Jerry Feather

Thanks Alan for your input. Those are interesting thoughts and concerns. In fact as I have been pondering this project in anticipation of getting the pickup here I have been considering three other modifications to it in the bed area. Those three are in addition to raising the forward sides of the bed. One is to lower the bottom of the bed. There is about 3 or more inches of empty space under the rear floor of the 928 and above the transmission I think I am going to lower the bed bottom down to nearly the top of the trans. That will entail eliminating the spare tire well and will involve putting a big notch in the top of the fuel tank. It will also involve removing much of the frame components in that area and replacing them with some fairly shallow box tubing. I had actually planned that with my own pickup conversion some time ago.

The other two thoughts I am working on have been mentioned here before. One is the tail gate. I had actually given that some thought with my own project, but now am running that one around in my head quite a bit. Then, there is the trailer hitch. I think I have that one figured out and perhaps one that will be suitable for any other 928. The two main problems with these two thoughts is how to hinge the tailgate and then can there be a tailgate and a trailer hitch together?

I drove my truck home from the shop late yesterday and it seems to run fine, but I wont know if the problem is really cured until tomorrow when I take off again for CA.

Jerry Feather

Hi JP. I came across the term "Ute" for this conversion in an article about this conversion in a car magazine some time ago. It was about a 928 conversion done in Australia. In that car they had extended the bed about 12 or more incnes, but all in the rear overhang. The article did not show a side view of the car so I only had to imagine how bad it must have looked. They said that extending the wheel base was just too much work. In that article they gave some interesting history about the term "Ute." It is apparenty fairly unique to Australia and came about with the Australian production of the Ford Model A. Apparently the Ford Factory found that some folks were putting a pickup bed on the back of Coupes, so they decided to do the conversions in the Factory. They were then referred to as "Utility" which of course became "Ute."

Jerry Feather

Well Darn! Another attempt and another failure. I left home early this morning, about 3 hours ago, (3:20) and got to about the same place in Utah that my truck had first overheated before and it did it again this morning I think it is the fan clutch again, but this time the new one failed. I think. I could hear it come on intermitantly driving from the house to about the state line, but then it quit coming on. It howls when it comes on; and maybe that is a sign that it is failing because it is kind of loud. I'm still blocked out for the 4th and 5th, but maybe I can try again next weekend on Sunday and Monday. That way I miss only one day at the office.

Alan

I can only imagine how frustrating that was - especially the almost exact scenario repeat...
Best wishes for next time!

Alan

Jerry Feather

The one flaw that I now see in this 75 El Camino design is that the rear wheels should be about 12 inches aft of where they are. I never noticed that when I had the Sprint, but I can see it now in the pictures. If I had one now I would strongly consider simply shortening the rear overhang about 16 to 18 inches. Then guess what? It would begin to look a lot more like a big brother of the pickuip version of the 928s. There are so many other similarities in the two designs which is probably the basis for my fondness for this 928 pickup that i am trying to retrieve from Mark A.

Jerry Feather

I have been working the designs of the three, or actually four things I want to do to this El CaPorscho pickup over in my head. I have figured out where to hinge a tail gate and much of its overall design. I haven't yet decided about the bumper bar but the original one will have to go. In its place, and perhaps just under the tail gate, I am thinking about a simple steel leaf spring of only one leaf. If I can get the depth I want to the bed and still have room under the tail gate that might be the best approach. I need to do some measurements to be able to finally decide. As to the lower bed floor I really hope to get that under side of the new floor right on top of the differential. That means that after I remove most of the original frame components and design and fab a hefty sub frame I will have to design it around the diff and perhals right over the top of the trans.

Then, the sub frame is going to inter-relate to the tail gate and the trailer hitch. I am thinking that the trailer hitch may not amount to anything more than welding a hitch receiver to the rear center of the subframe. It will be a little bit more complex than that, but the sub frame is actually going to become the bulk of the hitch.

Then one thing I had not thought about until this morning when I went out and looked at my previous attempt at this conversion and I am now reminded that the rear spring/shock mounts will have to be delt with. I'll need to either leave them where they are and build the new floor around them or lower them to just under the floor and use shorter springs and shocks. I am inclined to the latter

I am still in the throws of indecision about just how to fix the top edges of the bed sides, but have a pretty good idea which, out of about 4 or 5 methods, I will use.

Zirconocene

I don't know how practical it would be but you have some machining skills, so maybe you could make something.

Idea #1: What about some rails that sit on the side of the bed and sort of pop up, like you see on hospital beds? That way you can keep the lines sleek but have improved capability when you need it.

Idea #2: Way back when I was considering buying a truck I looked at the Nissan Frontier and one of the things that stuck with me was an option for a curved gate-like thing that would be stowed flush against the front of the bed but could slide, and flip over to give you a tail-gate's worth of extra length for hauling things.

No matter what, I look forward to seeing what you do.

Cheers

Jerry Feather

Thanks for your suggestions. They have merit, but I'm not likely to go with either of them.

As to the upward articulating extensions on the bed sides those are usually referred to as "sideboards." The thing that comes to mind when I think about something like that is putting some fence-like sideboards on each side made our of just that - boards - and fitting them into pockets for the posts on each side. I'm not inclined in that direction or your's either.

I am however going to go with another of Alan's suggestions and that is about some tie down loops or such. I'm going to fab some and put three or four on each side of the bed but near the top. Those will give me some sideways stability for any kind of tall load.

As to the Nissan bed extension you describe, I am having a tough time to envision that. However I am inclined in the tail gate direction and my design so far for that includes the same material on the face of it when up as the bottom of the bed (aluminum diamond plate) and my design has it rotating to when open to become flush with and level with the bottom of the bed. That will in fact extend the bed length for something kind of long if needed.

It turns out that my diagnosis of my truck failure being the almost immediate failure of the new fan clutch was correct. I think it failed before I reached the state line with Utah which is only 31 miles from here. Another new factory one is on the way and should be here about noon today and then they will install it by the COB. I think I'll try again for CA this next Sunday morning very very early and hope to get back by about late Monday with the car in the trailer.

Alan

Another few thoughts Jerry:

Relating to what you call 'sideboards' what if these were flat metal hinged along the sides of the bed and normally lay flat on the bed but can be hinged up to extend the sides. These would be permanently attached and up to ~1/2 the width of the bed tall - they could have holes at the location of the tie downs so you could use the tie downs with the sideboards up or down. Need a solution to these rattling (up and down) - but probably that wouldn't be too hard. Pros: you'd always have them with you and they'd be secure. Possibly add one at the front to protect the rear view glass too?

I think the idea of the bed extender might still be good (adapted as needed) since the bed is not only shallow but short too. See this
It only works if you add a tailgate of course - but sounds like you plan to do that already.

You can use it inside the bed (tailgate up) to create a small holding area (stops stuff moving around), flip it over & back to enclose a larger area on top of the tailgate or flip it up and insert long things underneath it (or take it off all together).

Alan

Zirconocene

What @Alan posted, via his link, is very similar to what I was talking about on the Frontier. In the case of the Frontier it was possible to stow it right up against the cab/bed wall, so that there was no obstruction in the middle of the bed. I like what I think you're describing, Jerry, and am interested to see what you implement.

Cheers

Jerry Feather

Thanks Alan and Glenn for your continued input with cool ideas about this project. Even though I probably will not try to do the sideboards or what I will call the tail gate cage devise, they have certainly stimulated a lot of thought.

I have thought through the tailgate idea and think I have it just about completely figured out. My final design is actually quite a bit different from what I had started out with but I have it utilizing a fairly effective bumper bar of sorts, at least one that will have some effectiveness in any kind of lignt bumps which otherwise would prettty much cause visible damage. Too, the lower bed level and the trailer hitch are coming together in my mind in sort of a collateral way.

My truck is fixed again and I am going to kind of test it this afternoon with a 60 mile trip out to the state line and back. If it appears good to go again I'll try the CA trip early Sunday.

Alan

Good luck Jerry this time. Hope you get there and back quick & safe, and that all is as you expect with it.

I find sometimes its not the actual specific ideas others throw out - but just that collectively they spur you on and serve to kick start into a different way of thinking about the problem - that eventually leads you to a better idea or at least some different approaches.
Tell us what you come up with when you get there.

Alan

Wisconsin Joe

At one point, there was a 25% tax on pickup trucks imported into the US. Look up the "Chicken Tax" for more info (it's pretty silly, but very real).
For anyone who remembers the Subaru Brat, the seats in the bed were put there to avoid that tax.
There were a variety of other ways various manufacturers circumvented it.

#1 - This is actually a fairly attractive conversion. It seems to be well done and isn't 'stupid ugly'. There was one with an El Camino back bumper a while back. That thing was fugly.

#2 - 928s are unusual, but not rare. For someone to take, say, a nice OB, a GT or a GTS and do this...
Not good.

But to take a 'mid-production' car, which aren't all that valuable, and to do this would be one of those 'your car, your choice' kind of things.

bronto

Yes, I've seen it under Mark's prior custody. It's nicely done as it is.

Jerry Feather

Well, third time is/was a charm. The truck was fixed by COB last Friday and I originally thought about test driving is on Saturday then head for CA early Sunday. However sitting around Friday evening early it occurred to me that if Mark A could meet me early Sunday I would rather drive out there on Saturday, stay the night, load the car Sunday and drive home. I called Mark and he agreed. So I hooked everything up and got to bed real early. I woke up about 4 am and got some fuel and was on the road at10 minutes to 5. I made two fuel stops on the way and drove just about exactly 12 hours and 775 miles, so I got there pretty early. I called Mark when I was about an hour out and he suggested meeting me that afternoon rather then Sunday. I was hoping he might, so we met at almost exactly the 12 hour point. Mark and I loaded the car into tthe trailer, did a little paperwork and I left. I drove the 10 miles to Diamond Bar and got a room at our friend, Joseph Fann's, Holiday Inn and spend the night.

I actually woke up yeaterday at just about the same time as Saturday morning, 4:10, cleaned up and loaded, got some fuel (cost me $6.11 per gallon) and hit the road again at 10 minutes till 5 their time. I drove exactly 12 hours to home with the same two fuel stops coming back.

The one thing I forgot to take was my digital camera so I didn't take any pictures. Now the car in locked up in the trailer and it is going to be a chore to get it out because I tangled my winch up in the loading process, so I will have to firgure that out.

One thing I did on the trip was drive at or just below the speed limit since I was pulling the trailer and carefully watching the temperature of the engine. That is except for in CA where the trailer towing speed limit is 55. I did give it some deference, but I saw that everyone towing anythng paid no attention to the limit. At a little below the speed limit everyone on the road passed me. They are all going 5 to 25 over the limit and some even more. What that did was give me the look at the back of a few hundred cars as they all passed me. One thing I was able to notice with just about all of the small modern SUVs was that they have a little kind of sun shade or eye brow coming off the roof and out over the back window. The back window of just about all of them has a similar slope to the one in the 928 conversion. I think the roof extensions are pretty much what Ake and Rob were talking about in this thread above. Now I am thinking about adapting something like that to the roof of this car.