Proving that the automotive world literally has a surprise lurking around every corner, we found this 1932 Chevrolet rat rod for sale on eBay and it is beyond anything we have ever seen before. There are elements of it that we dig like the stance and the severity of the roof chop but there is a LOT of bizarre stuff happening mechanically with this car that you really have to see to believe. How bizarre? The car has no pedals and operated from a series of levers and knobs. Seriously.
The seller of the car is not the builder. That person apparently passed away and this guy is representing the car for the family as they try to sell it. Powered by a 250ci Chevy inline six engine that is hooked to a Turbo 350 transmission and driving a Chevy rear axle, the engine has six carbs on it and the seller keeps saying that they are “water injected”. We see no water injection system. We do see fuel lines running each carb. To us they look like SU type pieces but maybe you guys know more than that.
The front suspension was build in a rudimentary (but seemingly effective) fashion using leaf springs and shocks with a couple of pickup points on the bottom of the frame. There are some close up photos of where that suspension attaches under the frame and it seems like rather than bushings there are simple bolts carrying the load and potentially rotating around on the edges of the bracket. Are our eyes fooling us?
There’s lots of rust, weird stuff attached to the body, holes, and general craziness happening with the exterior of the car. For as long as we have been seeing rat rod stuff though we have not seen one that was controlled by a system of levers and knobs in the car. The seller makes no mention as to whether the previous builder had the use of his legs. If he did not, we completely understand. If he did, we have no idea why one would go this route. The rest of the interior pegs the WTF meter on the chip as well. Just insanity.
Neither of the videos below show the car driving down the road. They do show it running but that’s the extent of it. Again, when you combine the sum total of this car, we have never seen anything like it and if we’re lucky the popularity of going this far out into left field may be dying down. If not, protect your original steel!
Check out these photos below and then hit the eBay link for 80 more!
The front axle looks like an old 2 1/2 ton unit(?)
Not an M35 Deuce, those were closed knuckle. Some sort of 1 1/2 to 2 ton 2wd truck with a solid axle? Its probably the only cool part on the whole rig.
You’d have to be legless to drive this monster with that front “suspension”. In fact so drunk you couldn’t even walk to the garage!
Those are bike carbs by the way which are increasingly being fitted to Ford crossflow 4 cylinder motors here in the UK as they give more power than even Weber twin chokes. I’ve never seen so many and they look way cool.
I’d take this over that stainless steel SEMA turd any day.
Not SU carbs. I’ll give you $100 for it, the headlights are cool. The rest is scrap metal.
Its all in the details,man. I would of never thought of putting a boat cleat on my master cylinder.
Not safe, not cool 🙁
Coilspring suspension, crudely made, interior designed for an at least partially disabled driver. Wheelchair rack on the roof. The panhard bar has the opposite arc to the drag link, leading to maximum bumpsteer. Every single piece looks like an afterthought. The body MIGHT be salvageable, maybe the frame too. Wheels look nice. In the hands of a talented fabricator it could become something worth having. I’m thinking a twin-turboed diesel V8 and 6spd manual transmission, full time 4wd transfer case (with center diff), a fabricated dropout-style 14-bolt rear end, and either a D60 live front axle or a wierd but nice riding D50 TTB front end. Still lowered, but on airbags. Put in proper controls, reuse the gator bits on new seats, install tinted plexi roof insert, and tinted plexi visor. Smooth and patch the nasty sheetmetal. Install much cleaner head and taillights. Same color scheme, but with flake in the paint and more pinstriping.
Its nice to know I’m not the worst fabricator on the planet.