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Ford 50's Pick-up


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This my first attempt at a rat rod! I bought a box of spares from ebay here in the UK. Included in it was the Ford body parts and nothing else relating to it. So I sourced, wheels, tyres, seats, dash, steering wheel, head and tail lights from my parts boxes, made the alloy tube grill, wiper and door handles from wire, shortened the pick up bed and cut the windows from thin retail acetate. I painted it with a mixture of red, red/brown,black, silver and green all matt...

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Edited by PatW
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Cheers Rob, the other problem is that we don't see many American cars/ trucks here so we don't now what or where the mold lines are or aren't!

Pat, Googe images may help with that

Anyhow, nice rat truck, looks pretty kool

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Cheers guys, yes my method needs to improve. On searching Google for rat rods (and there are hundreds) I notice that a vast majority have a large percentage of their original paint from the factory and show rust spots or in fact rusty holes in certain raised areas, around wheel arches or the bottoms of doorswhere this would normally form/appear in reality. I need to focus on that more next time

Edited by PatW
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She looks good mate. Nice try at the patina. The problem with rat rods, and I don't know if it is the same in the UK as it is here in australia, but having rust holes and exposed rust will get your car knocked back at registration. I don't know how they get away with it in america, but there is no way you could take a car with bullet holes or even rust spots you could poke your fingers through and get it rego'd.

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Thanks guys.

Yes stray, having holey, rusty bodywork here is a definite NO NO!

When the annual (all cars over 3 years old) Ministry of Transport Test ( MOT) comes up and there's any hint of rust it's 'Off the road' and get it fixed. In some places even rust spots on the paintwork is dodgy.

You mentioned bullet holes, a good few years ago there was a gangster theme going around, notices in car windows 'You tucha my car I puncha your face' The car accessory shops were selling bullet hole decals/sticker's in ones or sheets!

Also no uncovered tyres and beetle engines in buggies ( Fan belts and pullies flying round) no moving parts uncovered!

Some have got round the rusty look by painted patina or acid dipping the bodyshell (or just panels) and spray coating with gloss or matt varnish.

Also the Vinyl Wrappers are looking at that patina effect as well. So just coat the panels or whole body the a rusty looking wrap!

Edited by PatW
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  • 4 weeks later...

UK / Aussie Guys-

Here in the USA registration and inspection is governed at the state level. That gives us 50 different opinions on how it needs to be done. There are federal guidelines on emissions, states either comply with that or they lose federal highway funding. States are free to be tougher than federal law.

Some states have no inspection at all. I'm originally from New Jersey and a few years ago they decided to relax the vehicle inspections. If you buy a brand new car, you don't have to have the car inspected for seven years. After that, there is no state inspection for defects, just an emissions check. And there is no fee for that at the state run facility. It's included in your $50 registration fee. There's a bill in the NJ legislature right now to eliminate the need to renew inspections. Two progressive state senators say the registration should be good for your entire vehicle ownership just like your title. They're argument is that it's just a money grab and not in the best interests of the citizens. I like these guys!

I live in Pennsylvania now. The motor vehicle laws here are antiquated and pretty much in place to charge fees and set up political patronage. For instance, they have state agency offices around the state to issue drivers licenses, but privately run offices, owned by political appointees, to purchase license plates, register and title cars. They can't even title a car. Only the state agency in the state capital can issue a title! So these private offices provide "courier service" to bring your application all the way to the state capital, for a fee of course. You get your title in the mail in a few weeks. In contrast, in New Jersey, the same state office handles everything you could possibly need on the spot!

Inspection in Pennsylvania is annual, both safety inspection and emissions. There are no state facilities, everything is done at private garages and costs around $100 on top of the $50 you already paid for registration. It's pretty much a money grab. The inspection is extensive and the private garage always makes sure there are repairs that need to be done. In my first foray, I was told they needed to replace two light bulbs for $20 each. If you refuse, they fail you and you still pay the inspection fee. Note that I had checked all my lights prior to going to inspection so they were being dishonest. With my wife's Buick I got them! They failed the vehicle for bad windshield wiper blades. I pulled out the receipt from the same garage less than 30 days old for wipers! They stumbled a bit and told me the wiper must have been defective and they'd replace it for free! They didn't touch the wipers, they were still dirty when I retrieved the car. Total dishonest and encouraged by the system in place.

I recently had to bring in my 1991 Geo Tracker for inspection. They wanted to replace the front brakes, and when I presented them with a receipt from another garage for replacing those brakes less than 7,000 miles ago, they failed the car for "visible body rust". The car has minor rust on the rear quarter panel, just some bubbling which is still mostly paint color. I had to pay them anyway. I took the car to the garage that I use for repairs, that's not an inspection station. He took it somewhere else and it passed with flying colors. But I paid for inspection twice.

Edited by Tom Geiger
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