1961 Rust-O-Mod Pickup Build thread

Some pics of widening the wheelwells.



I used panel bonding adhesive to glue flanges to the bed sides where I didnt want to burn the exterior paint.   Guess only time will tell if it'll hold up.

The bed came out pretty good - in my humble opinion....

I like that it looks almost stock even though it's a ton of custom work.

Somewhere I have more pics of building it - can't locate them in my mess of files right now.  Will post when I locate them.

From that second pic, looks like you’re in a somewhat precarious position...

The bed looks Fantastic!!!

Thanks Vanny - appreciate the good word.

Luckily I had my supervisor on site to keep things safe!

Is he the one who took the pic???

Found the pics of constructing the bed.  



These little corner pieces were the most tedious parts.



A spritz of primer to see how it's turning out.



The fuel filler neck is going in the flat area with yellow marks.

The fuel filler neck needed to be much higher with the tank sitting on top of the old bed surface.  Was thinking to incorporate it into the wheelwell somehow but this turned out to be simpler.  A pretty straight shot to the inlet of the tank.

A few more shots of fabbing the bed supports.

The front part of the bed opens up like a hood or trunk.  I'm going to keep the air ride stuff, the battery and the spare tire under there.





I originally got these hood hinges from a 90's Chevy pickup.  Couldn't figure out how to get them to work out right.



These hinges were from a Jeep Gladiator pickup.  They were cheap and seemed like they'd fit the space pretty well.  I think any hood hinges of this type would have worked OK.  I had to modify the pivot arms a little bit to get it to open up wider/higher.

Great skills! Nice work!!!

Here are some shots of the "trunk" with the decking on it.

Yes, I was walking on it! Stress test....


Open!  Says me....




The springs on the hood hinges are strong enough to hold it open really well but still closes easily.  Was a little afraid the deck would be too heavy.

It has been a while since I've posted any progress on my pickup.  We bought a cabin over in Colorado and spend the summer working on it and on the property.  So many projects...!

One fun thing I did was build a bridge.  Actually didn't get it completed but the structure is all in.  Here are some photos - just to show I wasn't just napping all this time.



I built it from dead timber found on the property.  Mixed concrete with a cheapo Harbor Freight mixer and generator.  Milled the logs using a Granberg chainsaw mill.









Added two more beams in the center after this photo.  The deck boards will be 2 1/2" thick.  I'm milling them with the chainsaw.



Too much snow up there now to finish so I'm back in Moab.  Back to cutting metal - instead of wood.  Will post more Econo progress photos in the coming weeks.

Nice work! Do you hire out?

Maybe... But I'm so slow that at $10 per hour everything will end up costing $10,000.

OK.  Back to the P'up progress.

Here's the latch I used for the bed/hood.  It's one of those generic VW latches sold for hot rods.





I have the release cable tucked up under the passenger bed side.  Don't have a pic of that yet.

Time flies.

It's been about a year since I updated this site with progress on the Econo Pup.  I was going great guns when locked down.  Now that we're allowed to lead normal lives again other priorities keep getting in the way!  

I'll drop a few pics here the next few days to get back to where I'm at currently.

Here I got an open box steering column for a good price.  Figured the warranty was useless since I was going to cut it up immediately.


Cut to length.


Drilled out the dimples holding the plastic bushing in and popped it out.




This is a roll cage accessory mount I modded and welded to the column drop to hold the column in place.




This floor mount also will hold the vinyl boot to cover up the mechanicals.

Getting the seats installed.  

I had some other seats from a Fiero in there first.  They fit pretty well but I didn't like the look.  

These are from a Humvee - a Craigslist freebie!  I like them more - hoping the upholsterer can reshape them a little to look more 1960's stock.  Finding seats that are narrow and thin is a challenge.  I think the top of my head is going to be on the headliner.

There's what the Fiero seats looked like.

great work ,great job.

I've spent a ton of time putting one piece glass and power regulators in the doors.  Gotta say it has not been my favorite part of this project.

I bought a kit with glass, channel run, regulators and switches.  Should have bought the parts individually because I've ended up getting different switches and channel run and beltline fuzzies.  Still have work to do...

The switches were especially disappointing.  Don't you just hate when you spend hours making things fit and the expensive thing you paid $$$$ for turns out to be crap?

The original switches were the Autoloc type you see for sale everywhere.  They're not inexpensive but they are cheap.  I replaced them with Nu-Crank switches from Nu-Relics Power Windows.  It's a night and day difference in quality.



The shafts on the Chinese switches wouldn't even fit and I spent a long time with a triangular file working the splines until the crank handles would go on.  The shafts on USA switches are precise.

The little micro switches appear to be better quality but I can't say for sure if they're better or not.

Good information for others who decide to follow your footsteps. At-A-Boy for saving the next person from having to deal with inferior made products. Like where you’re going with this project!

Here are the brackets I made to have the power window switches use the original mounting holes in the doors.

Scored a glove box door off Ebay.  Psyched it's very straight and came with hinges, locking latch (but no key) and stop cable.

I went a couple days trying to figure out how it mounts correctly.  Couldn't find any good pictures online.  Somewhere I read that many early Econos were never fitted with a glove box door.  It turns out that this truck never had one and it was necessary to cut back the flange where the hinges go.  



Need to cut away where the yellow marks are.


Now those hinges will work!


Fits pretty good.

Haven't been on the site for a while.  Finally getting to my Scott's IFS install.  Got the floor and frame rails cut out and have the first dry fit of the suspension.  I'm using coil overs, not aiming for the slammed on the ground look.  I noticed you welded your sub frame in flush to the top of theexisting unibody frame rails.  I've seen others that welded in flush to the bottom of the rail and you end up with a gap the floor.  Your way makes more sense.  Any recomendations on how to square the suspension up to the body and between the wheel well before I start welding?

For for the vertical placement you should mock it all up with the wheels and tires you'll be running.  The bottom control arm should be pretty much level at ride height.  If you put the IFS crossmember higher the body will be slammed toward the ground.   If it's put in lower (ie. gap to the floor) the body will ride higher.  You should worry less about the gap and make sure it rides at the height you like.  You can add support to the floor aferwards.  Estimating the sag with no engine in it is probably more art than science.  Air bags make that easier to fudge.  The coilovers will require more forethought.

For squaring it to the body....  I pulled measurements from all over.  Probably 1000 times!   I think I got the best results by measuring between the front control arms and the rear axle or the leaf spring mount holes.  Figured the further outboard measurements to be more accurate.  Also figured it was more important to get the front and rear axles parallel to eachother than to anything on the body.  It was difficult for me to decide where the wheel should center front to back in the wheelwell opening.   Some days I think I nailed it and others not.  It also looks different depending on if it's dropped to the ground or aired up.

Tack it all over the place but don't weld it.  I always succumb to the compulsion to weld things up.  Weak willed and impatient!  Don't do it!!  Once it's tacked up give it a few days to look at it from all angles and remeasure 1000 more times.  You might change your mind after sleeping on it.