Big_ern's aluminum Toy

[Metal Masher]

Big_ern contacted me a while ago about making him a replica of my Toyota comp tuber and I graciously accepted so I figured I would post the progress here.

Now this won't be a complete truck. he pretty much just needs the cage and the skins attached to it so once I'm done I'll let him complete the progress

Not much to post yet but I did start the skins

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I'll be working on the cage tomorrow so i'll post up once i get that started

[Harley]

I always love your aluminum bodies.

Posting for subscription.......

[Trugg]

Amazing work as usual Metal Masher

[Stormin2u]

Amazing that's just great work.

[Metal Masher]

Thanks guys. I got started on the chassis but didn't get much time to work on it.



I should have the basic cage done tonight.

[Metal Masher]

I got more done on the cage.

I've had some practice with my TIG so I figured i would use that for this build

starting with the hoop I added the lower door bars



The welds came out pretty good



Then I added the forward cage bars



then the rest of the roof



More tomorrow

[Big_Ern]

Great work so far Blake

Thanks for starting a build thread for it.


Cool that you decided to tig it too. Now I'm going to have to get my friend who can tig as well to tig the next parts on my 1:1 so it can have some cool fab on it too



You do awesome work. I'm really looking forward to it


He is building a replica of my 1:1 toyota with a couple mods (dovenosed & boatsided) like his Comp Tuber hilux has.

This is how it looked when I bought it:











This is how it looks now




I have a brand new plastic hilux body from tamiya, but contacted blake to build me one of his sweet aluminum bodies so It can take some abuse like my 1:1 has

[Duuuuuuuude]

That is a really interesting cab mod on the 'yota. Is that your dry cleaning in the back?

[Big Mike]

Originally Posted by Metal Masher

Whoa - Mini door-skins! How are you making these? Making dies and pressing them? That looks incredible.

Are you the same guy that was making bodies out of pie-plates a couple years ago?

[Big_Ern]

Here's Metal Masher's "Comp tuber" build thread which has a little more detail on how he builds the skins: Comp tuber

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

That is a really interesting cab mod on the 'yota. Is that your dry cleaning in the back?

nope. Thats my cooler, spare parts, and tools strapped down on the deck. In the back of the cab mini box is an ez-up shelter. That was a wheeling trip down to moab in the middle of summer, so I brought an ez-up along to have some shade when we stopped for lunch.

[Metal Masher]

Originally Posted by Big Mike

Whoa - Mini door-skins! How are you making these? Making dies and pressing them? That looks incredible.

Are you the same guy that was making bodies out of pie-plates a couple years ago?

Well almost. I make a mold out of the original body using plaster, then I make a mold from the plaster negative using bondo and i have an exact duplicate of the original panel. I force the aluminum over the bondo mold getting all the details.

I might have been me but i've been making metal bodies since. I have 3 trucks now and some demo cars.

more progress

I got the forward bars and rad hoop done, added the door bars, sliders, and rear harness bar.



I still need the tabs for the panels, cross bar behind the seats and the mount for the mini bed.

It's getting close!

[Big_Ern]

Great work! That harness bar is bent exactly how I had in mind when I asked, I like how you tied the door bars in at the same point too.

[bigdodge88]

Looks awesome, can't wait to see the finished body.

*SUBSCRIBED*

Justin

[colesdad45]

Your builds look great, I am assuming by the description of your forming you are using soft aluminum, O stock. we use that stuff to make helicopter parts and after they are formed we cook them and qwench them in cold water to heat treat them. we have an oven that goes to 950 degrees but i think even the oven on 450 for a few minutes would help to make them a little stronger. Just an idea, like i said they do look great.

[bigwill5686]

Love the build!! I need one of your chassis blake, i promise not to run it against you at the svsc comps .

[Metal Masher]

Originally Posted by Big_Ern

Great work! That harness bar is bent exactly how I had in mind when I asked, I like how you tied the door bars in at the same point too.

Making you happy is what i'm all about!

Originally Posted by colesdad45

Your builds look great, I am assuming by the description of your forming you are using soft aluminum, O stock. we use that stuff to make helicopter parts and after they are formed we cook them and qwench them in cold water to heat treat them. we have an oven that goes to 950 degrees but i think even the oven on 450 for a few minutes would help to make them a little stronger. Just an idea, like i said they do look great.

I'm not sure of the exact type of aluminum other than it's what is used to make disposable cooking sheets. It comes fairly tempered and i need to anneal it before i can work with it. Re-tempering it sounds interesting but I'm really happy with how real it looks when dented so I'll probably stick with it the way it is

Originally Posted by bigwill5686

Love the build!! I need one of your chassis blake, i promise not to run it against you at the svsc comps .

I'm defiantly interested in building another tube chassis. PM me if you want to chat about it. Don't worry about competing against me, even if you beat me I would still feel good since I would be the one that built it

More progress.

I added the tabs for the boatsides and the ones that hold the roof and doors in place.



and the cross bar



It's also looking like i'm going to go over all the welds again to clean them up. I did one and it came out much nicer



It's getting there!



I still need the tabs for the front fenders, cowl and the mount for the mini bed.

not much longer!

[rockrawler]

What are you goin to do with the bottom of the rad hoop? Very nice work Can wait to see it in person when it's finished. Your a lucky guy Ern.

[irok]

Cool project
Killer work on those skins man!!!
Hey Ern next time your in 'loops' ya gotta bring that up so me and Rich can check it out!

[Trugg]

Originally Posted by Metal Masher

It's also looking like i'm going to go over all the welds again to clean them up.

The cage looks great so far, nice build.
As far as the tig welding goes, your welds look plenty strong... but it looks like you need to turn your heat way down. It also will help to use smaller diameter filler wire or just less filler.

[Metal Masher]

Originally Posted by rockrawler

What are you goin to do with the bottom of the rad hoop? Very nice work Can wait to see it in person when it's finished. Your a lucky guy Ern.

It's probably going to stay unfinished. He is doing the rest of the chassis so i'll leave it so he has some material to work with.

Originally Posted by Trugg

The cage looks great so far, nice build.
As far as the tig welding goes, your welds look plenty strong... but it looks like you need to turn your heat way down. It also will help to use smaller diameter filler wire or just less filler.

Yah I pretty much figured that out already. I thought it had the TIG at it's lowest setting then i realized the knob went lower than what indicated on the machine what do you expect, it's a cheep no-name TIG/Plaz combo but it gets the job done.

I got a some progress on the mini bed. I figured it would be the most difficult part on the body and wanted to get it done before i want any further on the cage

First I made some molds for the bed floor and back usind some styrene.



Then I molded the sections I needed for the bed



Next I added the filler panels to the bed sides



If you look in the pic of the real truck above you'll see that's exactly how the factory did it

Next I punched holes in the floor for the fastening screws



then I added the floor supports



glued the back on



then the sides



In all it tured out pretty good



even the seam looks factory



I'll be finishing the cage today. I'll post up the progress tonight.