othersidemetalworks
Member
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2023
- Messages
- 9
G'day from Australia!
I've been lurking around on here for ages and thought it was time to finally post a bit of my rust bucket I've been very slowly building for the last few years. The prerunner scene in Australia is dismal, basically non existent mostly due to our vehicle modification laws being extremely strict. This led me to delay building something like this for a very long time, but one day that all changed. I found a rusty old F100 an hour from home for a good price, convinced myself it would make a decent "daily" and that afternoon it was in my driveway.
The daily idea was pretty much given up on within the first two days, and after a bit of research I thought it was time to bite the bullet and build something that I had always wanted. Unfortunately this is quite a task here in Australia, while we have a huge 4x4 scene, parts to build prerunner type vehicles are completely non existent, no long travel kits, no fibreglass panels, all the key ingredients are unobtainable. That means if you want it, you must build it. So after a whole lot of reading and research, I fabricated new radius arms, radius arm brackets, beam mounts, plate style coilover towers and I plated and braced the stock beams.
I ended up redoing the coilover towers as you'll see a bit later, after a couple of years in the build I knew I could build something nicer, so I pulled it all apart and started again, idiot.
Sourced some cheap steel wheels in a width and offset that I knew would be similar to my final sizes and got some 35's on it so I could have it on its own weight to move it around.
Drove it around a bit for work, didn't want it off the road for years at a time and wanted to keep my motivation up by enjoying it inbetween building each component.
Bought some wheels for it, these don't end up staying on the truck, change my mind about as often as I change undies.
Little peak underneath while V1 of the front suspension was getting built, simple but should do the job.
Put off repairing the rust in the floor for ages, finally had to get it patched up, just wanted it solid and rust free, not going to see it so just threw a whole bunch of basic patches in and painted with sealer.
All sealed up!
Fresh carpet makes anything feel nice. Very underrated modification for the cost! Also the beginnings of a simple seat base to fit a couple of PRP buckets.
Seats in, a little bit of Nardi steering wheel love. Carpet is already dirty from climbing in and out installing the seats. Carpet already had some beer spilt on it. Perfect.
Bought a spare pair of front guards/fenders to chop up, remember how I said there's no aftermarket support for these things over here? It means you have to do everything from scratch. I would have been driving this truck 5 years ago if I had access to some Autofab bits and pieces!
Anyway, I wanted to increase the width very slightly and open are the wheel arch to suit a 37" tyre, I wanted the proportions to look right and the wheel opening shape to match the bed since it's likely I'll retain the steel bedsides.
Gave up on the sheetmetal fender idea, after a whole lot of back and forth I ended up using the two spare front fenders I bought, chopped them up, tacked them together and then covered them in foam. Attempting to try my hand at composites and make some carbon fibre front fenders myself in my driveway. This was not an easy task.
After what seemed like weeks of sanding I had a finished product, they are very rough around the edges but they will work, a skim of flexible body filler and some paint to match the current patina and they will do the job.
As I said earlier, I ended up redoing the coilover towers with a simplt tube design that gave me some more space around the engine and the ability to tie a cage into them in the future. Look at that crusty old 351C in there, I'm still not sure what I'll do about the engine and driveline, if anybody has any suggestions please feel free to let me know!
These last few photos are how the truck sits now, I have done a few of the exterior rust repairs since these photos were takes, you'll notice how bad some of it is and I needed it out of the way so I can get back into the important things like the rear suspension. That's next on the list for it. You'll also notice somewhere along the way the truck went from 35's to 37's and it's likely where it'll stay for now. The Method 105's are probably the wheels the truck will end up on, I think they suit the old school theme. They will get fresh powdercoat before final assembly. I'm currently toying with either a short course style 4 link or leaf springs, leaning towards the links since I feel it'll be a nicer truck to drive every day. I would like to be able to use it as a cool old cruiser and still take it to the dirt to have some fun.
The front fenders will be colour matched to the existing patina, I want it to retain all the characteristics that made these old things cool, but add a little something that you'd only notice if you know what you're looking at.
Hope you enjoyed having a scroll through the progress so far, I'm partially just throwing this up here with hope that somebody will tell me to put the beers down and go get this thing finished.
Cheers everyone,
Sam.
I've been lurking around on here for ages and thought it was time to finally post a bit of my rust bucket I've been very slowly building for the last few years. The prerunner scene in Australia is dismal, basically non existent mostly due to our vehicle modification laws being extremely strict. This led me to delay building something like this for a very long time, but one day that all changed. I found a rusty old F100 an hour from home for a good price, convinced myself it would make a decent "daily" and that afternoon it was in my driveway.
The daily idea was pretty much given up on within the first two days, and after a bit of research I thought it was time to bite the bullet and build something that I had always wanted. Unfortunately this is quite a task here in Australia, while we have a huge 4x4 scene, parts to build prerunner type vehicles are completely non existent, no long travel kits, no fibreglass panels, all the key ingredients are unobtainable. That means if you want it, you must build it. So after a whole lot of reading and research, I fabricated new radius arms, radius arm brackets, beam mounts, plate style coilover towers and I plated and braced the stock beams.
I ended up redoing the coilover towers as you'll see a bit later, after a couple of years in the build I knew I could build something nicer, so I pulled it all apart and started again, idiot.
Sourced some cheap steel wheels in a width and offset that I knew would be similar to my final sizes and got some 35's on it so I could have it on its own weight to move it around.
Drove it around a bit for work, didn't want it off the road for years at a time and wanted to keep my motivation up by enjoying it inbetween building each component.
Bought some wheels for it, these don't end up staying on the truck, change my mind about as often as I change undies.
Little peak underneath while V1 of the front suspension was getting built, simple but should do the job.
Put off repairing the rust in the floor for ages, finally had to get it patched up, just wanted it solid and rust free, not going to see it so just threw a whole bunch of basic patches in and painted with sealer.
All sealed up!
Fresh carpet makes anything feel nice. Very underrated modification for the cost! Also the beginnings of a simple seat base to fit a couple of PRP buckets.
Seats in, a little bit of Nardi steering wheel love. Carpet is already dirty from climbing in and out installing the seats. Carpet already had some beer spilt on it. Perfect.
Bought a spare pair of front guards/fenders to chop up, remember how I said there's no aftermarket support for these things over here? It means you have to do everything from scratch. I would have been driving this truck 5 years ago if I had access to some Autofab bits and pieces!
Anyway, I wanted to increase the width very slightly and open are the wheel arch to suit a 37" tyre, I wanted the proportions to look right and the wheel opening shape to match the bed since it's likely I'll retain the steel bedsides.
Gave up on the sheetmetal fender idea, after a whole lot of back and forth I ended up using the two spare front fenders I bought, chopped them up, tacked them together and then covered them in foam. Attempting to try my hand at composites and make some carbon fibre front fenders myself in my driveway. This was not an easy task.
After what seemed like weeks of sanding I had a finished product, they are very rough around the edges but they will work, a skim of flexible body filler and some paint to match the current patina and they will do the job.
As I said earlier, I ended up redoing the coilover towers with a simplt tube design that gave me some more space around the engine and the ability to tie a cage into them in the future. Look at that crusty old 351C in there, I'm still not sure what I'll do about the engine and driveline, if anybody has any suggestions please feel free to let me know!
These last few photos are how the truck sits now, I have done a few of the exterior rust repairs since these photos were takes, you'll notice how bad some of it is and I needed it out of the way so I can get back into the important things like the rear suspension. That's next on the list for it. You'll also notice somewhere along the way the truck went from 35's to 37's and it's likely where it'll stay for now. The Method 105's are probably the wheels the truck will end up on, I think they suit the old school theme. They will get fresh powdercoat before final assembly. I'm currently toying with either a short course style 4 link or leaf springs, leaning towards the links since I feel it'll be a nicer truck to drive every day. I would like to be able to use it as a cool old cruiser and still take it to the dirt to have some fun.
The front fenders will be colour matched to the existing patina, I want it to retain all the characteristics that made these old things cool, but add a little something that you'd only notice if you know what you're looking at.
Hope you enjoyed having a scroll through the progress so far, I'm partially just throwing this up here with hope that somebody will tell me to put the beers down and go get this thing finished.
Cheers everyone,
Sam.
