Check Out My Rear!

[asorensen]

Here are a few of the latest modifications I have done.

I built a tire carrier to deal with my spare issue. I would of had pictures of the process but I was working like a mad man in order to get it finished before my summer holidays.




I have also pretty much finished my camper modules. The unit on the left I made a while back (sink, stove 5lb propane tank, 20 litre water tank) but this is a better pic.




I just finished the unit on the right which is multi function.

It is a bench:





It is the storage for the parts and holds the table:







It folds out to complete the bed:




And it is a twelve volt cooler:



I robbed the guts out of a Can Tire unit and built the stainless liner and insulation to fit the space.


I also linoed the floor with a nice industrial lino to make food scrap and beach cleanup a breeze.


You may also notice my bench sits up on risers to: a) make the space underneath more usable and b) to maximize the space inside the cooler unit. Kind of a silly mod but I have a two inch lift yah!



I have also finished an awning for the side built from a sail boat mast and some awning material I got from ebay. It is really good marine awing material and
I got enough to make the awing, cushions and a few other incomplete projects for $30 (Plus $30 for shipping).





These are a few of the things that I have been working on lately.

Andy

[Todd64]

Man I'm lovin' your floor. What is it. *** nevermind...I missed the "linoed" part. DOH! ***

[konadog]

Nice work! Hazel and I want to come and play at your house - er SHOP that is!!

[delica 304]

Holy Cylon Jesus!

That is awesome!! Well done!

[delicat]

Voted best interior design!

[mararmeisto]

All we have to do is wait for a couple of the kids to leave home (we've got four) and then we can start doing that sort of thing to Moon Machine. It's either that or make some of them ride in the roof rack when we go places!

Nice job. Might do the lino mod before the children leave, for the same reasons - would make cleaning up a breeze. Did you leave the underlay in place, or is it mounted onto sheets of plywood? How is the noise (if you removed the underlay)?

[The Pinkfingers]

All we have to do is wait for a couple of the kids to leave home (we've got four) and then we can start doing that sort of thing to Moon Machine. It's either that or make some of them ride in the roof rack when we go places!

Us too. Though we have five...

Andy, that's amazing.

[asorensen]

Thanks for the responses.

marameisto asked:

Did you leave the underlay in place, or is it mounted onto sheets of plywood? How is the noise (if you removed the underlay)?

I left the front rubber underlay and added some 3/16 birch ply in the rear to make it all even. I used a liberal quantitiy of the marine sealant Sikaflex to glue the plywood and lino down. It is a very good product if a little expensive and I don't expect to much noise from rattling plywood. If was going to do it again I would have done the whole thing with plywood first but live and learn.

Andy

[jessef]

Nice

[jrman]

Love the work you do. Did you do the receiver hitch setup yourself as well? I've seen James (Doc Savage) post on his setup and am collecting as much info on this as possible in hopes of building similar receiver / spare tire carrier in near future. Would love to see more closeups on the tire carrier portion either way.
Many tks in advance and keep up the great work.

[asorensen]

Here are some pictures.



The first pictures are fairly self explanatory. I wanted the back to be as seamless as possible hence the pivot inboard of the actual door which mean that a secondary pivot is necessary to get the door around the tire. I wish I had made the bar which comes up from the pivot a little beefier. It is 1 1/2" and I should have made it 2". The end result is the tire is a little bouncy which bugs me! Not only that but I need to learn how to Paint! Note the run. I rocker guarded the rear part of the bumper and sprayed with tremcad. Several people have asked me about powder coating and my opinion through some experience (I powder coat in my shop) is it is to brittle for this type of application. It seems to chip through quite a lot where there are rocks thrown at it constantly hence the rocker guard. Just my thoughts.







These pictures show the secondary pivot which actually serves two functions. It allows the door to get around the tire and also means that I (or my wife!) won't have to lift the spare as high if it is ever needed. The drawback of course is every time I want to get in the back I now have two things which I need to do.








Booth of the pivot points ride on greasable tapered roller bearings.






The latch mechanism for the drop down arm came from an old Ford Van. It feels very strong but I have thought about adding a secondary failsafe just to be sure. The latch is lockable which is nice to avoid tampering in fact both are lockable but I am not sure if I would want to lock them both. In the long run adding complexity leads to complexity!









Finally the whole bumper is supported not only by the stock mounts, which we all know don't amount to much, but also by 1"x2" x1/8" bars which go back to 3/8" C channel bolted to the unibody rails.








Well that's that. I'll try it out this summer and probably make some changes or a new bumper when I get back to the shop in the fall.

Andy

[FalcoColumbarius]

[DelicaMark]

Okay this is one of the nicest machines I have seen! Nice work! Do you want to take care of my van for a while....

[josh]

Andy,

I never thought I would admit this, but man... nice rear!

Josh

[asorensen]

Thanks Josh.

I also have a confession I have been checking out your rack!

I added explanations for the Tire carrier for anyone interested.

Andy