55 days and 166 miles to SMORR 2013

[2fpower]

Hillbilly pipe bending

So, as you see, we are trying to have a gentle curve across the pipe. To do this, I was putting in the tube in the front of my tractor to hold it firmly and pulling down on the 10 foot length. Worked fine and I just made several small pulls to make the gentle curve.

Then I decided to bend a shorter section. I had no leverage and it would not budge. Had to think a little bit and came up with put it in the same hole, then go and put the other end on a tree stump and then drop the forks of the tractor, brining the tractor front end off the ground.

Amazing, but we ended up with exactly what we wanted...

The second picture has the original and the new one we made opposite each other so you can see how much we bent it.

 

[fstbll42]

Colors
Attached Images

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So have you ordered the monsterliner? I am thinking of doing the orange and white. curious to see how it looks on the body especially since you have no roof. I bet it will look killer!
Great build.

 

[2fpower]

I have been corresponding with the mostaliner owner, trying to get Cygnus white made. Sounds like he's going to try to make it next week. I did not like the look of their pure white.

 

[jeffro109]

I used the white on my cruiser (it is white but not as white as the liner). Did not like the colors of the liner and body, but left the pure white on the roof and did another coat on the lower portions with tint matched at teh local auto paint store...turned out good.

 

[2fpower]

More progress

 

[2fpower]

Thanks to lots of good friends, we got all the tube doors bent and tacked in place. We also got all the rollbar bent and tacked into place. I have lots of welding, grinding and finishing to do; however, I am super excited about all the progress made this weekend.

I underestimated the time to make the tube doors by a longshot.... I know now that there is no way Foo would be ready for SMORR without this groups help. Long live TAC.

Will post up pics soon.

 

[2fpower]

PICS

Pics of the rollbar work. Just need to grind and clean it all up!!

 

[2fpower]

Here is the sketch my son made and then the doors as completed. Need to plug the top holes of the doors and clean up the welds, then add the latches.

 

[2fpower]

Trying to decide if I want the doors black or orange given the lower orange coloring.

I have powdercoat orange and black, so let me know your thoughts. I can't say ever seeing painted tube doors that i liked.

Hmmmmmm???

 

[PDoyle]

I love orange,but... my vote is too go with an oem color. I think you will like it for a longer period of time.
I think colors like orange are too trendy.IMO...

 

[2fpower]

I love orange,but... my vote is too go with an oem color. I think you will like it for a longer period of time.
I think colors like orange are too trendy.IMO...

Thanks.... I did get a chuckle that your avatar is an orange bus....

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Took me a min to figure out why you notched the top of the tube on the door.. Had I known that was the direction you wanted the top to lie we could have notched the "hinge" portion of the door instead of the Top portion.. Regardles.. was a successful tubing bending adventure. I vote for doors whatever color the side where the doors are going to be..
ANd I honestly am not sure about the white.. i'd go a tan color.. I just thing the rough texture white would retain dirt particles a lot more.
Looking great! Congrats on getting some stuff done..

 

[2fpower]

Took me a min to figure out why you notched the top of the tube on the door.. Had I known that was the direction you wanted the top to lie we could have notched the "hinge" portion of the door instead of the Top portion.. Regardles.. was a successful tubing bending adventure. I vote for doors whatever color the side where the doors are going to be..
ANd I honestly am not sure about the white.. i'd go a tan color.. I just thing the rough texture white would retain dirt particles a lot more.
Looking great! Congrats on getting some stuff done..

The notch you see is a work in progress. I am going to fill in the holes on top of the tube doors, so it will look like they are mitered together. I cut/ground them to rough shape of the tube that is hitting them, now I need to fill. Just saw a youtube video saying to cut the same diameter pipe with tube notcher at 90 degrees with a holesaw that is same ID as pipe ID. should give me a decent plug piece to put in the hole and weld up. I will grind the outer edge and round it to be kid friendly.

Thanks for the help. Couldn't of done it without ya.

 

[PDoyle]

Thanks.... I did get a chuckle that your avatar is an orange bus....

My truck is orange. Just on the inside.

 

[Robkc]

I concur on tube doors same color as the body at that area. The one pic you had of black tube doors next to orange body looked a bit odd.

 

[2fpower]

Well, pictures are out of order, but you'll get the idea. Robkc came over and helped get the tube doors just about finished. We cut plugs for the open holes of the tubes and welded them up. See last pic.

Rob spent lots of time grinding my welds down to make them pretty. :whoops:

I mounted large 7/8 nuts for the plunge locking door catches. They appear to really work great. The nut allows me to adjust them if the cab gets tweaked.

Then we made the mounts for the Metal Tech mirrors. Spent a bunch of time noodling how to make these doors look custom, and decided to make this bracket larger and cut in something below it. Thought about the FZJ, 80, FOO, all sorts of things, but ended up with 80t .... 80 series topless, or 80 series throwback, or 80 series tubedoors.

With the font that I looked at, it almost looks like got.... as in "got foo?"

Still need to run over the welds again and get them ready for rattle can paint. I can't decide on a color, so I am going with a grey color for now, and can easily blast them and take them to the powdercoater later.

 

[2fpower]

Started on the corners too. This will be the weekend project when time allows.

Oh, before anyone reminds me. Foo needs to be on the trailer in 14 days. With that we have the essential list....

Short list...

tube doors finished and painted

rollbar welds cleaned up and painted .. make cb antenna mount

corners hammered out and primed

CB installed

seats in / seatbelts

make bracket to depress door sensors, or figure out way to override.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

On the door sensors, look at the factory schematic. I am pretty sure it's grounded at the switch. Just unplug the wire going to the switch? Not like your wiring isn't hanging out flapping in the wind right now.
It might goto all 4 doors at once and hatch would probably be seperate ground.

 

[2fpower]

Good idea. Thanks! YOU WON A BEER!!!

Speaking of, I am assuming I should order a keg for SMORR.... suggestions?

 

[2fpower]

12 days left.....

Got the doors welded and cleaned up and the last mirror mount installed..... all ready for paint.

Robkc came by again and started cleaning up welds on rollbar.