My crew cab build restarted. Finally.

[mattgunguy]

Life gets ahead of us at times and other projects take precedence over others. Between buying a house in need of much love, a nasty custody case, blowing up other motors, replacing said blown up motors, and the incidentals of life. I just never got around to doing a proper roof for the ole girl.

So now with fewer projects going (has to be a joke right there somewhere), the Bronco up and mostly running, and the M818 limited to low range for the next "God only knows how long", but it's from a good cause. It's time to get Meredith up and in full trim finally (a real roof that doesn't leak and some paint).

Started digging out the old half forgotten parts and materials yesterday:

1" square tube. Guess that I use a bunch for something at some point. Probably will need more, but it's a start.
14 & 16 gauge sheet metal. Not really sure why I have a dozen sheets of this, but whatever. It'll get used eventually.
Bed lining. Still got 2 or 3 gallons of this stuff. Hope it's still good after sitting on the back porch for a couple years. Used the same crud on a shop truck for work & let me tell ya. This is some tuff stuff, if it's still good.
That groovy Field Olive paint. Why did I buy gallons of this stuff? Not that I'm complaining about it. Better to have to much than too little. Did an industrial oil base for some reason, so I know it's still good.
Found the back of the original hard top in the garage, so that'll make things a little simpler. I hope.

Been thinking about do some nicer seats while I'm at it, but who knows. I get side tracked easily. "Oooooohhhh butterflies".

Good times are a coming on this one kids.


Original thread from back when:
https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?139051-Crew-cab-build-started

 

[yolner]

Awesome. Though that bedliner is probably toast. Don't think the shelf life is too good on that stuff.

 

[mattgunguy]

I'm thinking happy thoughts, but it'll be as it will be.
Hey, on a positive note. I finally got around to inspecting the clutch today because it suddenly seemed to have excessive free travel. Figured it was about burnt up or worn out. Turns out there's just excessive gap between the throw out bearing and the fingers. Probably has 3/8" gap between the throw out bearing and the fingers. That and I kept comparing it with the 818 which has a almost new drive train. With the exception of the blasted transfer case. So just needed adjustment instead of replacement.

WINNING!!!

 

[rustystud]

Awesome. Though that bedliner is probably toast. Don't think the shelf life is too good on that stuff.

Depends on the brand. I've used "Herculiner" that was stored for 5 years and it still worked great.

 

[mattgunguy]

Progress. Got most of the frame for the roof figured out. Using parts from both a hard top and soft top. I'm aiming to have it still be removable.

 

[mattgunguy]

So I wasn't particularly happy with how it was shaping up, so I scraped plan A. Radius in the corners were to tight, and my sheet metal kept buckling and distorting. Could've made it to work, but it'd have bugged me.

So now I'm going for the MRAP look. Flat planes and right angles. Fancy way of saying "easier to do with the tools I have". But I think it'll tie in better with how I did the bed sides anyhow.

 

[Theo71]

I have seen pictures of crew cab hard tops that look like elongated versions of the original hard tops. They look nice but seem like they would be difficult to form out. I have recently seen the R.O.P.S. cabs on the 5 tons and thought that might be a nice look on a crew cab for a number of reasons. With the right support the roof could double as a viewing deck. If the headroom inside the cab was kept to a minimum cargo could be stored on top. If the roof line was raised the storage could be made inside the cab overhead or the back seats could be raised up for storage underneath them. I look forward to you solution to this. Thanks for sharing.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[M35a2duece]

I've seen some soft tops up here in Wisconsin replaced with plywood and 2x4s.... Works better than a ripped tarp in the winter. There's always the easy way out lol.

 

[mattgunguy]

Got some more done. More or less have the sub structure for the rear done. Ran out of carbon steel square tube unfortunately (blasted supplier didn't show up Friday), but I had some stainless tube around for some other projects. I don't particularly care for combining the two, but with a short time frame (KAMO rally is in a week). Ya do what you have too.
Started figuring out how to skin the dang thing also. Got about 30' of the panels I made to do the wheel wells of the bed left over still. Gonna have to cut em down a bit, as they're to wide as they are (see the picture), but it'll work.
Not particularly sure how I'm gonna do the front half yet. Got some ideas though. Going to have to figure out some weather stripping, but that's on down the line.
I'm toying with adding some cross bracing on the rear section and mounting an additional spare tire there. I'd have to come up with some kinda davit are to get it up there, but that's simple enough. I've got an old one at work made out of some 2.5" schedule 160 pipe at work I could probably score for cheap. Then it's just a matter of a socket welded in the bed. It'd go with the two bar holder fairly well.

Sorry for the crap pictures. Limited to the phone camera at the moment.

More to come kiddos.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Your younger than I thought you would be.(pic 5)

 

[mattgunguy]

That'd be my boy Wyatt. All round general go fer. Can't have him do much else. The education he gets from his mom is pathetic on some subjects. Didn't even know how to open a pair of visegrips till yesterday. Got his first welding lesson yesterday as well. Not that he's shown much inclination to learn. But he's slowly coming around and showing some signs of interest.

 

[rustystud]

That'd be my boy Wyatt. All round general go fer. Can't have him do much else. The education he gets from his mom is pathetic on some subjects. Didn't even know how to open a pair of visegrips till yesterday. Got his first welding lesson yesterday as well. Not that he's shown much inclination to learn. But he's slowly coming around and showing some signs of interest.

Is he another child lost to the computer game world ? That's where my boy is at. Though I can get him to help me on occasion.

 

[mattgunguy]

Is he another child lost to the computer game world ? That's where my boy is at. Though I can get him to help me on occasion.

No. He's not big on video games. I'm the video game addict of the family. Just hasn't had enough of a positive male influence in his life. I didn't get to see him for 3 years or so during a custody fight. That's probably got a good bit to do with it.