Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

  Sat at roughly the right height off the chassis on a couple of bits of wood. The passenger seat will be fixed, but we've got a seat runner from an old Peuguot hatchback so the driver's seat will be adjustable front to back & up & down. I was worried the seat foam would compress until your legs hit the metal seat frame, but when you're sat in the cab, your knees are bent enough that you're nowhere near the frame.
The backs of the seats are quite flexible & springy -we might have to add some strengthening struts to make them more rigid. Steering wheel & gearchange seem to fall quite comfortably to hand.
The commercial vehicle SVA registration test we're aiming for doesn't test anything inside the cab, so we could get away without seatbelts, but they're required for the MOT. If we'd used a bench seat we could've just fitted old fashioned lap straps, but individual seats require 3 or 4 point mounted belts. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 point racing harnesses. Some companies make them with a Y shaped top strap on an inertia reel, so when you undo them, they retract like a normal seatbelt. We'll make up a tubular semi rollcage around the back of the cab to fix them to.

[panthershaun]

cool seats dude, looking forward to Thursday 

[poprodder]

seats look good, but i'd need more comfort!!!

[twolanes]

looking good inside there mate.

[VALLEYSBOY]

looks great, bout ready to drive Andy

[Manky Monkey]

Hmm, maybe just a little more to do before I can fire it up Gareth!

[SteveRedd]

those seats were a good deal Andy, it's all coming together nicely

[Manky Monkey]

Thank you. 
Had a brief visit to the workshop from Mr PantherShaun this afternoon. Nice to see you Sir & to have someone new to bounce ideas off & compare notes with. 

[Manky Monkey]

Tailgate is now complete, apart from some tidying up around the top & bottom edge, where I bowed it out of shape by putting too much heat into the framework with the welder. The smooth inner skin is on. I had a 90 degree fold put in the top of the skin to level up the slightly curved frame. Just needs Loony to finish running the MIG around it all then a light skim of filler on the edges to smooth it out & it's done.
The locking mechanism donated by AfghanMan is also done. I cut a couple of bits of the box section I used for the framework, sliced them in two & slimmed them down before rewelding, then welding to the bed framework, to create two snug fitting slots for the locking bar to locate into.
 

[Manky Monkey]

I've been thinking about a means of holding the tailgate in the horizontal, open position. Not keen on lengths of chain, clanking about. Chain covered in plastic sleeve just looks tacky in my opinion. Maybe chain in a tight fitting leather sleeve. I've seen production pick-up trucks with hinged bars or rods to hold the gate open. In the end I've decided not to fit anything. I don't plan on carrying anything big enough to require driving with the gate open, plus as soon as I park it up with the tailgate open, people are going to sit on it, so it would have to be strong enough to support 2 adults. The handle would also get in the way. So it'll open for loading stuff but just drop right down. To be honest, it'll probably never need to open.
I've tacked in a couple of diagonal struts to stop the ends of the bed sides from spreading outwards as they're not tied into anything else. Trying to make the bed tough enough to withstand a couple of clumsy people clambering about in the back when it's parked up at meets.

[Manky Monkey]

You can see here where we modified the bed floor crossmembers to give extra clearance for the suspension travel. With the rear shocks on their softest setting & Loony leaping up & down on the back end as hard as he could, we could just get the upper 4 bar rods to kiss the underside of the bed frame. Cutting out a section of cross member gives more room for the rods to move & winding the adjustable gas shocks up a bit gives a firmer ride. 

[Manky Monkey]

Late this afternoon we lifted the pick-up framework off the chassis again & I MIG welded up all the tacked together box section. Once some of the welds have been sanded back flush, Loony can make a start on skinning the outside.

[BikerGran]

Making progress all the time now Andy!

[Manky Monkey]

Praise indeed Bobbi 
I'm spending a couple of hours a day at Loony's workshop. Trouble is, after getting up at 4.30 each morning & 3.30 on Saturdays, then putting in an 8 hour shift at the Post Office, by the time I've got changed & driven to Loony's place, I'm so knackered it's real hard to work up the enthusiasm to work on it. Gotta keep plugging away at it though or it'll never get done. I want to finish my trike too, but it's 7 or 8 in the evening before I get home & I definitely haven't got the energy to start a third shift in the shed.

[Manky Monkey]

As I'm working on the pick-up bed, I may as well finish the back end before moving forward.
I've used a sanding disc on the angle grinder to smooth the welds on the framework where the body panels will fit. No point wasting time cleaning back ones that will be hidden behind the panels. Loony's working on a Bedford truck at the moment, but the framework's now ready for him to skin inside & out.
To qualify as a commercial vehicle, the internal length of the pick-up bed needs to be longer than the internal length of the cab. Ours is, just, but if we put the Pop fuel tank in the bed, the useable load space is measured from the back of the tank to the tailgate, which would be too short.
Our original plan was to fit a Reliant fuel tank under the bed of the Pop for the SVA test, then add the original cylindrical Ford Pop tank, sat in the bed, tucked up behind the cab afterwards, with the two linked together. That'd get very complicated though- the Reliant tank would need a filler neck for the test, but would have to be sealed afterwards cos it would be permanently pressurised by the higher mounted Pop tank. Filling the Pop tank would take forever cos the fuel would have to drain down into the Reliant tank. We'd probably have to run 2 fuel lines to the motor with a valve inside the cab to switch from one to the other, etc, etc.
So I've now decided to run the Reliant tank for the test, then remove it afterwards & use the Pop tank on it's own. We'll make up a temporary wooden bed floor, with a hole cut in it for the Reliant filler cap, then replace it later & fit the other tank. The space under the floor left by the Reliant tank could then become hidden storage space.