Slide in Cargobody Conversion.

After seeing the slide in utility shells on some of the cable trucks around town, I couldn’t shake the idea that one would make a pretty good “Baja style” camper for my tundra. After over a year of searching Craigslist for a 6.5’ one, this...well loved...Cargobody popped up just across the border in Utah. We loaded up the following Saturday and four hours later I owned it. It’s solid overall and is setup just how I wanted. Ambulance doors with windows, standard slider on passenger side and full side access on the driver’s side.

Photos from the ride home. Doesn’t look too terrible on the baby tundra:





The plan is to get it cleaned up, repair any fiberglass issues, blend the seams and give it a color matched bed liner job inside and out. The interior build out will be a simple sleeping platform setup and some sort of storage system underneath.

We pulled the ladder rack and started on the clean up. Turns out the black trim on these things hides the...rustic...construction. A rubber pinstripe wheel made quick work of all the decals. There were a couple minor delaminations where the hatch meets the roof so I ground them back to good glass and laid up some new material. Gonna take the time to blend all the seams while I’m this deep. Here’s a quick shot of the side access door. You can also see the old black trim and some of the old worn out accessories. Handles, door grabbers etc:



Here’s the truck after the first weekend of work. It took most of the weekend to fit the doors properly but I’m happy with it in the end. I also took the opportunity to shave the handles and whatnot while blending the seams. Will add some more detail shots soon.



Hopefully I can get some little stuff done during the week. It’s kind of a pain to drag everything out to the parking lot for an hour after work but I’m sure there’s little stuff to do. Will update the thread as it progresses. Thanks for taking a look!
 

bumper crop

New member
Love this idea. I am traveling to Alaska this summer and I’ve been looking for a cap with more headroom than my Leer allows. Might look for one of these.

Love the Tundra too. I’ve had my 09 RCSB for a couple years and I am still in truck love. Yours sits great. What have you done to it?
 
Love this idea. I am traveling to Alaska this summer and I’ve been looking for a cap with more headroom than my Leer allows. Might look for one of these.

Love the Tundra too. I’ve had my 09 RCSB for a couple years and I am still in truck love. Yours sits great. What have you done to it?


Thanks! Nice to run into another regular cab owner. Not a whole lot of them around. The truck is on ADS 2.5” remote reservoir coil overs up front, ADS 2.5” piggyback shocks and Deaver mini pack in the rear. Running 18” methods and 295/70/18 general grabber x3s. The body leveled the truck pretty well but if it gets too much heavier I’ll probably need to look into airbags.
 
Got a lot done over the weekend. Finished smoothing the seams on both sides, filled in the last of the major holes and started working on the bed clamps.

Here’s the girlfriend filling and reinforcing the bottom door latch area.





Filling some holes in the roof step by step.






Cut holes for access to the clamp bolts while the shell is in the bed. Also a look at how the clamps work (upside down in the photo)




Final photo of the blended seams.

 

Ari3sgr3gg0

Active member
That looks like it is coming along nicely, fiberglass is pretty great for any kind of adverse weather conditions too! The flip out window is great, easy to get things in and out of the shell
 

Waltzing Matilda

Adventurer
What an interesting design. Reminds me of the "pangas" boats the fishermen use in Baja.
Great interior potential- looking forward to your build.

How do you plan to manage condensation/ventilation? Do the windows on the passenger side open?
Are you planning a roof-top vent?
 
The window does open on the passenger side. I’ve been looking into roof vents but I haven’t found anything I like. I’m also trying to keep it looking more like a work truck than a camper for stealthiness and the roof vents kinda give it away.
 
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Decided to flush mount the side door instead of dealing with the mounting flange.

Before:



Glassed on the inside/ flange cut off and rough sanded:





Gaps epoxied:


upload pictures

Made for a lot more work but should be much nicer in the long run. Eliminated a bunch of potentially leaky fasteners and the need for any hateful silicone.
 
Working on the mounts. Installed stainless rivnuts in the mounting plates and drilled out some urethane skateboard bushings to press fit around the shank of the rivnuts. Should make them easier to install, give a little flex for off road driving and prevent steel on fiberglass contact. The bushings also have the benefit of being glow in the dark ?.



 

redthies

Renaissance Redneck
The window does open on the passenger side. I’ve been looking into roof vents but I haven’t found anything I like. I’m also trying to keep it looking more like a work truck than a camper for stealthiness and the roof vents kinda give it away.

All the utility company trucks around where I live even have AC on the roof of their caps. Guys sit inside and splice fibre optics etc, and need to be cool. A Fantastic Fan isn’t going to give anything away.
 
Yeah, you’re right. After giving it some more thought, I decided on one of the maxxair fans. It should blend with the roof rack and be alright.
 

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