The next thing I wanted to fix on the truck was to make it a true flatbed. The way the previous owner made the rear tailgate really limits the functionality. Step one was to relocate the fuel filler neck. It was at the back and if I was going to have a tailgate that flipped down I needed to have it flush with the bed and not sticking out like it was. I decided to move it over to the side which gave it a nice straight shot into the tank, now it fills better and looks better.
Once that was sorted out, I cut off the old tailgate, which enabled me to move my cabover (that's for sale if anyone is interested!). You can also see in this shot that I spent a few hours with some 3M pads scrubbing the old nasty paint off and getting down to the original color on half the hood. I also scrubbed around the windows when I had them out so I could get the roof back to the original white. Unfortunately it still looks like this (two face) today since I've been so busy with other projects. I'll get back to the paint eventually.
With some work that needed done out of the way I went back and finished up the new tailgate. You can see the new tinted rear window and modified headache rack (looks way better IMO).
With the new bedside setup I can flip down any one side, or all sides. I put bumpstops in a few places so I didn't have to worry about them hitting anything important or rattling around if I drove with the sides down.
With the bed the way I wanted it, I moved on to the interior to address some issues there. The factory 3 speed shifter did not work properly on the 700R4, not to mention it was very sloppy, my wife and I nicknamed it the ouija shifter. It would start in park or reverse (not neutral) and the reverse lights came on in drive... I picked up a Winters floor shifter and a tilt manual column (again from Brothers) and everything works better (and Amber can see over the steering wheel now).
The project we're currently working on (somewhat, kinda stuck at the moment) is replacing the door windows. Back when we ordered the front and rear windows, we also ordered a one piece tinted power window kit for the doors from Brother's. It was on super backorder (took three months to show up) and when it finally did, we realized what a huge project it was to get it installed. It took us all day to get one door done only to find out that the power window regulators they ship with the kit are not the same ones they used in the video (those were stock style and bolt in like factory regulators). The regulators they ship with it do not control the front/back movement of the window properly and as a result the window will get stuck tilted forward or back slightly keeping it from closing all the way (there will just be a little gap at the front or back of the window when it's up). The window will also rock front to back as it goes up and down, which doesn't look good. I'm currently working with Brother's to come up with a fix for this (or to just return the regulators), they've been super helpful on the phone so far, but I haven't gotten the issue resolved yet. As of now we only did the drivers side and went ahead and put the 47 year old factory regulator in. It works better than the power one, but is very difficult to operate with the new heavier window. I'm hoping to get some of the factory style power window regulators and finish up this install. I'm sure I'll get some hate from the people that like the wing windows, but I can tell you this much, from the drivers seat the wind noise from the passenger side is way louder than the wind noise from the drivers side (it's not even noticeable over the engine/exhaust since there's no carpeting in the truck). Amber an I prefer the more modern look of the one piece, so we're going to keep it for sure.
We've used the truck a few times for things bigger than trips to Costco. I hooked it up with a brake controller and 7 way trailer plug and hauled 4500lbs of scrap steel to the recycler (some on the bed, some on my car hauler). Unfortunately, no pictures of that. I did snap a picture of 1800lbs of palm tree in the bed, the crane worked awesome for this, it meant I didn't have to kill all of my saw blades cutting the trees into manageable sections, I could cut it into 6 foot lengths and hoist them into the bed with the crane.
For the garage build I have to move a couple sheds, so we've been using the shop truck to haul all the contents of the sheds to a storage locker down the road temporarily. We love it, it drives pretty good and it can haul a load. The flatbed with the fold down sides is awesome and makes loading, unloading and securing the load much easier.
