Rat Rod ???

[Rokhound]

Any rat rodders on here or no of a good place I can find some good info. I am looking for the best way to chop the top of a truck and wondering about the windshield and the back glass. Or just run with out one.

 

What do you guys think is the best paint combo:

 

I like flat black with red trim but you see a lot of this. So I want something old school with a new twists what do guy think.

[JOMJ87]

I was thinking of a Ranger rat rod project in a Flat Charcoal and black trim. Even thought of redoing my current scheme on the MJ with that combo. Love the rat rod trucks.

 

Cole

[smithe1811]

PRIMER!

[Rokhound]

Well I think I have a plan. I have 3 trucks 87,88,89 MJ. The wife wants me to build here truck and I want it to be a 4x4. So I thought I would take the axles out from under the 88 put those under the 87 making it a 4x4 with the tranny from my trail truck. Then I will take the auto and t-case out of the 88 put it in the 89. Then pull the motor out of the 88 and build a stroker out of it.

 

Then all I am left with is a shell of a truck with no motor or axles. Take the 2wd drive axle and some V-8 Grand Cherokee springs slam the front end back together and then find an axle for the rear end something like a Ford 9inche or something. Hold the phone I have an 8.8 out on the shop floor that will work. So now all I need is a 350/350 turbo.

 

So that is the plan now I need to get the body figure out. I like the look of the MJ with the Waggy front end. So that will work for the front end. Then I am going to need to fix the rockers and the floor pans. I also want to chop the top 3 to 6 inches but there are a few things that I need to figure out.

 

1. Will me chopping the top weak in the unibody

2. The windshield custom or what

3. The bed what do I want to do there flat bed or something else

 

And here is a pic of my maybe modern rat rod project we will see what happens.

[rockhardzj]

my mj will be all flat black when done, except the moab rims

[feerocknok]

My fav site:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/

 

But DO NOT DROP THE 'R' WORD.

[Tracker]

Light primer, so the greasy fingerprints show up. The whitewall tires set it all off.

There's a couple of these guys down the street from me. One of them drives a '40-something Dodge P/U with a 413, complete with the "Solid Ram Induction" intake. It's bone stock but it will incenerate the tires on command.

[comancheap]

jalopyjournal is the sheit.

 

Primer and whitewalls with red steelies would be pimp on a Comanche methinks. How about building your own bed, maybe coming straight up from the framerails, and adding old Jeep flatfender fenders to the rear for a kind of rat stepside? :bowdown:

[feerocknok]

Please, no more 'R' words! It describes everything evil in the hotrod world. Just call it a hotrod, please!

[jtdesigns]

I have 4 words for you .... John Deere Blitz Black

 

Please, no more 'R' words! It describes everything evil in the hotrod world. Just call it a hotrod, please!

???? Please explain??

[feerocknok]

I have 4 words for you .... John Deere Blitz Black

 

Please, no more 'R' words! It describes everything evil in the hotrod world. Just call it a hotrod, please!

???? Please explain??

The "ratrod" term; it's the 'R' word. A rat rod would be a rig built purposefully crappy. People think it means open fenders and headers, but that's what hot rods are. Rat rods are rigs that people let rot, and drive. When people call hotrods "ratrods," they are saying that something wonderful is something horrible and the line becomes blurred.

If you slam an MJ with open fenders and headers pointed to the sky, you've built a hotrod.

If you let the fenders fall off due to rust, let the exhaust fall off due to abuse, and lower it in unsafe ways, you have a ratrod.

[comancheap]

I don't see it that way at all, and when you said not to use the "R" word in conjunction with mentioning jalopyjournal, I thought the R word you were referring to was "restore." Lol

 

To me, rat is kind of leaving something intentionally "crappy". Not everybody wants nice candy or flake'd paint, instead they want to replicate what have traditionally called "rat rods". While they aren't typically what has been referred to as being ratty, they're still built in that same vein and so I think the name still applies.

 

Building something intentionally crappy is just building a POS, I don't think you can confine the term rat to just one thing.

[feerocknok]

Candy flaked paint isn't necessary on a hotrod either. In fact, it's more for show cars and customs.

Even on the H.A.M.B., the 'r' word is like the word from satan. 1/10 people will be okay with you dropping it there.

If someone called something that I built a 'rat', I would be deeply offended, but maybe that's just me.

[attaboybob]

if I were to pick colors, I'd go flat black with

Grave Digger green. That green is awesome

 

good luck and have fun building it.

 

BOB

[zjrog]

I keep thinking of a 51 Willy's cab a friend of mine has... If I wasn't hip deep in a cab swap project, with a possible XJ project coming in days, I'd love to rat out the 51. Use a modded 4x2 Ranger chassis. And just to be odd, a Chrysler 2.5 turbo motor with intercooler. 5 speed from a Dakota. I just think a Willy's truck would be so different. Bed would be handmade, and just long enough to get a bumper behind the rear tires.

 

I know of a T bucket rat getting an SRT4 motor...