fare dinkum! what kind of weirdo cuts up a perfectly good Mav wagon into a dual cab?

is there something f**k wrong with your head or what?










i know theres definatly something wrong with mine
ive done my bracing too and ready to panel it all up dude and have a back window ready for it!
just a tip,,,, get plenty of photos for the engineers, put in some child restraint points and for the internal finishing im using some stuff called Alupanel

its nice stuff and easy to work yet its nice and strong!
ill get around to pming you the engineers im using dude, havnt forgot just been busy with the sick other half since she had the stroke!

might be an idea to organise a viewing of eachothers Mav and throw some ideas around!

i was going to go style side but im glad im not now
after cutting the back right off i measured and damn ive got heaps of room the tipper tray im building for it!

and just another thought...........your going to need somewhere for your spare will will take up room!

did you keep the rear roof section?? it is ideal to finish off the a** end when you butt it up
i did that on mine and damn its going to look factory!

cheers Harv

Daz. The old setup that was in the back worked fairly well but did have its limitations. It used to be filled pretty good with stuff when we went away and when you were after something it always seemed to be wedged up the back against the cargo barrier.
Also once it was unloaded at camp you couldnt really put firewood and stuff in the back which was a right a*** pain.
So now there will be some tie downs fitted for the fridge and the fridge will be put in the back of the ute. I will be having a torneau made up for it to suit. Seeing as though at camp we generally remove the fridge from the truck and plug it into the camper trailer to make it easier for me to get cans when Im blind the rear of the ute will be available to get firewood and what not. Bring it back , dump it out and a quick dust pan and broom and it will all be done.
For when we go away on a big trip I will be making a caged setup that is light weight and drops in , with a cover over it that will clip onto the torneau clips to keep everything dry and as dust sealed as possible. It will be zipped on the sides and each side of the cage will be on a hinge so we have access to everything from all 3 sides instead of just through the back.
It will all be a compromise. What we loose in ease with one setup we will gain with the other.
Funny thing is I normally wear my sunnies but I have it up under the carport with trees around and it is very shadowy and it was too dark with the sunnies on so I just had my normal glasses on. Went off and bought what seems to be a pretty good helmet from my sister in law who works at the welding joint so should be all good now.

Harv. You have met me. You know full well there is something wrong with my head!
Yep gotta put the child restraint bolts in and am taking photos a plenty. Will talk to the enginneer and see what the go is. I would like to take it down and get a pre inspection done before I panel it out inside just incase anything needs to be changed.
Spare wheel wil be going back on the tailgate in its usual place. The doors have been cut at the bottom of the window frame above the hinges so I dont see an isssue with any of it.
I wanted something a bit different so style side will do the job for me.
The rear roof section is here but it is rooted. It had the standard Nissan factory tin worm in the rear of the roof when I bought it. It has been repaired but is coming back through with a vengence. So that is one of the reasons the chop happened. As it was I reckon the truck only had another couple of years before it was rusted out too much in the rear and I hate chasing myself killing rust so it all got flicked.

Thanks. Appreciated. It is fun and a hassle at the same time but it shall be worth it in the end.

MavMods

Got the back wall into it today. Just need to finish it off.
Will get pics up in a bit.
Its starting to look good!

you stalking me?
i got mine in today aswell just got to weld it all up tomorrow and cut out the window

Finally managed to get a couple of hours in on it yesterday after me and the old man actually managed to meet up for 15mins to grab some steel on Friday.....been a hell of a week for both of us.
Top roof cross brace in and side upper bars in.


You can rock the whole truck off the frame work in the rear. The rest of the old girl will snap in half and that wall will still be there. It aint going nowhere!



Got a bit of sheet cut out and zapped up in there. I still need to weld the internal mounting tabs to the roof and refit the factory cross bar. Once again the sheet was plug welded to the frame for strength. The inner where the sheets joins to the frame will be beaded with structural Sikaflex.
Two different structural attachment methods. It will be plenty strong.



Bent the plate around the side to join up and fill the gap. You can now see what the rear pillar line will be.
Plenty of cleaning up to do to make it pretty but it will get there. It was at this point I had to stop as the welder decided it would have a break by running out of wire. Hopefully get back into it over the next couple of days , if I get to the welding supplies shop tomorrow.
I refused to go to bunnings and pay a fortune for a small roll of wire when I can wait a couple of days and pay a small fortune for a big roll of wire at the welding joint.
Coming along ok if I say so myself for a guy thats panel beating ability is to beat the s**t out them , not to fix them!

Yeah mate....coming along nicely. Besides, nothing that a couple kilo's of bog wont fix anyhow...lol

What are the little tabs along the top for??

Cheers

Daz

Bog is your friend!!! Yeah there will be some bog work involved but its not tooo bad actually. Looks much worse in the pics. See how it goes.
The tabs across the top are where i havent trimmed them down to meet the roof line yet. When I marked the roof line out I added 30mm to it and bent it at 90 degrees so that section can be secured to the roof inside so it is not just relying on a seam weld around the side to hold it all together. The inner cross brace to hold the roof line will be refited inside so you will never see any of it.

Cheers mate. It will be painted white. Over the next year the whole truck will be resprayed anyway so I will do the back and then take it back off the road to do the front.
Ther eis some work to do on the front anyway. It needs a new snorkel made up it needs , it needs blah blah blah.
The truck is getting finished this time for once and for all.

its getting there now aye, pretty sure i seen a 4wd done like this the other day but didnt have the wall across the back looked pretty dodgy with out the wall.

Off topic but what sort of fuel consumption (ltrs per 100km) are you getting out of the 5.0L and what RPM is it sitting on at 100kph.

Have never really worked out the fuel consumption apart from s**t! Its pretty poor to be honest but better then the old 4.2 petrol was. The one time I did roughly check it it was around the 17 litres to the hundred.
With the 4.625 gears and 33's now it is reving at around 3000 at 100kms. It was much better when it had the 35's on it. But it now has an absolutley awesome low range!

bump! how yah goin with this dude?