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Should I make a rat rod out of my turd Honda or fix it up.

  • Rat Rods are what cool, and besides, everything Nuggets owns looks like a rat rod.

    Votes: 41 38.7%
  • For the love of God, put some effort into this project and fix it up.

    Votes: 46 43.4%
  • I'm a closed minded a-hole who will make nasty comments because I'm jealous.

    Votes: 19 17.9%

1972 Honda AZ 600 upgrade.

47K views 277 replies 78 participants last post by  Rob the plumber 
#1 · (Edited)
This is my latest retarded project. I am upgrading the 600 cc engine to a slightly more powerful 5700 cc engine. It will be a full tube chassis running, of course, V8 chebby, shorty Powerglide, narrowed Ford 9 inch, and a narrowed Pinto front suspension. My goal is to stuff all these goodies into the car without modifying the exterior dimensions.

I am not sure if I am going to fix the body up much (fenders MUST be replaced regardless) or go for the rat rod look. At this point I just want to get the rolling chassis built.












The process of making room for the V8 begins!






I just started rough cutting everthing right now. Trust me, there will be alot of clean up to make it look better. I don't want it to look like a cobbled up mud bogger.
 
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#237 ·
Now that I'm knocking down some serious corn at my new job, I can afford to stuff a few bucks in this thing. I won't be doing much fabbing in the near future because of some other projects but I am going to start accumulating more parts.

One thinig I've decided to do is ditch the 12" tires on the back and drop down to 10" wide. I was going to flare the piss out of the rear quarters but that would have set me up for a bunch of problems making the rear bumber and tail lights fit into the bodywork. When I built the frame and narrowed the rear end, I did it with 10" wide tires in mind so everything would fit inside the stock sheet metal. I think this look will be much better than a bunch of fiberglass crap hanging off the sides.
 
#245 ·
2011 was a very bad year for me with mom, job, and heath issues. Since I reopened my business, I have been working 70-80 weeks with not much time for anything else. When I am done remodeling my office I would like to start showing my little car some love.

Somebody approached me about buying some AZs for parts. I went and looked at them, there were six cars sitting under trees and sinking into the mud. Their conditions ranged from poor to iron oxide with glass. The person wanted to sell them as a group but the old fuck wouldn't give me a price. He was convinced that I would basically wash off four of the cars, put in a battery, and drive to California even though they've been sitting for one or two decades in the same spot. I offered him $750 for the lot figuring they were mostly scap. They guy got offended but would not give me a counter offer. Fuck that crazy old bastard.
 
#255 ·
Thanks! I've decided to put the Honda on the back burner for awhile because of the massive amount of work it needs at this moment. I'm working on another project right now that I hope will have running in a few months. My new project isn't a complete teardown and rebuild like the Honda. I don't want to post a thread about it right now because I don't want people bashing me about this other vehicle I'm building. I'm sure you'll like the other thing I'm building because it is weird and unique like just about everything I build.
 
#259 ·
I've been doing some soul searching about the Honda and I think I'm going to take a step backwards on the project. I really don't like how the frame turned out and I've come up with a way to move the engine much more forward in the car. I am going to use much smaller tubing for the frame, and integrate a full cage that will be used as a stressed member. This way, my 6' frame will fit in the car better and I will be able to run the pro street style rear wheels I want to.

In the mean time, I will continue on the other car I'm building. I am not releasing details about the build until I'm much further along. This project is not a from the ground up build so it should take much less effort.
 
#263 ·
That's not the issue plus I want to drive it on the street. I used a narrowed Pinto front suspension but the control arms take up too much room. I have decided to use a different lower control arm or fabricate my own. I will probably use a McPhearson style strut for upper wheel control and suspension. This way I can move the motor much more forward, make room for me, and run a wider tire in the back to gain the look I want.
 
#267 ·
I am at a crossroads with this project. One minute I want to say fuck it and just bag the project and the next I want to move forward. If I continue, I'm going to start over on the frame. My fab skills have improved so now I'd like to build a front suspension that will allow me to put power up front instead of in the cabin with me. I'm also going to bag the V8 Idea and go with a b13 rotary motor and trans I have aquired.

This winter I am going to focus on another stupid project of mine. I am building a sleeper/turd mobile for street/drag use. I have a 1983 Mercury Lynx station wagon I've aquired and I am to to convert it to RWD and put a supercharged Buick 3.8 in it. I have everthing to make a complete driveline, I just have to make room for the V6. My intentions are to leave the exterior just the way it is including using the 13" aluminum wheels and tires. I have found some 13" tires that will work for drag racing so traction should not be an issue at the track.

Thanks for the inquiry. Right now I have almost zero time for myself due to a recent move, big jobs at the shop, and going to school to be a first responder. School is done in about 3 weeks so I'm hoping to drag the station wagon in and start working on it. I may start a build thread once I get partially put together. My goal is to have it functional when the drag strips open next year.
 
#269 ·
I think I am going to officially bag the Honda project. Looking at the body of the car, there is so much rust I still have to deal with that I have lost my motivation. Another factor is the large number of unfinished projects I have laying around my shop. I need to start focusing on one project at a time and carry it through to completion instead of bouncing from one thing to another and never getting anything done. The idea/concept/build were fun and I learned a lot of does and don'ts from what I have done to the car so far. In the future, I will build a retardedly small car with big horsepower. Right now I have to complete the 4wd conversion on my dually, finish building my car hauler, then begin to work on my Mercury project. Did I mention I also have to do some work on my 4000S quattro to make it rallycross worthy again?
 
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