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MACKAZ's '22 Steel Buick ratrod, "Jailbait"


MACKAZ

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Well. Ive done sweet F A to this thing.

One of my panelbeater clients GAVE me 5 sheets of nicely rusted raw panelsteel, basically enough to finish the tub.

Ive become friendly with a professional metalformer, he has offered his guidance free of charge. His work is amazing. Imagine 1938 Buick Hearse, garden art for 10 years. Now has custom chassis with 99% 04 SS Commodore running gear and interior. I will see if he will allow pics. Its fricking incredible......

Now Ive just got to get off my fat ass and get my shed ready to put it in it. My parents are moving house and it isnt going with them....

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  • 3 months later...
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  • 4 weeks later...

Well Ive tagged the bodybase, polished up where the welds go and secured it to chassis. Lanced off all the old tack welds and ground/polished them flat. Now the bodybase is flat with no protrusions, ie slag or weld. Floor needs to follow this perfectly...(RED ARROW) Ive made a rough template out of cardboard and tape and, holy crap, the sheet metal Ive got for the floor is about 3mm too wide and 100mm too long so mint, piss all wasteage. Out with zipdisk tomorrow night and cut it down to size. Forming this bit of plate is going to be a mission but needs to be done. The floor is also going to be cut to form the back of the rear seats. Ive also need to remove a factory spreader bar and move it rearward (BLACK ARROW) because the rear seats are going to be there.

Lost pic... 

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Productive night tonight. Fabricated a rear floor, freshly bent with trusty old Ford and Wood precision bender. Pretty pleased with the end result

 

I also acquired this piece of antiquity, been told it is Model A Ford. Its in poor/fantastic condition for ratrod. Nothing the welder wont fix.

 

Roughly in the right place, this section need to be narrowed by about 250mm to fit the bodybase correctly. This will save me hours in fabricating a rear section, but there still is hours of repairs to be done on it, which is just adding to its character

 

And I scored some awesome help in floor decoration from my youngest Daughter Abbey

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  • 2 months later...

No pics but have bought a decent MIG welder(secondhand off my brother) and went to Whangarei swap meet and secured some sweet old chrome dented headlights (early Pomgolian as they are Lucas) and some brand new round Lucas taillights and indicators off a S3 Landrover $80 the lot. Stoked.

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  • 3 months later...

Managed to get the Hobby car Manual from the old man (didnt think he would spring it) and am studying up on the body section. Seatbelt mounts are a bitch to figure out, I am seriously considering biffing the old seat and making a real low bench seat out of panelsteel and ply. Anyone had any experience in this area?? Boatbuilder or upholsterer? Seat is criticial to where everything goes. Oh and thinking about a pair of doors too....

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  • 8 months later...

Shes been pulled out of the dark! Shes been languishing unloved for 12 months, and that's about to change. First up the 15" steels are getting biffed in place of some new 17" hilux rims, 17x7.5s and 17x6, centre caps fit mean. Done a mockup with the sidedrafts, wow. they certainly hang out. Ill slam a pick up over weekend. waiting on a 32Amp circuit to be dropped down to the shed, then back into chopping/welding the body. Ive figured a way to run radius rods the other way, wont get into that now. The swapmeet up here provided some light buckets with the mounts intact, $30. Got me all inspired, so back into it!!!!!!!!

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  • 1 month later...

Bolted sidies on for shits n giggles. foul on no6 header pipe, meh. they getting chopped anyway

Ive cut n shut the back of the body

And the back joins to the front, about to put a swag of bracing in and a zillion cuts out of the 25x25 box to achieve a curve for the "doors"

 

 

 

 

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  • 6 months later...

Thread dredge, with all the "changes" that went with my previous employer, (working every weekend, more time being demanded out of me, rah rah rah)  I got fed up with the tyre game and have moved on to wheel aligning/mechanicing on trucks for Toll. This has freed up a lot of time, I'm not so buggered, and not to mention a better pay to be able to do some more work on this thing. I've sourced a lump of plate (4mm) to make the body mounts out of, and a mate of mine that's a conveyor belt technician has given me a big lump of offcut belt. And the old man has given me a CO2 bottle he owns to get filled for the big MIG. Looks like a big push ahead for 2015, fingers crossed I get there.

 

 

 

PS umm More pictures to come....

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Well, I'm back. Had another change in employer to a much much better one, turned 40, and seriously back into this. Last few months I've added rear inner wheel arches, lower front halves on the cowl, built the top of the "door" section which involved 127 cuts with a 1mm zip disc to get the 35x35x1.6mm length of box to curve/twist into shape to join the two halves of the body. Stitch welded it in today. Body is no longer flanky and floppy like it was, surprisingly rigid. Next mission is the other side, but this one should be easier. I'll upload some pics tomorrow. It is starting to look like a car finally. And am in contact with certifier who's coming around to offer direction once other side is welded in

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Pictures as promised. Also Ive had the engine going, first time since buying it. Runs strong, apart from a fluffy lifter, no biggie. And Ive also built gearbox and driveshaft tunnels. Driveshaft tunnels built out of a truck muffler.

So enough of the boring stuff.

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The right side top of the body

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The joint at rear of body

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Gearbox and driveshaft tunnel (excuse the crappy pic)

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In under the cowl

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Right lower front of cowl

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  • 2 weeks later...

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