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Mike K? ruin another volvo. 945 pickup build

this makes me so excited, check out the swedish epa traktors over across the pond. pretty cool things.
 
Can you use the roof section you cut out to raise the sides of the bed? I'm trying to imagine if the roll on the edge would work?

I think the radius is too large.
I'm thinking more along the lines of having the top radius be about the same as the top edge of the front fenders.
We also need a "return", to bring it back to the old interior inner sheet metal structure.
I will be, sort of, a C section turned sideways.
 
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We've been making pretty good progress, unfortunately my new job doesn't leave me much time during the week so we're working in short bursts. We did do some work this past Thursday and I learned a valuable lesson - when you spend two hours next to someone welding, simply not looking at the arc does not mean you won't burn the hell out of your eyes. I woke up at midnight feeling like I'd been pepper sprayed! That one cost me a day of work, dumb move but lesson learned. :oops:

Our next step was to weld the doors shut. We tacked thin filler strips onto the rocker to give a backing for filling the bottom door gap.

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The door edges were a little tough to weld because you quickly start cooking out the seam sealer and crap that's in the folded edge. Also took our time trying to cool the panels as we went to avoid warping as much as possible.

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and it's a two door car now.

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Next thing we started working on was the frame for the rear quarter window. We have the rear corner of the D-pillar, so the idea is to continue that around the window frame and we'll glue in a Lexan window.

First we made plates to tie the front section of the window frame to the B-pillar so nothing is loose and flexing around.

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So in order to get the frame for the window we sectioned a piece off the rear of the c-pillar

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Then cut, nibbled, trimmed and tweaked it so that it could be fit onto the front of the door.

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And you can kind of see what we're going for. The lower section will get sliced off the top of the quarter panel of a yet-to-be-purchased second donor car, and we'll make little filler pieces for the corner. Might try and chop a piece of that lower window trim and fit it back onto the top of the door edge and use that as the lower window moulding? Have to see how everything fits.

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We also cut 3" strips off of the roof and tacked them onto the side of the bed to help to help visualize how we want to shape the bed. This is going off the excellent suggestion from slow240 to continue the hood line back through the car.

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I think that looks just about right. Our plan is to figure out exactly what shape we want and have a piece of "C" channel bent to spec to serve as the cap of the bed sides.

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So far so good! I'm loving the look of it. We have a million hours worth of welding and grinding left to do, not to mention a hell of a lot of body work!

As I mentioned, I need to rustle up another donor wagon post haste. We need another tailgate and sections chopped off the rear quarter area that will make life a lot easier than trying to scratch build. I've been kind of sitting around waiting for a free car to fall in my lap near by, but looks like I'll have to reach a little further out.

Eeuroparts just announced their annual car show is now a big event at Lime Rock Park on June 9th, so the goal is to have this thing mostly together to bring to the show. At least in primer and roadworthy! That also means I've got a deadline to get my butt moving on some projects for the 242...
 
Sweet build! Well planned and executed. I may have to try making one of these as well some day, and if I do I will follow your build, nice work!
 
You're gonna lift this right?

mmm, probably not. Think I want to keep it more car-ish. I do keep looking at it and making V8 noises though. I think I will want some heavy duty springs in the back when I'm hanging a 200lb bike off the back of it though.

Spent a lot of time thinking and planning this weekend. We are going to have a piece of channel bent for the bed rail so needed to decide on the shape. Bent up a few test pieces and goldilocks'd our way to the right width.

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Rather than just use a piece of square, the outside edge will be at an angle similar to the shape of the quarter panel to make it look like it belongs there. Will also have the outside top edge rolled at a radius similar to the top of the body panels rather than a sharp bend.

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Will also try to have the guys bend us pieces for the side and front walls of the bed.

Tacked strips of roof on to get a visual.

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Then we wanted to get the tailgate hung in it. Decided to trim the gate to the maximum length which would allow it to swing up past the wheel arches.

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I started cutting it with a wheel and uhh no sparks? Didn't know these were aluminum! Are all the cars aluminum or did older 740s have steel hatches? Changes things a little since we're not set up to tig.

I think being able to open the gate is great. Fun and practical.

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We're going to build a 'wall' between the rear doors that the hatch will latch down to. Not sure yet if we'll keep the gate longer like this or cut it right under the glass so just the glass swings open. If we keep the lower section the license plate area will be 'shaved' smooth. Keeping the lower would also let me keep the rear wiper mechanism which I'd like to do. Will have to see how things work out.

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Started making filler pieces for the quarter window frame.

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And tied the channel sections together between the b-pillar and the d-pillar 'hoop'. This worked out well, and it's much stiffer now. Once the d-pillars are tied in it will be nice and stiff.

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Giving some thought to the tail gate. The bike is ~6' from the front of the front wheel to the center of the rear wheel, so I'll need something hanging off the back to set the rear wheel on. We are thinking about a tailgate which would hinge down and could be extended out. So like unlatch it, pull it up 8" or whatever and lay it down.

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Would be easier to make a tailgate if I can get a hatch made of steel though.

Time to buy some body work materials.

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Really coming along nicely. One thought -- that's a large piece of class sitting lower/closer to loads in the bed than it would in a pickup. A pickup would have the forward wall of the bed to help keep loads away from the back of the cab. You might wanna think about how you protect that glass from a load in the bed that might accidentally move forward under braking.
 
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