EXTENDED MK6 CHASSIS NOW BUILDING RECOVERY BODY

[ARTCARCOM]

Hi everyone as you saw in my last posting,
it was my chassis extention on a mk6 transit
putting in 27 inches into the middle ,
so now its time i start building the body for it


so it started off like this


chopped it here



and ended up looking like this




well ive only made two recovery bodyies in my time
the 1st was on a l reg generation transit it didnt take much doing really because i used a alloy body and altered it as shown below as you can see i only sold it because of the mk5 in the background



and the next one was my mk5 as shown below



SO THIS IS MY 1ST MK6 TRANSIT RECOVERY CONVERSION

How hard can it be
well i went and bought some steel
some which was given to me which was a good help
so i bought
4 x sheets chequer plate
4 x 2 x2 box
3 x 2 x 1 box
1 x 2 x 1 channel
2 x 2x2 angle
1 x 1 x1 angle
which cost me £410
and got given
3 x 3x 1 1/2 box

so the 1st day got measuring tried my new boxes up to chassis as i measured the plastic ones on my mk5 and got them same depth and each box is the size of two plastic ones on my truck great these wont half set my truck off



YEH

well maybe not
i was thinking something wrong here
these arnt very high of the floor
so gets my tape
measures top of chassis to floor
and the same on the other
mk6 only about 5 inches lower
leaving about 8 inches clearance from box to floor




well ive had a recovery a canny few years now and through my experience
ive found that i like my truck bed flat as i do a lot of forklift work
i buy alot from salvage yards to scrap straight off .
and send a lot of time looking at others and ive seen some corkers to but they do the job in saying that
but you see the ones were the front ends are raised yes not bad if damaged theyll roll of easier not for me because when they geting loaded the forklift knocks hell out of them so every man to his own
the same as alloy bodys yes great nice and light wow
same again not for me i abuse my truck were i move alot of damage cars with legs rove out and axles snapped of alloys soft and tears easy
if i was moving runners about all day i would just have to alloy ramps up and that would be that but i dont and this has been ok in the past so im building simualar again
well do i build it higher or do i keep it low and buy new boxes another £250 well ive desided new boxes and keep body low
so did alot of thinking , measureing and anyone building on a mk6 after building on a mk 5 totally different
mk 5 when its bottomed out the wheels are level with the top of the chassis
mk 6 they not they are only 3-4 inches away from the top normal so giving me 7 inches between wheel and body im going to be cutting it thin but learn buy mistakes if its to heavy it go on my trailer so lets see what ive done today

DAY 1




ive ran two lenghts off 2 x1 box down each side of chassis and made cross pieces to tie them square
measing from the centre at the back of cab to the very end of chassis it measures 17 ft
thats it for a days work
next time im getting 2x1 channel and cutting 1 1/2 inch lengths and drilling holes on every fixing point on the outside of the frame work

[ARTCARCOM]

day 2
well all ive done today is cut 2x1 channel and shanfer edges of and drill them bolt them to chassis and tack them in place




then removed it and then welded them up and rebolted back onto chassis






thats all ive had time to do today in between jobs but its time consuming

[ARTCARCOM]

day 3

i got some of the flat bed of the body done today and bent the front to meet the cab










well thats all for today post some more tomorrow try and get beaver started
also orderd my new boxes again another £250 that i could do without spending

[MONSTER 0NE]

someone has been busy as its looking good mate

[ARTCARCOM]

day 4

well started on beavertail today

















i got the very back cross member in place first
then i started to fill in the sides then the crossmembers



and weld a inch x inch angle on to rear crossmember for ramps to sit on so allows ramps to be put in any position across the back






well thats my lot for today start again next week. my new boxes should be here early next week , so will be able to fit them and finnish crash barriers but its starting to take shape now

[mk5Gav]

you should be on here mate

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

[gemini]

nice work keep taking the pictures

[Nathan_Cardiff]

second that with the piccies....keep em coming

[OxtonyxO]

you should be on here mate

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

what a top site
well worth a read

[waerhy]

top job great pics where in durham r u from i live in sunderland

[ARTCARCOM]

in between durham and peterlee place called Thornley

[ARTCARCOM]

DAY 5


Well today i got a start with the driverside mudguard , and a bit of the crash barrier at the front of the drivers side body , giving it the curved look


but put mudguard in place







then cut some 2x1 box about 11 inches long and evry 1 1/2 choped 3 sides to allow a curve



cut 2 then got the curve right then welded it up and ground weld back to create a look as if had just been bent



then drilled 2 holes in each and tacked it in place and bolted mudguard to it



then did the same sort of idea on the rear of mudguard but only 1




so did a bit of the crash barrier at the front curving it in to meet the cab



and adding some rope hooks





didnt put anymore crass barrier on ill wait till my alloy boxes come . then i can fix them then finnish barrier off

[MONSTER 0NE]

Making a lot of progress in a short amount of time mate, it would take me weeks to do what you have done in days

[KiloKilo]

Nice work and at a killer pace. Like as well how you take pictures every step.

[ARTCARCOM]

Nice work and at a killer pace. Like as well how you take pictures every step.

if it was left to me bringing digi camera id forget but its easy to use phone for pics then download onto computer