walkthrough??

did you weld in plates to connect the bed and the cab? how did you connect the 2.

that is exactly what I was looking for, I have an ext cab right now I think it would make a perfect walkthrough cuase the backseat has a window, I want to put a full bench in the rear and a split bench up front, I want to do a whole classic car interior, metal dash and all the other stuff.

thanks for the pictures,
Mike

also is there a special name for the canopy that has no side windows and seals against the cab with no front? I want to call around and see if anyone has one in stock.
thanks,
Mike

Actually, the cab and bed are not actually "welded" together. The cab basically has an angle iron type framing around the opening. The front of the bed has flat extensions which overlay the angle iron. Then there is a thick layer of silicon between the two which allows for some flex without leaks.

The topper (canopy) is by Sprint and is the same as anyother except was requested without side windows. Topper should come with a rubber gasket that pinches onto the remaining window opening and onto the topper to seal out rain.

I know yours is really custom, but would you suggest this for a daily driven truck? I dont know if the silicone stuff would hold up to daily driving.

is there anything wrong with sheeting the whole inside of the truck and welding the bed to the cab but without making the outside look like a unibody?

thanks,
Mike

Daily driven.... hmmmmm
Yes, I would recommend this for a daily driver as I created the walkthru of my 1990 truck not long after my first daughter was born in 1993. Back then the truck was the "family" daily driver. Truck currently has 125,000 + miles on it (and yes, it is a 1 owner truck). Welding the cab to the bed "should not" be a problem, but, consider going in and out of parking lots where the truck has to flex and twist (a little is all that is needed). Mazdas have a boxed frame which is much stiffer than a Ranger of S-10, but still flexes. The bed of the Mazda is bolted directly to the frame. The cab is sitting on rubber mounts. If the bed had rubber mounts and was welded to the cab that might work but I opted to go the other route.

Come to think of it.... I can remember making many 400+ mile round trips to Wisconsin with both kids in the back seat watching videos on a 13" TV/VCR combo. Honestly, the biggest problem I had with the setup had little to do with the metal portion and a lot to do with the rubber seal between the topper and the cab!

I have done a walk through on 2 of my nissan trucks. I used the accordian boot stuff you get from the canopy store. About $5 a foot. You just cut the back wall out and make sure you leave 1/2 inch at the bottom of the opening so you can attach the boot which works like pinch molding. The truck can still flex this way and you wont have leaks if you do it correctly. Some might say this method weakens the trucks structure but both my trucks lasted and I never noticed any problems.

I think since I plan on body dropping the whole truck, maybe I will make provisions for body mounts, like s-10 ones, and weld the cab to the bed, put some crossmembers in the frame to help strengthen it.

I want to the whole interior in muscle car style, tuck n' roll style, front and rear bench, a sub box around the notch and leave the area by the tailgate open for some sort of truck.

thankyou for the help, hopefully I can get started on this when I am done bagging my valiant,

-Mike