Taxi Transformed Into Rat-Rod In Seven Days | RIDICULOUS RIDES

AN ECCENTRIC mechanic has converted a London taxi into a crazy rat-rod van in just seven days. 44-year-old Paul Bacon, from Leicestershire, spent £450 on a traditional black cab and with the help of some timber, fibreglass and expanding foam he managed to construct a rusty rat-rod that he now uses for work. It took Paul just a week to finish the project – and he admits that he can no longer drive around his local town without receiving a few strange looks.Show more

Videographer / director: Alex Wilkinson
Producer: Danny Baggott, Ruby Coote
Editor: Thom Johnson

AN ECCENTRIC mechanic has converted a London taxi into a crazy rat-rod van in just seven days.
44-year-old, Paul Bacon, spent £450 on a traditional black cab and with the help of some timber, fibreglass and expanding foam he managed to construct a rusty rat-rod that he now uses for work.
It took Paul just a week to finish the project – and he admits that he can no longer drive around his local town without receiving a few strange looks.
Paul, from Leicestershire, told Barcroft TV: “A lot of people that first see the van say it looks like something from a horror movie.
“But really, I just needed a van real quick.
“Initially, I was looking at taxis to use their chassis, but then it occurred to me I could actually take one and convert it into a van.
“So I bought a taxi for around £450, I cut the back end off, built a timber frame and then started to construct the new shape.”
Paul did the majority of the work on the taxi inside his workshop at Cyclone Works.
The entire process cost a little over £1,000 – which Paul thinks is money well spent.
“I use the van every day as my own personal transport so you know it’s pretty good,” he said.
“A lot of people smile, people wave, people come out and ask me a lot of questions about the van.
“It starts every morning, carries a lot of junk in the back – that’s all you need from a van really.”
With a rusty paint exterior, Paul added a cyclone-style cooler on the side of his front window to maintain the rat-rod theme.
The driver’s seat is taken from a 1974 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow that Paul predicted would fit perfectly.
The engine is a standard 2.7 Nissan diesel that comes in all London taxis and whilst the van was never built for speed, Paul has managed to reach 65mph.
He said: “I’ve really liked cars all my life – particularly custom cars and hot-rods.
“And this is the most usable vehicle I have built. It doesn’t have a sparkling performance, but it has bullet-proof reliability.”
ENDS.