Steel & Canvas Pickup Truck Canopy Build Thread!

[Ian Moone]

Eldest lad bought himself a tray back 4by pickup truck, 2014 Bitsamissing Triton 2.5 intercooled turbo diesel dual cab thing.



He drives road trains for a living, triple trailer, 90 tonne tippers with grain and so on.



Sends me this above photo snapped out the window of his prime mover (tractor trailer) in traffic. with a message "Dad - any chance you could make/build me a canopy & roof rack like this for the tray of my pickup truck?

Mind you I am from a timber background...... what I know about steel and welding etc can be writ in large font on the head of a pin!.

But you know how it is when your a dad!

Sure thing says I!

[Ian Moone]

First chance I get - I measure up the rear tray of his pickup with 100% dead accurate engineering measurements to base a fabrication project design upon.


OK ya got me I fibbed - I threw some rough as guts measurements on the back of an envelope!.

Next was to haul out the CAD CAM & come 8up with an engineering design and specification.


OK, I Fibbed again... I hauled up paint shop and worked with a pic off the intranet!

You do what you have too and work with what you have!

[Ian Moone]

Next - was a visit to "see the guy" (That would be "the guy" with the steel engineering shop)!

Hey how was I ever going to bend rhs tube without a mandrel bender?

I traced out a 'template' of the headboard of the pickup tray onto a sheet of 3mm cabinet backing & took that along to "the engineering guy" and asked him to bend me up 2 hoops to match the shape of the headboard of the tray!.



Too easy!

Next was chop them to height to match the tray and keep the off cuts for further use as legs inside the tray!.



Needed some 80 x 100mm square 3mm plate but didn't have any at the time, so opened up some 50mm angle and welded it back together flat!



Grind away and what do you know...




Boxed on and added legs inside the tray for both hoops.





Looks a bit wonky but its not -its the wide angle lense on the camera distorting it - believe me.

[Ian Moone]

Next was starting in on a tailgate that will open on hinges and gas struts!











Who's ever idea it was to go with curved corners musta been nuts - yep guilty as charged.

[Ian Moone]

With the help of some stainless Nutserts (Riv Nuts) the corners start to come together to make the overall frame - which will be "modular" or unbolt into constituent "components".



A quick "test fit" in the dark...



And some more darned curved bits welding



Lots more grinding!



And it's actually starting to come together as a recognizable "frame".



But of course - you can never have enough 'bent bits' in a job like this...

So back to "bending" otherwise straight steel to conform to my desires!.













Did I mention a lot of grinding steel?





And you can now see where the bendy bits go!

[Ian Moone]

Time for another test fit.



Scratch of the head!

Check it from various Angles.



Mess around with some hinges...



And also mess with fitting locks/ paddle latches for the side gates.







It's amazing how much time this sort of hand work can eat up....

Being retired I just potter about at it a few hours here and there each day, when I feel like it!.

Did I mention, I started back in APRIL!

Can't rush these things..... we have a saying "built, not bought"!

Way i am going I could die of old age before I finish this durn thing.... the "motivation factor is waning fast!

[Ted Calver]

What a great build!! This is going to be a beast when it's done. Thanks for taking us along!

[Bruce Page]

That is some serious fabrication. I would have handed him a catalog and said "Pick one".
I'm curious, what is the gizmo on the right front fender?

[Ian Moone]

I'm curious, what is the gizmo on the right front fender?

Safari Snorkel

http://www.safarisnorkel.com/snorkel...hf/ss660hf.htm



It's designed for deep water crossings, to keep water ingress out of the air intake. Also helps keep dust ingress from unsealed roads to a minimum.

Being diesel, they would have us believe that you can cross water above hood height - however anyone who's actually tried would know that's pure bunkum with the amount of electronics in the modern vehicles these days - what with Injector drive modules and engine management computers, and water past door sill height will quickly flood the interior - short out the electronics and the car will be a dead duck in the middle of the creek.

Now Stateside likely you got into any deep water it would be frozen and turned to snow - so you'd be "honkey dorey" without any need for a snorkel but here where it never snows summer or winter...all our water stays in liquid form so we try to get used to driving around in it.



In theory you can do this - but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, with the passenger window wound down.... & NOT just coz water might pour in.



Just as important to keep one a these from hopping into the seat alongside you as well....

We have "a rule of thumb" - here, for such water crossings "only one idiot in the water at a time".