The Bacon & Blue Cheese Express ( AKA The Camping Truck) (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Nov 7, 2008
Threads
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574
Location
Brisbane
So a couple of weeks ago my brother and I collected this 55 from Glenn ( @serenity ), and I said I'd start my own build thread when I had figured out more of a plan and gotten myself organised.

His build thread is here ://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/aussie-55-restomod.835258/,
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So all stories involve a little bit of an adventure and this was ours.
My brother and I borrowed a trailer from a friend and headed North from Brisbane to Gladstone on an overcast Friday afternoon. Our plan was to camp overnight North of Childers in a rest stop. Upon arrival the only available places were under large gum trees, and they have a tendency to lose limbs when its wet and windy ( which it was), and the prospect of that happening when in a swag wasn't ideal.

My brother found an alternative camp site, so we kept on rolling. It was now about 7 o'clock at night and I I was beginning to think something was up when we turned away from the highway and were quickly surrounded by sugar can farms and there was a serious lack of artificial light. The campsite we pulled into had a serious scooby doo vibe, no lights on, no one around and the rain made what light was there glow. My brother got out with a torch and had a look around at the reception area, but saw no signs of life. As he turned around, a figure appeared in the shadows and asked us what we were doing, and chastised us for not calling and complaining it was a bit late. It was 7:50 and he was in his underwear. When we explained what we wanted, he directed us to reverse through a gate into a field. My brother decided to turn around by driving over a campsite which resulted in us getting kicked out ( Old mate was still in his underwear swearing at us and he hadn't turned the lights on). Apparently we had wrecked the camp area by driving across wet ground. I chalked it up as part of the adventure, my brother left a google review of the camp grounds.

Eventually found a place to pull up for the night, rolled out the swags and drifted off to sleep with the sound of the nearby refrigerator trucks generating humming away. Ahh the serenity.

Next day we made an early start after to talking to a grey nomad about an accident that had occured a couple of nights before involving three B doubles and a caravan, and had resulted to damage to the highway. Passed the area safely and got to Glenn's place about 9:30. Thankfully Glen had managed to get the doors and front sheet metal back on the car which was a big help. We struggled with getting the tail gate back on, but gerry rigged it with a ratchet strap and it was good to go. After packing everything into tubs and loading up the 55 and my brothers ute we were ready to start the 55 and get it loaded up.

I let Glenn have the honors of driving it onto the trailer. It was a bittersweet moment I think as he had had big plans but health issues had put an end to them.
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So all loaded up strapped down we drove the 6 or so hours home with my new acquisition. It got a lot of attention along the way, lots of waves and smiles and its helped my brothers Instagram account a lot.

Since getting it home I've been assessing things, re organising the hastily packed tubs and putting the back seat in so my 3 year old son can play a little. He's dubbed it the camping truck, my wife and I have named it after our preferred hang over cure, a Bacon and Blue cheese sandwich.

If you've made it this far, well done, these are my plans:
Fix the rust and go from Brown to Blue ( cadet, military( FJ Cruiser color), or maybe royal)
Get an exhaust on it;
Air con,
sound proofing,
Disc Brakes and booster/master upgrade;
70 series parabolic springs
255/85r16 tyres

At a later stage I'll look at a gearbox change, either 5 speed or maybe auto, and changing over to a hand brake rear diff.

Hope thats enough pics to start with. Only other thing I've done is refurb the fan motor box, and thats not too interesting. I'm in the middle of diagnosing why my FJ45 cranks but has no spark, so might be a while before an update on the 55.
 
Good find mate and a great story!
 
I may be the only one, but I’ll miss the brown...

Congrats on a great project, always great support here from this rowdy bunch!
 
Good work, looks like it will be a fun year or 5 on the project. I know it's a long way away but I used the carbuilders sound proofing onto Melbourne on my pig and I'm pretty happy with the results asked their shipping time was insane. Still pretty loud but it has taken the reverberations out of the cabin, the tinniness out and is the difference between industrial deafness on a long drive and just plain normal deafness.
 
So, first rust repair. Having never done any body work before I figured the best place to start was somewhere that wasn't as noticeable.
And the radiator support has a couple of areas that need some attention.
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So I broke out the angle grinder and took the first layer off to reveal .. more rust, so the second layer was cut out.
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First layer on;
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Second layer pre grinding... I got impatient and tried running a bead, even though I should have been spot welding it.
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But that's what grinders are for! Its still no concourse job, but I was more concerned with getting good penetration and having something that wasn't going to break on me.
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So I learnt a lot with these couple of pieces. Namely, try and make the patch piece fit as close as possible, and if you are doing two layers such as this, make sure the substrate is much wider than the top piece so you have good material to weld to. I know these are obvious, but in my eagerness to get started I somehow overlooked them.

Next up will be the LHS support bracket that has been cut and drilled in a couple of places, I may end up plating the vertical length of it, but need to verify radiator fit/ wiggle room.
 
Thats why you wear pants when 🤔 welding 🤣🤣🤣🤣😳🐷🍻
I knew I was doing something wrong. Next you'll tell me my Kiwi safety boots (UGG BOOTS) aren't up to code.

Finished up the other side this morning.
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Some of my welds are a bit agricultural ( no disrespect to the farming community), but those areas were hard to get into. Gave it a coat of flat black and called it a day. Next up is to clean up the other panels and bolt it back on the chassis to tidy up the engine bay.
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At the rate your going and the enthusiasm you have for attacking this pig, it is going to come out great.
 
At the rate your going and the enthusiasm you have for attacking this pig, it is going to come out great.

Thanks, I've been given a Christmas deadline to get it on the road so we can go camping. Hold your admiration until you see some of my work in good light and on body work. I don't think its an impossible deadline, if I don't do everything on the list, and starting with a half disassembled car has made some things a little easier.

The Kung Flu has thrown a spanner in the works though, parts that normally arrive within a week or so are on back order, and that includes consumable items. But I'd rather wait an extra week and be safe than be a statistic.
 
Apart from getting good penetration, my other concern was splatter and if I was going to set the bush on fire!

Unless you have some crabs you need to get rid of, then problem solved!

Thats why you wear pants when 🤔 welding 🤣🤣🤣🤣😳🐷🍻

See above - 👆
 

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