gonna build myself a ute

[noodles_24]

so i gotses an idea... i'm going to take a nice saturn or like any sedan and chop off the rear and put like a bed in kinda like a ute.. any thoughts of my soon to be awzomeness?

 

[Pittin]

It would be a pain in the arse cause ud have to reinforce the chassis as the roof is like 30-50% or so of the cars support.

Well thats what i heard lol.

 

[stumbows]

I have a mate that did it with a 1964 EH holden wagon.

Turned out pretty good except it had a pretty worked engine and it was a real handful to drive.

Anyway i think you should use a wagon it would probably be easier.

 

[cass38a]

A wagon or panel van or any 2 door hatch would be much easyier than a sedan. The main problems will be with rego. This is not a projet to be undertaken lightly I am a panelbeater and I recon it would use ALL of my skills to do a half decent job. If you are starting with a sedan you have a massive job ahead of you (I would estimate 300 - 500 hours on panel work) and quite a bit of stuffing around with engineering if you want to get it regoed.

 

[pascal125]

hey cass, i thought u'd left? or are u just like coming on once and a while?
cheers

 

[daniel40]

i have seen a guy with a torana converted into a ute looks ok but i don't really like it, don't you need like an engineers certificate to get it road worthed?

 

[m0p]

good luck with that...

 

[Divy]

if you dont know alot about re-inforcing and modding pannels dont do it

 

[cass38a]

hey cass, i thought u'd left? or are u just like coming on once and a while?
cheers

I havent been here since last weekend and I dont plan on starting any new threads but will visit every now and then.

 

[YamahaRacing125]

should be a hard job, good luck with that.

 

[noodles_24]

well i kno the first thing i would do would be to do a full boxed frame conveersoin. then i would get my milwalke sawzall out and chop it off. i would do it with a beater first so to figgure out what i was doin if i wanted to do it on a nicer car.

 

[cass38a]

Are you talking about a "tray back" or a ute? Either way a chassis conversion (using a hilux, rodeo etc) would solve a lot of the engineering issues. If you are making a tray back then this could be acheivable by a novice hovever do not underestimate the work involved in making new cab pillars as cutting a sedan just behind the doors will give a very confined cabin as the seats will have nowhere to recline.

If you are considering a ute then you have MAJOR work ahead its not just a weld the back doors up cut the turret and rip out the seat job. I have thought thru some of the issues that you will come accross and my 300 to 500 hour estimate is on the light side. With the investment in time and money required to do a job like this (even with a beater it will still cost BIG $$$$$$) I would only want to do it once so you should start with the car you want (there is no point spending $10,000 and a whole year of nights and weekends chopping up a shitbox IMO).

 

[noodles_24]

im talking about a full on ute conversion. i wouldn't just weld the doors and do a chop on it i would do it the right way and remove the doors and build another b-pillar farther back so i could recline the seats. the bed would be built out of sheetmetal that would be reinforced by 2 inch dom tubing

 

[foolsp33d]

while this sounds like a good idea(in your head) cass. is right, you are up for ALOT of hours in R&D let alone hands on production. Would be more fun and probably cheaper(as wont need to be rego'd engineered) if you made up something like a bush basher, mud racer etc.. 4wd chassis, weld up a body to it, get your running gear sorted, have a blast!

But if your heart is set on cutting up a sedan into a 'ute'(pickup for you yanks) then the oler volvos seem like a common conversion, Certainly less effort as they have a full chassis, blocky body, tops breaks, wickedly sweet steering, and well...As Sven say: 'Ya Ya, its a Volvo, What can go wrong!?'

few pics iv found on ideas:

the write up for the 4x4 volvo can be found here:
http://turbobricks.com/mods/img/art...mages?q=volvo+pickup&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N

Good luck with the build noodles, let us know what you decide on in the end!
A rushed choice will be the worst choice.

 

[cass38a]

Fools I think you did a bit of panel beating in your youth so have some idea of the work involved, and I am sure you agree that those volvo utes look pretty *****.

For the young blokes out there considering doing up cars it is a BIG job to do a full resto or even bigger job for custom work.

I did a $15,000 rust and paint job on a e38 charger and finished it about 2.5 or 3 years ago for a customer and geuss what.....it is still not going, this guy has the income to buy all his parts but cant get his head around putting his shell back together. I have done similar jobs on plenty of other cars and they are nearly all in similar situations.

This is not unusual for panelbeaters to see some of their best work sit in a garage and then get on sold to other suckers who just dont know the work involved and the cars never see the light of day again.

In my opinion it would be just about impossible for a hobbiest to pull off a sucessfull registered ute conversion to a late model (after 1986) sedan without proper training and specialist equipment.

Hopefully if you start it you will prove me wrong.

 

[Sidney]

Get a front wheel drive, cut it in half and make it a 2 wheeler.

 

[synrgy]

Unless you know an engineer and you want to register it, then dont bother.. It will cost you an arm and a leg to get it through rego.

Why not just buy an old ute and do it up ?

Or a new one and customise it.