Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

Off the axle stands & back down on the floor. Couldn't figure out why it wouldn't roll forward. D'oh! It's in "park". First time I've had the rear end hooked up to the gearbox & sat on the ground. I've got used to it being up on stands recently. Seems really low now! 54 inches to the highest point of the roof.

[NeilG]

Lookin good



Now you've extended it Andy will it still fit in the garage 

[Manky Monkey]

  Haven't got a garage. We've got the use of a barn on the estate where Taz works, which is about the same size as Loony's workshop. Not sure how long we'll have that for though. There's a chance it may get requisitioned for estate use, which we can't really argue about. I fully intend to use the Pop as every day transport, not for the commute up & down the motorway to work, but for everything else, so it'll live outside most of the time.
Not building a squeaky clean show car here. 

[panthershaun]

looking good mate  The bed doesn't look to bad, could fit a bike on that so for your next project you have to build a "Bobber" to ride in the back 

[BikerGran]

Shaun did you mean his next project after the pop, and the trike, and Tazet's trike, and the Charger?

 

[panthershaun]

of course BG

[Manky Monkey]

The bed's only 56 inches long, maybe another 12 or so if you include the tailgate when it's down. Not long enough for a bike, even a short bobber -a Farthinger?
The other chassis extension tapped into place & both ends hacksawed off at 45 degrees.
The red wiggly bits are will be the mudguard struts.

[Manky Monkey]

Another length of box cut to close the rear of the chassis. All cut at 45 degrees but deliberately slightly over length -the chassis tapers towards the front, so I'll fettle the joint to get it as tight & neat as I can. It's all just wedged in place here.

[Manky Monkey]

Rear crumple zone. Yup, hit that & it'll crumple your car, no problem.

[Manky Monkey]

So now the chassis reaches to the end of the pick-up bed.
Still just wedged in place here.

[Manky Monkey]

Got to shuffle the chassis & bed cross members around a bit. Once the truck's been tested, we're going to mount the original Pop cylindrical fuel tank in the front of the bed, but will use an old Reliant tank, slung under the back end, for the test itself. If we can hook the 2 up together, we might keep 'em both for extra range. The spacings between the cross members aren't quite wide enough for the tank at the moment. Also got to sling a battery box under the bed somewhere. Both will sit behind the axle, clear of the suspension & prop shaft.

[Firery Fred]

"crumple zone" 

[Manky Monkey]

 
Got absolutely drenched at work this morning -trudged round the streets delivering her Majesty's mail for 3 & a half hours in torrential rain. So was tempted to give the workshop a miss today & just go straight home. If I just do a little bit every day though, it'll eventually get done -won't it?
So it was nose to the grinding disc again.
First job, tweak the rear chassis extensions & rear cross member a bit then tack-weld them in position.

[Manky Monkey]

The Reliant tank will sit here, but slung underneath the chassis. We'll cut off the original filler neck & plate it over, then weld a new neck in on the top face. As suggested by Loony, we'll use one of the small pop-up fuel caps, same as I've got on my trike -push down on the cap with your thumb, twist till it pops up, then unscrew. It'll be mounted in the rear corner of the pick-up bed floor. I'd like to keep the Reliant tank once the truck's been tested & hook it up in tandem with the Pop one, but not entirely sure how that'd work.
Anyway, the chassis cross member between the axle & the rear of the frame was too close to the back end to allow fitment of the tank, so once I'd tacked the rear piece in place, I chopped it out with the angle grinder & cleaned off the welds.

[Manky Monkey]

Because it'd been cut out, it was then about 10mm too short to weld back in. So I made up a sleeve to fit in each end to bridge the gap between cross member & chassis. A little careful measuring & it was welded back in, in the right place. The gap behind the cross member's now big enough for the tank to fit in, (remember it'll be under the bed, flush with the top of the chassis), & the gap in front of it's big enough to drop the battery into. I'll make up a battery box to either bolt or weld into the chassis, with an access hatch in the bed floor. The bed sides & tailgate panel will extend low enough to hide all this.