Dumb idea ...... or not?

[Kiwif150]

Been lurking around the site for a wee while now and googling away on idi trucks. My problem is that if i get any idi truck i have to convert it to rhd (mega expense) and put it into a heavy duty safety inspection regime as they are over our weight cutoff levels by 300kg or so. Soooo i came up with a cunning plan ( A plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel !!!!! ) , i have an 87 F150 rc longbox and was thinking of converting it to idi - the biggest drawback for me has been lack of space in the cab for all that essential stuff you tend to want to carry around , so i though well why not swap a crew cab on there and build myself a short flatdeck like you would see on a ranger or hilux. From pictures on the interweb that i've seen it looks like i'd wind up with the cab being around 3-4 inches forward of the rear wheels and a cab lift of 2 inches to clear the frame (this would help with a turbo anyway) , with a clever build of the deck i'd probably get it to about 5 feet long. Given that the max i'd be towing with it would be 5000lb (mostly flat country towing where i am) and the most i'd be putting on the deck would be a couple of engines or so i wouldn't think that the extra weight the body and engine would be adding to the frame would be too much would it? This is the pic that sparked the whole idea

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[towcat]

not a dumb idea. i've thought about it, but only once my backlog of work is gone.

 

[no mufflers]

kind of what Brian did but with one less door.

 

[icanfixall]

This has been done several times on this forum. One member named idiot did this but added another set of doors to his crew cab. He calls this rig 6 door. He cut down the bed too.
Dumb idea... Nope.. Not at all. Just plenty of custom work to be done.

 

[IDIoit]

a true flatbed would be easy.
I can tell you from experience that cutting truck boxes down is a tedious job.
and if you want to cover said bed, its even more involved.
I cut up 2 long beds, a single cab and a bronco to fab mine up.

stupid is not building the project you want/need.

its not for the faint of heart tho, I have about 2 months into the metal work.

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[sjwelds]

^^^yeah, and your paint doesn't even match!!!

 

[IDIoit]

itll match once I stab you in both eyes

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[catbird7]

a true flatbed would be easy.
I can tell you from experience that cutting truck boxes down is a tedious job.
and if you want to cover said bed, its even more involved.
I cut up 2 long beds, a single cab and a bronco to fab mine up.

stupid is not building the project you want/need.

its not for the faint of heart tho, I have about 2 months into the metal work.

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I'm not capable of this level of craftsmanship, however I can visualize the amount of work required to create it, my only comment is Damn!

 

[IDIoit]

lol, IMO the work on my "bed" is sub par.
I am no professional, and this is the first time ive done something of this caliber on my own.
its not perfect, but its just a truck!
the body work and paint was actually just practice.

 

[crash-harris]

I want a custom hauler bed to fit over the dual tandems if I ever get to do the conversion. Need garage space and 4x4 conversion first

 

[riotwarrior]

Great idea...go for it...also..take pictures!