We May Have Just Found The Rat Rod Wrecker's Limit!

Summary

The video follows a group of mechanics as they work on restoring an old truck. They install new seats, lower them for more headroom, and add gauges and other upgrades. There is some trial and error as they test fit parts and work to problem solve issues that arise. They are optimistic about the project and eager to get the creature comforts installed. There are lighthearted moments as they go on escapades to find supplies. Overall there is a sense of camaraderie and satisfaction as they incrementally improve the old truck.

Takeaways

• 😀 They are working on lowering the seat in an old truck to make more headroom
• 😃 They cut out part of the seat frame to lower it 2 inches
• 🔧 They installed new gauges and a boost reference line
• 🚚 They recovered a loaded tanker truck
• 🔨 They fabricated and installed a custom mount for the lowered seat
• 👷 Sean built parts to connect the transfer case for 4 wheel drive
• 😄 Tested the lowered seat and it has much more headroom now
• 🛠 Got the 4 wheel drive shifter working
• ⏩ Next they plan to install sound deadening and power windows
• ✅ Overall, good progress customizing the old truck's interior

Q & A

What kind of vehicle are they working on in this video?

They are working on an old truck they call the 'rat rod'.

What is the main issue they are trying to fix with the seat?

The main issue is that the seat is too high and the driver's head hits the ceiling, so they need to lower the seat.

How do they lower the seat in the truck?

They cut out part of the seat brackets to lower it a couple inches and then built a new mounting frame for the seat base.

What is the purpose of the four-wheel drive components they are installing?

They are installing a transfer case shifter and linkage so they can switch the truck into four-wheel drive.

What are some of the other improvements they make to the truck?

They install new gauges, tap into the intake for a boost gauge, spray truck bedliner, and add sound deadening.

What is the white fluid they apply before cutting metal?

It is correction fluid/whiteout that helps provide a visible line when cutting metal.

What is the purpose of the seat frame they weld to the floor?

The seat frame lowers the seat mounting point to give more headroom and support the seat base.

Why do they say it is difficult to find parts where they live?

They mention living in a remote, rural area where large chain stores are far away.

What is the final result of lowering the seat?

The final lowered seat gives the driver much more headroom so their head doesn't hit the ceiling.

What work still remains to be done on the truck?

They still need to permanently install the new seat, add power windows, and finish the interior.

Outlines

00:00

😊 Getting a Tanker Truck Unstuck

The paragraph describes attempts to recover a loaded tanker truck that is stuck. They hook up the truck and successfully pull it out with another vehicle, appearing easier than expected.

05:00

🔧 Installing New Gauges and Seat

The plan for the day is to work on the interior of the rat rod. This includes lowering the seat, installing new gauges on the dash, welding down the lowered seat frames, and adding creature comforts like sound deadening.

10:06

😀 Enjoying a New Massage Chair

A new massage chair has been gifted to the shop. One team member is shown enjoying it thoroughly while another works on installing a boost reference line for the engine.

15:07

🤔 Evaluating New Gauge Cluster

A gauge cluster was built and installed but the angle causes visibility issues. They debate making changes but decide to test it out first before doing more work.

20:07

🚗 Driving Far for Correction Fluid

Based on an internet tip, they drive 8 miles to buy correction fluid to test if it works better than sharpie for cutting guides. Unable to find the ideal pen version, they test by painting it on.

25:08

😁 Enjoying Completed Interior Work

With the new seat installed and functional, the day's interior planned work is complete. Additional future plans may include power windows. The team is satisfied with the results.

Keywords

💡Rat Rod

A rat rod is a style of hot rod or custom car that is built to appear unfinished and retain a "ratty" look. In the video, they refer to the vehicle they are working on as a "rat rod" and later call it the "rat back", showing this is the style they are going for. The rat rod style contrasts with a "show car" look and embraces an imperfect, rusty aesthetic.

💡Off-roading

Off-roading refers to driving or riding a vehicle on unpaved roads, trails, or off road completely into the wilderness. The video mentions adding four-wheel drive components to the rat rod to make it capable of off-roading and driving in low gear four-wheel drive for this purpose.

💡Fabrication

Fabrication means constructing or assembling something, often by cutting, welding, and mechanically fastening metal components. Much of the video shows fabrication work like custom cutting, welding, and mechanically fastening parts to build out the rat rod's interior.

💡Dashboard

The dashboard, also called dash or instrument panel, is the control panel in front of the driver displaying gauges and controls. They trim a custom dashboard panel and install gauges into it.

💡Upholstery

Upholstery refers to materials like padding, leather, or vinyl covers used on vehicle seats and interiors. Towards the end, they mention adding upholstery components like sound deadening material and power windows.

💡Off-camera

Off-camera refers to action happening outside of the camera's view. The narrator frequently mentions off-camera work like cutting or welding that has happened in between video clips.

💡Trial and error

Trial and error means trying different solutions until you find something that works. Fitting the custom seat and dashboard involves some trial and error iteration on what fits and looks best.

💡Patina

Patina refers to the aged, worn, weathered look that develops on something over time, like rust on metal or faded paint. Creating artificial patina is part of achieving the rustic rat rod aesthetic.

💡Project car

A project car is an older or non-functional vehicle you buy to restore and modify as a hobby. The rat rod they are building fits the definition of a project car.

💡Gearhead

Gearhead is slang for someone really into working on, modifying, or collecting vehicles. The narrator and his team take a gearhead approach with hands-on modifications to build their rat rod project car.

Highlights

Trying to recover a loaded tanker truck to see if the old truck is big enough to do it

Lowering the truck seat by cutting out part of the seat frame to give more headroom

Installing a custom gauge cluster and boost reference line to the intake manifold

Fabricating a new seat base from square tubing to lower the seat height

Testing if Whiteout works better than sharpie when marking cuts to prevent melting

The Whiteout worked to mark the cuts without melting away

Test fitting the lowered seat and finding the headroom is much better

Tack welding the new seat base in place after adjusting the height

The truck now has four wheel drive capabilities

Spraying truck bed liner inside the cab for sound deadening and durability

The bed liner made a big mess inside the cab when spraying

Lowered seat and new gauges installed along with sound deadening

Next steps are to install the seat and power windows

The truck modifications made good progress in this session

Still more work needed before the rat rod truck build is complete

Transcripts

[Applause]

oh oh

dude that's so much better I can't even

oh all right we may have found our first

recovery that we don't get done today

we're going to go try it it's a loaded

tanker truck yeah I don't know if the

old truck's big enough to do this we're

going to go see what we can do though so

try

it

I don't know what or

how that's coming out of that big that's

a

[Music]

lot

oh yeah I don't know

man

[Applause]

I'm way more

optimistic this is in park and the keys

are locked oh that so we pick the back

up we're going to move

[Music]

tool box

[Music]

loaded so he's going to have to back it

up just like a trailer

yeah

that one way of doing it I

[Music]

work that

I'm all

right

okay tell him to

go that was too easy to easy

I guess they work right

yeah yeah we P up like oh that ain't

going to get me out that I'm like no

would you be surprised these guys can do

those ropes work pretty amazing so we'll

go home see you later

[Music]

all right new day in the shop back on

the old rat ratb I always want to call

it the rat rod but that's in the other

side this one's the rat back we're going

to try to get some inside stuff done

today Sean climb in that thing and show

them the problem with the

seat

maybe the window's just not tall enough

yeah so basically your head's going to

be hitting the the top so we have all

this real estate down here I think what

we're going to do is take 2 in out of it

lower the seat down so we're going to

get that going today we're going to get

the gauges in it maybe the dash piece

across the front of it put in and if

we're real lucky we'll get some spray on

bed liner inside of this thing today so

we'll see how things go we'll get going

I think we'll just just cut it right

next to it right there that's about

where it's going to

be I like it let's get some some four

whe Drive action in the the ratp back do

we build a template for that probably we

probably ought to just build a template

we'll set it down in there on here same

as that gasket yeah I think will that

gasket come off gingerly if that gasket

will come off we'll be in the chips man

hasn't tore yet

well you just jinxed

yourself oh boy all sorts of

nervous cool

perfect

okay sticky yeah it's sticky get a drill

bit I'll drill it out and then cut it

with the the airsa so it's nice then

we'll drill the rivets

and

I'm going

[Music]

in all right there's that that's precise

right that was pretty good actually you

didn't expect that from me pretty good

all

right she

fits I like it all right let's do

[Music]

[Music]

this yes that's enough

I don't know what that was but that's

probably it probably means that that was

tight

[Music]

now all right portal Drive shifter at

least is installed now we got to make it

work what are you doing Merlin sent

these from AV he really just clean he

just love his love I got two more in the

truck so I get down to havu and I tell

Merlin um I was told to come down here

cuz it's good weather it was torrential

downpour really he says it rains two

times a year and I just happen to be

there on one of the days is that your

first time being there yeah I've never

been there it was raining the only day

it is pretty cool is that all yeah

13 that's a long day especially going

through FL

exactly things are looking more

plausible grab us a/2 inch on that

little inacker

going to have to find another boot that

one's not going to cut it but I don't

know why that won't work hopefully it's

not in the way too much but is what it

is trying to get the seat frame out that

side's out the well the nuts are off

it's pretty Rusty in the back we may

have to pound it out once we get it all

the rest of the

way

broke I don't know if we should slide it

first it's going to

launch all

right let's take the springs

off there she

is come on that side and help you

shouldn't be

too nice work I think we cut that thing

clear out of there that's what I was

looking at spot yeah and we just build

something that holds it cuz that would

almost just bold on the

ground but it'll set it won't set flat

like it needs to we'll have to build a

front pedestal yes yep then we can

actually store something under the seat

to a little bit if we need to exactly

yeah a rope or something can be under

the seat so I think let's do that just

take the old plasma cutter and run it

right around the top of that

Rim Yeah leave the and leave the leave

the bottom it won't that's just going to

help structure on the floor then we'll

grind it smooth and we'll go to building

what we need to build here to make it

bolt down game plan is to trim this out

we measured the brackets and I think

we're going to have to lose the slider

if we lose the slider we can get 3 in

we'll get this out and then deal with

[Music]

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that

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you

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n

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all right there it is my new gauge

cluster let's see if we can bend

[Music]

it there it is weld it all up and drill

some holes and

see how it fits looks flat right yeah

see what we can come up with to get her

back

in I don't mind that all right uh Sean

he's building four-wheel drive stuff

here this is the rod that hooks the

transfer case to that lever that we put

in earlier so how long's this got to be

19 and A4 and you are currently 15 so

you got to add a few inches yep so you

just cut it in the middle and welder

together right we'll add 4 in and should

hook up should be pretty easy

we got some random random stuff laying

here that'll do it so that one's short

too yeah it's shorter so yep there you

go what are you doing Hunter this thing

is amazing this is heaven on Earth Paul

might have got me a Christmas SL

birthday present that I've always wanted

for years now I think everyone in the

shop is going to like it though it's not

just for me right Hunter this is awesome

this perks the job here I'm going to

move in I told him there was a couple of

rules you couldn't sit in if you were

disgustingly dirty and you can't I'm not

going to say naked you can't be naked

you can't be naked in it all right

Hunter's in there slaving away in the

massage chair I'm going to come out here

and get this done so I got to drill the

intake right here and put this in it now

a smart person would unbolt that and

take it off but that's four bolts that I

don't want to take out so I'm going to

dip my drill bit in some grease and

drill it and all the shavings will stay

on it and then we'll tap it so I'll show

you how that works all right so I got

the hole drilled and uh use a little

grease on the drill bit I don't know

that I videoed that sorry I got

sidetracked but now we're going to go

ahead and tap the

hole and then we shall have boost

reference

all right technically it's aluminum

anyway so the Piston should chew it

right up right

flakes uh it doesn't get any in there

I've done this so many times if you just

put some grease on the drill bit it

stays all on it look I'll show you right

here all of the shavings are stuck right

here so I drilled most of the hole

without anything on it then I greased a

bit that's all that would have fallen in

there anyway

problem solved we're getting there

okay all right I think it's going to be

easier to poke that up through I hope

this looks good cuz I'm way committed at

this point it needs to look

good that going to be terrible it's hard

to know without the seed in here yeah

I'm going to I'm going to pretend like

I'm setting in the seat will that work

be way better if it set like that can't

quite see it or you can see angled down

it's just angled down gotta but my gauge

stuff already is touching the back of it

right there if it was like that it' be

way better off it's a

wedge maybe back to the drawing boards I

don't know for sure we'll get back to

you so we've decided we're just rolling

with it for now if I hate it we'll

change it later but we're going to run

this through here perometer already

plumbed in then we're moving on to

bolting the seat back in it Sean's about

got all the cutting and grinding done so

we can go back together so I hope by the

end of today we're ready for some

Creature Comforts like uh padding and

sound deadener and all those little

things keep pulling just pull it

okay that's it some self tappers and I

think it's

in what do you

think it's not not terrible no looks

pretty good I think it's going to work

we test

it yeah let's see if it

[Music]

boosts oh yeah she

boost

[Music]

how much just

10 tell you put a load on yeah once you

put a load on it she'll start building

boo so it works

cool hunter will you grab me a zip

tie that's good enough for now it's out

of the way

cool well we're close let's build a

[Music]

seat 4in Square tube bolts to this hole

that hole same on that side we'll cut

the taper on the other end and just weld

it to the floor it's going to be 2 in

tall in 3 in tall in the front 1 in tall

in the back that should low us two full

in so we need two pieces that are

basically 19 1/2 in long I

[Music]

[Music]

get 3 in

tall so we'll just put a straight

edge

just like

that technically one should do them both

right

yeah yeah it should it's exactly the

same we just cut that on that angle

we'll have it we cut an extra one for no

reason sometimes my thinker doesn't work

very fast it works it's not very

fast that right

okay you know what I seen the other day

on the old

interweb if you use wide out for

this it doesn't meld off as you're

cutting it you can see the line the

whole way wide out those little wide out

pens yeah we should go get one and try

it that's a good idea let's do it let's

try

it pattern interrupt we're really going

to get we're going to go to the Dollar

Store and get one I like the

way just cuz you had the idea you saw it

on the interweb I want to see if it

works let's go get one we'll be

back we're really just driving 8 miles

to just try this out got a better I

don't know how else to see if this is

real

[Music]

there what's your bets think it

works

it

better correction fluid man they don't

have it quick dry time usually there's

pins we live in the middle of

[Music]

nowhere P yeah they just don't have them

all right let's go to Terry's all right

we're off Terry's got to have

one

[Music]

we found some think it'll work you're

going to paint it on we didn't find any

markers I don't think it's going to work

we live in the

boonies how's that camera it's

good well we didn't get what we

wanted but we got what we got so we're

going to go home and try to paint some

on and see if it works it does find one

of these pens all right we're back let's

go see if this works pen would have been

way easier just in case you're wondering

I'm going to try it on something I don't

care about first I think where where did

that little piece of metal go I just had

right here we're going to slather up a

little of

this what's your bets I don't think that

will work it's like too

liquidy look at

that wow I mean if if you had one of

those pins yeah more distinct line

that's

cool all right we're on the search we're

going to have to find one of those pins

now yeah that

just it doesn't

melt doesn't melt let me show them the

[Music]

difference

[Music]

well that didn't melt that time of

course why wouldn't

it usually when you start cutting it

melts your line off of it and didn't get

hot enough do that quick but interesting

well we solved that myth wide out will

work all right let's make some let's

make some Sparks still not decided if I

like like this or

not it was too dim for my liking too dim

I couldn't find the line or too dark too

dark

[Music]

okay

[Music]

we've got to cut that off of it so that

it'll fit down where it goes that's

going to work plus it's going to Solid

the floor

up let me get a

[Music]

Sharpie this time lapse no it's gone

dang it you are live my

friend

[Music]

don't know how to draw that

[Music]

[Music]

round there we go probably put rivets in

this Mar go will rivet them and then we

can set it in there set the seat in it

and see how terrible it really is I

think it'll be

[Music]

good

it's it's low low now let's get the seat

see what it looks like heck yeah too low

baby look at that the seats that is how

solid is

it good enough once it's

welded all right got it

yep drop the front in the front right

what am

I just like

that

oh

dude that's so much better I can't even

oh it's not

uncomfortable put the back in it let's

try

it I think we've done

well by

golly all

right it's good enough for right now

we're just

testing it's going to be better yeah

head's not going to be

touching so four-wheel

drive it's going to be fine four low

it's going to be fine with it so let's

welder

in I think we roll the welder over and

Tack it where we can tack it and then

we'll pull it off

Center I don't know let me see that

tape I'm inch and

34s two and a

half two and a

quter perfect welder

down

[Music]

[Music]

that's going to work freaking good in

there

sweet looking good little welding left

little bit I'll build I'll build

something for those something to set

down in I'll just build some little

piece of angle or something that'll be

well both sides

[Music]

okay

[Applause]

[Music]

well here we go Sil

C I don't know if I can get into where I

need to seill it

[Music]

[Music]

here okay it did it let's fill a

[Music]

cap that's really

satisfying all right well uh grab me

another

[Music]

can

[Music]

oh yeah right on the steering wheel

that's where I thought it would go take

a razor knife and cut that all trim it

to

fit wow got to have done something

right all right we got a bunch done

today we got the seed all put in it we

got gauges put in it it's uh it's

getting close I got the floor all buffed

and ground out right now we're waiting

because of all that foam it's just

foamed up and I can't do anything so

next time you'll see us get the seat put

in we'll get all the sound deadening put

in we may put some power windows in

these doors so until then though thanks

for

watching