Hijet pick-up woodbed project

OK, it was time to stop drooling and continue the work. I've noticed that I needed to remove a little bit more wood to reach the bolts that hold down the whole frame. This way I only need to remove the 2 outer strips and I can reach all the bolts. This was of course designed to work like this from the beginning. Because there is no lit anymore to reach the top of the engine. I also removed, what I used to call, 'the Venus hill'. Otherwise the wood wouldn't fit. I must admit that we've made the wood a bit thinner at the end. to keep as much clearance above the engine.

Next up were the sides boards and the tailgate. It took some time to decide what would be some nice dimensions, but eventually I ended up with this:



Another 80 holes to drill!! And of course it all needed to be perfectly aligned. Though it took some time, the result made it all worth. The hinges came out perfectly! (in my opinion)

Brilliant! Love the fact you had time to carve a pair of clogs at the same time

Well this gives me inspiration for my project, quality photo's and workmanship.

My project looks a bit tame so far, but i have a similar theme in mind...

Just about to go outside and fit a new windscreen, now its stopped snowing

I see you paid your Father with Grolsh...cheap at twice the price

CycleKart UK wrote:Well this gives me inspiration for my project, quality photo's and workmanship.

My project looks a bit tame so far, but i have a similar theme in mind...

Just about to go outside and fit a new windscreen, now its stopped snowing  

I see you paid your Father with Grolsh...cheap at twice the price

That is the least I could do!! But with all those cases of beer, I felt obligated to help him. You can't let the man drink it all by himself haha

How far are you with your project? Did you open a topic about it? Or posted any pictures somewhere?

Yeah crazy weather today! I woke up and all the roofs and cars were white!! It is almost May! It was snowing at least from 5 AM until 9 AM were I live in Holland.
When I came to work I was whistling Christmas songs!

Time to let the sun out!

It's the law that you share beer !!

I've got some pics in a thread just under your thread in the Photo's part of the site.

I'm just putting mine back together, dash out new wiper, stalks..and windscreen...if it stops snowing.

I'm re-chroming the headlights and then I'll get the pickup mot/tested to make sure it's all okay before I start the project in full.

Our pickups will be similar but very different.

The snow is not settling here, I'm in Sheffield, UK. It should be 12 to 15 deg normally but it's about 5 or 6 deg. and wet.

how about this? maybe you like it?
https://www.apewebshop.nl/index.php?item=bumper-porter-pick-up-achter-_2010&action=article&group_id=20000276&aid=3932&lang=nl

scotia wrote:how about this? maybe you like it?
https://www.apewebshop.nl/index.php?item=bumper-porter-pick-up-achter-_2010&action=article&group_id=20000276&aid=3932&lang=nl

Funny, I was looking for round rear lights for a while, and ended up buying rear lights of an old BMW 2002. But when I got them I found them to be to big. So decided that the original rear lights would do just fine so I cut of the rear part of the original floor. I knew it's existence but never tried to look on that website for a rear end. And there you have it! I think I keep the original one for now. It is steal and not plastic like the other one. Not a big fan of all the plastic. But I can always replace it if I want. It's now mounted with a view bolts to my frame, so easy to replace if I want. Thanks for letting me know!!

no thanx ,thats what the forum is for

OK.. so I don't want this to become a never ending story. That is why I will continue with sharing the rest of my project.

We had finished the wood bed and the side panels. So the project was getting some shape. We continued with mounting some wood to the back of the cabin. Because the previous owner used his pick-up on a farm and the tough life was clearly visible. It took us the whole Saturday trying different configurations but we came out with the first thing I had in mind. That was not to much wood, but just a bit higher than the sides. So it came out like this:





This was a nice result after 2 weeks of holiday. I really made some progress. But that is expected when you work from 8.00AM until 22.00PM for 2 weeks

Later on we made the doors for the side cabinets and mounted some locks to hold up the side panels and tailgate.





Now it is time to give the wood some clear coat and the cabin some color. So I disassembled everything and it is time for sanding of the thick coat of gray paint that the previous owner put on there with his paint brush. And today it looks like this:



Also did some minor rust repairs underneath the windshield and made holes in the doors to mount the signal lights in the side. I need signals lights on the side for MOT.

Looking mighty fine...send me a pm with your address, i have some small oval amber signal lights you can have, they are clear lens but illuminate orange, i can send you a picture later..

Nice! Curious about what color it will be

CycleKart UK wrote:Looking mighty fine...send me a pm with your address, i have some small oval amber signal lights you can have, they are clear lens but illuminate orange, i can send you a picture later..

Thank you for the offer!! Really appreciate it! Although I already mounted some signal indicators. I had some laying around from my donor Nissan Cherry.
I'm going not for a modern look. So prefer not to put any LED's on this one. People that have seen the car thought it was from somewhere in the 1980 Like to keep it that way haha

tornas wrote:Nice! Curious about what color it will be

I've put a lot of thought into that. My first idea was to paint the cabin dark green and the metal parts from the bed black. Then the wood would pop out really nice i guess.

But the options are endless. There was a time I was thinking about whine red/dark purple (hope you kinda know what I mean) for the cabin. But that is a metallic color, so I need to put a good layer of clear coat over it. But with a nicely shine clear coat you will see every dent and damage. That means that I have to use filler to make it all flat. But I'm not that happy using a lot of filler on the thin metal body. If you only push it a little it already bends. Paint can be a bit flexible, but filler isn't so I don't want to take the risk. If the filler brakes than I can do it all over again.

I was also thinking about a satin gloss in the beginning, but now my choice is high gloss and probably no clear coat, just a good layer of high gloss dark green 2k paint.

Any suggestions form you guys?? Now you still can make a difference, I haven't ordered the paint yet. And progress is probably going to be slow, because I just got the flu :S

Absolutely fantastic! Brilliantly executed and great write up. Enjoyed reading and keeping up with this thread.

Oh yeah I def like dark green!

I think every option is acceptable as long as it suits the 'vintage' feel of the concept. In this sence grayish turqoise would also be an option (like https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c2/a4/db/c2a4db367bab3550accbe4dd34edb514.jpg ), I think thats a beautiful color. Also a satin & somewhat lighter green would be nice (see http://www.christopher-mckitterick.com/1962Ford/1962-Ford-photo.JPG ). But high gloss dark green's very nice as well!

It seems like you are building my pick-up for me...i might have to rethink my colours

Forget British racing green.

It needs to painted in jewish racing gold:-

HighlyJetted wrote:Forget British racing green.

It needs to painted in jewish racing gold:-

A car needs a really big nose for that color... Hijet, absolutely no nose...

tornas wrote:Oh yeah I def like dark green!

I think every option is acceptable as long as it suits the 'vintage' feel of the concept. In this sence grayish turqoise would also be an option (like https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c2/a4/db/c2a4db367bab3550accbe4dd34edb514.jpg ), I think thats a beautiful color. Also a satin & somewhat lighter green would be nice (see http://www.christopher-mckitterick.com/1962Ford/1962-Ford-photo.JPG ). But high gloss dark green's very nice as well!

The turquoise from the first link is not my thing. I must admit it looks classy, but it reminds me of my fathers GMC C10 from 1965. Typical American color for me, but it's a Jap!
Must admit that I really like the color form the second link! So still doubting...

Haha, like your sens of humor
Not much nose on the Hijet indeed. Especially now that mine became even 10cm shorter at the front than original!

Unfortunately it is slow progress for me now. I took some more holidays to work on the car, but unfortunately I got the flu instead
Before I got sick, I decided to take out even more of the car before I would paint it. because I could see the places where I had welded on the inside. So I wanted to paint that as well. Now it looks like this:



Besides a lot of sanding en removing Tectyl, I discovered some more rust to fix.



Also removed the metal piece that holds the oil filling cab, and the cooling liquid reservoir. The brackets were pretty rusted so I will sandblast them or find some other at my local scrapyard.
(there is one Piaggio Porter over there, I think I'm the only one that buys parts form it, because in the last 5 years I never noticed other parts being removed besides the ones that I've took)

I'm still ill, so I think that it ain't going to be a productive week. Hopefully I will get better soon and finish the pre-work so I can start painting!

You want to get that steering fixed...its on the wrong side of the van and not much to hold on to!

Raggy wrote:You want to get that steering fixed...its on the wrong side of the van and not much to hold on to!

Is this better?

Much better! Hope you got short legs though

Raggy wrote:Much better! Hope you got short legs though

Fits like a glove
As you can see I've got the special 4 person edition  

Who's that handsome guy?!

HighlyJetted wrote:Who's that handsome guy?!

Stop your sarcasm
The person you see is the creator of the Hijet Woodbed. A.k.a. me