Builds Father, Son, and the Unholy UTE

[2fpower]

lookin good. i bet you could get a pair of those prerunner bedsides to stick on there and line up properly with the cab. would cover the rear wheels too.

I will take a look; however, plan is to make sides out of the original landcruiser metal.

 

[2fpower]

Got the heavy duty LCA’s installed.

 

[2fpower]

Hey @7powernerd check out these bumper ideas.

 

[jkdowty]

Hey @7powernerd check out these bumper ideas.View attachment 1649979 View attachment 1649980 View attachment 1649981

That almost looks like @RDC76 type bumper...

 

[2fpower]

we have been looking at rear bumper options for some time. Of course, it really is a Taco rear bumper more than an 80. I like the idea of rear step as the bed is really high.

 

[2fpower]

Yoda did awesome at compacting gravel for driveway project.

 

[2fpower]

about three weeks until the family vacation so of course I waited till now to start the bed project on the Ute. Lots of stuff to do here, got some plans and ideas, and some big looming questions. To catch everyone up, when we parted out the rest of the original shell, I took the rear door skins and the rear quarters off. We used some small chunks when we worked on Mike’s rig Pete @StucknKS The plan is to use these chunks to make bedsides to match the front half of the car. With any luck, it should look factory. Here is picture of holding up the door skin to see how the wheel well lines up.

The plan is to weld some inch and three-quarter OD pipe to the bed to give us the radius we wanted to match the front. Then will weld the panels to the pipe and then from the pipe over to the original bed top. Not going to use DOM here, but ECW. Should be a much stronger top edge, and will put up with some abuse.

The big question is how we’re going to do the tail lights. While the top of the bed is about inch and three-quarter wider on each side, where the taillight is, it’s more like 2.5 inches wider. As these lights are usually damage magnets, my initial thought was to put some tubing down from the top to have the lights recessed some. In our test for today, my concern is there too far recessed.

So now my thoughts are either bringing the tail light out some or dovetailing the rear corner.

 

[2fpower]

Out of the planning phase and into the grinding and welding phase.

Before:

Guesstimated that a quarter inch spacer was needed, so put on the first side

Then on to the other side. Got lucky, worked out to be dead perfectly the right size spacer.

Need to loosen the bed and shifted 1/16th of an inch over, then start working on the sheet metal

 

[Jgunner]

Hey @7powernerd check out these bumper ideas.View attachment 1649979 View attachment 1649980 View attachment 1649981

Ha! I see my bumper has at least one admirer. I need to post a “welded” shot or two. Need to figure out my swinger.

 

[2fpower]

Yesterday I pulled the bed and adjusted the bolt holes to perfectly center the bed, and today start working on the actual bedsides. I knew that once I cut the edges of the door off, it would get very flimsy the first thing I did was cut a profile to match the cab Section and welded onto the door skin.

You can see all the beating on the door skin as this was V2.0 on mike's rig, @FZJ80 in KC

 

[2fpower]

Filled in the door handle. @Mieser trick.

 

[2fpower]

After we cut the front of the door to match the cab, then started reinforcing the backside. I do this with a scrap piece of steel and put it at an acute angle and weld it in. When we built the cab we did a obtuse angle (see bottom pic) so in the end you shouldn’t see the gap between the cab and the bed

 

[2fpower]

Made lots of progress on the truck bed this weekend. Took taco skin off,

Mounted cargo hold down system

Backside all stainless

And front side installed

 

[2fpower]

Here’s a picture of the fitment between the bed and the cab. Did some minor adjustments but really happy how it turned out. With all the heat from welding, had some distortion on the edge, so I did have to stack up some welds and will bondo level.

Filling in the old gas access

And cutting in the Tacoma gas door in front of the wheel Well

I find it easier cutting the whole larger then using the notcher so after you weld it it’s pretty much flush

Never have enough clamps

More.

 

[2fpower]

And here’s how we ended the weekend... Probably have 20 hours on it over the weekend. Hopefully things speed up...... Goal is to have it ready to paint by end of next weekend.

 

[2fpower]

Last nights project was to work on the filler between the old bed and the new bedside. No fancy tricks here, just some cardboard patterns.

 

[2fpower]

great thinking news today. Been trying to figure out how to do the tail lights. Don't like damage magnets -- stock lights.... but found these round trailer lights that seem to fit the part. should fit with theme and the space in the rear.

 

[2fpower]

Pic.

 

[2fpower]

Looks kind of like Frankenstein, but really happy with it. Once I put some mud on it, you’ll understand If you look closely we matched the rear profile to match the tailgate, and skewed the angle to soften up a bit

 

[2fpower]

Test fit.