I met Bubba Smith from Fort Walton Beach, Florida through Facebook. He is building a Rat Rod Truck with his Grandfather, and they sent this story. – Rich Pierce
Story/Photos: Bubba Smith
It is a ’54 Dodge C1 low-side, on a 1985 Dodge RAM 50 frame with a 2.0L inline 4 cylinder and 5 speed tranny.
I bought it from a field where I saw it twice a day everyday on my way to and from work sitting for 5 or 6 years finally decided to stop and talk to the old man about it. He said no one has ever even asked about it. He said 400 and 4 cases of beer and it’s yours. I handed him four 100 dollar bills and walked to the store across the way and bought 4 cases of beer. I got back he had it loaded on his trailer said take it where you want and have my trailer back by sun up. I’m 26 I grew up watching my old man build and fix cars and motorcycles in a paint and body and mechanic shop it’s in my blood. When I showed up to my old mans house with it on a trailer he was more excited than I was.
We took the front end off the motor was hard to turn over so we soaked each cylinder with PB blaster for a week. Viola! It spun free the fuel pump worked and started pumping fuel to the glass bowled Holley carb. Few spin overs and she was alive.
The rear drum brakes were locked up. When I finally got the drum off, the brake shoes just fell out. Someone put them on backwards and they bound up. Got that all working, so I decided to build a mini stack up the center of the cab. I thought and thought on what I wanted to do for a bed I couldn’t afford to buy a old bed. I decided to go to the junkyard and get some bed rails. I cut them up and framed the bed out. On my way home I saw a pile of privacy fence planks someone was throwing away so I
stopped and grabbed them and decided to just make a bed with those! Once it was done I didn’t like the new looking wood so I took the torch to it and burnt it black and then water sealed it.
No one can understand why I kept the 4 cylinder. Why didn’t I put a V8 in it? lol I just Want to be different than everybody else. Everyone has a V8 in their hot rods, so I’m going to eventually have a turbo 4 cylinder in it!
I bought it in March 2016. I go to my grandpa’s house every Saturday and work on it with him. The time I get to spend in the garage with him is priceless to me!
All and all I have about 700 dollars into this rat rod build hoping to keep it under a thousand by the time we are finished with it!