Little Red Rust Bucket - M416ish build (1 Viewer)

[ethernectar]

The day I picked it up, over in Santa Barbara, CA.

The rust buckety part.

Naval Jelly and elbow grease.

Welder set up.

First holes patched.

Bed holes patched.

Paraphernalia.

Been a busy morning. Ran to the auto parts store to get a few things. Then have been cutting and grinding all morning.

Added a back-stop to the tailgate opening. It'll keep dust out and helped stiffen the bed.

The existing rails are beat to heck. Going to cap them with some C channel.

Caps all cut and partially de-scaled (inside for starters).

Made a bunch of loops and lashing points for cargo and for the tailgate chain.

Tie downs in place - welds are ugly but solid.

New rails in place - looks a lot nicer.

 

[Gary crouch]

Nice job... I like the way you handled the top rails with the channels that should make a good seal on the lid. I just used some weather stripping from home depot.
What else is in the plans?
Gary

 

[ethernectar]

Thanks Gary.

Today I finished off the caps and primed the inside of the tub.

More priming, then paint and bedliner in the next few days. Plus some gas can carriers. Then onto a top of some sort.

 

[Thornton]

Over all it looks like you've got yourself a good solid trailer to start with. Looks like you're putting a lot of thought into it. Good luck on your project

 

[ethernectar]

Finished up some end caps on the new rails.

Welded on a spare tire carrier from Harbor Freight.

Slopped on primer (DuPont Tuffkote 2.5 PR).

Horizontal gas can carriers will go in front of the fender, one on each side. These are probably about 1/2 way done. Gotta figure out a few things for the next step...

DIY bedliner. Its not as pretty as Line-x, but it'll only cost about $100 bucks when its finished to do the bed, inside tailgate and front of the tub.

 

[AustinCruiser]

I like what you're doing with this trailer. Good work!

 

[ethernectar]

Worked on the gas can carriers after work today. They're not pretty, but they're utilitarian, lol. Then put a coat of primer on the outside sides. Looks a lot better even with only the primer.

Tomorrow will clean up the can carriers, hit a few more spots with primer and do some housework for a change, lol.

#

Nice bit of progress this saturday. Sprayed the sides in a dupli-color that is close to my 4Runner. Hoping that it'll darken up a touch when I hit it with the clear coat.

Have abandoned the gas can carriers. Lesson learned about measure twice cut once and designing on the fly. They'll just have to go inside until I find a suitable alternative.

Almost decided on the lid design. Going to raise the edges another 4-5 inches and then do a flat top hinged lid with a rack. For my first build I'm a fan of keeping it simple, yet still working the way I want it to.

 

[ethernectar]

Last night welded on the latches to the tailgate:

Painted some trim too...

This morning I built new (and simpler) gas can mounts - they work great.

Installed cables on the tailate

Almost complete with phase 1! Final step in that is to replace the axle/hubs and add wheels to match my 4Runner. Then onto the lid! I've got almost everything I need for that except the skin. If I wasn't traveling for work this weekend I'd have the lid framed out tomorrow...

Thinking that when I do the axle I'll go on top of the spring. It doesn't need this much heigh

 

[Rubiconcruiser]

Where in good old Santa Barbara were you lucky enuf to locate this rare beauty lookin good so far.

 

[ethernectar]

Framed the lid tonight. Tomorrow will do some grinding and try to figure out why I have no reverse lights...

Welded on the lid/hinge and some hasps this eve.

Now need to figure out what kind of struts, and how I'm going to close the top off. Thinking either steel sheet metal or aluminum diamond plate...

Very sturdy, no warp or twist at all.

Registered the trailer this afternoon down at the DMV and glad to know it doesn't need reverse lights.

 

[ethernectar]

Where in good old Santa Barbara were you lucky enuf to locate this rare beauty lookin good so far.

Tracked it down on Craigslist

 

[ethernectar]

Welded on the lid/hinge and some hasps this eve.

Now need to figure out what kind of struts, and how I'm going to close the top off. Thinking either steel sheet metal or aluminum diamond plate...

Very sturdy, no warp or twist at all.

Registered the trailer this afternoon down at the DMV and glad to know it doesn't need reverse lights.

###

Getting closer to finishing this stage!

Today, in-between other chores, I added the risers for the crossbars, added some support next to those and cut the diamondplate skin (aluminum) to fit.

Tomorrow will lay the skid down with some silicon and start riveting, then weld the cross-bars on top and finish up some painting.

###

Lid cover riveted in place.

Stage 1, almost complete...

Mounted a shovel, axe, and fire extinguisher (not shown).

Had a mishap while crawling inside the trailer, but worked out the issue. Added different locks and some reflective tape.

 

[ethernectar]

Today was a 12 hour trailer day.

'Kitchen' counter - 1' x 4' x 1" solid red oak.

Little baggies add up fast, and still fell 2 bolts short due to a change in plans.

Tie down rails added to front of lid. Will hold awning or firewood.

Brackets fabbed.

Hoorah! Struts installed.

###

Today I got up, attached the rail for the kitchen 'counter' and installed that.

And some LRRB stickers I had cut out of vinyl.

Then hit the road and drove a couple hours over to Moss Landing to look at the Tepui tent there. The guys were helpful and did the install as well.

Sidebar - with my lid and the tent on top, the 2 250lb gas struts are perfect.

Unfortunately I'm traveling for work at the end of the month for almost two weeks, so I'm not going to get a chance to give it a test run until mid/late June.

Oh, my spare tire mount didn't work out, so will have another revision to that tomorrow, if this 4th iteration doesn't work out I may start over with a different solution altogether.

 

[Brian in Oregon]

Nicely done.

 

[Sanchez]

super clean sir!

 

[titanpat57]

Came out great!

 

[Rubiconcruiser]

Looking good there, nice cap system on the rails, makes for a very stable platform I am sure, Youi may want to reconsider the hinge on the top as most utilize the curbside for access, 1 for safety if you stop on the highway for repairs etc. good show.

 

[Rubiconcruiser]

You may also want to consider photoshopping the license plate so the letters fade out. only precautionary.

 

[ethernectar]

Bought an ARB fridge and needed a stand-alone power supply to go with. Did a little DIY. Still plan on installing a separate dual-battery system in the runner, have the IBS setup, just waiting on the cell. This is a stand-alone box that can go anywhere.

Toolbox w/ battery holder riveted in

12V outlets and switches installed

Yellowtop installed

Outlet/Switch

Bluesea fuse block installed (will be adding more circuits as needed)

Viola!

 

[ethernectar]

Shakedown trip this weekend: