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720 Crewcab - 4 doors, 4x4, and a huge freaking headache


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Meet Tiny Havok, my garage built crew cab 720. This build has been brewing in my head for quite some time, but officially it began on February 22, 2016. I haven't mentioned it because I wasn't really sure I had even the slimmest chance of pulling it off. I have now made enough progress on it that I think I might have a shot, so now I'm willing to begin sharing it. Who knows though, it could all rapidly go to Hell. :) (The build actually starts down on post 3, the rest of this is backstory).

 

This is the goal. This truck is a 4x4 with a factory crew cab with a king cab bed on it. My build will something very similar.

 

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These are the measurements from a factory crew cab. The measurements are taken from the front most point of the front door at the fender seam, back to the back of the back door, and the back of the cab. Just for reference if anyone is interested. Thanks go out to one of our Australian brothers for getting me these measurements.

 

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Some of you may remember the following pics. I disassembled a mostly complete truck I had toward the end of last year. That was the first real step in parts collecting for this project. For those of you who are also reading my Half pint wagon thread, now you know where my ridiculous stash of 720 parts has been coming from :).

 

I kept the cab, about 30 odd inches of straight frame, a couple of body mounts, and lots of random stuff. The engine was already swapped in to my silver DD 720. Good times were had tearing this truck apart in the street in front of my driveway. A couple cops even drove by and couldn't have cared less, it was great. Now I'm wishing I had kept even more. 😞

 

The truck before the autopsy.

 

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Hover truck

 

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In pieces

 

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Even more pieces (this was all done with 4” grinders)

 

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Away she goes

 

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Adieu! (I scrapped this way too fast.  There is tons more that I really wish I had kept.   😞 )

 

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And in storage for the winter

 

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Edited by Lockleaf
Fixed pics
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That was as far as I got until a couple months later when I picked up another truck, this time a single cab. And lovely enough, a late 720 single cab. The later single cabs have an additional 3 or 5 inches of cab behind the door over the early ones. Nissan just shortened the bed to make space for it. I wanted this cab specifically because I liked the look of the deeper cab side.

 

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This truck drove but smoked like crazy. Pretty sure severely blown head gasket.

 

Now that I had enough cab to get started, I needed something to put it on. I looked in to building a cart, but realized I could buy something just as good for the same cost as building, or even less. That's how I acquired the Missile Cart of Badassdom.

 

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Came with this board on it

 

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4'x6' 2x2 steel box base with 4 inch casters. Had some extras that had to be removed, but for the $40 bucks I paid for it, and the 1 mile I had to drive to get it, I'm very happy with it. Smoothest nicest casters I've ever had on something. The cart got it's name from the fact that it is ridiculuosly overbuilt for my needs and the PO claimed that it was originally used on a military base to cart missiles around. No idea if thats true but it makes me happy.

 

Had some awesome help taking it apart.

 

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Did some cutting and painting of exposed metal and ended up here.

 

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Then dropped the first cab on to it. This was harder than I imagined it would be, but I was doing it solo. It ended up rolling off the end of my driveway in to the gutter with the cab on it. Jacked up the back with a jack and got it back on the driveway. Pushed it solo in to the garage. Best freaking casters I've ever had. It was a breeze. I was amazed.

 

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Then I started mapping my cuts. I had been staring at this cab for months trying to decide where I ought to be cutting. I pulled the carpet and interior panels from this cab so I had access to bare metal to make my cuts.

 

Ewwww.

 

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Weird pad filled divots in the floor pan.

 

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Hmmmm, the body mount appears to be missing....

 

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Hey, there's bits of this one left. SCORE!

 

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And then I mapped.

 

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Edited by Lockleaf
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The second truck (red from last post) was a straight up farmers truck and plenty dirty. I found a kershaw pocket knife in there though. Sweet.

 

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Much better.

 

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Marked

 

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Trying to decide exactly just how long I wanted to make this cab. I was comparing what I had to my R50 pathfinder and my 05 Impreza wagon so I could get an idea of cab feel.

 

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Finally some surgery! This took place on February 22nd, what I consider the true beginning of this project. Red cab got cut first.

 

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There seems to be something missing here...

A buddy of mine and I just opened the doors and lifted the cab straight out of the truck. It took some fighting (we forgot about the bracket on the back that ties the cab to the frame) but after we got it all loose, it was quite easy to move it about.

 

Booyah

 

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Next day, next cab.

 

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Chunk o' truck convention in my garage

 

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Hooray half a truck!

 

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I had not yet decided on a final length for the body, so stuff was not yet cut to interlock. I just sort of jammed it in there.

 

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Jammed some seats in there just to see what it felt like. The single cab came with a bench seat in the truck and a set of bucket seats in the bed, so I just used all of those for now.

 

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Edited by Lockleaf
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Did some photoshopping to get a feel for the size of truck I had decided on(ish). It's about 5 inches longer in the cab than the stock cab. The last pic is of a toyota.

 

About factory cab length

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The longer cab

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The toyota version

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Once I decided on a length, I began to make cuts to interlock the bodies together. I sort of jigsawed the pieces a little. In my head it seems like that will make it stronger. It might be meaningless.

 

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There was this bizarre little box screwed to the bottom of the king cab. I was really hoping I was about to find a box full of $100s.

 

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Sadness 😞

 

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With the floors cut and locked together, I got my first inclination that I had a much bigger problem than I had ever considered...

 

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The roofline of a single cab is about 1.5 inches taller than the roof of a king cab! WTF? On a king cab, the rear window is only slightly above the bed rail. On a single cab, there is a much larger gap before the window starts. Shite.... Here I was thinking I could just tap some metal around and weld it together. Because of where I chose to cut the single cab roof, the gap closes down to about ¾ of an inch or so, but still, very much a hump in my roofline.

 

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I also didn't realize how far floor pans dipped as they approached the pedals. The single cab floor pan took a pretty steep dive as it approached the front.

 

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That doesn't work. The back of the single cab and the back of the king cab floor pans were at the same height, so I get the floors level. That meant more cutting.

 

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Then back to the top. I had too much roofline. But I also have a sunroof in both cabs. They are ridiculous crappy 80's aftermarket sunroofs, but I love them and I really hope I will find a way to rehabilitate them and keep them.

 

In order to keep/give the sunroof sufficient real estate, but keep as much good roofline as possible, I jigsawed the roofs a little bit.

 

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Getting there. Well, “there” being getting the cabs to sit together. What isn't shown well is the number of times I pulled these apart and made a tiny adjustment cut. Repeatedly I had to put them together, take a measurement on each side, and make a small cut to bring things in better squared. It took me a great deal of time to achieve this, but I finally got everything to sit pretty well together. Final measurement is about 2 inches shy of my original estimated size, but still about 3 inches longer than the stock cab.

 

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Edited by Lockleaf
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I decided that I would start by welding the floors together first. The floor pans and rockers are the things that line up the best so I felt it would be the best place to start. The single cab (rear part of the cab on the crew cab) floor pan is corrugated from side to side. The back of the king cab (front part of the cab on the crew cab) floor pan is corrugated from front to back. So I hammer and dollied the single cab floor as best I could so it would line up well.

 

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Well, its smooth..er...

 

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Rear seat mounts had stress cracked the floor pan severely, and the farmer had sealed it all up with silicone. I cleaned it down and tried to weld it up. Ummm, yeah. Pure crap. Bitching about this is when my buddy recommended switching to .023 welding wire. Holy cow did it make a difference in the rest of my welding after this.

 

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Ground it down a little. There is a good chance I will be going back and cutting this out completely for a patch.

 

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Before welding the floor pans together, I needed to reinforce a few inches of floorpan. The way I cut the front floor pan free, I had no way to hook it to the rear rockers where they overlapped. So I cut some small box in half in to some small angle iron.

 

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And welded that in while the cabs were apart.

 

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I bought a sheetmetal flanger/hole punch specifically for this part of the job. I intended to weld the pans together with an overlap, again because I thought it would be stronger. The flanger didn't do a damn thing sadly. But the hole punch worked perfectly. So I punched a bunch of holes along the seam overlap and then screwed stuff together where it all went. In the middle of the pic, you can see 4 screws out in the middle of the floor pan. This is where a reinforcement bracket from the king cab extends out under the single cab floor.

 

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You can see those reinforcements sticking out here, circled in red on top and bottom.

 

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The rockers matched right up perfectly on the passenger side, but there was a slight misalignment on the drivers side. Before welding anything together I had to correct that. So I welded a piece of angle to the front floor pan and dropped a Nissan bottle jack in there sideways. Pushing against the angle iron of the front pan, I was able to put pressure against the rocker of the rear cab. I stretched it a couple of times, banging on the stress points with a hammer to relieve them, to get the proper fit. I didn't just stretch it in to place and weld it. I stretched it passed where I needed it, so when it relaxed, it was perfectly in place. I wanted to ensure there was no more stress there than necessary.

 

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Worked like a charm.

 

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And then I began stitching.

 

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Remember how I mentioned cutting the floorpan where it took a dive? This is what it looked like with the floorpans joined together.

 

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So I had to cut that out and build a patch panel. Project binky style.

 

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The patch is cut from another piece of the single cab floor pan that I had left over.

 

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And away we go.

 

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Everything all welded up on this side, with the obvious exception of the trans tunnel, which will be dealt with at a future date. Some grinding has been done, but not tons.

 

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Here's where the patch is from farther away.

 

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Same exact process on the other side.

 

Layout with cardboard, cut a patch to match. I bent up these patches with a vice, some angle iron, and some 3 inch wide sheet metal breaking pliers.

 

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I bought some sheet metal holder/spacer things. They seem to help. I really need to improve my cutting skills so I get more consistent gaps. Better gaps will mean I don't need to mess with my welder settings and I will get better more consistent welds.

 

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Tacked

 

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And done.

 

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The entire floor pan overlap seam still needs to be welded from underneath, but all the underside work will wait until the cab is fully assembled and can safely be laid on it's back for underside access.

Edited by Lockleaf
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In this pic you can see the chrome rain gutters are not aligned at all. There was both vertical and horizontal misalignment on both door frames.

 

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With the floor pretty well stuck together, I started seeing what I could do about that. Time to bust out the trusty old Nissan bottle jack.

 

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A little redneck, but it was sufficient. Same as on the rocker. Stretch it too far, bang on the corners and stress points lightly with a hammer to relieve them, then let it settle and see where we are.

 

Not there yet.

 

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Where I need it

 

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Thats better. No pressure is on the door frame at this point. Here, you can also clearly see there is an accent line above rain gutter on the red roof that doesn't exist on the black roof, and also see just how different in height they are.

 

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Still some lateral deflection.

 

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Ratchet straps to the rescue! Same theory, pull too far, relieve stress, check fit.

 

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BAM

 

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C'est magnifique!

 

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Those have not yet been welded at all, but both sides underwent similar treatment and are sitting very nicely along the rain gutters.

 

Back to the floor. That trans tunnel from the rear cab section was about 4 inches too tall and 6 inches too wide to match up to the front cab tunnel. So it had to go. Sorry the pic sucks.

 

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But it would go back in. once I was done with it. But I started by cutting it up in to the pieces I knew I wanted to keep, the complex floor pan shapes and the nice curves.

 

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Took some measurments, did some cutting and started putting it back together.

 

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Testing, testing, 123.

 

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It's essentially one piece now

 

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Seems like it fits

 

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But there are some huge gaps...

 

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More project binky inspired CAD, more chunks of left over floor pan. Filled the hole in the tunnel top and started on the side fillers.

 

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Getting there.

 

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Edited by Lockleaf
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There is was one part of the floor pan that no matter how hard I tried, I could not get it to stop bowing severely. So I eventually felt I needed to go medieval on it. 3 fat slices and it started cooperating. I don't like doing it that way, but at the time I didn't feel that I had any way to really try shrinking the metal. I now think I should have at least tried shrinking it using my MAPP gas torch, but who knows.

 

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I shaped a couple of half domes in to my filler panel to match the factory floor pan. These came out pretty good, but introduced a huge curve in to my panel. Eventually I had to cut the panel edge off back to straight. I don't possess the skills to straighten it and retain my domes.

 

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And a corrugation got a finisher shape on the other side, this one didn't deform the panel anywhere near as much.

 

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Doesnt seem half bad.

 

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Until I started actually putting it all together.

 

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As I began really fitting things securely and tacking them in to shape, I realized that tunnel wasn't quite the right shape. This threw off every single measurement I had made. I ended up with gaps, some as large as half an inch. For now, they just get extra filler strips. One thing I hadn't thought about while building the tunnel, but occurred to me before installing it, is floor pan droop. I didn't really think about how far the floor might have drooped. Really, I don't know how far it did droop, but I put a jack with a board under there and lifted the floor up a fair bit before I started tacking everything together. I feel like it was the correct move to make, but it is part of what threw me off so badly I believe.

 

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The end had to be cut off clean and a whole extra strip welded in as well.

 

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And it still looks like that right now. I may end up going back and redoing the whole entire thing. It was an incredibly difficult piece to build for me. Every single thing I tried seem to be off in some manner. It took me a couple of days and I was pissed off most of the entire deal. Ugh. I'm not happy with it right now, but I may weld it all together and see where I end up.

 

I hemmed and hawed quite a bit before deciding to build the tunnel that way. Originally I planned to make one from scratch. I built a radius brake that fits on to my buddys 20 ton press, so I could bend nice rounded brakes, but I concluded that the angles I needed, plus the complexity of the floorpan shapes, were beyond my ability to reproduce in that manner. I may revisit this idea in the future.

Edited by Lockleaf
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Door frames. Ugh. Door frames. WTF am I supposed to do about door frames? It has been suggested to me that this all might have been easier had I just put the cabs back to back and built a suicide setup. While this seemed tantalizing upfront, I quickly came upon a major problem. Front door hinges are built be hidden behind the front fender. They don't tuck behind the door at all. So if I have those hinges at the back of the body, what am I supposed to put over them so that they are hidden? I can't tuck them in the body without some major shenanigans. I don't have the money to buy suicide hinges, and I don't think I have the skill to manufacture them and square them as exactly as I need to in order for them to function nicely. So I decided that I would forgo suicide doors in the pursuit of “is that stock?”

 

I started by harvesting the front door frame from the single cab firewall.

 

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I cut about 20 spot welds out of this corner, so I could disassemble it from the engine bay frame rails, not just cut it apart. The reasoning behind that will be made evident later on.

 

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I did just cut the firewall portion of it though. And here is the door frame.

 

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I removed, but kept the piece of body mount.

 

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At this point, this is just a loose idea in my head. I'm hoping to integrate this piece of door frame into the back of the B pillar somehow, to form the bottom of a complete door frame. I'm planning to take the windshield piece of the A pillar, cut it down, and use it for the upper half of this B pillar as well.

 

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I tried making a template of the curve of the king cab door frame....

 

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I was way off, though in this pic it is not visible.

 

I'm really just feeling my way through this part of the build fairly blind. I have a vague idea of how I want the pieces to fit together and a strong hope that they can be made to do so. I slowly cut more out of the front of the B pillar and out of the interior backside of the B pillar. I also make a slice in the rocker panel, trying to get everything to slide in to place where I want it. Unbeknownst to me at the time I was making my original cuts, the front seat belt upper bolt flange is welded in to the back of the front door frame, and the front of the rear window frame. So as I build this I also need to build it in such a way that that piece can be welded back in to place.

 

Beyond all of that, I need more than a foot of door frame that I don't have. I struggled with this part for quite a while. Weeks or more. I almost bought another truck, just to cut some door frame out of. Then I tried to build a press brake that would stamp the W style shape I needed. That failed epically. So I finally built a tool I have wanted for quite a while. A real metal brake.

 

I posted this in “Show me your tool”

 

 

On 6/3/2016 at 12:35 AM, Lockleaf said:

I built a sheet metal brake today. Brakes a maximum of about 42".

 

I built it to attach to my welding cart/table (I built that too). The handles bolt in to pockets I welded on. Makes the bender more compact for storage.

 

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Seems to work. The big clamps were temporary, while I was testing it. It attaches firmly to the table now.

 

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I added these "tool holders" to my welding cart. There is one on the front and one on the rear of the table. My vice will get bolted to a plate with a shaft out the bottom to slide in to this and pin in place as well as other tools. Essentially like a hitch and receiver.

 

large.20160602_211040_zpsy9omm9vb.JPG.ed

 

The thing on top is the metal brake adapter. It slides in to the tool holder and pins in place. It has a bolt point in the top. The brake then bolts in to those and is securely attached to the table.

 

large.20160602_211058_zpsig9vn7jh.JPG.cc 

 

It's not perfect, but it's pretty great considering it's built out of random metal I had on hand. All I spent money on so far are the hinges. I do need to buy some pins for the tool holder though.

 

They look pretty good. Broke smooth.

 

large.20160602_175514_zpsyk6jojz4.JPG.9d

Edited by Lockleaf
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This truck project is the reason I built that thing. I plan to use it for other stuff, but this was my motivation.

 

I needed to see if I could stack bends the way I needed to to make door frame so I got a piece of practice sheet. I busted out my calipers so I could measure each bend in the metal and know how big to make it. It took me 3 tries to figure out how to translate what I was measuring into marks and bends on my flat sheet. But finally I got something that seemed good.

 

large.20160607_131421_zpszmnwopvw.jpg.cc

 

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I had some frame reinforcement in the way of building this properly, so that had to come out. New stuff will be designed, built, and installed when I mold the two cab frames together up there.

 

large.20160607_154308.jpg.82a88e76297a03

 

I cut the side out of the hunk of spare king cab I still have sitting in my driveway (months later) to use as the door frame. It's the exact same metal, so I have no concerns about gauge or anything.

 

20160607_125257_zpsxke7ciee.jpg

 

Then bent it up. It was a different gauge than my practice sheet, so my measurements weren't working correctly. Again, it took me 3 tries. But I got it, and cut out a piece of door frame to finish the top. Came out looking/fitting pretty decent I think.

 

20160607_154953.jpg

 

Big red magnet is holding the black piece of door frame up in the top of the door opening.

 

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Cut more off the face of the B pillar. I will need to simply blend this exposed edge back in to my new piece of B pillar.

 

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Here you can see the gaps in the front of the blue pillar piece. My template was way off, so I will need to rework what I have and add some back in. I also didn't really understand where I was placing the door pillar, so I cut too much off the bottom rocker area, which I will have to patch back in. I'm hoping the other side (which I haven't started on at all) will go much better.

 

large.20160607_160648.jpg.ae39ec1818ad34

 

Getting an idea of door frame shape. The window frame of the front door isn't completely vertical, it lays back toward the back of the cab at a slight angle. The rear door window frame will be at the same angle. So I'm matching the front window frame to that angle as well, otherwise the door looks really awkward.

 

large.20160607_170348.jpg.d2867b490fc60b

 

I cut the windshield portion of the A pillar door frame out from the rest of it. That is what I am hoping to use as the upper half of my B pillar. The body is curved up here, so I can't just brake another w shape on my brake. The curve isn't exactly identical when this piece is laid on the vertical, but it appears to be sufficiently close to work fine. I circled area I'm using in green hoping it will help explain.

 

IMG_20160610_031143_zpsaslo6yyv.jpg

 

large.20160607_180457.jpg.fae15693148cd7

 

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Still working on perfecting the angle and placement of the frame pieces right now. I'm pretty sure the bottom piece is basically in place. I jigsawed it in to the existing B pillar and it seems pretty good, maybe just a little more fine tuning.

 

large.20160607_180449.jpg.5bc49115133526

 

I will have to hand build the upper corner after I get all of these placed. But that basically brings us up to speed on where I am and what I'm working on right now. I have been thinking lots about the roof, but have made no decisions at this point. I even built a tool that will help me hold the correct curve in the roof panels, should I go the route of cutting the entire back roof down and lining it up with the front half.

 

A little project binky bouncing on some flat strap steep strung between two jack stands and I got the curve I needed to match the original roof line.

 

20160329_172611_RichtoneHDR_zpsejhn701s.

 

Tacked a couple of hefty bars across it so it won't deform when I push on it.

 

large.20160329_180222_RichtoneHDR_zpsrn1

 

Return to the Nissan bottle jack

 

large.20160329_174408_RichtoneHDR_zpsycp

 

Excellent

 

large.20160329_180640_RichtoneHDR_zpstxq

 

No idea if I will even be using it though.  But here you can see my awesome sunroofs.  The front one is a standard one piece sunroof.  But the rear one is an amazingly ridiculous 2 tiny sunroof setup, one per each side.  I freaking love it.

 

I believe that brings us pretty much up to date. I have a number of other ideas and plans that haven't even been started on yet, so they haven't been discussed here either. Many decisions still have not been made, so they will be revealed as they are made and built/installed, or if asked, I will happily discuss all the elements of a given decision that I am struggling with.

 

And right now, the welder that I share with my brothers is in possession of one of those brothers, so no welding can be performed in the next while.  So I've gone back to the ever highly sucktastic wiring job I am trying to finish in my 510.

Edited by Lockleaf
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Thanks guys! Charlie, that whole roofline problem is king vs single cab. Using a king cab got me a longer cab, but I ended up with the mismatched roofs. To get a cab as long without the roofline issue would require a third cab or splitting and stretching the rear cab section. Not that I'm sure that would be any harder...

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The importing part is the easy part. Couple of documents, a nice pressure washing, and done.

 

It's the whole getting to Mexico, finding a decent one, and paying the extremely high prices the trucks demand that sucks. A useable crew cab 720 truck, not nice or fair, just useable, demands $3500 minimum usually more. Too much for me.

 

:)

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Well now, you have taken on a big project, the one thing that screams out at me to say is that you have to have clean unpainted bare metal to weld on, both sides have to be clean of all foreign materials, if there is any paint, primer, dirt, tar, if there is anything other than clean bare metal, you are going to have a hard time getting any type of decent weld.

4 doors are a bitch, the easiest way I thought would be the suicide doors(cabs backed up to each other), then I would have put another back of a cab on the rear to cover the hinges and where the windshield would be, then build an upper door frame(make it square) to delete the wing window(521).

It's not easy to do what you are doing, but as you do this you will discover better/easier ways to do it next time if you ever do, just like Bob3 you will be able to do it again in a fraction of the time it will take you to do it this time.

I keep thinking about a 4 door 521, but until I figure out the rear doors I will not even start it, I really don't need one, that is why I have not even started on the project, unfortunately there is a guy parting out a 521 locally that I could get everything else I need to make a 4 door, but I don't want the cab sitting around here for a future project that I don't even know if I will do anymore.

I would suggest that you cut the top clean out of the cabs once they are welded together along the sides, and make a one piece top, the idea being if this was a 521 double cab I would use a 510 wagon roof if possible, I actually have a 411 wagon roof that I was planning on using if I made a kingcab 320, I have everything needed to do this, but have too many projects to start that one, and now have all this stuff stored around here.  :wacko:

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Thanks guys! Charlie, that whole roofline problem is king vs single cab. Using a king cab got me a longer cab, but I ended up with the mismatched roofs. To get a cab as long without the roofline issue would require a third cab or splitting and stretching the rear cab section. Not that I'm sure that would be any harder...

 Lockleaf so the king and standard cab roofs are different.  Would it be easier 2 use 2 king cab cabs for this project?

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.

I would suggest that you cut the top clean out of the cabs once they are welded together along the sides, and make a one piece top, the idea being if this was a 521 double cab I would use a 510 wagon roof if possible, I actually have a 411 wagon roof that I was planning on using if I made a kingcab 320, I have everything needed to do this, but have too many projects to start that one, and now have all this stuff stored around here.  :wacko:

This is one of the possibilities being considered at this point. I have an R50 pathfinder for parts, so that roof could possibly be donated to the project. Unfortunately there is more that is going in to this decision than just how to best assemble the roof. Because the roof line is higher on the single cab, it throws some other things off aesthetically if I just slap on a new roof. If I just put on a roof, there would be a taper from the front to the back that I dislike the look of. That extra height isn't just in the roof. The rear window sits higher in the cab wall. And I can't just shorten the rear wall of the cab an inch because then it won't match up to the sides of the cab. If I backfill the areas that don't match up anymore on the back wall, then the way the rear window fits in to the back of the truck won't look even all the way around anymore. The window will look like it doesn't fit right anymore. If I don't move the rear window it will be within half an inch of the roofline and still look weird. So yeah... Its irritating.

 

I am considering cutting the roof of the red cab off, like you said, then cutting the upper half of the rear cab wall out completely. Then weld in the upper half of the king cab rear wall. This would lower the roof line, maintain the appropriate window margins, and follow all the body lines correctly. Additionally, the king cab window is larger, and I really like how it looks over the bed, as it sits down much closer to the lip of the bed. So its win, win, win, if I do it, but its a crazy amount of extra work...

 

But then I could just set the red roof back in to the gap and weld it all in... cuz it would be so easy. Oh well, like you side, I need to finish welding up the sides of the cab before I even consider messing with the roof.

 

Oh and there is a power sliding window that is available for D22s made by CRL. And it's only slightly larger than the King cab window, so I could possibly finagle it in to the cab and have it look stock It slides sideways, which is cool, because it would be a power window, but wouldn't need crazy additional interior mods. Just mount the motor behind the rear bench. That would be cool. And there is a guy parting out a frontier near me, so I could buy the rear window chunk of the cab...? This is all pointless supposition. I'm not doing anything right now.

 

Sorry for the novel.

 

Lockleaf so the king and standard cab roofs are different.  Would it be easier 2 use 2 king cab cabs for this project?

The “easiest” would be either 2 king cabs or two single cabs. Pros and cons. Like wayno said, 2 king cabs would be a huge, but you get the lower roofline and the bigger rear window. My cab is about 78 inches from front of the front door. A double king cab would be another 10 or 12 inches longer. They look weird too, there is a guy who lives near me who has a chevy 2500 with a king cab as the back of a 4 door. Weird and long and awkward.

 

Two single cabs would work just as easily, but you would have a comparatively short rear door and rear cab area. Proportionally, it would look much better than the double king cab in my opinion.

 

There just isn't a decent option. Too short and tall, too long and odd, or just right but a bitch to assemble.

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Seems like it'll be a crazy amount of work no matter what, but why couldn't you just use two king cabs and cut the second one so it notches in to be the same length as you have it now? Then cut a door out of that and splice parts of the actual door frame into that. Then at least the exterior would be aligned and set, lining up the door frames would be the bitch but it seems like you'll have to do that to an extent no matter what route you go.

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I think it would require some extra patching where you join the B and C pillars, where the king cab window frame is, but otherwise, yes I think that would work too.

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Appearance will be similar to the white truck in my first post. 4 door cab with king cab bed, 3 or so inches of lift, 31x10.5 tires or so. I want it to look like all I did was lift it. Wheelbase should end up in the 128"ish region.

 

It will get an engine/trans swap, though I will likely leave the stock transfer case in place. What that engine will be has not yet been decided.

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