Safari Pacific MX2 Build

[schanusa]

More of the same overlapping backing to weld on.

Roof welded into place. Since there is a lot of room for warping, I'll be taking a day or two to weld this up. I start by running spot welds a few inches apart. Over time I will continue to spot weld between the other welds until its fully welded.

While between welding the roof, I start to get ready to work on the wheel well of the cab.

More in a day or two...

 

[Shoeboy]

Excellent progress, what have you decided about the rear "windows", or are you undecided yet? I'm amazed at how quickly this build is going, I thought I'd see an update every month or so, and have it go on over the length of a year, its been, what a month and a half and you're about, what, a little under half done?

 

[alaskan155]

an electric T-case,

might to swap that to a manual less stuff to go wrong


other than that this is turning out to be a great build

 

[schanusa]

an electric T-case, might to swap that to a manual less stuff to go wrong other than that this is turning out to be a great build

I'm going to try and fab up a manual shifter linkage where the electric solenoid goes. Shouldn't be to difficult.

 

[Not All There]

awesome build! just stumbled across this, keep it up!

 

[koda6966]

I bet you could make good money if you built these for people.

 

[Gabe8810]

that is some talent there man. nice work

 

[schanusa]

I bet you could make good money if you built these for people.

If the price is right.....

 

[schanusa]

To fill in the upper side panel, I start with constuction paper roughly cut and taped in place.

From the inside I trace where the pattern should be cut. After Cutting I tape it into place for a dry fitting.

Once the pattern is correct I trace onto sheet steel and cut out the filler panel.

At the bottom of the panel there is a small curve that I will have to recreate. I mark the top, bottom and middle of the curves position. You can also see the backing strips that I've been making to merge the bodywork together.

 

[schanusa]

Using a custom built bender I create the smaller curve.

Once bent into shape I clamp the panel in place and begin to weld.

Side shots of driver and passenger side panel in place.

 

[Ranger44]

Nice....I like the way this truck is turning out.

 

[holyford86]

very nice work, very clean, excellent job.

 

[fordguy64]

very nice... i like it...

 

[dusto2]

I'm going to try and fab up a manual shifter linkage where the electric solenoid goes. Shouldn't be to difficult.

good luck to you on that one i tried, but its hard to make it rotate and stop at 4hi, and just rotate to 4lo is just under 360degrees, other than that great job i really like it, coming along quickly

 

[schanusa]

ROAD TEST!!! Before I get to far I wanted to see how much the new body parts rattled or puckered. This was the first time I had ever driving with ear plugs too... The wheel wells were open and created a lot of noise.

Couldn't resist photo-shopping a finished product.

The bed appears to twist quite a bit, although the rear cab mounts are not connected. This was a problem I thought I would have. With the frame flexing about an inch I worry it will tweek the cab. I may build a pivoting body mount for this.

All in all, everything handled well. None of the panels puckered or popped while driving. Now its onto finishing the wheel wells!