Thread: Ratrod Hearse (kinda)

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Since we have been too busy to do our yard haunt this year we are going to take our show on the road in a Ratrod style hearse. At least that is the plan anyways. It might look like this when we are done.

My builds have a tendancy to be pretty fluid. Always changing during the process depending on things go how things look, and how many trips have been made to the beer fridge...

This is what we're starting with.


Day one and the changes have already started. I decided to use my mower instead of the one my buddy gave me. Sure hope the grass doesn't grow much before Halloween... : )




That was the end of day one, let's see how it goes today.

Ohh, that's an awesome way to go Trick or Treating

UMMMMM, 3 of my fav things - Halloween prop building, power tools & beer.......& not in that order...LoL
Looks pretty cool so far !! Love to see the finished ratrod casket.

Looking good and really like the idea!

Awesome!!! My husband's grandmother has a riding lawn mower that we're getting soon!!! I think it's getting a makeover next year!! Can't wait to see more pics!

Without the coffin mounted, it looks like a long front end.

Got the frame work mounted for mock-up and there wasn't much room for candy, let alone ghosts and witches. Sooo another change. Had to shorten the main body and add a trailer.

This is with the trailer, which will carry the same lines of the mower/hearse.

With the coffin on, the front end looks sort of short and narrow. I'm going to widen the front end but I can live with the length.

After getting the framework mounted and standing back looking at it, I thought "OH SH!T, this thing is starting to look like Thomas". Hopefully it will take on a different look after the rest of it is put on, otherwise there will have to be some major changes... Can you imagine Count Dracula or The Grim Reaper riding "Thomas The Train"!!! I will lose sleep over this tonight. I'm sure they have a cure for this at my local DIY center. We'll see tomorrow.

How are those front wheels going to work (The White one's) if you turn the tractor wheels in the middle it's just going to drag the front one's sideways, if there's any weight on them they are not going to like it, you could run a rod back and make them also turn but stretched that far out they would have to turn a lot sharper than the back wheels. Moving them further back and raising them up so they float might be two possible solutions. Another one might be to raise them up and mount some caster style wheels hidden under there to keep them off the ground and they'd rotate independently allowing the front to swing around.
I dreamed once of building a hotrod based on the Nemo car off League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but I also heard the prop car was almost impossible to drive in real life due to these same reasons.


Either way, it's looking very cool man, just wanted to mention that potential issue if you plan on driving it, don't take this as negative just wanted to help early on before you got to a point you couldn't change if you needed too.
Mongo

Good lookin out Mongo. That front end came off of a 1967 Huffy mower. The spindle comes strait down and is centered on the wheel. I knew this was going to be a problem when I first looked at it. The Spindle itself is basically a 5/8 rod bent at a 90 degree angle. My fix for this is to make another spindle that comes down, bends back and then out where the hub is, that way it will act like a caster. The front end is seperate from the mower and turns on its own, as well as pivots up and down where it is tied into the frame of the mower. I left the steering attached to the front end because I am considering putting a small skellie dressed like a driver up there.

The kids and I spent the better part of the day running around to thrift stores and DIY centers getting build materials. We got a late start by the time we got home but we still managed to some time in on the hearse.




No more fudge brownies at Applebees for them...

Cool, glad to hear you had thought of that, would have been sad to see you get to that point then discover it and it was hard to see that in the pics. I really dig the route your going with it. I picked up a 67-72ish Cushman golfcart a couple weeks ago off CL and was thinking of decorating it up to extend the boys Trick or Treat range. My younger son was planning on being a cowboy so I had visions of our garden cart with his bouncy horse pulled behind but this morning he explaned to me that he's going to be a vampire now cause it's scary.. Next week it might be Vampire Cowboy got to love 4 year olds..
Happy Fabricating!!
MONGO

Great project to create with the family. Gotta love the creativeness.

I know where I can get a similar casket, but can I ask what you did with corpse???????????

Love it
Todd