Labor'ing Day....in truck sleep/storage build

I've been inspired by the sultan of sizzle, the father of fry, el matador de manteca.....ncka's own, non-tent pitching, smallfishmaster1.   Bought this little monster a bit back and need to make it my own so I've been making minor mods here and there.  This weekend I built my sleeping platform / lockable storage. 

Guy I bought the truck from was a carpenter and built a storage box for his tools and left it in there when I bought it.  I did not suit my needs so I was gonna scrap it and rebuild out of 3/4 ply instead of 1/2 inch cause I didn't think it'd be sturdy enough but I was wrong.....and cheap.....so I recycled everything except the filthy turf.

The truck.....


The old.....


The new....ripped the height down four inches and sectioned out the middle support (which now has two removable supports, one long for when im sleeping on it and one short for when I need to store long gear crosswise)




Got my old man to lay some new rug...in the stylish orange plaid shorts I bought him as a joke but aparently he digs them.




Ripped and slotted out my drawers for the long stuff.



Tried it out with boards up to 6'6....


And rods up to 7'........



Still need to add some hinged flaps around the wheel well, upholster the drawer doors,  figure out how to lock it all in and tie it down so it stays put in a roll over.  Will post completed pics when im done.

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Pretty crafty ther young man! ..... Surfboards??? WTF??? Thought you were A paddle boarder!

I dig the way you disregarded the law of gravity in the pics Art!

I dig the way you disregarded the law of gravity in the pics Art!

Yeah every now and then you have to rebel against mother nature to let her know you ain't gonna take some of her stuff.....screw gravity.

Nice looking Hoopty !  Too bad you don't have a bench seat.....I'd recommend this to add on to your pimp job =

I have that for bucket seats already.  I'm looking for a stereo system now so I can bump this.....









PS......nice rack.

 don't forget to leave room for your.....

In the first pic that board on the racks looks suspiciously like a SUP to me.....just sayin. 

Hope you got some of that epic swell #7. Last Friday was the best surf I've had in the last couple years. 

In the first pic that board on the racks looks suspiciously like a SUP to me.....just sayin.

That might be the windsurf board he was paddling like a surfboard at aquatic park, dude was kicking my ass and I was on a SUP.

So Jim, are you taking notes? After seeing you sleep on the side of the road I think you need something like this.

After seeing you sleep on the side of the road I think you need something like this.

Thats predominantly why I burned a good holiday off doing this.  Sometimes I get burnt out on the water and it'd be nice to catch some z's before driving home, or drive to the spot the night before so I don't have to wake up early.  Gonna keep a sleeping pad and bag in one of the compartments along with a small cook top and canned grub just in case I decide to turn a day trip into an over nighter. 

Gonna do a test run camp trip to hollister hills in a couple weeks.   

Fin...


Some 3/4 side flaps let me sleep accross the whole bed and store more crap out of sight.
 


I'll eventually add a handle or some kind of covering but I'm calling it done. 

Nice looking rig Art.
Manual hatch props...had many of them. My favorite was a cut down piece of polespear I found.

 

  The shock absorbers for campershell lids are very cheap, like $8-15/ea and there real easy to install, as long as the mounts are not broken.  Any place that sells campershells should have a supply of them on hand.  They just need an "open measurement" to size the shock properly.

Yeah they're on my list of things to get but everywhere I've looked they're more like 25-30.....my sticks and random wood scraps are free.


plus I consider it a security factor, its harder to root around through my gear when one hand has to hold the camper window open. 

Nice setup Art. Very similar to mine except I'm not as crafty and bought a pre-made carpet kit off craigslist.