The "Rice Rod" - '31 Model A pickup with a 2JZ

Congratulations on how far you have come in this build!  Finally on the down hill side.  Please have videos of the first drive...

To get it driving, I need to disassemble the whole car, do some final frame welding, attach a few brake and fuel brackets, and paint the frame. To do that, I need to be done adding things to frame. To get it running, I just kinda set up parts in the general vicinity of the engine. Like the radiator and battery. So I need to add radiator and battery brackets, and front frame horns, before I take it all apart again. 

Here's a radiator strut. Simply crush both ends of a small tube and drill holes.

Lower radiator mount. This beam ties into the steering rack mount, which is just ahead of the radiator and behind the not-yet-existing front bumper.

Throughout all the cutting and fitting, I accidentally cut too much out of the radiator shell. So I had to add some back in.

Mounted.

Radiator needs to be black, and now I need some sort of grill mesh.

maschinenbau said:

To get it driving, I need to disassemble the whole car

This is the most GRM statement in the berkeleying universe.

Congrats on the VIN acquisition!

Are you thinking you want something normal for the grille mesh, or do you want it to be weird (like the rest of the car)?  Weaving welding wire together into a mesh seems fitting, but I'm not sure how difficult it would be.

Is it still coming to the challenge for exhibition?

I would like a normal, black mesh type of grill. There is enough on this car to grab your attention.

YES I plan to convoy this down to Gainesville alongside my wagon sub-class entrant. That's two running cars in 6 months time. I think I can do this.

wasn't there a toyota truck grill thread sometime last year with a good source for this stuff?

edit: I think it was this one

On what page do you detail the plan for the front frame horns?

That particular mesh looks a lot like stucco lath, should be available cheap at a plaster/ masonry supply store.

In reply to maschinenbau :

To get it driving, I need to disassemble the whole car ABOUT 200 MORE TIMES!!!!!

Fixed that for you.

Not yet at the point where I can look back and laugh at this. So true.

Let me try to address some Q's:

I have some "prototype" frame horns from like a year ago but I will probably fab from scratch again. Like everything else on this car.

Stucco lath with a gloss black looks like it will be perfect! And only 9 bucks at Lowes, it's worth a try.

Front track width is wider than rear, but I also have the wrong wheels and spacers up front. Rear needs more backspace, front needs less. Still want the same size tires, but everything needs a little shift. Cragar Delux 69 are calling to me...at least for the front...hope they clear the brakes. 

There is still a custom driveshaft between me and a first drive. I have the Toyota end and the Ford end, but I might outsource that job.

Here is some stucco lathe, $9 or so at Lowes for a big ol sheet.

Here's what it looks like unpainted. 

Here's it in black.

Just a few tack welds to keep it on

Painted the aluminum radiator with black engine paint, a $120 eBay special. 

And all put together. I like this look a LOT more than the bare aluminum. Looks much more traditional.

Looking from behind, the radiator doesn't stand out anymore. Much more subtle.

Also at Lowes, I got some clearance-aisle cedar fence pickets. These were the discarded planks from building the pre-fab sections of fence. They're 6ft long, but I only needed 4 1/2 feet of each, so I was able to cut off the damaged and split ends. 

The home and garden associate literally haggled himself down to 50 cents a piece!

I like it. I also bought a few stains to test out, but bare cedar looks nice too.

Here's a shot of the underside, showing the 1x2 hardwood beams. It's strong enough for me to bounce up and down on. Maybe not enough for an engine, but plenty for what I'll use it for.

Not pictured are the hood hinges and hood latch mechanism I scored from the yard in addition to those gas struts. Soon it will shut like a hood. More specifically, it will shut exactly like the hood of a 2000 Buick LeSabre because that's what all the hardware came off of. 

Screws I had on hand were a bit too long, so of course I bust out the angle grinder for a carpentry project.

That's all for now!

The grill looks great in black. I think there is enough going on in the front to confuse most car show attendees without making them question the cooling system too. And Stains are cool and all but bare cedar weathers so nicely and actually using it for truck stuff, with all the scratches and stains that are bound to happen, will only add to the flavor. Party on.

Love how the bed came out.

Either let the wood age before sealing it with a matte polycrylic or use iron acetate to speed up the patina them seal it.

Looking super sexy!!! It's fun making big steps some days....makes all the wiring and small stuff worth it when you get a big day like that to offset the hours spent on stuff no one ever sees to get it to run. 

Looks AMAZING.

In reply to corybrown50 :

So incredibly true. The small tedious stuff can wear you down, but the big easy pretty stuff is highly motivating. It's tricky to balance the two.

Banged out the battery rack. It's pretty simple and includes a hold-down.

For the hold down, cut some tubes and flatten one end in your new-to-you old giant friggin Columbian bench vise. I love this thing.

Drill holes

Put this threaded inserts in the open end of the tube. These are called "weld nuts" and they are perfect for adding stuff to a frame that you don't want to drill all the way through.

Don't forget these little ear tabs

The battery is positioned so that you can adjust the 3-link control arms without having to take the battery tray out.

Starting to fill up back here. Let's add those "trunk bed" hinges. I don't know what else to call this situation. It's too shallow to be a bed, but it is clearly a truck. It opens like a trunk, but you can stack stuff on top. It's weird.

Anyway these are hood hinges off a junkyard Buick. First added a platform.

The same slots in the bolt holes for aligning the Buick's hood are used to align my trunk bed. I got further than this, but the strut positioning needs more thought. Too much angle and you over-compress the strut. Too parallel and it's not enough force to lift the bed. There's a sweet spot here.

I think this is what I would call the perfect use of the word Cruck.. A Lexus coupé (car) and a 31 Model A (truck), in combination would be a Cruck!

Awesome! Are you going to have the trunk latch lever inside the cab?

Looking all very neat and tidy back there mate. 

And congrats on getting the BMV to issue you a title! 

Did you have to get a police officer out to inspect at your shop? How did the officer react? 

I’ve done that twice, the officer who checked the mini did not know what it was and thought it was a golf cart. 

For the truck, another officer came and he was a gear head and loved it. 

ooooh, a JZ powered rat! Nice man, I think there is only like 5 of us

In reply to Blasfamous_1jz :

Thanks! Loving your pickup build, though admittedly I already googled it and found your article with photos of it complete  Looks awesome on bags, which would probably make my life a lot easier, but I'm going for auto-cross handling and ultimate cheapness so my suspension must be static. I have been preparing, mentally and technically, for lots of scraping sounds.

In reply to maschinenbau :

Much appreciated man. The bags came with their own set of challenges lol. Even with 7" of lift, on my maiden voyage I found out the hard way that bottoming out sounds so much worse in a rat lol. I'm looking forward to following your build. I'm all caught up from the first page.