Black Rat 55

[zzrodder]

Originally Posted by mikehemmen

Must be nice to have all that space. My wife still thinks I have to much sapce as is.

All that space?? Geez, and I thought I was roughing it!! My garage is 20 x 20 and a major part of that is taken up by my junk collection, haven't been able to actually work on the workbench for years.... Someday a bigger shop would be nice, but it seems no matter what space I have, the crap pile expands to fill it quickly, one of those Murphys Law things..

[zzrodder]

Got it back from upholstery, they knocked it out in just 2 days and the price was right too. Got some new outdoors pics to share too, box wood is in and I painted the tailgate letters silver.

[Motorhead]

Beautiful!

[ratdog]

When I first saw your build of this truck I knew it was going to be a step above most builds I have seen,but now that its all done,it looks even better than I figured it would. Its amazing,the craftsmanship and details are unreal ,your setting the bar way too high for us too have any hope of following with our own builds.The interior turned out great,looks very suitable for the truck. WOW!

[Motorhead]

Quick question, what are the two black knobs that are coming out of the shift boot?

[bob w]

That's it! I'm selling my crappy hot rods and giving my tools away.

Of course, I'm joking. But this is my way of saying your build is world class.

[zzrodder]

Originally Posted by Motorhead

Quick question, what are the two black knobs that are coming out of the shift boot?

Those are for the exhaust cut-outs, in the outside pics, you can see the cables running to the header collectors. I built in a butterfly valve in each side, so yank the knobs and and it's wide open.
Now for the bad news - they just don't seal properly and since I made them angled in the tube to direct the flow better to the downpipes, the exhaust pressure also adds to the problem. As much as I like the noise, the cops do not and after any more than 15 minutes with the windows down, neither do my ears.
I think I'll weld a flange a couple inches inside the collectors and put in a single bolt block off plate with a wing nut so the option of running wide open is still easy to do - thats what I did on the Caddy engine in my 33.

[roddguy1]

This truck is absolutely stunning. Thanks for sharing this build with us.

[hotrod preacher]

that truck looks really good--old school all the way, and top-notch all the way--interior looks good, to BTW....

[truckster]

Absolutely exceptional...way outside the rat rod envelope. It is going to have everyone scratching their heads trying to figure out what it is. Looks like factory something or other that has been given a small chop and had the bed shortened. Only clue is the Chevole'.