slownlow

Finished this up yesterday. The nice thing about rat rods is there are no rules, you can let your imagination run wild. This is the first time using salt and baking soda to get the patina and I really like the technique. The sequence was gray primer, model masters steel, salt, rust, salt pale blue, salt, light blue, then washed and scrubbed with a stiff tooth brush. The Mexican blanket was made with the embroidery thread on tape trick. It was pretty stiff so I used fabric sizing on it and then removed the tape. It was still pretty stiff so I soaked it and spot glued it. If I do another I think I'll look for a different technique. This project went fast for me, probably all the ideas in my head needing to come out.

Tom Waites has a song titled "What's He Doing In There" about a guy with a neighbor that does odd things at all hours. This project might be what the neighbor is working on. It started as a 41 Cevy pickup and the more I worked on it the more ideas came along. I wanted a straight eight and imagineered a DOC set up. The base is the engine from the Mercedes 540K (also found in the Rommel Rod). It needed to be low but done old school so the frame was "C ed". The front is a suicide set up with a Model A spring grafted onto the kit axel. Next came the wheels and tires. The rear tires are also from the Mercedes kit (nice snap in whitewalls) and the rims are from the 77 GMC wrecker. The front are artillery wheels and tires from Replicas and Miniatures (good stuff to be found there). The boom also needed to be old school so it's scratch built. The winch is from the 77 GMC too. The grill has one horizontal bar removed to keep it from sticking above the engine too much. Now the interior is calling.There's still lots of work to be done but this project is building it's self. I had one of these back in the day and i liked it a lot except for the enclosed drive shaft. 

 

Well I lit a fire under my butt and got 'er done except for one thing because then it would be d.....ne. do you see it?

Here's a few pics of this years concourse. It's held every year in early September in Des Moines, Ia. I didn't take as many pics as usual as I was showing 2 bikes. This is a great show with a lot of antique and vintage vehicles. For more pics go to.
http://public.fotki....bury-concourse/
My bikes are pics 5,6 and 27 at the web site.

Guess it's time to post this  WIP in full. It's a 41 Plymouth I started last winter and with all the hype with the 48 Ford fade I thought I'de try something a little different. I started out with  a 3"+ chop.

Then on to the fade. I built the base up with styrene square rods then over coated with bondo then recreated the fender side flares with .010" styrene. What i learned is don't mix your medias so much as the different products sand differently. I'll recreate those iconic speed lines coming off the back of the wheel radiuses once I'm happy with the final sanding and panel lines.

As i worked on it I began to dislike the bulky feel of the rear fenders and trunk so I did a pie section to help ease the look.
This shows the darkened areas to be removed with a "hinge" scribe up and across the top of the trunk.

and the result

I also learned don't add the rain gutter till your happy with the panel lines, large pain in the tuckus.

Here's the engine. I had to make the exhaust headers as the kit had something more appropriate for a gasser.

This is the interior.  Next time I'll do the door tuck and roll in a smaller profile than the seats. I haven't shot the body but the color is Model Master's "Deep Pearlescent Purple" with black added. The dash is that color but in the pic it just looks dark.

Here's hoping I get er done before turkey day.