Rat Rod Nation builds > Rat Rod Builds

The Yankee Express, a Vermont Rat.

(1/7) > >>

Ghostridersixseven:
Welcome to my madness, thanks for stopping by!
The Yankee Express is a 1967 Dodge Coronet 500 grandma's grocery go getter, turned freak-a-zoid monster street roller.
During my 30 years of military service around the globe I had ample opportunity to imagine what sort of changes I could make to this B Body example. It's a long and strange list.
To begin this story I'll say that after being forced to medically retire from the US Army National Guard after 30 years, 13 of them active duty Army, I was underfoot while waiting on 100% disability to be approved from the VA. My dear wife decided that I needed to get off my ass and get busy elsewhere with a hobby. Anywhere else. lol.
She saw this car pop up for sale on NY Craig's list about 20 minutes after the lady posted it and showed the ad to me. I immediately called her and said, " Please don't sell it, i'm on my way from VT with cash and a trailer."
She agreed and away I went with my pal Rick and his trailer.
We got it home to his place and unloaded my prize to begin poking around and snapping pics.
He asked me, " So, what are you gonna do with it?"
I just looked at him with a wide smile. He said, " Oh dear Lord....."  ;D

Ghostridersixseven:
The reason he was worried is because this is what I decided to do....


Front to back------ Front bumper sectioned, shortened, turn signal rectangular holes filled, recurved to fit the new fender noses and to hug the sheet metal. Also enlarged the center license plate cut out into a ram airduct.
1967 Charger grill and revolving headlights. Custom elec motors, mounts and linkages.
Front fender noses swept back to a 90* angle ( Think 70 Road Runner).
Front disc brakes swap from a 76 Aspen.
All rubber bumpers and bearings replaced.
Inner fender close out smooth panels to hide wiring etc.
Smooth firewall with relocated wiper motor to under dash as is everything previously on the firewall.
Battery to box behind passenger seat.
Wiring pass through tubes running along outside of inner fender just below the fender mounting flanges and into the cab through the firewall.
Wiring passthrough boots in the door frames.
2004 Audi A6 Quattro dash/console /steering and center pull E Brake. And everything in/on the dash console too.
Audi door panel elements fabricated into new panels that align with the Audi dash.
Puddle lights and rear facing marker light on the rear face of the inner door surface so it can be seen when the door is opened.
Power everything.
Custom steering linkages.
dual M/C and new hoses/lines.
10 way, power/heated bucket seats leather.
1967 Plymouth Sport Fury rear seat topper mounted just behind bucket seat tops and close out roadster type panels from there to the back glass. (Think 59 Corvette)
Audi armrest with 4 analog gauges hidden inside.
GPS speedo
spare tire under the roadster panels in what would have been the center of the rear seat. Close out panel between cab and trunk.
Fabricated shift linkage and lever. Hand made pistol grip and reverse lock out.
Fake quarter panel side scoops opened up.
dual motorcycle pop up gas filler caps, one on top of each quarter near the trunk lid front corners.
fabricate he entire rear face of the car to accept 1966 Thunder Bird tail lights.
Trunk lid on gas lifts
17 gallon fuel cell with dual filler necks.
trunk close out panels
rear wells tubbed
leaf springs relocated to under frame.
center pull E Brake cables
move spring perches
remove spare tire well
1970 Road Runner rear bumper lengthened 4 5/8" and recurved to hug the sheet metal. TTI exhaust to exit through those back up light holes.
Remote trunk release.
'shave gas filler door
ditch the 318 in favor of a built 440 Magnum, and build a 727.

Sooo...just a FEW changes...lol!
Fast forward six+ years and all of the above has been completed.  Here are the photos from the beginning on day zero. I'll go through this build in posts, in order, explaining my thinking and what had to be done in more detail.
So from day zero......

Ghostridersixseven:
After looking it over and basking in the MOPAR glory of it all He said, " Now get it off of MY lawn."
So I drove it home and parked it in the garage.
It was a 100% complete example, running and drivable. Cream colored exterior and black/black interior, an A/C car with factory tinted glass all around, 318 small block V 8 with 727 automatic, column shift, buddy seat, factory wheel covers. Even the Cert-i-Card was intact on the radiator support.
I could have simply upgraded the brakes and fuel, put new shocks on it and drove it, but, that's just not me.
I sat around on various chairs and overturned buckets staring at the car and wondering what it would look like if I did X-Y- or Z to it.  My plan was to make the changes that I wanted but do so in a manner that caused them to NOT be obvious to the average onlooker. I wanted to make people wonder what had been done.

I hope that I have achieved this.
So deconstruction went pretty smoothly overall with only a few small incidents. lol. They always do come apart faster than going back together.
It turned out that the car was NOT in as great of shape as I initially thought it was. Paint and Bondo covers a lot of bad stuff.
It had been smacked on both front corners and the right end of the cowl had been crunched by a falling tree or something similar. The right rear lower quarter panel had also been smacked. The trunk lid surface was badly covered in surface rust.
No major rot though thank goodness.
I made a list of the parts of the car that I would never need again and planned to sell. Much like invading armies would burn their ships in the harbor to prevent retreat, I sold off so many parts, there was no going back.


I took it apart down to the last bolt and nut, bagging and tagging everything along the way for reassembly.
The only real issue cropped up when I pulled the last bolt from the K Frame while dropping it and the motor together out from under the front of the car, because that's how they are assembled at the factory. That bolt came out and the entire shell tipped up to the ceiling, the rear bumper resting on the garage floor. Boy, was I surprised! And Lucky.
As it turned out, I had accidentally placed the rear jack stands in the exact pivot point for the shell without the motor & K Frame holding the front down. It could have gone horribly wrong just then but it didn't.
I slid the engine out from under the lower radiator support and pushed down on the front of car returning it to the jack stands under the front frame rails. easy. But, Now I couldn't let go of the damn car because it would tip BACK UP! lol.  I
I had not yet destroyed anything and I was taking no chances by letting it flop back up. I had the four wheels with tires on, sitting by the garage wall and could just reach them with an outstretched right foot. I flopped them down one at a time and dragged them over with my heel then picking them up and placing them on the front corners of the car as ballast. It worked.

Here's some pics of the deconstruction and the ballast...lol.

Ghostridersixseven:
Here's a few more....

Ghostridersixseven:
The few rusted and banged up sections were both front corners and the right rear plus the passenger side floor pan. I cut out the floor pan and fabricated new ones and welded them into the car. The right rear got hammered out and the lower section replaced with a fabricated section. The front corners got some hammer and dolly action too and also modified.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page