's cool as.

well done as normal on the wiring Tim, and thanks for sharing!

[joshyd-mk2gti]

flippin' awesome. love the copper parts. hope they oxidize and get a bit of green patina going on, that would suit the theme real well.

[Oneofthegreats]

That is ridiculously cool. Such a great mix of the old, new and individual style. Well done on your part; I hope for his sake this gets lots of attention at the show.
C-issler.

He's not all that interested on what the response is like.

He's a bit like me. You build something for you. It doesn't matter what other people think & if they like it or not.

Best way to be I reckon

[Preen59]

You build something for you. It doesn't matter what other people think & if they like it or not.

Quote of the week.