Hey guys,

Has anybody here built a hot/rat rod from scatch? I've kicked around the idea for years... I've always dreamed a building some kind of Brass era to early 20's style race car and was wondering if somebody could point me in the right direction for some reading and research...

The vehicle I picture in my head is something along the lines of the BMW Brutus (its on YouTube... prepare to giggle with joy), but not that extreme. I want something wild that I can drive on the street... not an uncontrollable death trap.

I'm primarily a 60/70's car guy, so antique suspension, steering and brakes are a mystery to me. I want to retain the vintage look and wire wheels, but I'm hoping that safe, somewhat predictable handling is possible.

Any thoughts?


Thanks

depending on how civilized your county is---if you built a homebuilt it may have to be called 2015Homebuilt it may have to be 2015 emission and safety compliant---it might be easier to find an old cowl with a vin number from the 20's and start with that and fly under the radar-----i have found cowls for around 100-150 at swap meets....

In Texas you can title it according to the year of the vehicle it's built to resemble. But it needs to be inspected by an SAE master tech first and there is paperwork involved. Get up to speed on that before you spend any more.

Thank you for the replies,

I actually haven't spent anything, yet. Simply brainstorming at this point.

But figuring out what vehicle equipment is required for a 20's era vehicle is giving me some trouble... and the TxDot website and its legal speak is no all that user friendly.

Something like this

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...;vc=1&nt=11

Why yes... Yes I have...

Up on the trucks page there's a guy who's scratch building a Jeep. He has very good pictures and it may be a help to you.

One Suggestion to avoid problems later:
Make a file on your car build with progress pictures and bills of sale by everyone you buy major components from. Their driver's license number is appropriate to ask for and have written on the bill of sale.

In my youth I collected many parts, nary a title among them. That will make it quite a bit harder to get them on the road legally.

As for suspension, it's all leaf springs and solid axles until the '30s. The Ford transverse leaf spring is quite compact even if I say it looks too ford-like for my taste.

Find Posies on the web to show what can be done to get leaf springs to ride better.

R.

Chrysler began producing cars in 1924. The Dodge brothers opened their car company in 1919 (I think). Both companies were ahead of their time as far as vehicle engineering are concerned. If you want info on 20 tech, you probably need to do a pretty specific Google search. I'd start at 1924 Chrysler or 1919 Dodge Brothers sedan. Once you dig through the history, there may actual vehicle info, but probably not much.
There is a book that has been around for several years called the "Standard Book of Chrysler" and it has a lot of info covering Chrysler's from the beginning and including the merger with the Dodge Motor Company all the way up to about 1990.

As far as building something from scratch that you want to actually drive, you better know what your state expects, and you better know that your car insurance is going to cover it when you get to that point.

The next thing is that 1920s tech was great in the 1920s, but not so good a century later, in fact, it wasn't so good by the 1930s, and became worse about every 10 years as time has passed by. Personally, I wouldn't want to drive a 1920 car on the roads in 2015, and you can probably forget anything near highway speeds, top speeds were probably in the 50 mph range, and that was scary fast back then. The guys that drove those cars 50 mph had big balls of steel, and many of them died proving it.

Your in Texas, I suggest you find something in the 30s and modify it. Gene

http://detroitspeedcraft.com/
Here are 2 guys that scratch build t buckets/hot rods and sell them. Look at all the links and videos to see jigs and fab work.