Recent content by Fenderfour

I'm pretty sure Mitsubishi truck dealers can extend the frame with pre-built sections that get riveted in. I have no idea what it costs, but I know a guy who did this to a Canter in the US. This also requires extending the driveline, wiring, brakelines, etc... so it probably adds up fast. That...

I've continued work on the camper frame, but it's not exciting work. It's chamfer, clean, weld, grind, repeat. Not really anything to show pictures of. Ruminating more on the nature of large projects, most of the time working on something isn't progress pics that anyone but you cares about, it's...

Well, you do you. I can feel your enthusiasm, and I'm sure you will have a lot of fun building your camper.

if you can weld steel, you can weld aluminum. the Yeswelder Mig 250 pro can do it natively down the whip. It's just a little trickier than steel and needs a little more prep. If i were to do it again, I'd probably make a steel frame. I think the big thing I'm bumping into is the need to have...

I had time to do some work this weekend. I had hoped to get the upper section of the camper frame welded up. With the exception of correcting one mistake on a panel, exactly 0 welding happened. Instead... I learned some things. 1. even a small camper is big. Once clamped up in my shop, it...

My last post on scribing the ribs got me thinking: so many folks think "If I had a welder and a shop, I could build that". I would say you can, and you will fail a bunch of times. I'm over here using 20+ years experience making everything fromm jewelry to cabinetry and even large scale art to...

I keep chipping away at this thing. The 5' x 12' ACM panels arrived from Grimco Yesterday. These will allow me to skin the sides without seams. More expensive, but worth the peace of mind. I've been working on the pass through flange for the truck. I've made this one out of 1" think HDPE. I...

I own an EV and a 30 year old diesel 4x4. The EV is neat because I can drive almost 300 miles on the equivalent of 2.5 gallons of gas. It's easy to drive, quiet, mostly automated, and makes my ~80 mile daily commute nicer. The diesel 4x4 is neat for the opposite reason. It's old, and loud, and...

it's got a little hat!

It seems like a big part of modern overlanding is spending money to make the coolest looking rig, the most luxurious, the -istiest ride we can. I'm going a little differently. Building a rig on a JDM platform is plenty expensive for me, so I'm cutting costs where I can. I've had my eye on a set...

Reading the current thread on cabover vs. longnose platforms got me thinking about my build. I'm not going to continue the argument here, but I can say one of my motiviations for getting the Hiace is that it didn't look like everything else out there. It's not a Tacoma, it's not a Fuso, it's not...

There's a discord server for retired Japanese Firetrucks. let me know if you want an invite

a bit of progress on the camper structure: created roof rack rails that have purchased brackets that ride on the rain gutters. I don't have a picture of the final welded bits, but they look like this: The plan is to have the camper hard-mounted to the cab to manage the load of the bed...

I've got it all packed up, crated, and buried in the shed currently. I can provide some info from the sales slip. the front diff worked fine with standard Toyota 7.5" IFS gears. No problems there. The rear diff was a sort of a standard 8" (non-turbo). The external housing was a little...

Not mine, but look at this rig, just look at it. 1954 Dodge M37 + Trailer on Craigslist