Doc Foster
Adventurer
That's gonna turn into one nice rig.
Flippac build-out
- Thread starter Arclight
- Start date
Arclight
SAR guy
I am blessed to have these two places near me:
http://www.orvac.com/
http://www.fordelectronics.com/
In other news, my shop neighbor is a cabinet maker and agreed to fabricate two custom pull-our drawers. They'll be going just forward of the fridge, under the main shelf. I'm going with a 32" width, with the top shelf being 19.5" deep by 7.75" tall, and a small drawer under it, which will be 32x6x12" deep, as it needs to clear the wheel well
Arclight
http://www.orvac.com/
http://www.fordelectronics.com/
In other news, my shop neighbor is a cabinet maker and agreed to fabricate two custom pull-our drawers. They'll be going just forward of the fridge, under the main shelf. I'm going with a 32" width, with the top shelf being 19.5" deep by 7.75" tall, and a small drawer under it, which will be 32x6x12" deep, as it needs to clear the wheel well
Arclight
Last edited:
Arclight
SAR guy
Another update: The steel shelving unit on the right side is nearly done. I'll probably send everything down to Embee for powder coating soon.
Here's another fabrication trick: If you're building with square tuning, you can use your scrap pieces and C-clamps to hold sections together and square while you weld them. This is an inexpensive alternative to having a huge inventory of bar clamps and other fixturing stuff.
I cut a couple of the tacks off with an angle grinder and .040 cut-off wheel and re-made them to fix a couple of mistakes. Now it appears to be sitting more or less true, and everything fits.
Also, my custom drawers came in today, 2 days ahead of schedule. With the full-extension sliders and fab work, the total came out to $170. Now for the fit-up:
The big open shelf is 20" high and will hold my chuck box and other items, while the top shelf gives me an out-of-the-way 4" tall space to keep the solar panel.
I'm thinking about welding on some attachment points for bungee cords and ratchet straps. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Arclight
Here's another fabrication trick: If you're building with square tuning, you can use your scrap pieces and C-clamps to hold sections together and square while you weld them. This is an inexpensive alternative to having a huge inventory of bar clamps and other fixturing stuff.
I cut a couple of the tacks off with an angle grinder and .040 cut-off wheel and re-made them to fix a couple of mistakes. Now it appears to be sitting more or less true, and everything fits.
Also, my custom drawers came in today, 2 days ahead of schedule. With the full-extension sliders and fab work, the total came out to $170. Now for the fit-up:
The big open shelf is 20" high and will hold my chuck box and other items, while the top shelf gives me an out-of-the-way 4" tall space to keep the solar panel.
I'm thinking about welding on some attachment points for bungee cords and ratchet straps. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Arclight
jeep-N-montero
Expedition Leader
So many useful ideas in this thread.
Arclight
SAR guy
Today I got the drawers installed and began the final fit-up. Here is what we have so far.
The big shelf is about 2/3 used with my Camp Chef chuck box, and the rest will hold a duffel bag or similar. I'm using the 4" shelf on top to stow the top for the table when it is collapsed, and the folding 100W solar panel kit.
Flipped up:
The area to the right of the fridge holds folding chairs, antennas and other long items. I may weld on something to tie them down with bungee cords, but that's looking good.
Flipped down:
I've settled on waterbricks for all of my water needs, and two of them fit nicely in the space in front of the drawers. I'll have to come up with a way to strap them down, but it seems like a nice use of space.
Here is the lower (12" deep) drawer and the waterbrick storage compartment:
And the upper (19.5" deep) drawer:
All of the truck's recovery gear and emergency supplies fit under the bench seat.
I can also use the table top with the hammock. This might be a good place to set a Mr. Buddy heater.
I'm also thinking about mounting this little indoor/outdoor thermometer above the light. I'm pretty sure I can run the sensor out through the gasket and attach it to the underside of the shell, as it overhangs slightly.
Now back to taking care of kids...
Arclight
The big shelf is about 2/3 used with my Camp Chef chuck box, and the rest will hold a duffel bag or similar. I'm using the 4" shelf on top to stow the top for the table when it is collapsed, and the folding 100W solar panel kit.
Flipped up:
The area to the right of the fridge holds folding chairs, antennas and other long items. I may weld on something to tie them down with bungee cords, but that's looking good.
Flipped down:
I've settled on waterbricks for all of my water needs, and two of them fit nicely in the space in front of the drawers. I'll have to come up with a way to strap them down, but it seems like a nice use of space.
Here is the lower (12" deep) drawer and the waterbrick storage compartment:
And the upper (19.5" deep) drawer:
All of the truck's recovery gear and emergency supplies fit under the bench seat.
I can also use the table top with the hammock. This might be a good place to set a Mr. Buddy heater.
I'm also thinking about mounting this little indoor/outdoor thermometer above the light. I'm pretty sure I can run the sensor out through the gasket and attach it to the underside of the shell, as it overhangs slightly.
Now back to taking care of kids...
Arclight
Last edited:
Arclight
SAR guy
Thanks! If all goes well, I'll be tearing it down this weekend for paint and varnish. I'll eventually get all of the metal powdercoated, but I think I'll wait until I've taken it out a few times and am done cutting and welding stuff.
Arclight
Arclight
SAR guy
Today I took everything apart and began sanding, staining and painting the wood. I'm going with Minwax "Natural" oil and clear Urethane again.
The oil stain really soaks into fresh plywood. I would recommend getting the 1 quart can if you're doing more than a few small pieces. I also took this opportunity to fill a few extra screw holes and sand everything with 220 grit again.
While that's drying, I'm turning my attention to how to mount up an ARB 2000 awning and possibly some offroad lights. I saw this thread and got inspired:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/129921-ARB-Awning-on-fiberglass-camper
I liked the idea of being able to remove the awning, and maybe even switch sides. According to the lady at FRP, the sides of the shell are fine for supporting pretty large loads, but it's best to through-bolt the fiberglass and attach through either the steel column that runs along the sides, or steel backing plates. I had requested additional 6x8" plates that they glassed in during manufacture to make mounting a bit cleaner.
Per the above thread, the extrusion in back of the ARB awning is very close to an exact fit with the width and hole spacing of a 2.5" hinge. A 2.5" door hinge is not a standard size. But I was able to find some in stainless steel at Bolton Hardware. The part number is HY-202525-630-SS.
The hinge is 2.5mm thick, so I went to Schorr Metals (local SoCal supplier) and had them shear me a 3.5" wide piece of 12GA stainless, which is pretty close in thickness.
While there, I had another idea: Roof rack mount. If I could add an artificial rain gutter to the tops of these, I could mount a ladder rack kit or some towers latter. So I also bought 2' of 1/2x1/2x.063" stainless tubing.
The pins on those hinges appeared to be non-removable at first, but it turns out the ends were just pressed in and can be pulled off with vise grips, allowing the pins to be driven out.
Next, I machined down the square tubing to form a "C" shape:
Close-up:
Finished and deburred:
After TIG welding:
Test fit:
More to come...
Arclight
The oil stain really soaks into fresh plywood. I would recommend getting the 1 quart can if you're doing more than a few small pieces. I also took this opportunity to fill a few extra screw holes and sand everything with 220 grit again.
While that's drying, I'm turning my attention to how to mount up an ARB 2000 awning and possibly some offroad lights. I saw this thread and got inspired:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/129921-ARB-Awning-on-fiberglass-camper
I liked the idea of being able to remove the awning, and maybe even switch sides. According to the lady at FRP, the sides of the shell are fine for supporting pretty large loads, but it's best to through-bolt the fiberglass and attach through either the steel column that runs along the sides, or steel backing plates. I had requested additional 6x8" plates that they glassed in during manufacture to make mounting a bit cleaner.
Per the above thread, the extrusion in back of the ARB awning is very close to an exact fit with the width and hole spacing of a 2.5" hinge. A 2.5" door hinge is not a standard size. But I was able to find some in stainless steel at Bolton Hardware. The part number is HY-202525-630-SS.
The hinge is 2.5mm thick, so I went to Schorr Metals (local SoCal supplier) and had them shear me a 3.5" wide piece of 12GA stainless, which is pretty close in thickness.
While there, I had another idea: Roof rack mount. If I could add an artificial rain gutter to the tops of these, I could mount a ladder rack kit or some towers latter. So I also bought 2' of 1/2x1/2x.063" stainless tubing.
The pins on those hinges appeared to be non-removable at first, but it turns out the ends were just pressed in and can be pulled off with vise grips, allowing the pins to be driven out.
Next, I machined down the square tubing to form a "C" shape:
Close-up:
Finished and deburred:
After TIG welding:
Test fit:
More to come...
Arclight
Arclight
SAR guy
I got the front mounting brackets done. I decided to extend them 2 more inches and add a 90 degree bend to accommodate some 60 degree LED floodlights. My cheap 4x6 bandsaw does a good job on thick stainless like this as long as I buy quality bimetallic blades:
With a little filing, they'll both look the same.
Here is the bending jig. This worked so-so, and I ended up using a sledgehammer to get them bent to final shape.
And the finished product;
A quick test fit, with the dog helping:
Arclight
With a little filing, they'll both look the same.
Here is the bending jig. This worked so-so, and I ended up using a sledgehammer to get them bent to final shape.
And the finished product;
A quick test fit, with the dog helping:
Arclight
Last edited: