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70 budget rat build

144K views 428 replies 60 participants last post by  mikalshone 
#1 ·
So after almost 10 years of this thing sitting in the garage, I am tired of not having my toy on the road or not working on it. My ultimate plan was, and still is, to put a Mustang II front suspention on it and lots of other goodies that for the moment I am going to keep secret. Lets just say, some of it hasn't been done, and I am still trying to figure out if it can be done. Either way, with the economy is in the state that it is , I can't afford to build it the way I want at this time. So since it may be a few more years before I am making what I was making 3 years ago, I am going to build it on a budget, but keeping in mind of what I have planned for later. Meaning, as I do things, I will make sure that it will either coincide with future plans, or with be easy to change. I already have just about eveything to put it together, just need to buy some small stuff here and there. I will be going through and fixing stuff that some dumbass 20 year old without the proper tools did *raises hand*. I now have much more experience under my belt and most of the tools I need. I plan on fabbing a lot of custom pieces, and will be looking for input and ideas as well. For now the plans are to weld up all the holes under the hood and getting the engine bay looking nice. Need to wire the car from scratch. Build the engine. Do some minor body work. And get the car in black primer to give it that rat look. So here are some pictures of how she sits now. the only thing I have done this weekend was take some boxes off it and get my work space a little more organized. Please feel free to give feedback, or even call me a complete idiot at times if you feel necessary.










 
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#65 ·
They are actually L2408's, no longer made from what I gather. They are supposed to bring the compression up to 12:1 with open chamber heads. I cut them down some, obviously, and am hoping for under 11.5:1. I had them in an engine I built back in '97 in high school, along with the same rods. The rods are Eagles, rated for 750 hp. With a change to their super ninja $200 L19 bolts, they are rated for 1500 hp.
 
#68 ·
Thanks for the kind words guys. I get more excited, pissed off, anxious and frustrated every day. I either don't get to work on it as much as I would like, or I come across something else that I have to buy. So much for the budget rat build, now it's just a rat build.

I haven't done much in the last week or so, been too busy working lately. I did, however, make time this afternoon to mock up the final gauge cluster layout.

Heads are still in jail, big suprise. I did get my roller lifters and roller thrust plate for the roller setup. Lunati is custom grinding me a solid roller cam, very excited about that. I was actually working last saturday and my neighbor (turbo guy) was running a car on the dyno, I just had to walk over. This thing sounded all kind of radical and mean. I got to talking to the owner of the car and found out that he has a cam smaller than the one I ordered, and made 457 hp at the wheels. Since it sounded so radical, it got me second guessing my cam choice. Oh well, too late, custom grind already in the works.

Ok, enough babbling, here is the picture of the cluster layout. Let me know what you think, if it is just absolutely hideous, I might think about changing it.

 
#70 ·
Oh yeah, I will definately load a video. It will for sure sound mean, I just hope it is streetable enough with my 3800 converter.
 
#71 ·
I found a really cool do it yourself subframe connector link. http://dazed.home.bresnan.net/sub-frame.html They fit just like they said they would and I am very happy with them. I think I got ripped off on the metal that I bought, I spent around 65 bucks, should have been much less. Either way, it is better than 175 or more for ones that look funny when installed. I hope someone else can use the plans, I sure am happy with them.



 
#72 ·
Very nice Mike. I would have certainly considered going that way if they had plans for 'vert's too. Guess one could make their own the same way, but the 'vert seat reinforcements make things a lot harder to manuever around.

I have the ones from Global West that "look funny", but maybe the tubes are the only thing that makes sense on a 'vert die to what I mentioned. Slitted and cut into the floor (like Milo I think it was? did) is the REALLY slick way to do it.
 
#73 ·
I had actually though about doing it that way Bob, but I didn't want to have to try to get the carpet to fit over the rails. Otherwise i would have done that, because it is much stronger.

Alrighty then, another progress report, and one sweet picture. I got my gas tank in and braided fuel line run. Man, I love the look of stainless. Still waiting on my heads, of course, and the cam should be here some time next week. The bottom end should be nice and rusty by the time I get them. I did, however, get the hole saws to get my gauge cluster fabbed. Just so everyone knows, a cheap 10 dollar 4 1/2" hole saw on ebay does not work so well. It made it about half way through the first hole and got so dull that all it did was smoke the cutting fluid. I ended up just using it to mark the hole, then cut it with a cut-off wheel and cleaned it up with a die grinder. Stainless is some hard stuff though. On the other hand, a 10 dollar Milwaukee 2 1/16" from ebay cut all six of the smaller holes with no problems at all. I don't have the speedo yet, but here is a pic of it done with the gauges just sitting in it. I still have to cut the shape of it and drill the mounting holes. Between the cutting fluid and the heat, it destroyed my protective plastic with all my marks, so I will have to tape it up and remark.

 
#75 ·
Is this a complete replacement for the entire panel or will it just cover the wood portion?
I will be leaving off the woodgrain panel and screwing it directly to the old cluster housing. I am going to have to hack it up quite a bit though, just hope I can hack it enough and still keep it in one piece. From the looks of it, it will be just a tiny bit, if any, of the original shell left. I may end up having to fab my own frame for it.
 
#76 ·
Sometimes I think life gets in the way too much. Not that I am complaining too much, steady work is good and helps me to keep working on the cat, but I just don't have enough time to actually work on it.

I have had an hour or two here and there to do some small stuff. The custom grind from Lunati came in last week, got that in and degreed out and all that good happy stuff. Done some miscellaneous wiring and other odds and ends. I still don't have my flippin' heads yet. That is the next piece to the puzzle on the engine, and they still need paint. I did get my gauge cluster finished though.





Autometers bulb consistency is terrible, I have LED's on the way to replace them. The little green lights to the side are the turn indicators. I used 5mm LED's from Radio Shack and put resistors on them to knock the voltage down to around 2.5. For some reason, when I turn the headlights on, the turn indicators light up dim, like they are part of the park lamp circuit, but they aren't. I wired them to the original turn indicator lead in the turn switch. Oh well, at least it isnt real bright, maybe it will not do it when all the rest of the bulbs are in and working.
 
#78 ·
#79 · (Edited)
Well, I dont have a helluva lot I can do until I get my heads back. I found out last week that the 450 pound spring I had were too light for the new cam. So now I have to get 650 pound springs and titanium retainers, so that sucks. Maybe I will get it all by next week and then all they will have to do is put them together, all the machining is done thankfully. I have been chipping away at little stuff here and there, like interior trim and the last bit of wiring.

I got my tail light bezels back from that TOOL of a powdercoater I had been using, but no longer will. He was trying to fill the small pits in with powder instead of metal fill, sanding it flat in between coat, and they look like ass. He called me and told me that I need to come and get them and do the finish work because he wasnt going to make enough off them to make it worth his while to make them look good. I picked them up, and they are warped and wavy as hell. It was a good thing he wasnt there when I picked them up or I probably would have punched him. I told him when I dropped them off, to do them at the low temp cycle he uses because they will warp easy. He tells me later that he was doing the normal temp and that they seem fine. 4 cycles of heat later, and they are toast, would have looked better if I didnt do anything to them at all. I had to bend and twist like crazy to get them to fit the housings. I call him out on it over the phone and he says "well what do you want me to do?". Well, I have to have bezels to have tail lights, and I ain't buying another set when you are the one that didn't listen to me in the first place and you are the one that ruined them. "well I will find you some more bezels and will call you when I do and then I wont do anymore work for you after this" OK, click. Man, what a weasel.

Anyway, I like the look, but up close in person they look like crap. I will have to snap a close up tomorrow.



And pay no mind to the bumper, you have to remember that this is a RAT build.
 
#80 ·
That's a sexy rear end right thur sir! Hm... gives me an idea. I have 2 kitty emblems. I knew for a fact I was sticking one right on the front bumper dead center... is it legal to run your plates in the rear window of a car as opposed to bumper center? Got me thinkin' bout doin somethin' like that.
 
#81 ·
Do you know what the

brands of powder coat provide the low temp powder? I am thinking of doing mine in black powder coat too. Specifically I would be looking for the lowest temp black available.

What kind of metal filler would you use?

I might just sand fill and paint a set too. I have a couple of extra sets of 67 68 to mess up trying to black em out right.
 
#82 ·
The options were either 450° for 10 minutes or 350° for 20, for normal powdercoat. Since I know that the melting point of pot metal is only around 700, I told him to stay as far away from it as possible. The stuff I had done was a DuPont powder, color was Goth black, which is basically satin black, it looks really good when done right, I have several other pieces done in it, including everything on the fuel door. Eastwood sells a high temp metal filler, but I was going to use some stuff I saw at Fastenal called Lab Metal. Lab Metal is not a 2 part system, but you use a solvent that goes with it to smooth it out and is supposed to be easier to work with. I have already decided that I am going to stick with Evercoat and paint on potmetal pieces.
 
#83 · (Edited)
Like I said, piss poor work.


How do you dry spray powder coat?



And get globs like that?



It was the same guy that did the fuel door trim. I guess the trick is to do it once, and don't try to fill pits with powder and do it 4 times.



In other news, we have valve springs. They will go to the machine shop and check to see what else we need to cut to make them fit and then order the retainers and locks.

Also have my ignition box on the way and should be able to get the rest of the wiring finished up when it arrives. Most of the interior is together with the exception of the dash pad and drivers seat (just because it is easier to work without it). Got the passenger side plate cut out of my brushed stainless today, ready to go in.

Now, let me get some of the folks that are checking out the Rusty McCrusty thread next door, and give me some ideas on the passenger side panel. I would love to just do a big clock and the badge like factory, but Autometer doesn't make a 5" clock to match my gauges, so that is out. I thought about maybe a Ford Motorsport or racing decal, but think it might look kind of tacky. Also thought about a black cougar decal, but not sure about that either. Throw some ideas at me, maybe a chrome running cat on the lower left and the original cougar XR7 badge on the lower right. Or maybe just a stick on trunk cougar script on the lower right. This is a tough one, so give me your best shot. I also need ideas for the valve covers, they are just like the polished aluminum Ford motorsport ones, except they are plain, so I need a decal or something for them too.
 
#86 ·
Nobody else has any other ideas? I am thinking the black trimmed cougar logo, but would love more ideas.
 
#87 · (Edited)
I was thinkin

Maybe you could make a white faced clock that looks like your gauges.

Maybe you could get on the computer and rework art on the face of your gauges, probably the tach to look like a clock. Then you could make a vinyl applique like the ones they use for the white face gauges. Print it on vinyl adhesive sheets... Look here:

http://www.amazon.com/Inkpress-Specialty-Media-Adhesive-Vinyl/dp/B000HB4IWI


If that is too complicated I would just make the right side solid stainless to match place this late cougar emblem from wccc on it...a better match

 
#88 ·
Maybe you could make a white faced clock that looks like your gauges.

Maybe you could get on the computer and rework art on the face of your gauges, probably the tach to look like a clock. Then you could make a vinyl applique like the ones they use for the white face gauges. Print it on vinyl adhesive sheets... Look here:

http://www.amazon.com/Inkpress-Specialty-Media-Adhesive-Vinyl/dp/B000HB4IWI


If that is too complicated I would just make the right side solid stainless to match place this late cougar emblem from wccc on it...a better match
I actually thought of doing that, but it just wouldn't look right with the way it mounts and the needles. I wonder if I could find an old Autometer tach or speedo that didn't work and make a face for it. Then I could just pick up a clock movement at a wood working store, and try to get a couple of needles from Autometer to work on the movements. See, this is why I like any ideas that anyone may have. Even if I already thought of it, it will make me think it over again and new ideas come from it each time. I am going to call Autometer in the morning and see about this. Thanks Catmando, for bouncing ideas with me. By the way, that is the Cougar script that I was looking at, but wonder if it would look good with a clock or if the original badge would look better.
 
#89 ·
You might continue your industrial/rat theme along the dash with the notion of the script.

I think that maybe it would be interesting to have stainless steel or aluminum letters punched for the Cougar script instead of using the factory part. Most signmakers have the capacity to make lettering from metal sheet.

You could also scribe the lettering into the faux woodgrain and back it with metal to use the negative space the same way the clock does (recessed).
 
#90 ·
If you are gonna

make your own clock, I would go with the quartz version for cars instead of a woodworking version. You want it to keep time when you are gone and run off of the car. The woodworkers clocks are likely battery powered. Something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Quar...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5ad8e4315d

I still think you might me able to take the numbers on your tach and move em around to make 1-12 for a clock. All you would need is a nice image to start with, photoshop and the dimensions. Orange out the needles and it should blend.

I like the idea of stamping the steel with the script. Sounds as expensive as it would be cool.

There is a guy who sells replacement clock lenses on ebay I think.
 
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