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Old 05-05-2009, 11:51 PM
Joe Hartson's Avatar
Joe Hartson Joe Hartson is offline
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Default Gator Shop Truck by Gator**

This thread was originally posted on the old site. The original thread with photos can be found here:

http://allmetalshaping.forumsdot.com....php?f=17&t=62

Please make all new posts for this thread on the new site...that is HERE. We will be working to get the photos moved over.



Gator
Post subject: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:54 pm
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:31 am
Posts: 13
Heres the shop truck i started after a trip to Dutchs meet. The following pics are of work in progress. I will try and find the what we started with pics and post them later.

The basic concept is to have a truck for the shop and be able to pull my trailers to shows and events and take the family in comfort. If you know me you know i like to be different so here goes.

I found a 1951 ford cabover road tractor cab in Dutchs ford estate and a deal was soon struck. I made a return trip to Dutchs place to take the cab and front end apart and bring my new dream or nightmare home. At Dutchs 2006 meet i took the cabover and a doner cab to the great northeastern meet to get started.

With the help of some good friends we came up with a plan and started cutting everything apart. The plan called for a 3 inch top chop and leave the rear window factory size, streching the cab 5 feet and adding 2 doors for the rear passengers.

After a frame for the cab was fabricated and the truck placed on the frame we sliced the cab in two behind the door and moved the rear part of the cab to the rear of the frame. After some trial fitting of the driver in this new open area we discovered that when at a comfortable seating position the door jamb created a huge blind spot. Imagine being the driver and looking out the side window only to see the back of the door and jamb.

A executive decision was made to slice the door top to bottom and make it 8 inches longer. If you can picture the cab sliced in two, the top off and the doors sliced in two you can understand the nightmare part.

We got things braced up and roughed in and i took it home. I made another trip to Dutchs with the truck and we had a 4 day workathon. After getting the roof lowered and the front door swinging i left it at dutchs to finish the chop. Dutch reinstaled the rear window and loaded it up on a trailer to head to Bennet Chapmans shop in Georgia where he was having a meet. The plan was to work on the truck down there and i was to bring it home.

Here comes the nightmare part. Even with all the bracing in the truck it just was not enough. Durring the trip to Bennets , Dutch ran head on into a snow and ice storm. With the snow and ice falling and being kicked up from the truck the bracing broke and tore apart. The cab more or less fell in on itself. When we all met in georgia we pulled it out some and added more bracing and loaded in my trailer for the trip home. At this point i was frustrated and all but gave up. This is where the cab sat for 2 years.

It took a flair up on the MM site and me stepping down from the board to get some time for myself. With the lack of shapping at a low and being winter i contacted Dutch to see if he could come down for a week and see what we could salvage and make a winter meet of it. We had a great turnout. This is where the great friends come in and pulled the cab out of storage and got to work. We soon had the cab squared and hinges hung and door skins wheeled.

Time to take a break. Will post more info and pics later....Gator


Gator
Post subject: Re: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:58 pm
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:31 am
Posts: 13
Ok, im back. A little more of the plans for the truck. The drivetrain will be a 1 ton dodge dually with the cummins diesel and automatic. I found a truck in Florida at a dealer lot. 2001 with 40,000 miles, leather interior and a perfect pody. It had 6 new tires, alum wheels and a fifth wheel tow rig with trailer brakes all for 12,000 dollars. Now i know that sounds like a lot for a doner truck but here me out. Im going to use the frame, motor, trans, rear, tires and wheels, dash, pedals, trailer towing gear, everything but the sheetmetal. That i can sell and get some of my money back. If you add it all up seperatly it comes to a lot more than that.

Anyway, got a cashiers check and a plane ticket, Did you know that the same plane at the same time to and from the same airport is 69 dollars before dec 25 and after jan 1. Durring that time it is 369 dollars. Anyway im ready to go, i leave dec 26, were at the wifes parents for christmas and my wife has a dizzy spell and hits here head. We end up in the er for 6 hours and the trip for the truck is off, Remember that 369 dollar ticket, i was so sure i was going that i did not get the trip insurance and got no exchange or refund. Live and Learn.

Did i mention this whole truck and cab adventure it with my wifes blessing. God i love her. Anyway i call the dealer and explain what happened and i will come down next weekend. He says to send the check as someone else is also intrested in the truck. Its been sitting on his lot for 7 months so i told him no check till i see the truck. If you can sell it go ahead. Im not falling for that..I called 3 days later to confirm when i would be there and he told me that the truck was sold that morning. Im to late. Live and learn agian.

Anyway things go on hold for 2 months as the wife loses her privledge to drive per the doctor and im playing mr mom. I never knew she took the kids to so many places.

Dutch sent me an e-mail and said with another good week we could get a lot more done so i told him to come on down and bring marty with him. I also told him i wanted smooth door handles and a sunroof. I found a local scrapyard that only deals in BMW,AUDI, and MERCADIES. He let me wander thru the yard and see if i could find anything that would work. I found the sunroof off and audi A8 has the right crown for the truck roof and an audi A4 had the right door handles for the crown in the truck doors. 400 dollars for the roof , a pillar to c pillar and 75 dollars for all 4 doors with keys.

The scrap yard cut the roof off and removed the doors with all the wiring and switchs in place. They even loaded it in my enclosed trailed for me. Great people. Well about the second day of Dutch and Marty being here i decide to get the Audi roof reaty by removing the side curtain airbags, trim and headliner. We brought the roof in and placed it on my big work table and guess what we found. The Audi A8 has a alum roof. Cabover is steel. See where im going with this.

The lucky thing is theres a alum structure we can use for the roof as the alum roof was just hammerformed around the alum structure. We can do the same with steel and glue and rivet the inner structure together. Now because the door handles are flush on the outside meens that they have to be big inside to work. Well theres not enough room inside the truck doors so Marty and dutch sugest creating small blisters on the door for the added room. This just keeps getting better and better.

We are going to try and finish the rear doors and roof the week of the gator meet in may. We have made pullmax tooling to make the jambs and framework along with the drip rails.

When i figure out where i put the pics of the first meet and when and what we started with i will pos them. I will now try and post the current pics from the last meet and see what happens...Later Gator


Gator
Post subject: Re: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:10 pm
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:31 am
Posts: 13




Front door done and rear door framed and hung




Pass door done




Working on pass rear door. Floor is done.




Shot of Audi roof.




Another pic of roof



Rear shot




New door framework.




Pass door hinges and new door jambs.


Gator
Post subject: Re: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:22 pm
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:31 am
Posts: 13




Rear hinge and jambs




close up of floor




Door jambs




roof



Future tv show crew on how to build a truck in 50,000 easy steps in 5 years.


Joe Hartson
Post subject: Re: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 3:30 pm
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:35 pm
Posts: 119
Location: Mississippi
Gator, you are making progress with the truck and it will get done and be a one off. I see you got your shrinker and stretcher finished. Please keep us up to date with the progress on the truck.

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Joe Hartson


jhnarial
Post subject: Re: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 5:43 pm
Site Admin
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 4:38 pm
Posts: 166
Location: Excelsior Springs Mo.
That is going to be amazing!

Thank you very much for sharing your progress.I love following threads like this.

I really like the pockets you made for the hinges and the chop looks to be the perfect height.

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Johnny Arial


al_inbancroft
Post subject: Re: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:44 pm
Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:09 pm
Posts: 12
First-class effort Gator, totally BAD-AZZ!! Git er done!
Regards.
Al


Kerry Pinkerton
Post subject: Re: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 8:12 am
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:38 pm
Posts: 247
Location: Harvest, Al
Looking good Gator...gonna be like driving a school bus though....LOOONG!

What about the roof? As I recall it is more than 4' wide. How many pieces are you planning?

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Kerry Pinkerton

http://wheelingmachines.com


Gator
Post subject: Re: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 10:49 am
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:31 am
Posts: 13
Its about 44 inches wide and 6 feet long. That what we need to make as far as the roof goes. The plan is to ma ke the roof sides from the doors to the low crown part of the roof and that should leave around 44 inches as a low crown panel. The 6 foot direction we will make in 2 3 foot parts and weld together off the truck. The reason being besides easier to handle the front 3 foot section needs the sunroof portion hammer formed around the opening and a 6 foot piece would be hard to handle. Things change as to go as im sure you found out on the roadster but thats the plan for now...Gator


BillH
Post subject: Re: Gator Shop Truck
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 2:26 pm
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 9:57 pm
Posts: 28
Location: Kansas City
Gator,

Been watching that one on MM. Wondered if it was going to continue. It takes one heck of a man, and the support of some good buddies to pull off that HUGE task. Looks like your getting it there thou. I love the cab overs, and originally thought I wanted one, just not deep enough pockets, or enough time to do something like this.

Thanks for bringing it over to the site.

Dont feel bad, I got a mild restoration project I have been putting off for YEARS now and hope to get it running this summer (I hope.).

Thanks again.

So, how did you guys detail the aluminum roof to the steel one again? (that must have really hurt, finding that one out. I would have really gotten super frustrated over that issue.

BH
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  #2  
Old 06-07-2009, 09:33 AM
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Joe Hartson Joe Hartson is offline
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Gator, Are there any more updates?
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