that 4.7 is going to feel like a 5.7 after her "diet"
100 Series Ute Conversion (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter kittric
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following along....
- Thread starter
- #64
2020 rocks - I am excited to take it take it for a spin with the lighter load. I will probably just rig up some tail lights first so I don't have any additional weight from a flat bed!
and abuck99, you are right, that top nut is a pain to get to when you change out the shocks, this will make that job A LOT easier.
With the window area some what squared away, I moved onto finishing out the lower portion. It was a pretty straight forward process of filling in the last bits with sheet metal cut to size and ground down further with a flapper disk or grinder if overhanging the edge to far.
As mentioned earlier I had a 4'x4' scrap piece of sheetmetal. This is what was left over after filling in the back. A pretty efficient use of scrap metal if I do say so myself.
and abuck99, you are right, that top nut is a pain to get to when you change out the shocks, this will make that job A LOT easier.
With the window area some what squared away, I moved onto finishing out the lower portion. It was a pretty straight forward process of filling in the last bits with sheet metal cut to size and ground down further with a flapper disk or grinder if overhanging the edge to far.
As mentioned earlier I had a 4'x4' scrap piece of sheetmetal. This is what was left over after filling in the back. A pretty efficient use of scrap metal if I do say so myself.
- Thread starter
- #65
I initially planned on making vents at the lower corners of the back window, but decided to try and incorporate the factory ones since they would let more air out. Luckily there was just enough room to fit it between the vertical bracing I had already installed. From this picture you can also see a piece of flat stock I used to push the side impact tube back against the door so it wouldn't flop around.
The vents have a little curve to them, but hopefully I can eventually blend it with the flat panel.
With the vents in, it made the back look a little less plain. The other added benefit is, if both doors are slammed at the same time hopefully the back window wont blow out!
The vents have a little curve to them, but hopefully I can eventually blend it with the flat panel.
With the vents in, it made the back look a little less plain. The other added benefit is, if both doors are slammed at the same time hopefully the back window wont blow out!
That is coming together nicely. Awesome work!! 
lstamatis
Overland Traveler
I'm thoroughly impressed with the speed at which this is coming together! At the beginning I'll admit I was very skeptical. Nice work!
Me gusta!
This is great to see someone doing something different. And to think, I felt bad drilling a snorkel hole on my first 100! I'm super excited to see how you finish the bed, and also the final weight of the truck if you can get to a truck stop scale hopefully.
Your UTE is really impressive! I'd love to hear an estimate on how many hours you have into it once you're done. You're making this whole project look too easy
Cheers,
Scot
Cheers,
Scot
Excited to see how this turns out, as stated earlier, I cut the rear of a tundra with the roll down window. Measurements are damn near identical to the 100 series for width. Finishing up my SAS and getting it dialed before I start to chop mine.
- Thread starter
- #72
That piece off of the tundra would have been nice to have sitting in my shop at the start of the build. Can't wait to see how you put it together. Make sure you take lots of pictures!
- Thread starter
- #73
So now I am at a point of welding all the seems I can get to and trying to grind things down to a reasonable surface prior to coating. At least my impatient welds look better after a little love from the grinder.
Another spot I have been trying to figure out to do was the rain gutter area. I initially thought about filling it flush in some way, but now plan on leaving it alone. I had some stainless socket screws plugging the holes from the removed roof rack and was able to find matching bolts from the excess parts I have lying around that matched the existing mount points a few inches back.
I might end up making some type of separate rack over the cab for my lumber rack plans now. I actually like this rough look for the existing hard points and have no desire to cover over even if I do nothing else in this area.
Another spot I have been trying to figure out to do was the rain gutter area. I initially thought about filling it flush in some way, but now plan on leaving it alone. I had some stainless socket screws plugging the holes from the removed roof rack and was able to find matching bolts from the excess parts I have lying around that matched the existing mount points a few inches back.
I might end up making some type of separate rack over the cab for my lumber rack plans now. I actually like this rough look for the existing hard points and have no desire to cover over even if I do nothing else in this area.
Great progress - looks awesome so far.
ramangain
Clarksonian disciple
How much for a fully bolt-on kit?
- Thread starter
- #76
The back window lower seal had a few issues with how the finished look would turn out. I figured the easiest way to cover it over was by using some light gauge bent angle from the hardware store. Then trim 1 side down and flatten it a bit in order to match the slopes on the first row windows.
With the test piece looking good enough for who it's for, I went ahead and cut them full length and tacked them in. I will probably break out the tig welder to finish these welds. I decided to have this trim step up a little bit because I thought it would end up looking better this way than trying to match the front door perfectly. Let a lone the difficulty of trying to match the front door perfectly!
Close enough for me!
With the test piece looking good enough for who it's for, I went ahead and cut them full length and tacked them in. I will probably break out the tig welder to finish these welds. I decided to have this trim step up a little bit because I thought it would end up looking better this way than trying to match the front door perfectly. Let a lone the difficulty of trying to match the front door perfectly!
Close enough for me!
- Thread starter
- #77
So I think I pretty much got 99% of the welds done on the cab last night. I first tried using the tig welder on the door window trim and was having a hard time getting it dialed in with my new machine. So I went the lazy route and went back to mig, unfortunately I was a little greedy on my heat inputs and caused some oil canning on the door skin, as shown.
I also put some welds that I missed from the interior side. The plan is to hopefully get all the seam sealer in tomorrow evening so that I can start figuring out the interior.
Other than that, I plan on just cleaning up the welds on the outside with the flapper or grind disks and apply some bondo in areas I feel it is needed. I am hopeful that with a 3 day weekend coming up, I can get to the application of some stuff that arrived in the mail yesterday!
I also put some welds that I missed from the interior side. The plan is to hopefully get all the seam sealer in tomorrow evening so that I can start figuring out the interior.
Other than that, I plan on just cleaning up the welds on the outside with the flapper or grind disks and apply some bondo in areas I feel it is needed. I am hopeful that with a 3 day weekend coming up, I can get to the application of some stuff that arrived in the mail yesterday!
- Thread starter
- #79
Yep, I replaced my old tig welder at the start of the project thinking tig would work better for this project. The 20 year old mig welder I grabbed out of my dads shop is what I ended up using 99% of the time. You can see in the picture the heat line from the tig weld going 3 times further out than the mig. It seemed that playing around with your travel speed (moving faster) or doing really small welds at a time worked best with mig and the thin material.
Of course it could just be user error on my part also, like I said it is a new tig machine for me, and since mig was getting the job done that is what I defaulted to.
If some one is thinking about doing something similar, with limited welding experience, I would 100% recommend going with mig for the whole project.
Really great project to follow. Thanks for documenting!
How are folks insuring these ute conversions? Can't imagine an insurance company agreeing to anything beyond liability.
How are folks insuring these ute conversions? Can't imagine an insurance company agreeing to anything beyond liability.
