Hey Travis. Great job on the mods so far. I just checked out your web site and all I can say is "wow". I'm so jealous that you got to do that North America trip. Love all the pics. I've always wanted to tackle the Dalton Highway and the Dempster Highway That goes from Yukon to the Northwest Territories. Good luck on your next trip. I'll keep an eye on this thread.

 

I dont know how I managed to miss this thread!! This is simply and awesome build, and it looks like it is coming along nicely!! Keep up he good work. Cant wait to see more

 

WoW!!! Very cool. Good work, I will be keep an eye on your build thread and your website.

 

Holy shiznit! Dude, you have you serious skill and paitence!

Brenton

 

Onto the roof...

Since I'll be creating a completely new roof section I'll need to meet the stock curve. To accomplish this I start with some scrap 3/4 inch plywood. I then measure the front section of the roof's curvature. From the measurements I create and ark on the plywood. Then I rough cut with a bandsaw and clean up with a belt sander.




Now I create a wooden frame to hold the arc molds in place and at the right hight.




Verifying the two pieces are the correct hight I place a strait metal bar across the gap.




Next I cut a piece of 20 gauge steel to fit into the gap. I cut 2 inches longer than I need to rough fit everything and slide it under the current roof sections




The roof is marked then cut to fit. As you can see from the additional line I messed up, luckily I caught it before I started to cut. Measure twice, cut once!!!

 

More of the same overlapping backing to weld on.




Roof welded into place. Since there is a lot of room for warping, I'll be taking a day or two to weld this up. I start by running spot welds a few inches apart. Over time I will continue to spot weld between the other welds until its fully welded.




While between welding the roof, I start to get ready to work on the wheel well of the cab.



More in a day or two...

 

you are making my dream cab, make another for me! lol

 

x2 I would kill that have that on my truck

 

Wow its come along way in the 2 weeks since I checked this thread!

 

looks really good, i like how you made the wheel well arched again

 

Simply amazing what you are doing. Definetly original. I love it.

 

my god that is some sweet work....that truck is going to be bad *** when its done.

 

Damnnn dude u are amazing haha!

 

it looks just like a sport trac to me

 

Very nice. Are you going to put a roll cage on the inside of it?

 

Show me the money :D hehe I had though once I'm finished about producing these, but its a lot of work. Material cost isn't much, but my time would rack up fast.

 

To fill in the upper side panel, I start with constuction paper roughly cut and taped in place.




From the inside I trace where the pattern should be cut. After Cutting I tape it into place for a dry fitting.




Once the pattern is correct I trace onto sheet steel and cut out the filler panel.




At the bottom of the panel there is a small curve that I will have to recreate. I mark the top, bottom and middle of the curves position. You can also see the backing strips that I've been making to merge the bodywork together.

 

Using a custom built bender I create the smaller curve.




Once bent into shape I clamp the panel in place and begin to weld.




Side shots of driver and passenger side panel in place.

 

Nice work!

 

nice work man it looks sweet.....did you finish the roof?

 

wow. very nice

 

Thanks! Yep, the top of the roof is all welded up. I need to grind the welds flush then create the curve from the roof to the side panels.

 

mad props, this truck is gonna mob deep.

 

holy crap this is one amazing build it all looks great

 

wow...