Project: B3000 Rat rod FRONT END FINALLY FRIGGIN DONE

LOL, funny how the jalepenos sound like such a great idea the nite before, but just don't feel so good in the morning. Congrats on the good score of parts! Think you might be happier with the leaf springs up front. Wasn't sure how much actual suspension you were gonna get with the coils and radius arms.

Cool build non the less.

Nice find man. Keep the truck rolling looks good.

The front suspension is done (almost)! And I'm about 2 hour's work from having the entire front end, (suspension, steering, ect) done. I'm still debating whether or not I want to make a wishbone for the front axle... It's strong as heck too. We had all three roommates (about 800lb worth of people) standing on the axle, jumping, stomping, ect and not even a groan from the axle or springs. Now, 800lbs is a far cry from the 1500 I'm estimating the front axle will hold but we had a little accident halfway through the fabrication, my old floor jack failed spectacularly and the frame slipped off the jackstands I had set up as a backup and fell about 6 inches right onto the axle, with only 3 of 8 welds made. Thankfully nobody was hurt, and after making sure nothing on the frame, axle or cab was damaged (nothing was) I looked over everything and the suspension held with no damage with only 3 of 8 welds! so I'm thinking that even with the added weight of the engine and trans I should be fine.

Next up I'm going to get the steering hooked up. I have a minor problem, the hubs on the axle don't steer nearly as easy as they should, and one is totally stuck. Probably because it's a '51 chevy axle. I probably just need to take off the hubs, clean out the rust, and grease it up. Should be easy, then just need to bolt on the tie rods and align it. After that I'm going to get this universal crossmemeber (), get the 302 mounted, and place and mount the cab. Then the REAL fun begins, getting the 302 tuned up, all the wiring set, ect.

Dragula is already a mismosh of various cars...
Frame and cab from a '94 Mazda B3000
Engine from a '77 Mustang
Transmission from a god-only-knows-what-or-how-old
Front springs from a '68 Toyotal Landcruiser
Front axle from a '51 Chevy

Build is looking really good man, congrates on the awsome craigslist finds!!!!!!!

I forgot to mention this on both sites, I the suspension is just mocked up in the pics, there are shackles on the rear, I just slid in the bolts and snapped some pics.

Front end is as close to being done as it can be for the night, lol.

All I need to finish it is 4 bolts, another pack of smokes and some time. The bolts that came with the shackle kit I bought at Tractor Supply are about 1/2" too short? I don't like how tight I had to tighten the nuts to get them on, it's binding the springs and not giving it the flexibilty it should have... So tomorrow I go buy new bolts and slap them in, and I SHOULD have all the parts I need to get the steering hooked up, it'll just take some time, patience and a hell of a lot of measuring.

I'm excited. Once the front end is set, I can start doing fun stuff like munting the engine, getting the cab set, ect...

Cool

I'm still lost but I'm hangin in there. . . Isn't it gonna sit really high? ? ?

-Josh

^^I was thinking the same.

what is your estimated ride height?

Well, I hit a pretty dang major setback. Somehow, the steering on the Chevy axle froze up solid overnight. Seriously. Not just the kingpins, the entire hub on both sides is totally shot. I have no idea why. I can't even drive out the lock pins to remove the kingpins, I ended up bending the freaking lock pin, which are 3/8" grade 8 bolts, just trying to get it out. I know why now, I took off some of the grease fittings and the old grease is literally rock solid. I guess maybe the 58 year old grease in the hubs finally hit a tipping point and froze solid? Or, more likely, I sprayed some liquid wrench all over the kingpins and then a few days later it was frozen solid, so maybe the liquid wrench had a chemical reaction with the grease?

Anyway, moving on...



^^ On the F100, not the rod

Today I picked up a complete front suspension from a 55 F-100 for $75... Craigslist is AMAZING. Everything is in great shape, just a little surface rust. I'm not in the mood physically tonight to get it going but tomorrow morning I'll get everything slapped on and set... The Ford axle is about 6" wider than the Chevy, but that's actually going to work out better for me, but its going to take some time and measuring... I think I'm going to ditch the Landcruiser springs in favor of the F100 springs as they're stronger, but with the axle centered with the frame, the leaf spring hangers sit 1" away from the frame on both sides, so that means I have some space to play with and make it lower. So, instead of mounting the springs to the bottom of the frame like I had, I'm going to make some brackets that are bolted to the top of the frame rails, plus welded on for strength, stick out from the frame the needed 1", in the spare 1" I'm going to add some gussetting for support, and then the hangers are welded and bolted on...

In an unexpected added plus, the tie rods use the exact same setup as the Mazda... Same size bolt, same length rods, making it stupid easy to use the Mazda power steering, if not, I'll just use the '55 steering box. Also, at first glance, it looks like the hydraulic lines for the brakes MAY be the same size as the Mazda's, making that bit even easier...

I'm kind of ticked that I have to do the front suspension, AGAIN, but in the end it's going to work out better and be stronger, so meh.

Estimated ride hight is going to be frame maybe 3-6" off the ground, depending on what I do with the rear end. I'm going to leave a little more clearance than I'd like, because me and my roommate build ratrod motorcycles on the side, and man, how cool would it be to tow a trailer full of rat bikes to a show behind a rat rod? So I want it a little higher and beefier than normal.