what to do w/ the bed of my e30 truck

[jgentile]

Is your guys shop open on Saturday?

its my dads shop and its open monday through friday all day, and most of saturday most of the time and sometimes sunday if hes busy, he works molstly alone so he can go in and close up whenever he needs, so when you find a good time for you ill make sure my dad will have the shop open and well probablly be working on the truck, thats what im going to go do right now.

I think a somewhat thin sheetmetal bed made of steel covered with a Rhino Liner (spray-in rubberized bed coat) would be the best bet.

that was exactly what i was going to do at first, but my dad thought up this big trunklid idea that can be removed whenever we want, so were doing that and then putting a thin sheetmetal bottom so the spare tire isnt exposed and so its flat right above the gas tank. it would be interesting to have youre made that way, we can each make ours different and compare how they came out.

[jgentile]

looks like your gonna have to do a lot of custom welding in that trunk area, however. thats why the germands usually put dimond plating in theres, that way, they just cover up all that extra crap, instead of fixing it.

wevce already done so much custom work that imm expecting it with everything we do, and were sort of covering everything up, bit with a big trunklid, when you open it youre gunna see sort of a big mess, but that can always be fixed when the car is back from the bodyshop, oh ya by the way its going to be diamon schwarz with smoked headlights and kidneys, and im leaning towards all red turn signals, im also do a mix math color interior, the seats are red heated sports seats from a cab, and im taking red door panels and putting black handles and map pockets, should turn out cool, everything else, like shift boot and ebrake boot are going to be black with red stitching, probablly one of robs suede ones if hes still making them. my dad saw another car with this color comnbination and he said it looked good, so were trying it out, if i dont like it i can always change it because we have full black dorr panels and full red ones.

[Ben Carufel]

Jeremy,

Saturday I'm moving (just to a new house here in UC) so I'll be busy all day. Maybe Sunday would work.

I stopped by a friend's house this morning on the way to work to talk to him. He is big into custom hot rods and sectioning/channeling old cars, so I asked his advice. He had a good idea -- why not find an E30 Cabrio and start with that. It already has all the extra reinforcement to keep the body ridgid with no roof, so it would save a lot of time which you'd otherwise have to spend welding in reinforcement tubing.

Sounds pretty logical...

I'm going to take a look around the 'net for project E30 Cabrios and see what I can dig up tonight when I get home.

Either way, my dad said he can loan me a couple grand, so I'll have money to buy a pickup truck and still keep the E30 and work on chopping it into a truck...sounds fun!

[jgentile]

why not find an E30 Cabrio and start with that. It already has all the extra reinforcement to keep the body ridgid with no roof, so it would save a lot of time which you'd otherwise have to spend welding in reinforcement tubing.

sounds like a good idea, also, a coupe works well, there isnt much extra support we put in and so far it seems good, but the cabrio would be a cool thing to do, my only question is what would you about a roof? you could amke a roofless pickup just cut the rabbit piece right below the window and there will be a little devider between the bed and rest of the car, that would be cool, but what exactly do you have in mind?

[e30Matt]

Or use a roof from a wrecked E30 and weld it in... or have a custom convertible top made and have a convertible truck vis-a-vis the SSR. But not a hideous Chevrolet.

[jgentile]

but not a hideous car like this gay chevy.

but not a hideous chevrolet

looks like were on the same page

i think the convertible truck would be awesome, something COMEPLETELY orignal and fun to drive and it would look pretty cool.

[Ben Carufel]

If I were to go with a Cabrio I'd get the roof from a Coupe or Sedan and cut it to fit. The Cabrio has a much stronger A pillar than the coupe or sedan, if I recall correctly, so I wouldn't want to cut into that. I'd weld it on right where the normal Cabrio piece ends -- a black front headliner piece from a Coupe/Sedan might even fit to cover up the unsightly joint.

But I'd need the roof for practicality. A full on convertible pickup sounds cool, but just doesn't seem practical.

[jgentile]

A full on convertible pickup sounds cool, but just doesn't seem practical.

thats true, what youre saying also sounds really cool, the only reason i used the exact car i used is becuase it was one of my dads parts cars and a perect candidate for the project because it was a piece, but its comming along well.

[Garageaholic]

I can't get the pictures and really want to see the construction pics. Any idea how to access them? or are they long gone...

[DaveSmed]

I'd also like to add a rear gate. I know this will greatly comprimise the body's rigidity and might not even be an option due to that, but I'm sure an early 90's Toyota tailgate would fit well with minor modifications. The taillights would need to be retrofitted, too.

Or perhaps the stock rear end can be cut (making a nice cut through the brakelights and resealing them with some plastic perhaps?) to make an authentic-looking tailgate.

Why not just cut here?

[xLibelle]

what a dissapointment this thread turned out to be