Gone surfing...

holy hardware Jason...are you upgrading the rear axle?

 

not yet ...

 

Sorry, I've been lagging on the updates lately. I've been working on the camper shell project on the weekends recently :

First step was to cut 1" off of the bottom of the shell. Since the shell was designed to overlap the OE bedsides if I just sat it on top of the new bedsides it would stick up higher than the cab. This image shows the bottom of the shell with the 1" cut off of the bottom & in the process of grinding off tons of adhesive that was in that channel for the old carpet and weather seals :



Next step was to fill those channels with poly foam not for any structural purpose simply to fill that cavity so it would not amplify road noise :



Next step was to mow the foam off and then lay up some chopped mat to encapsulate it :

Note - all of that discoloration on the inside of the shell is just the old carpet glue baking in the sun...actually makes it easier to grind off as it gets crusty in the sun.



Next step was to bond 1/4" fiberglass panels to the bottom of the camper shell, this was done with both fiberglass and 3/8 counter sunk bolts through the bottom of the panel grabbing flushed weld nuts through the top of the inner lip. I used 6 bolts per side... probably overkill but I like the idea of the mechanical attachment in addition to the chemical bond from the fiberglass products. The fiberglass panel is not bonded in this photo, it was flushed with the front corner before it was bonded. I am also filling the third brake light and filling the mounting holes from the roof rack during this process because I will run my chase bar with brake lights on the back of the new roof rack as well.

The red line represents approx how it will be trimmed to match the bedside & the blue lines represent how it will be filled & blended with foam & fiberglass :





Next steps this weekend :

1. Temp install the new weather seal on the bottom of the fiberglass panel and put the shell back on the truck. The weather seal is approx 1/4" compressed so it is important to have it installed before I trace the bedside lines onto the fiberglass panels.
2. Trace the outline of the bedside onto the bottom of the fiberglass panel.
3. Take the shell back off the truck and flip it back over.
4. Cut the fiberglass panels to match the bedsides.
5. Flip the shell over and put it back on the truck.
6. Install new mounting hardware and secure shell to the bed.
7. Finish trim & sand fiberglass panels to exactly match the bedsides.
8. Foam bottom curvature and sand to rough in the shape IE: like the blue lines.
9. Lay up chopped mat over foam, prob 2-3 layers.
10. Final body work it & shoot some sealer and primer.

Also working on building a complete dash for a friends truck in my " spare time " ... this is just the beginning of the skeletal frame of the dash which will have accommodations for a digital gauge cluster, switch pro module, nav iPad & race radio. Switch pro will be on the left side of the steering wheel, gauge cluster in the center of the dash, Nav iPad & Race radio on the passenger side.



End result will have contours like this, gauge cluster will be angled toward the drivers eyes IE: out & up

 

Well no progress to share on my camper shell, had a family day Saturday and spent the whole day today working on that dash.

Got all of the devices templated and all of the holes cut for :

Switch Pro
Aim gauge cluster
Nav iPad
Intercom
Race radio

Got the gauge cluster panel set and bonded & a “ bump “ added to the passenger side that matches the curve of the gauge panel. Just have a return edge to add to the bottom lip of the dash, a couple of internal braces that will tie it into the roll cage and then it will be ready to have the cloth stretched over it.

 

A little more dash progress this weekend, this pic shows the cloth stretched over the skeleton & the first coat of resin on it. The stir sticks screwed to the front during this step were to ensure that I had some hard lines where we wanted / needed them. The shape turned out great, looks really cool in the truck. You can really tell it is a one off custom specific to the truck because of the formed cut outs that hug the 4 roll cage locations that penetrate the dash. Just a lot of sanding and some leather left now. Hoping to have it done by the weekend so I can get 100% back on my camper shell & full frame boxing projects.

 

Dash build for @81Trekker is done :

Made a steering column cover, that was a tricky piece to make clear all of the tubing and perfectly center on the column shaft :








Here it is with all of the equipment loaded into it :

 

Made some progress on my camper shell. Fiberglass panels are bonded to the shell, 3rd brake light shaved ( i have brake lights on my chase bar so I don’t need that leaky POS ) the rear opening cleaned up to match the new lower edges and the rear corners have been trimmed to fit.

The entire new fitment starts with the rear corners. The front wall of the shell is going to have to be cut out and moved back approx 1/2” because the shell originally sat approx 1/2” further back when it had the overlapping lower edges.

So, as i move it forward to have those back edges line up with the bedsides above the taillights the recessed area of the shell below the back window of the cab hits the bottom edge of the window.

 

Made some progress on the bedsides today. The Fiberwerx bedsides have a 3D design on top that mimics the OE plastic bedcaps but I want them perfectly flat to match that fiberglass panel I bonded to the bottom of the shell.

The first shocker when I placed a straight edge on top of the bedsides was that the bedsides rolled off approx 3/16” toward the taillights so it has been a lot of work getting them flat.

In this first pic you can see the straight edge on top of the roughed in bedside :



Next pic is so e fitment work around the taillights. Ignore the shitty bedside cut at the bumper, that is being trimmed back and getting a return edge added to it :

 

Do you have any good shots of your swingaways? I know you had jdf do some changes to them.

 

sorry it took me a bit to reply, the truck is a fn mess from all of the body work i’m in the middle of

 

this build is great!

 

Not much progress on my own truck been spending all my free time on @81Trekker ’s rig. Creating some one off fenders and bedsides…

He has a set of oe replacement fiberglass front fenders that have been stretched 4” and had the oe flares cut off so we have those to work with. The bedsides are the original Winnebago Trekker bedsides that had the flares cut off to fit the 37’s.



The goal was to create something “ resto mod “ ie: oe inspired but mod’d to improve oe function and form.

Luckily he had saved the flares that were cut off of the front fenders so I had those to use as a starting point. So, I started by cloning the oe front flares :



Next up I cut the flares and stretched them 6”. Filled the gap with foam and laid up a couple layers of mat to start with. Since the flares were from the front fenders they also needed to be lengthened approx 8” to reach the bottom of the bedside. That portion had to be created from scratch. I created a block of foam, cut it to the shape of the bedside and bonded it in place. Next up I just had to carve the lower section of the flare out of the foam and lay it up with a couple layers of mat. After a first round of bonding and body work and finalizing the size & shape they looked like this :



Next up was three more layers of chopped mat over the entire flare and some final bodywork ie: days and days and days of block sanding. Zero bondo being used it’s all resin & short hair fiberglass filler.

Fun project that will help this crazy beast be even more unique

 

Still spending most of my free time on @81Trekker 's rig, here is a pic of the dash wrapped in leather :

edit - i did not do the leather work

 

More progress on his fenders as well, started on the front fenders. The fenders started out with a small OE wheel opening like this and needed to be reconfigured to clear 37's at full bump on TT beams :



So, the flares were completely cut off of the fenders and raised & stretched approx 6" to clear his 37's, the gap had to be bridged, the nose of the flare completely reshaped for tire clearance and the back of the flare stretched down and completely reshaped as well. This is just the first coat rough in so don't worry about any weird shapes etc :



I've been working on the structure of the front fenders and have not started the body work on them yet. In this image you see exactly where they have been cut, widened & stretched etc. The black portions are the original fenders and all of the clear areas are what I had to add or reshape. All of the curves mimic the OE flares on an 81 Toy :

 

Bravo on the build sir! Detail on literally everything.

 

I've been reading up on the JD thread which of course sent me here. Holy smokes on attention to detail dude! I like and appreciate so much of your build. I'm personally a huge fan of camper shells but they seem pretty rare in the LT world (now I can see why), it's so cool how you're making yours work. It's been said before but it's also rad how you set up your rear coilovers/trailing arms/bed cage to still have a usable bed. I'll be drooling from my 3rd gen 4Runner, keep up the incredible work!

 

Man I don't have any fibreglassing experience at all. Never touched the stuff. Seems like a lot of work... Maybe I'll just make a new bed rack that bolts to the bottom of the bed haha

 

The attention to detail on this build is awesome! Great build so far!

 

@Evenflow in another thread you mentioned you use a small spring compressor when you adjust your front coilovers while there still on the truck.
Which one do you use?
Thx

 

this type :