I called in at Loony's workshop again on my way home from work today. There's really not much I can do on the bodyshell at the moment -it's down to Loony's panel bashing skills to pull it all into shape. So I contented myself with cutting a repair patch ready for him to weld in place, then mocking up the pick up bed to see how it'd look.
These are the VW camper van lower rear repair panels. I think they're about 20 quid each. The actual arch is roughly the same width as the tyres I'll be using so the axle will be set centrally in the arch. I slid the panels into the back of the open cab until the length looked about right. We'd wondered if we could use the camper van rear corners too, but when we tried one we found it's curve was too sweeping -extending the back of the bed almost another foot. Too long. So Mr Lunatic will probably roll a simple tight, single curve around the rear corners & not worry about trying to produce a double curve that sweeps under the bed too.
Loony & I agreed the pick up bed should be roughly the same length as the cab unit &, if possible, slightly shorter than the bonnet. I'd forgotten how long & pointy the Pop nose is. I dug out the relevant panels & propped them in place. The front end measured 120cm. The pick up bed I'd mocked up came to 100. Perfect. That'll make quite a useable load area -roughly 3 foot 6 long by 4 foot wide.
The VW camper floor's also available as a repair panel & has cool, semi industrial looking ribs pressed into it, which would look good.
O.K, so it's nothing stunningly original, but we can make a nice, tidy looking trad' pick up. Maybe it's been done before, I dunno, but it's the first one I've ever done & that's all that matters.
Any opinions?
