| well this is what i have to work with. it's a 1983 isuzu caribe (similar to the trooper marketed in the USA.) it had major rust problems and the engine was blown when it was taken apart. the roof was rusted to pieces so it was cut off with the idea of making it into a pickup.... and that's where the project was left a year ago when it was abandoned.
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| the first thing i did was replace the floor panels using 18g sheet metal. i'd never done much welding on sheet metel before but this is good practice. ----> |
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| also got some work done on the chassis (no pic). it was bent from a crash but got it pretty straightened outand welded in reinforcements... then painted it. i bought all new |  |
| next on the list isthe rocker panels. the origionals were cut out long ago so i had no pattern to follow. the bends in the sheet metal are kinda clumsy as i was experimenting with several things but not so bad that bondo can't fix it. | 
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i spent quite a while wondering how i to do the rear panel. we tried looking at the junkyards for another car like this one that we could cut the rear quarter panels out of but that was taking a long time... so after the second week i decided to jsut try to do i tmyself. ... my hi-tech bending device-----> |
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i think i turned out ok... the lines all match up close enough. i also cut out all the old wheelwell and replaced it with new metal. making another bend while mounted by inserting a line of screws against which i can pull. -----> well that's where i'm at.. i've been working on it for 3 weeks now but not full time cause i get called away alot to fix other stuff aroudn the home... that and the fact that the sun is too hot to work outside a great part of the day... i usually get a couple hours in in the morning adn 3 in the late afternoon til dark. i estimate i've used aprox 170 welding rods to date... shoudl cross the 200 line this week. |
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| sorry.. project is done but i need to get the rest of the pictures uploaded... | |