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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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#194 · (Edited)
Ok, I have entered the next phase of this project: Rust.

I have alot of work to do to make this car structurally sound let alone look good. These cars were cheap pieces of shit back in their day so it's a miracle I have anything left of the car to put in my shop. I have some rust in hard to reach areas but on the positive side, the car is solid in critical areas like the door supports and the windshield pillars. even the bottoms of the doors look good.


I have to rebuild the rocker panels on both sides. I'm striking out for replacements so I may have to find something close and make it work.





I took the fenders off so I could repair the inner fender and supports. Baaaad rust in this area. It doesn't look like it on the outside but the inner area is toasted. I will be buying at least one fender, I may be able to salvage the other one.



Right side inner fender; rusted inside and out. I plan on cutting out all of the original wheel wells and just leaving it open. I will be cutting out all of the rust on the inner fender support and re-enforcing it so it does not flex. I will also be building supports on the front of the fram to support the front area of the fenders and it will also act as a support for the radiator.



Somebody was bugging me for engine pictures. This is the first motor I'm going to use. Its a good running 350 TBI that I'm just going to cam up and carb for now. I have another motor that I'd like to build and turbo but that will have to wait until I find steady employment. Note: I'm aware that the body is not centered on the frame. I just have everything held in place temporarily while I fix the rust, once the rot is gone and I have some good sheet metal to work with, I will be building the permanent body mounts.







And lastly, my poor little weiner dog after it was attacked by my daughters. They put a pink blanky and a Dora pillow near the pooch while it was sleeping.

 
#201 ·
I'm not really trying to make a show quality car because my body work is not that great.
You will be good at body work after this project!!!
 
#202 ·
Ok kids, I've done a small amount of work on the Honda. I've aquired some 12" 50 series tires for the back and now I have to make them work. When I originally set up the rear end, I was hoping to squeeze a 10" wide tire back there. Now I'm really stuffing the wheel wheels with 12" tires. As much as I don't want to, I am going to have to flare the rear section of the wheel opening to make clearence for the tire. I'm going to be as conservative as I can in an effort to preserve the original appearence.

When you don't have money for custom wheels, what do you do? That's right kids, buy some used 10" wide rims and make your own offset!



Ready for new center.



Tire mounted on rim and center not welded into place. Still trying to get a feel for the proper back spacing. I'm going to modify the rear of the wheel opening before I commit to a backspacing.



Just another shot of the wheel. The pictures don't do it justice. It looks wicked.

 
#207 ·
I haven't been working on the Honda much lately. I had to kick it out of it's bay so I could get another vehicle worked on (my dead farm tractor is under the knife in the other bay). I put the wheels on and rolled it outside next to a buddies k3500. I have a fatty tire on the left side you can get an idea what it might look like when I get both meats under the rear.

This picture tells you the size of the car:

 
#220 ·
couple of guys have gone the far easier route and put a busa in an old school honda.

couple more have put the busa in an old school original mini in the back.

both cars with that set up are retarded fast, sideways in 3rd /4th gear stuff.

I like your determination for this to be a 350 however.
 
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