OK. so the more i look at the bike, and the one in the picture, the less i'm liking my chances of the engine fitting. I want to be able to use aftermarket heads and other parts, and dont want to worry so much about not being able to fit things. I do love the bike, but may just leave it alone to pedal around when i get bored!
What i did find is something similar, another Electra cruiser, but without the gear shifter (which i like), front and rear breaks (which i really like), no fenders (i love the fenders on the rat rod, but i'm afraid of them getting bent and causing some serious problems), and a much much higher arched cross member on the frame. Its a great looking bike, and id do the same things to it i would on the Rat rod (rotating down the handle bars so they are not so freaking high, cutting down the part of the frame the seat goes into the lower the seat almost onto the frame, eventually putting in a custom made fiberglass tank in the frame, and putting an old school looking tachometer and speedometer on it). The problem is, its an almost 300 dollar bike, which is almost 3 weeks of paychecks for me (i'm finishing up my last year of high-school, so just a part time job). then after that three hundred dollars, another 150 for the engine kit, another 100 for some better parts to replace from the kit, not to mention an unknown cost for me ripping up and modifying the engine. and the $600+ cost is a little hard to justify as im dropping almost 7.5 grand on a Kawasaki ninja 650 in less than half a year :/
Hopefully i can convince my dad to help out a bit with this, hes a sucker for interesting DIY stuff!
anyways, here is the bike i was looking at, seems so much more simple than the rat rod just because of that cross bar on the frame
http://www.coastalurge.com/electra-cruiser-1-men-s.html#other-accessories-activator
just to clarify, i WILL be building a motorized bike, i just need to figure out if getting that bike would be better to justify the cost.