CuRVWander

  Whoop there it is! And just like that, it's done.  Even the owner of the conversion shop was surprised at how quickly things came together.  There were no uh-oh's, unplanned delays (when was the last time something didn't happen to slow a project you were working on), labor shortages, nothing.  It just all went great. How about a tour? (you can click on any picture to see them full-screen) Lots of storage compartments.  A couple are already spoken for, the Honda 2200 generator is going in the large front compartment on the driver's side.  It did work out that both the fuel door and the DEF door (the two round, chrome doors) are on the same side.  A nice touch is the chrome edge protector to keep the flying rocks from chipping the paint. Storage space is repeated on the passenger side.  The horizontal compartment above the rear wheel is going to be for my specialty tools like the torque wrench and Fluke multi-meter to name a couple. Also, not rea...

Things are happening, fast! What I was told would be weeks of work has seemingly gotten well underway in just days.  My last post saw the truck just arriving in Valparaiso from the body shop in Elkhart, ready to be fitted with auxiliary equipment.  The question was whether or not all the parts had arrived.  Apparently they have. 60 gallon auxiliary fuel tank, fuel pump, electronic controls and wiring. Tiara add-ons - Rear View camera, service lights, control modules, cameral wiring harness to attach to in-dash display. Bedliner sprayed onto top of bumper.  No scratching of paint  when you use the bumper as a step into the bed. Fuel tank and hitch mounting rails fitted to freshly sprayed bed liner. The folks at Classy Chassis didn't fool around, if they had parts to work with they got on it.  And with this amount of progress I had to make a call and ask if the completion date of late August was still the target.  Happily the answer came back "no". ...

 Progress!  And sooner than expected. The moving of Quasimodo from the conversion shop in Valparaiso to the body shop in Elkhart happened as planned.  It was expected that at least three weeks would elapse before the next sign of any progress in the build.  However progress was seen in days instead.   Evidently the body shop had started fabricating the tow body in advance of the arrival of the truck.  The all-aluminum construction looks pretty rough in this stage but it undergoes a major transformation and refinement as progress continues. The tiara (also called headache rack) is also well on its way.  There is still lots of work left to do but at least it is just a matter of doing it and not waiting for weeks on end for backorders to be filled. Once fabrication is complete then all these bare metal parts will be prepped, primed and painted to match the cab of the truck. And that happened pretty quickly.  The next thing I knew there were photograp...