67 replies to this topic

[pickupmad87]

Right Guys and Gals this is my first proper posting so please bear with me as i am new to the forums malarkey!!

What we have here is one of two pickups we are planning to restore. this is the better one of the two believe it or not!!
here is couple of pics of how it started we had done a few repairs to it allready but forgot to take piccys!!
basicly this pickup had been trashed by some t**t who wanted to autograss it the decided he couldnt be botherd to finish it!!












Me and me old man were unsure as what to do to sort out the load bed and floorpans, so we got searchin through the forums and world wide web! we found that there are replacement panels available but we decided against this because the floor pressing come in two halfs. we priced up the complete load bed set up from mini machine and decided we need to go another route as funds arent endless!!!

things came to a halt for a while, untill we attended the brooklands mini show last year and got talking to a few people. one guy put us on to a bloke who had a complete floorpan and load bed that was cut out of a mini van. we ended up going for the van floor pan because it is pretty much exactly the same as the pickup floor bed minus the tailgate hinges.

here we have a few pics of the floor pan when we first got it.



the van chassis had had a few naff repairs over the past on the sills and rear valance so we stripped these off prior to shot blasting







when we got the van chassis back from the shot blasters this reavled a few more repairs that needed to be done.



the main repair that need to be done was to both wheel arches where the metal had got so thin there was splits up the arches so the thin metal was cut out and replaced.



once the repairs were done on the wheel arches it was time to have a look at repairing the inner sill.



the rotten material was cut out and a series of home made panels were made to fit.









after these repairs and some other small repairs were done, we concentrated our efforts on cutting the slots for the tailgate hinges and welding in the strenthing plates for the hinges.





after the hinge strenghteners were finalised we started to line up and weld the rear valances back into place.



once fully welded we set about replacing the outer sills. we didnt use the coplete cover sills we want it to look as original as possible so we replaced with the proper half sill. in our mind its better to use the originalhalf sill to let all the collected water in the load bed to drain out properley.

[pickupmad87]

once this was completed both sides we set about making a repair to the door step on the passengers side and replaced the door step on the other side with part of an old repair panel we had used on my other project more on the other completed project in due course!!





Note to anyone that undergoes this sort of surgery work DO NOT fit the door steps to the floor pan as this causes alot of problems and headaches when you come to graft the sheel to th floor pan. oh well one will learn from ones mistakes!!!!

this was pretty much it for the repairs on the van chassis so after a clean up and blow out with the air hose we coated it in two coat of acid etch primer



after this was done the van base was put to one side in the work shop to make way for the pickup, a few more repairs were done to the pickup shell before the surgery was attempted!!!
i think thats enough for tonite as ive gotta be up early for work tomoz, hopefull i will get round to posting where we are upto at this current moment in time tommorow evening.
thanks for taking the time to read about our project any feedback would be appreciated!

[olds_kool_lews]

brilliant project mate! good luck with the build!

[blue blood]

you don't hang about matey I have a feeling i will like reading this projects progression . Regards Blue

[malcs_miniturbo]

nice work mate your getting on quick with this i need to get on with mine lol

[darky32]

Great work ...keep the updates coming

[Artful Dodger]

looks like you are not gonna mess this pickup up:) glad to see more being restored! will keep an eye on this:P

[freaker]

and you have a second one aswell ???

freaker

[podifold]

Good work mate - nice to see a grasser returned to it's former glory!

[pickupmad87]

Right Floor pan done, time to put aside to make way for the pickup!!!





before we start to cut out the redundant floor there are a few more repairs that need to be done before the surgery can commence
this consists of replacing the part of the crossmember in the engine bay that the monster cut out becasue he thought it would be
a good idea to mount the pedal box in the center of the pickup. other repairs tat need doing are the rear stiffiners for the side
panels where the meet the cab back, these were cut out to make way for a roll cage!



we didnt have the pieces to go back in, so it was lucky we kept the bulkhead of another mini that was used for its roof because
pretty much everything else was rotten.



once these parts were cut out they got welded in.



next is to tackle and make new panels for the rear stiffiners





thats all for tonite folks ill try and finish where we are up to tomorow evening.

[jagman.2003]

Great job. Keep up the good work.

[thesidewalk]

really looking forward to seeing this one completed, keep it up

[pickupmad87]

Hello guys!

this is the photo that was supposed to be third from last error on my part!!!



next we need to turn our attention to cutting out the gash inner wings that have had loads of crap
repairs over the years







once this was cut out we did a trial fit of the new inner wing a panels and one of doors we managed
to repair. we wanted to check that the gaps were going to be ok with the new inner wings.





with the trial fit over with it was time for the major surgery to commence!! Yay!







with the old crappy floor pan cut out it was time to bring out the van base and drop the shell on
top!







with this done we can start to line up the toe board and inner wings. to start with we bolted the
toe board to the van base just to make sure that the inner wings would line up properly.



we also used the front subframe to give us an idea of where to position the toeboard to start with.



after that we welded in the new door post repair panel as the existing one was trashed.



with the door post welded in and strengthened we set about lining up the inner wings



with this done both side it was time to bolt the front panel to the subframe and start linig up for
the wings and a panels





once we were happy all the wings were aligned properly (also trial fitted with a bonnet) we started
to weld the wings to the inner wings.

[fordson]

wow thats some serious work your putting in there

[pickupmad87]

next we welded the window scuttle panels that we cut out back in.





with this done we concetrated our efforts to the rear of the pickup. there were a few repairs
needed to the rear of the wings and the tail light panels



as funds are gettin a little bit thin we decided to make the repair panels for the tail light panel
ourselves





with these made, we made the triagle shaped tailgate strengtheners as the existing ones were pretty
rotten!!







with those made we skimmed both wings and tailgate panels in filler ready for rubbing down





now finalay thats pretty much it totally upto date now the updates will be a bit slower now as we
are only working on it at weekends as we both have full time jobs! and again thanks for reading
about our project and the feedback is much appreciated.