[FINALIST] - AK's LT-08 Rat Rod Tractor Build [2019 Build-Off Entry]

Thanks CC! Yeah I was rather pleased with how it turned out.

It was kinda fun to do it too!

Isn't it nice to be done, so now any changes you make are all in good fun and not the stress of getting it done? 

Yep, pretty much! As long as I remember to get my final video made in time, haha.

you should make a shifter knob out of something, 8 ball or pistol grip...

Yeah that's one little item I still gotta work out, I've been trying to think about what would look best, I'm sure I'll find something.

Weed eater piston head.  LOL

Hmmm, I've got the piston head to my K181 with the busted rod still attached to it sitting on my desk as decor...maybe it belongs on this instead!

Haha, oh I've got a few old pistons and con rods lying around myself.

Well I had to do a little upgrade on the front end today, I was working on getting the wheel toe fixed and I noticed an issue with one of the upper link joints!



I guess the cast aluminum wasn't up to 'er, haha.

Oh well. I measured and cut the ends off some other links, drilled and tapped the ends, and she was good to go!



Should be much better! Also when doing this I noticed one of the upper link mounts is closer to the center of the axle than the other. Doesn't hurt the handling or anything but it kinda bugs me so that will get changed some day.

Now the fun stuff! I got the fuel tank put back in, and used a piece of copper nickel brake line I bought to make some neat looking fuel line!





Looks pretty cool to me!

I also finally got around to making a hood prop:





Works good! It's adjustable at the top which isn't really neccessary, but still kinda cool I guess.

Then of course after the work comes the play, so I took 'er for a bit of a ride!





Man she's lots of fun to bomb around on, haha.

Let me know what ya think!

Just like McDonalds..... I'm lovin it!

MightyRaze wrote:

Just like McDonalds.....

Funny you say that, because I'm sure this thing also isn't good for a person's health on a regular basis.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

MightyRaze wrote:

Just like McDonalds.....

Funny you say that, because I'm sure this thing also isn't good for a person's health on a regular basis.

Heh, yeah probably not. LOL, but speaking of Micky D's, you oughta take 'er through the drive through there!

You probably floor it every time you hit a smooth straight away, am I right??? (I would )

Still waiting on the donut video. Or atleast pics of the aftermath in the gravel there!

What about some pinstriping on the hood and fenders?

Love the details, I think I know why your rod end broke, you have your links set up as a radius arm, so as the suspension compresses the front axle will travel in a arc, changing your castor angle. your leaf springs are acting as the upper links in a 4 link and are trying to force the axle to travel straight up and down. you need to add a shackle to the end of the leaf springs so the axle can travel in a arc or what I think is a better option, remove the upper link entirely and just run the lower and the leaf springs, less castor change is almost always better. bonus is suspension should work smoother either way because its not binding on itself like it is currently

I believe it broke mostly because of the hole I drilled through it, but I don't doubt that you're right.

With the leaves being solid mounted I can see how the upper radius arm links are rather "redundant" in this setup, since without them the leaves would control the caster angle just fine. Maybe a good future idea would be to completely re-do the axle side of the arms and just use lowers as you mentioned.

I'm not too worried about anything binding though, as the leaf spring I used for this is a 3/8" trailer leaf and it is way too stiff for the sprung mass of this tractor so I don't have really any travel at all. Really I just did it for the cool factor to make it look more like a true rat rod, haha.

Fair enough, I didn’t know how active the suspension was. Things turned out great definitely something to be proud of

Yeah I didn't want a ton of travel because I figured it might get a little squirelly at speed with no shocks, haha.

Thanks for the positive comments!

I think I finally decided on a grille idea for this thing, I actually ended up using the original panel but I attacked it with the angle grinder a bit:





I like it!

My brother suggested some mesh behind the cutouts which I thought would be cool, so I'll probably get a big enough piece to do behind the headlight holes as well.

Very nice detail there.  Can't wait to see the headlight ones too!

That came out pretty nice!

Love the grille idea Allis. Maybe it needs some red paint runs for blood.

Thanks a lot everybody! I've been adding stuff to it since the last update, but I think I'm just gonna save all the pictures for the very end.

Also I did pick up a real neat NOS upgrade for the little Kohler today that I'm super excited to install, but that will come at the end. For now I'll just leave you with this:

Well I've still been tinkering pretty steady here, but I think she's about done now!

Yesterday I did a wet sand, a soap and water cleanup, and a nice clear coat job:





Turned out pretty good!

Got the stuff behind the grill done too. Not quite as cool as I was hoping but it's not too bad.



Then just a bunch of decorative stuff basically. Like a new parking brake handle and some roller chain on the shifter:





Little more roller chain on the back edge of the seat:



Labelled the brake and throttle, for safety reasons of course:



Oh I had to sign my work as well:





The NOS upgrade I had mentioned was an original Kohler recoil starter for this engine, which I installed to do away with the plain rope start. It works fantastic! Super pleased with it.

You can see the recoil along with the proper label, haha.



Then a fair warning to some unsuspecting folks:



Hahaha. I think that'll about do it! I'm hopefully gonna get my final video done today and then I can post it in here and make my completion official.

Let me know what ya think!

Hahaha, I see it's a twin cylinder now eh?

I like how the color came out... Very rich tone.

Ok, the "go" and the "woah" on the dash is excellent! Absolutely brilliant! I love it!

Labels are hilarious, love the spare tire too! You've got my vote for sure. Don't break it before November now, hahaha.