The Body Sides

After much deliberation, and consultation I finally came up with a plan to hang the sides.

I needed to be able to do this on my own, so lifting a 7.5mtr x 2.5mtr sheet of 3mm fiberglass that was on a roll (and wanted to be again) was no easy task.
The next problem was to glue it to the steel frame keeping it as flat as possible.

Here is the solution:

Firstly, 25mm wide 1.5mm thick single-sided foam tape was applied on to all the 40x40 steel on the side framework. The idea here is that the tape provides thermal isolation from the steel whilst holding the fiberglass sheet a fixed distance from the substrate.

When Sikaflex 221 is then applied down both edges of the steel from the inside, it penetrates under the grp sheet as far as the foam tape it forms a perfect bond, but with a degree of thermal isolation.

I used two pieces of 6mm thick aluminum angle bolted through the top of the sheet clamping it in between.  I then lifted the whole sheet with two chain blocks. This kept the top of the sheet flat.

That's it in the air, now I clamped some offcuts of 40x40 steel box the bottom body rail of the truck, sticking out flush with the bottom edge.

I then lowered the sheet onto these supports giving me a true bottom edge, I then placed an 8x4 sheet of plywood against the fiberglass sheet and clamped it top and bottom, this pulled the fiberglass onto the steel frame.  It was then glued from the inside around all edges of the frame.

I left this overnight for the glue to dry then moved the sheet of ply down 4 feet and started again,  a bit of a long-winded process but it works really well.

                                                                                                                                                                             

Milestone

A milestone has been reached, the first of the body's GRP sheet is on the roof, It took me nearly half a day to get it up there on my own, but it's up there now.

It's not fixed yet just lying there at the moment whilst I work out how to hang the sides.

Painting the frame

I hated painting when I started and still hated it when i was finished.

Nearly there with the paint, another couple of days.

New Hydraulic Tank

To fit the generator where i did required the moving of the hydraulic tank, This tank holds the fluid for the power steering and the winches.

Not only did I have to move it but it was also replaced because the one I had didn't fit in the space I needed it to go.

Lucky only one of the four hoses needed to be replaced, the other three were long enough.

Generator

Fitting the generator was a bit of a pain, i was first going to put it inside the truck (in the rear Garage section) then i decided it would take up too much space in there.

The next plan was on the left-hand side behind the last axel, it was just slightly too big for that space as well.

So plan "C" was to mount it on the righthand side behind the front wheel,  The only problem was there is a Hydraulic tank there.
So the only option was the Hydraulic tank has to move.

I had to make a bracket to hang the generator of (its 160Kg) but i also wanted it to slide out for servicing.

The generator is mounted on rubber feet, it connects to the Aux fuel tank and has its own starter battery. It is wired into the vehicle's electrical system and connected to the alarm as well.

I will be making a cover for the front of it, so it won't look like a generator.

The generator is a Cummins Onan QD5000  5.5Kw diesel unit, very quiet.

Auxiliary Fuel Tank

The truck is fitted with three 200Ltr Tanks,  Two of them are connected together, the other one is separate, but i am able to transfer the fuel from it to the other tanks if needed.

Essentially the third tank operates as a fuel supply for the water heating, cabin heating and to run the generator.  It is also the reserve fuel supply.

All the pipework is now complete and pressure tested.

Spare Wheel Lifts

The idea here is to have two independent lift systems for each of the two spare wheels,  at 400Kg each there not something you want to be trying to lift manually.

i initially thought about using telescopic hydraulic cylinders but they tend to be very large in diameter and wouldn't fit with my framework idea, so now i am looking at electric winches.

So my idea is that there is a frame mounted on the back of the truck that has a sliding frame inside it, this sliding frame is telescopic and is lifted from its lower half by the winch. The upper half of the frame acts as a guide and just follows the lower half (thats the theory anyway)

The electric winch will sit at the top of the frame with a pully on the lower frame when locked for traveling the weight will be held by a solid 20mm locking bar.

The spare wheel will be bolted to the lower half of the frame when it is lowered to the ground, it's just unbolted and rolled away.

Outer Skin

The outer skin on the frame is going to be 3mm GRP,  This is easy to apply hard wearing, easy to repair.
I wanted to do the sheeting of the sides and roof in one piece so there would be no joins

I collected the material from the supplier this week, a 600km round trip but worth it.

So here it is 30m of 3mm GRP sheet.

More Steel Work

i recently got a new lease of life regarding the steelwork, i was a little bit bored with welding and grinding. 

Now however i am really moving along, the sides are finished the roof is finished and the rear is almost finished.

Next job, cladding.

Underun Bar

I don't think an underrun bar is a requirement on an off-road truck, but its no harm to have one. It saves picking Nissan Micras out from under your rear axel.

I wanted to make it retractable, so when off-road you can lift it up out of the way, it also doubles as a retractable tow point for the Suzuki Jimny.

Body Framework

I friend of mine called around (thanks Matt) to help me with some of the heavy lifting of the body frames, Lots of work was done.

Water Filter

 

Today i worked on the drinking water filter system,  its a 3 stage filter system the first being a           5-micron sediment filter, followed by an activated carbon filter, then a CTO carbon filter. After that lot, there is a reverse osmosis membrane unit followed by a T33 taste and odor removal filter, then finally an ultraviolet sterilizer before it gets to the tap.

That ought to keep the water drinkable.

More Plumbing

I have been working on the water control box, it essentially is a box that contains the wast tank dump controls and the water inlet valves.

The "freshwater inlet" also doubles as the water inlet for the truck. it has a valve between it and the fresh water tanks that switches off when the tanks are full.

The "wast tank rinse" feeds water to a sprinkler system within the wast tanks to flush them out.


The "Filter Intake" allows me to suck water from a river etc and filter it via a 3 stage filter system a reverse osmosis membrane and a uv sterilizer.