Our new renovation project that is not part of the house – The Rat Rod

Not every project we do around our house is about the house.  Sometimes it is about the rat rod.

My husband is a big hot rod car guy.  Very much a hot rod car guy.

And we have a new project to complete before our son’s wedding in May.

 

This F100 will become a Rat Rod.

When our son turned 13, he and my husband picked out a truck that he wanted for his own and they could build together. It was to be completed not as a hot rod or muscle car or even restored to it’s original look, but as a rat rod.

For those of you who don’t know what a rat rod is, it is basically a budget hot rod, built from spare parts of other cars, purposely painted to look old or rugged, and has a super charged motor.  I love how Rat Rod Magazine describes it as “A rat rod is simply a blue collar hot rod.”

It is what my son wanted, and it is finally what he is going to get.

Of course at the time we purchased his 1960 F100, our plans were for it to be done by the time he was 16.  Needless to say no one can plan for life and accidents, hospital bills, and even major expenses with Physician Assistant school.  Lots of delays and set backs over the last 8 years and now my son is nearly 21 and getting married.  The Rat Rod is to be a present to him and hopefully will be part of the wedding photographs.

This is not a project you will see often featured on this blog, mostly because I couldn’t explain the steps to building the motor and body at all, I may have to leave that to my husband.  But I will feature it from time to time just to show how it is progressing and the final outcome.

Since this blog is about our home and projects, and this rat rod is going to be a big one for many months, I decided it deserved a few posts here and there to document how we spend our time and money.

So don’t be surprised at what this truck looks like in a few years.