Hijet pick-up woodbed project

Hey everyone,

In December 2015 I bought a abused Hijet Pick-up to start up my project. I haven't posted it until now, because I was just to busy. But I did made a lot of pictures along the way.
My plan was to make woodbed on the back of the pick-up, just like they do with the big American pick-ups.
It all started with this:

Here are some more pictures:



note the very unique side mirror

I need to go back to work, lunch brake is over. But will continue tomorrow with the progress I've made so far.

hey i missed your first posts
your from almelo??  im in vriezenveen
how small is this world huh?

i think i have seen you drive around ... last time i started cheering like a litle girl  LOOK ITS A FU##ING HIJET
their is one in westerhaar to with a ladder on its roof that i have seen driving in our area to.

this was mine


i now have this

I haven't found a lot of time to be on this forum, but a while ago I've seen your topic. And when I looked at your pictures I've recognized the background form your photo's. So I knew that you came from my area.
I was really disappointed that I've never seen you driving around. Your Van looked very good!

I've also noticed the one with the ladder on the roof Also seen it in Almelo.
A friend of mine lives in Westerhaar, So I've passed your town frequently.

Your Suzuki Carry Looks awesome!! Where did you find it? I like the Carry as well, but their even more expensive then the Hijet. And they are also over priced in my opinion.
5 years ago I've bought my Van for 700euro and now I've bought the Pick-up that looks like a wrack for the same price! And that was the cheapest I've could find with a 1.3 engine.

the carry was a bitt expensive indeed.
its better if you ask me than a hijet, they dont suffer from overheating problems like the hijets.
i think it will only go up in value in the future, its from 1986 so kind of a classic and realy realy cheap in tax and insurance.
there are almost none on the roads in the netherlands.
so that will make some differences with the prices of hijets and carrys.

keep the updates and pictures comming
and next time you see a bald guy waving dramaticly in a lowered wagon r+ its probably me    

I'm planning to do the same as my pick-up didn't come with sides or a tailgate , I'll be watching with interest.

Damn.. I was typing for half an hour and tied to spam you with pictures but apparently my message wasn't posted. So from now on I will do the posts in multiple shorter messages.

OK, that worked.. To continue

Like I sad, I've bought the Pick-up in rough shape. The roof was so dented, that when I came to look for the car, there was a pool of water on the roof. They drilled a hole in the door to mount a mirror from a motorcycle en it was pretty rusted. Not completely rotten, but underneath it was pretty rusted. Although it looked bad, the engine was running very nice. Even better then my Van. So with +/- 50.000km I decided to buy it anyway.

My plan was to fit some round head lights, change the frond end, en make the back with wood. Also I will try to move the handbrake and make a bench in the frond instead of 2 seats. I've started with the frond end.

I've bought some headlights from a VW Golf (the first type) and a frond bumper from an older type Hijet.
I needed trim the top part of the bumper to make it fit. And the big radiator of the 1.3 was sticking out. I've moved it a little bit further back and made the bumper longer by fixing the part that I've removed from the top to the bottom.

Here are some pictures:
(sorry for the bad pictures, there is some dust behind the lens of my phone. It will only become worse :S )

While I was at work, my father removed the whole front suspension an removed the rust and painted it. We also did the leave springs and axle.

We closed up the side panel where the signal light used to be. And redesigned the front. I didn't want to close the front because I didn't want to block the airflow from the radiator. So we also needed to design a grill.



My father was hammering for a whole day to make the metal plates that covers up the space around the headlights. To bad for the neighbor

While the front was getting shape I ordered steal for the rear. And we started to build a frame on the back to hold the wood.



This will be the last bad image. I've repaired my phone and the pictures will be clear from now on.

Tomorrow I will send the more interesting pictures

looking good so far ( apart from the photo quality )

Waiting patiently...

Love the headlights, looking forward to new pics!

Brilliant ideas! Looking good. Look forward to more info and pictures.

scotia wrote:the carry was a bitt expensive indeed.
its better if you ask me than a hijet, they dont suffer from overheating problems like the hijets.
i think it will only go up in value in the future, its from 1986 so kind of a classic and realy realy cheap in tax and insurance.
there are almost none on the roads in the netherlands.
so that will make some differences with the prices of hijets and carrys.

keep the updates and pictures comming
and next time you see a bald guy waving dramaticly in a lowered wagon r+ its probably me    

I believe they have the same engine as the SC 100 (once owned one) and another small 4x4 Suzuki that they build in that time. Do you have big plans with it? I hoop to see it on the road soon!

You own a wagon r+! I also was thinking about buying one of those once. To modify and make something more sporty out of it.
If you see a almost bold guy in a white Hijet Van, than it will be my father who borrows my car a lot. If you see a guy with hair and around the age of 30, then that's me
I will keep an eye out for your Wagon R+ and of course your suzuki carry!!

By the way, you can also recognizance me in a Nissan Cherry, only 2 driving around in our region. The white one belongs to me, the gray with blue belongs to my dad.

CycleKart UK wrote:looking good so far ( apart from the photo quality  )

Waiting patiently...

Quality pics will come

From the 27th March I've took 2 weeks of holiday to work on the Pick-up. Because I want to drive it before the good weather comes
I've continued with the back of the car, and tried to make a ramp underneath the floor of the car. I didn't wanted a short one because the floor of the pickup is much higher than my van. If the ramp was to short I could get a problem with the angle of the ramp. So when you push up a moped or motorcycle the engine will touch the floor when the front wheel is on the pickup and the rear wheel is still on the ramp. (hope you guys follow me ;p )

But fitting a ramp underneath was harder then it seemed. After trying 2 ramps, the third one could be the one to fit.
We made a guiding rail and now the ramp sticks out a bit over the engine. So we checked the clearance on my Van by driving it with the engine cover removed. One driving and the other one in the back to see how much the engine moves. It looked possible, but then the fuel tank was the second challenge. It was a bit rusty anyway so cleaned it, and tried to hammer is smaller:



I noticed that it wasn't an option, so i took my angle-grinder out:



After welding it, I've performed a leaktest to check the weld, after closing a view tiny holes I gave it some paint and it came out like this.
As if the fuel tank wasn't small already

PvdB wrote:
My father was hammering for a whole day to make the metal plates that covers up the space around the headlights. To bad for the neighbor

I'd say your farther has done you proud there, very good fabrication.

Here are also some pictures from the ramp. As you can see I've bought some wheel arches and mounted them as well.
Also I've removed the back side of the old floor, and mounted it on my own frame.

I've sacrificed my old skateboard and used the wheels to push down the ramp. I have 2 springs on the outside pulling the wheels down. And my father used a spoke from a bicycle wheel to make a locking mechanism to prevent the ramp from sliding to the back. (just some details for the one interested )

HighlyJetted wrote:

PvdB wrote:
My father was hammering for a whole day to make the metal plates that covers up the space around the headlights. To bad for the neighbor

I'd say your farther has done you proud there, very good fabrication.

Thanks! I will let him know I'm feel very blessed with a handy guy like him!

So now that I had the ramp in place, I started working on my exhaust system. I already picked up a muffler and some exhaust pipe from a local scrapyard and now it was time to open them up and see what's inside!

Above is the original one and underneath is a still good looking muffler from some Suzuki


We closed up the back and welded some bent pieces of pipe together. Closed up the top and it came out something like this:





I've connected the fuel tank and all fuel lines to test the sound. It is just as quiet as before. Although I've expected more noise.
I've also tested the noise level without a muffler, and only the catalyst. That was noisy, but the catalyst already has a lot of resistance. Then some more tests with the end piece that goes into the muffler. But there wasn't a lot of change. I wanted to make the end piece out of one piece and 42mm in diameter instead of 38mm that I have right now. But lately decided to leave it like this.

This is how it looks unmounted: By now it is painted black, with head resistant paint so it is not so noticeable underneath the car. Only the end piece that you can see is not painted

Here is a picture that I've made to make my ideas more visible. Now you maybe get an idea of what my plans will look like.
For today I've spammed you people enough. I will try to continue tomorrow until the point were my project is now a days.

Excellent write up, keep it going. Much better photos now as well

I think you should add a support hanger to the tail pipe as it will break where it enters the box. And maybe some more braces from the box to the tail pipe outlet. e.g.




Not being negative or critical at all, its a nice exhaust. But if you don't support that tail pipe, the wobble factor will break something.

this is such a nice topic
love the work youve done on the exhaust and headlights..
im a fan of round lights to..

scotia wrote:this is such a nice topic  
love the work youve done on the exhaust and headlights..
im a fan of round lights to..

Thanks man! I will share more pictures in a minute.

That is why you have a Carry now. Also round headlights

HighlyJetted wrote:I think you should add a support hanger to the tail pipe as it will break where it enters the box. And maybe some more braces from the box to the tail pipe outlet. e.g.

https://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/images/FPOR-0450_1.jpg
http://www.motorsport-tools.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/800x600/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/img_7196.jpg

Not being negative or critical at all, its a nice exhaust. But if you don't support that tail pipe, the wobble factor will break something.

Don't worry, I appreciate your interest in my topic and your advice!
Though I already made a support bracket like you see in the pictures that you have showed me. Only it is not in my pictures. I was thinking to change the end pipe to a 42mm instead of this 38. So in the beginning I've hold it down with 4 small welds, and closed it with gungum. Now it is completely welded including the support bracket

OK, let's see.. I showed you the ramp and all necessary modifications to fit it, and the exhaust. But the title of this topic is 'Woodbed' so let's continue!

I've fitted the metal strip's to hold down the wood and drilled a lot of holes that day.. and made sure that everything would fit nicely later on.




It also took half a day of grinding to make the hinges for the side and tailgate. (5mm of steal strip takes a while)




This is what they look like welded:




In the mean while my father fabricated some cabinets to fit underneath the floor. One for each side. The left one also needs to hold the battery.

Finally I was ready to get some oak wood! We went to a local wood factory and bought some A-grade wood.
B-grade was good enough for me, but the dimensions that I've needed weren't available in B-grade and I didn't want to wait a week. So This is what I picked up (of course with my Hijet Van )




Luckily my father has a tool to level and shave the wood. But it still took us almost a day to shape the wood to the right size.

Now it was finally time to see what it would look like!







I've must say that I was very pleased with the result end the time that it took to drill all the holes for the metal strips finally payed off. It all aligned very good.