Daddyjeep Hauler - 85 K30 crew cab short bed

[whitels1]

Do work brother! Looking good!

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Nice work. Glad to see you are operating with the requisite Safety Bud Light.

Hydration is important. It is a Blue Light though.

Thanks for the comments guys. It is certainly good to be back working on this again. I will still be bouncing around between projects. I finally got the Jeep out on a shake down run and have a few things to address there.

[daddyjeep]

Well guys, it looks like i may be throwing in the towel. I think I am going to have to sell the truck. I have too much going on and I can sell this for more than enough to pick up a mid 00's truck that I can just drive. This will allow me to sell my DD Cobalt as well since the truck will get decent mileage. This is certainly a tough decision, but it is the right decision. This truck is and always will be my dream truck. Maybe some day I can start this whole thing over again. Any takers?

[joe231]

You should post it here
https://m.facebook.com/groups/1902842813275906

[daddyjeep]

I am a member there.... I was planning on it.

[daddyjeep]

More progress on the true short bed conversion. I finally cut the back half off to remove that 6" of material.



It is at least all tacked together now. A few thousand more tacks and we will be done.

[moregrip]

great progress on the bed man!

[daddyjeep]

More welding...



More grinding...



I gotta tell you, a 40 grit flap disk knocks down weld in a hurry. Why have I not been using this for years?

I got the new panel tied into the old on the drivers' side at least.



Ok, for those that may be following that have been here before. What do you guys do here? When that 6" comes out the taper in the rear no longer lines up. I was thinking about just taking a pie cut out of the new panel and bending it up. That, or sectioning a piece and moving it all up to match. Thoughts???

[daddyjeep]

Last night I cut out the rusty spots and filled in the spots with good metal and made fillers for all of the dually fender bolt holes. That took a little time filing them to size.





All cleaned up. I spent some time with the hammer and dolly. I still have a ways to go before it is ready for filler, but the metal is moving to my will.

[whitels1]

Dang bruh, Get after it! Nice work dude, curious to see how you handle the misalignment in the back.

[noezpu]

Good Morning,

What are the chances you would sell and ship those fenders to Maine? I have been looking for a set.

Thanks

[daddyjeep]

Well look at that... a true crew cab short bed finally. The bottom behind the wheel well still needs addressed, but I am going to finish up the bulk of the welding on the other side then put it up on the lift top clean up the lower stuff. No sense laying on the floor to weld since I have a lift.





neozpu, I will send you a PM.

[87max]

It's got to be a good feeling, nice job!

[daddyjeep]

More welding... more grinding. I need to spend some more time with the hammers and dollies, but we are getting there. I will get it up on the lift tomorrow and get the lower parts welded up.

[whitels1]

Much respect with your skills, it's coming together nicely!

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by whitels1

Much respect with your skills, it's coming together nicely!

Thanks. I'm still learning and still having fun.

[COS399]

Originally Posted by daddyjeep

Thanks. I'm still learning and still having fun.

That's the two most important things. That hood makes it mean looking.

[daddyjeep]

I got the truck up on the lift over the weekend so I could get all of the welding done on the lower part of the bed.



First order of business was figuring out the mismatch in the rear.



It turns out that there really wasn't a problem with the new panel after all. For some reason the original bed side had a piece cut out on both sides. I am not sure the reasoning behind this, but both sides were the same.



Then I had to clean up the cuts inside the bed. The 6" that I removed from the rear of the bed fell in a place where I would have to address the recess in the panel. I probably could have made some creative cuts so I could work around the recesses, but I chose to just cut them out and weld in a patch. This might have been a bit more welding and grinding. but it wasn't bad. The other side has holes where 5th wheel wiring once was so I would have had to patch that anyway. I will get some more pics of that side as I get it done.

[daddyjeep]

Well, six months have passed and not a lot has happened to the old truck. It has been for sale and still is for some reason. Lots of tire kickers and still talk to someone else that is interested every week. No one has brought cash so i figured that I might as well get back to work on it. The Jeep has been running good so I have been just enjoying that instead of working on it. I had a little bit of bondo left in a can so I mixed it up and slathered it onto a bed side. There are still a couple high spots that will need some hammering and I will have to cut out a piece at the very back to fix the body line above the tail light. It is dented up a bit and will be easier to replace a piece than to hammer it back into shape. We will see how far this goes before someone brings me cash. It won't break my heart a whole lot if no one shows up. I might even send them away if they do.

[daddyjeep]

Since I am leaning more and more towards not letting someone else buy my truck I thought it was time to update my rendering and maybe consider another color option. The first rendering was one that I found on the interwebs that I reworked to match my truck somewhat. I was never really happy with it and I have been doing some renderings of other vehicles and really just wanted a better one. This rendering was 100% done from scratch using a pic of my truck. I also added the ladder rack/cap that I am planning on building. It will have a steel structure and canvas covering.

So, here it is. Original colors with some flames added. My vehicles have had flames for almost 30 years. My first Squarebody had them back in '91... why stop now.



And a new color option. My first Squarebody was a very dark green and my Jeep that I will be towing is OD green.

[MTCK]

Keep it! I like both the color combos.

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Keep it!

All ads have been taken down.

[daddyjeep]

Well, I decided to just cut out that wrinkly spot on the bed side and weld in some better metal. I did some hammer and dolly work along the edge and on the bottom back corners. It is shaping up pretty good. A bit more welding to do and back to body work.

Wrinkly


Cut out. I wire brushed and painted everything I could reach while I had the hole open.


New steel welded in and ground.

[daddyjeep]

I finished welding and grinding the last piece on the bedside. I took my time and did some hammer and dolly work as I was welding so I got it a lot smoother than before. This will take very little filler to get smooth. I'm still learning.



And a coat of bondo. I won't get back to sanding it for a few days.

[daddyjeep]

Another couple hours of sanding in the books. My shoulders feel it. Slowly but surely it is taking shape.



I had to rearrange the shop a little. It is time to move my kids Jeep to the front. He has his permit now so in a few months he will need his Jeep.