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hitch. I had to fabricate louvered covers for the air intake boxes for motor cooling and added an external oil cooler to help as well.
Now I had a gaping hole behind the front seats with no support for the roof. I formed a roll bar out of 1 X 2 rectangular steel tubing and welded it into the gaping hole. I then glued the headliner to the roll bar and bolted a 1/8 inch aluminium panel to finish filling in the hole. I made a cut out for a rear window and added a flat glass into the hole.
I wanted the truck to be functional, so I made front and rear racks to carry long boards, pipe or steel over the cab of the truck. They slipped down into tubes welded to the frame at front and rear. Another rack was bolted to the top rear of the cab to support loads in the middle.
I painted it yellow and thought I had better make a trailer to help haul stuff when I moved and for house construction. Not wanting to carry another spare tire for the trailer, I built it using a VW bug front end. The tie rods were bolted to a bracket welded to the front end and adjusted for proper toe in. I made a framework from angle iron and added plywood to finish the trailer box. Last, was finishing the truck bed, I made a 3/4 plywood floor and built stake sides from 1"X 12" pine boards. The wood was varnished, brackets plated and off I went to the Sierras in my new ecconomical truck. It served me well till after 2000, when I traded it for a car to build a 1923 Track "T" Roadster.
I was amazed at the weight I could carry, as long as it was distributed over the front end, as well as rear end. I carried 1200 pounds of steel for ornamental iron work, and many loads of sand, gravel and dirt for the building project. I had made the top rack only 24 inches wide, so the vehicle was not too top heavy and would not tip in cornering. Fun truck!
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