Blast from the past - old face & 82' grandby

[Vic Harder]

your going to love the full sized bed without a pullout to impede on living space. Not saying it won't work as you have drawn it out, but when I asked ATC if they could make a camper with a 5' wide East/West cabover bed space, they weren't interested. Must be some engineering work to be done there.

 

[pods8]

Technically I'll have it set up to have a pullout to make it a king size bed but 16" into a 48" wide dinette/lower bed isn't that much intrusion in those cases. I'd wager the reason they aren't interested in a 5' long cabover is that they use that coated plywood for the cabover floor and it comes in a typical 4'x8' size.

 

[takesiteasy]

Hey Pods, good to see you posting again. I'm looking forward to watching your project.

 

[pods8]

The wall panels are all done and ready, I still need to add a bit to the floor for the bolt thru areas. Got the perimeter tubes all fit up so now its just a bunch of stitch welding to fully stick it all together. After that I'll cut off the channel from the old body and put together my new pieces under it, weld the corners and bottom of the channel to the new frame.

 

[ski3pin]

pods8, I continue to be impressed with the energy you throw into a project. It's inspiring and fun to observe. Thanks!

 

[Vic Harder]

Awsesome work. I am envious of your ability to weld aluminum!

 

[pods8]

pods8, I continue to be impressed with the energy you throw into a project. It's inspiring and fun to observe. Thanks!

I’ve had my ups and downs.

Awsesome work. I am envious of your ability to weld aluminum!

I give technology a lot of credit, the newer machines help a lot. But just looking at my first welds on the project to my current ones they’re getting nicer. Still a ways to go vs the guys doing steady consistent nice looking welds. Also moving into out of position welds now (mostly all was on a flat table putting the walls together) which will tax things a bit. But happy to be learning tig as it’s a pretty useful welding process for numerous materials and control over the welding. Not a fast process compared to mig but versatile.

 

[PokyBro]

Pods8,

Looking really good, and like Vic and Ski, I’m impressed with your fortitude and ingenuity, not to mention your willingness to tackle a new skill or two (tig welding). Seeing your frame set up for welding sure takes me back to my build when I was in the same boat piecing the frame together in a new configuration. There is something about building that gives some of us a lot of satisfaction and pride. Best wishes as you continue this project to its fruition. I, and many others will be enjoying watching from afar. Keep up the great work!

Poky

 

[pods8]

Out with the old and in with the new.

Little fitment massages to do, add in the corner post pieces (left off to deal with any fitment issues in the corners) and a bunch of welding (including a bunch more stitch welding the top perimeter, I just did enough to hold it together to cut off the body).

 

[pods8]

Been at it getting the frame ready for moving to the new house here shortly, had to lift it up into the air comfortably complete the welds on the lower corners and top side of the floor to side walls (I don't have a amp control on my torch so need to work a foot pedal at the same time and bent over wasn't very comfortable). Got that all done now and good enough for putting on my truck to move. I still need to stitch weld the interior perimeter (thats a want on my end, really likely not needed but I'm welding this as well as "I" can once...). Need to add the structure to bolt to my flatbed (which I need to decide on) and also weld the underside of the floor to the sidewalls which I'll do with the frame rolled over right before I install the floor sheeting on the exterior. Some good welds, some not so good but to be honest I suspect they're all better than trying to mig with a spool gun.

That'll wrap up the lower body. Then I need to make the cabover floor, folding lift panels (will be tube also) and roof frame.

 

[Vic Harder]

seriously impressed... .

 

[pods8]

Put it on the truck to move to the new house (of course "sunny" colorado decided rain was in the cards...). Preview of the eventual look/fit, the eyebolts currently in my bed were in the way of the front frame edge so I couldn't slide it all the way forward (IE not planning to have that gap between my front wall, just a thin bumper). The width of the camper actually fits inside the flip walls of the bed as well, I'll probably run with those on most of the time as they'll just shield the lower edge of the camper, I'll just add a thin bumper on each rear corner so the bed walls don't slap into the side of the camper as they vibrate a little.