my beavertail build

[paulcross]

Hi everyone i am gonna try and get a thread going to show the progress of the beavertail i am building ,i've had it about 2 months but i only get saturdays to work on it so progress may be somewhat slow.I am building it just to take lightweight cars etc as i do a bit of offroading ,car repairs etc.The van i have bought is an ex milk float which looked scruffy but generally in good nick.After getting the van home i realised i had got a much bigger project than i was expecting but it was a very cheap van so lets get stuck in hey .So first off is to cut out all the rot in the cab i.e most of the cab lol
here's the van as i bought it



The first thing i did when i got the van was investigate the front arches ,big mistake i poked both sides with a screwdriver and both disintegrated into a pile of dust .so new inner and outer arches plus new front wings were ordered ,there is also rot in the floor of the cab on both sides and both steps plus both sills all need repairing so plenty to keep me busy
here is the van all stripped down ready to start cutting the rot out




i had new inner arch/wing panels but when it came to fitting them i realised there was nothing to attach them to as the panel has completely rotted away so i cut a piece of tin to shape and welded that into place before welding the inner arch
to it ,then it was on to the outer arch and finally the wing all done in one saturday afternoon


the next picture is of the panels dry fitted

and then welded in place i haven't done alot of welding before so its not perfect but since buying this van its come a long way lol

then patched the sill up as it was quite solid just one whole in the top and in the picture you can see the next bit to do (the step and the massive whole in the floor

as you can see there is still much to do in the cab etc but last week i found on ebay a beaver tail body (very cheap) as it was off a crew cab so very short but i bought it anyway on the idea that its probably easier to extend this body than start from scratch building a new one


putting on the chassis extensions to take the body

then lifted the body on and bolted it down, i still have to put two braces between the back of the chassis and the beaver tail and i need to extend the bed about 18 inches to meet the back of the cab but i still think it was easier than starting from scratch here it is on the truck i will take it off when its finished so i can paint it all properly then bolt it back on



i got the floor welded up on one side yesterday and also managed to plate the step up but forgot to take pics so will take some on sat and post my progress next sunday ,then hopefully i can make some real progress over christmas as have two weeks off can't wait

[Luke]

making good progress allready

[paulcross]

Well i was hoping for a whole weekend on the transit this weekend but the works christmas do on saturday night meant not a lot happened on the sunday .Still i had quite a good day on it on saturday ,i welded in the offside inner arch panel and having learned any mistakes from the first time this was a lot quicker


then i welded the outer wing on and the outer arch i have to say these pattern panels fit alot better than i was expecting .
The van is coming along quite nicely now

I have some more plating inside the cab to do,then we should be ready for paint,one thing i have to ask though is if anyone has ever replaced the pillar that comes down each side of the windscreen as mine is rusty and the rubber window seal doesn't sit in properly i couls fill it but i think it would come back through fairly quickly ,
any help would be gratefully recieved ,will post more next week .

[MinorMatt]

You mean like this??





The problem is that there is a thick reinforcing piece up the middle that you cant get at from the outside, so you will need to think up a way of reinforcing it.

[paulcross]

Ah yes thanks for that ,looks fun ha ha i assume you cut the replacement from another van as apposed to buying a new panel ,if they make one

[MinorMatt]

They dont make one... you will need to cut one out of a donor

[rickyb]

theres some good work going in to this very well done to you.
rick

[paulcross]

Thanks very much, i'm sure it's not up to the standard of some of the superb work seen on this forum but i'm learning alot and really enjoying it thanks for the advice and kind comments guys