HOW TO:- build a budget hotrod- on the road.

no robin, i know what you mean and i was hoping they could be shorter, but not if i want to have steering! next update will show that. i think theyll be fine though, as the way the stock ones work they have almost as much cantilever on the beam.


but first, just a little bit i did the other day. i found a fuel filler neck in my stash which was the right diameter,, funnily enough of the same type of tank as the one in this that had had it cut off(LDV 400 chassis-cab). i cut the elbow down, welded a flange to it which bolts through into the pickup bed frame with 4x m6 button head allens, lengthened it a bit on the backside to meet up with the tank neck, and stuck on the filler cap assaembly id been keeping for this, which is a nice knurled brass cap on a chain.
finished result-






another cool little detail added, and another bit finished

so, steering.
I'm having to redo this but cos going to the drum setup meant I lost the second steering arm mount on the sherpa spindle- but to be honest, that setup wasnt ideal anyway, as it wanted to twist the beam quite a bit when in action as it was mounted so high in comparison to it.

I wanted to make up a traditional/stock looking arm from solid 3/4" plate, that bolts across to the brake backplate holes on the spindle, as its the tried and tested early ford way of doing it, and is quite strong. but the bit of 3/4" plate I had wasnt big enough. so I had to go for a round bar 'loop' type one instead.

first I mocked it all up with a Y-shaped bit of wood (cut out of 1" mdf) bolted to the spindle, to figure out what effective length worked best. I know it needed to be longer that the steering box drop-arm, but not by how much. after some messing about drilling a succession on holes in the wood, I settled at an effective length of 6". (thats length from the kingpin centreline, not overall length which is longer so it bolts up to the brake backplate mounts of the spindle).
with a drop-arm of 4-1/4" this gave me a ratio of 1.4:1, which is quite sensible in terms of leverage and wheel travel.

so, start with this-

an 18" length of 5/8" bar.

do this to the ends with the lathe-


so you can tap out the ends for some 3/8"unf bolts, which are the size that hold the brake backplates to the spindle-


I happened to have an appropriate size bit of bar with a hole through it already, think it was an old axle spacer off something. its 1"OD.so with some hot-spanner action, you can start wrapping the bar around it-




I kept bringing those round til they were almost-straight, then put a bit of kink in the end of each one so they lined up with the bolt holes on the spindle (3" centres). then I bolted it on to see how it fits-


looks good, so I welded in the insert for the trackrod end, and reamed a taper in it, so it could bolt up properly-

you do the end like that so youre welding all the way round the tube, giving a much bigger, stronger weld area. just welding the insert of the TRE to the end of a bit of bar is asking for trouble, no matter how good your welding is. (yet ive seen it done, numerous times!). well, it will be welded all the way round by the time ive dropped a gusset in there.

the draglink runs inboard nicely how, increasing the steering lock quite a bit-


thats not the whole story though, cos its not only the draglink/tyre interface that limits lock. you may also notice that the arm is currently a fair bit longer than the previously mentioned 6"- more like 8" actually.
theres a reason for that.
the main steering issue is really that of the steering arm and the shocks- hence the quite long shock mounts needed to space them forward. but, I could gain more clearance here by bending a drop on the steering arm so the arm swung under the shock slightly, which would also make the arm have less of a fore/aft twisting moment on the beam, as it would drop the draglink trackrod end down to the same height as the lower bearing face of the kingpin. this should serve to make the steering feel a lot more positive in use as its not trying to lift the front end by levering against the spring leaves.

so, more heat, and we have this shape-



it was done in-situ to stop the arm twisting about, and to check clearances.

this pic is taken a full lock. loads of clearance betwixt tyre and draglink-


we now have this clearance to the shock on full lock-


and no, the steering lock isnt particulary huge, but it never is on hot rods like this really- its a compromise you have to make.
most cars go to 60deg. on the inside wheel, this goes to just over 45.
beam axle cars with draglink steering are alwyas gong to be limited on lock though due to the draglink and tyre moving closer togehter the more you turn.
in reality it isnt all that bad, you'll only notice it when parking, rest of the time its no different.

the job for the next update is to make it look pretty and infill the middle with a funky looking 1/4" plate gusset with some holes and stuff, just so you know ive made it
I might make a curvy draglink too now the two ends are at different levels. (i know it wont make any difference geometry wise, its purely for asthetic reasons!)

smashing as ever 8)

Hehe, making "plain" stuff look great and complicated work look easy as always!!!

well, I did do some more......

I got a tailgate.i was gunna make a really funky one, but it was extra work I didnt really need, and I thought someone would only try to nick it anyway if I made it as flash as I had planned, so I bought this instead-

its off a 47-55 chevy pickup, and only cost me 35 quid. I also feel it adds some 'genuine-ness' to the truck over having another 'mad fabricator built' part like originally planned, as although an awful lot of this truck is scratchbuilt, it needs a few old bits thrown in to give it some true age.
me and bruce went and picked it up off a really nice bloke with a f-king huge dog in the wilds of shropshire on my 'west coast' roadtrip.

its got these really cool if a bit tatty reflectors on it too-

which despite bruce trying to convince me they needed to go on his landy, will be staying on the truck cos I aint got any reflectors at the mo, and they really suit it!

the tailgate is self is well bashed and dented, but very solid, with a nice large pressed in chevrolet logo I'm going to leave in, jsut to confuse people-


id already based my tailgate hinge design around the way chevy hinges work, as I thought it was better than ford ones, and bizarrely id chosen the same size tube for the pivots, so it was a more-or less drop-in fit, only *slight* issue is its 2-1/2" too wide, and 2" too tall. so I drilled out the spotwelds holding the end panels on, cut each side down 1-1/4", then refitted the ends and tried it-








apart from the slight bow in the bottom rail, the fit is pretty good!
so next, with the help of choppy, we battered a length of the tubing id bought to do the bed side rails down inside the lower rail to use it as a dolly to knock against to get out all the dents and straighten it up. I didnt take any pics, but after a lot of bashing and crashing, it was looking a lot straighter and less dented.

next job was to loose some height out of it so it met up with the side rails before they step out at the top.
so, cut it in half lengthways at the seam, cut a 1" strip off it, and then weld back together and flapwheel smooth-



which came out pretty well considering all the dents I had to dress out as I did it!
but, no time to stand back and admire, as I have to do the whole thing again to the other side too. I had to do it twice taking a inch out top and bottom to keep the pressed in logo in the middle.

a lot more cut/weld/grid later, plus chopping 2" out of each end panel and welding them back together, I knocked the end panels back in and tried it for size (excuse the terrible iphone-in-the-dark pics)-




I think that came out damn well considering! whats more, it was a very cheap way of doing such a big panel. its cost 35 quid and about 5 hours. ive still got to add some top latches and weld the end panels back in, but the bulk of it is done. ive also picked up some stainless welded link chain to use to keep it level when its dropped down.

I really need to get that other bed top rail on now, as the bed is pretty much finished then, bar for dropping the front panel down a touch and bolting the floor down. getting there!

that is exactly why i spent so much time on its design.
my 'research file' is about 100 pics pulled off the net of all kinds of fenderless pickup, everything from model As through to 50s chevys and f100s, and as you say, less than a quarter are proportioned right. but, its just as important to look at the curse word ones and dissect why they don't work, as to look at the good ones and go, 'yeah, thats bang on'.

then its just as important to look at how its put together as the shape of it. make it out of box section and flat sheet welded together, and i agree, itll look like a box trailer! hence me going to quite large lengths when making up the bed stakes to mkae them look like they're not made of box
its a fine line between enough fuss/detail to make it look authentic, and basic enough to keep it easy to make. I'm really, really happy with how its turned out though, by the time its finished few people are going to think its 'home-made'.

not sure yet tony.
ideally i want it out for next year, its achievable, more or less, although ive got a lot of other peoples projects and a house renovation to do as well...... so we'll see.

i think I'm gunna break it down into sections, and try to finish one area at a time. the cab floor and roof are the biggest areas in terms of workload.

i may also have decided to paint it, and bought some paint...........

i think i mentioned before if i was going to paint it what colour it would be, if not, anyone who knows me will know that this is quite predictable.......


it can be seen here on the bs colour chart-
www.nwepaints.co.uk/acatalog/Colour_Charts.html

i really didnt want to paint this truck, but ive just moved house, and theres no way a bare-metal finish (laquered, waxed, lubed or otherwise) would be remotely practical given where i now live. you wash your car and its bloody filthy again by the next day!

so, i went for a utilitarian, tough paint as this thing is hopefully going to be my daily!
i did want a dark, purply-brown, but it was hard to pick it off colour swatches as big as your little fingernail, and wasnt returnable as it was a special finish so i played it safe and when for a standard mid-dark brown i liked the name of
apparently its the brown in spitfire camouflage. the 'sheen primer/finish' is single stage with a waterproof satin finish. its easy to work with as ive used some of their paints before, and its quite cheap too, much cheaper than the military paints.
ive tried a it and it looks ok, maybe not quite as dark as id like,(will take a pic in daylight when i get chance) but if its too light ile just buy a tin of black and pour it in til its right

WIN!