My Flip-Pac resto

[FlatBlak]

I'm still working on everything but man....this is a lot of work! I had all of these ideas of customizing... but the farther I get the less I want to do.

This morning during my daily browse and sip session I was looking at the Earthroamer Jeep and the flush mounted lights in the top... great...another idea.

I don't hate many things, but I do hate bodywork. At least I don't suck at it.

 

[FlatBlak]

Today I was able to get the torsion bar re-installed in the brackets. I should have done this earlier. Anyways I again used my rope, ladder, pallet and added in a winch for the pull up. Overkill but it worked. After laying the top onto the cap it was definately cockeyed. This was due to the mounting of the pass hinge I did. I unbolted it and set it into the proper place and everything lines up now. I will have to drill new holes in the glass and sleeve to accomodate it's new position though.

Post vertical...

Looks good from 50 feet!:sombrero:

Finally back together and square. It's amazing how much weight the torsion rod nulls from the top. I am wondering if the torsion rod is from a mid-eighties car or truck...I swear I've seen one very similar before.

 

[FlatBlak]

I found out a couple days ago I am moving back to Miami on the 15th so the project hit warp speed. Long days and nights but it's all coming together.

The rear doors and lower section attached to make sure everything lines up. I am a big fan of the rear doors but at the same time I'm sad because I have to lose my tailgate. I am planning to make a swing away tire carrier on my vacation in July so it won't be a total loss.

I taped off the trim around the top and ran a bead of 5200 around it.

Here I had to cut off the front so it would fit on my bed. The front was about 4 inches too long for the Frontier bed style. Underneath was wood so I just layed on some short strand filler to keep water out, then sealed with primer before paint.

This orbital sander I picked up at Harbor Freight for 20 bucks has survived probably 20 hours of use in the last few weeks and works great!

I have yet to hear back from Flip Pac regarding parts so I made a trip to West Marine and picked up some bimini top poles and ends for the support struts. Expensive at $60 but they had everything I needed, and at 7pm on a Saturday night I can't complain.

Ready for paint...

So I started spraying using my little 2 gallon brad nailer type compressor. Big mistake. In about an hour I had one door lightly painted and started on the next before I had enough. I hadn't planned on buying a compressor until further down the road but I needed one so I went shopping. I had planned on buying the Puma 12v for OBA, however this was obviously not going to happen now. HF was closed for easter so I went to Home Depot, which gave their 5 minute closing announcement as I walked in the door. The Puma runs about $200 so I wanted to keep in that price range.

I had already planned to buy a 2kw invertor down the road so I had roughly 15 amps to play with. The old lady needs her margarita blender and hair dryer right?

I ended up spending $250 on this one. It pulls around 14 amps which is quite a heavy load, but it puts out 4.9cfm at 90psi! This thing actually cuts off while spraying even with a small 4.5 gallon tank. Eventually this will be my OBA, mainly because I don't have my own garage to keep it in. It is very heavy around 60lbs so I am going to look into ditching the steel tanks for an aluminum 5-7 gal.

Everything looks better in FlatBlak!

 

[billith]

Flip Pac

Ben, your doing a fantastic job on the Fip Pac. You seem to know what your doing. I really like the pictures and all the work you have done. It will all be worth it in the end, and then you will have a very cool old Flip Pac to enjoy. Even though I sold it to you and posted that on this site, people are still calling me about it asking if I still had it for sale. Keep up the great work dude.

 

[partsflyin]

This is coming along great!! i love it!

 

[FlatBlak]

Thanks fellas, maybe someone else will be inspired by my thread... like I was when I found this site!

Today I was able to get it mounted, it looks a bit out of place, but I think only because I have never seen this truck any other way. I think it will grow on me and not look so big after I get my hi-lift, tire carrier and foxwing awning mounted. All homebuilt of course.

Sorry for the quality of all of the pics, the Blackberry is all I have.

Bring on the forklift...

8ft ladder for height reference

 

[akfj40]

that looks awesome! good job:victory:

 

[partsflyin]

Saweettt!!!!

 

[billith]

Flip Pac restore

Ben, it looks great. You don't mess around.You got a lot done very quickly. I think it looks good on your truck.

 

[suntinez]

I think you've done a great job on this, congrats!

It looks really good on your truck, does take some getting used to. I've never seen one with a blue canvas tent, looks to be in pretty decent shape too.

 

[SLO_F-250]

SICK SETUP! You are making me re-think my build now!! :Wow1: Congrats!

 

[FlatBlak]

Thanks all! Most of my ideas come from you yourselves so I don't take much credit, big thanks to you all for sharing your builds!!!!:victory:

I expected to have more time to work with it before my trip back to Florida but that was cut short. It was cut even shorter today when they asked if I could get on the road Saturday. lol They like to do that to us so I started finishing up and packing some stuff today.

Not much progress on the top today worth showing except one cool thing, my old toolbox fits inside and opens fully as well. Sweet!

The canvas is in fair shape, a lot of small little holes and the big tear on the passenger side by the hinge. I plan to patch up the holes, buy the rain fly and just roll with that for a while. If I get enough use out of it, and can justify a new tent, then I'll buy one. I will still make out cheaper than a new FP in the end, a lot cheaper.

I ended up with around 11.5 inches of space under the toolbox, more if I raise it up. Perfect place for my OBA and OBW down the road.

 

[FlatBlak]

The last update for a while. Probably weeks until I get settled again. I was able to get the Hi-Lift mounted. The instructions said to mount the brackets horizontally but I mounted them vertically for as much vertical strength as possible, and it worked too because I can do pull-ups from the jack. lol

The truck definately rides better with the extra weight, as far as ride quality goes, but with all my tools and stuff it's pretty scary when it starts swaying. Looks like airbags are more needed than I thought.

 

[Thunderbear]

So when are you going to get some RIT dye and dye the tent flat black? :sombrero:

Killer work. Can't wait to see what you do inside as it evolves. 'Murdered out' is not a look you see on expo trucks that often :bike_rider:

 

[FlatBlak]

Lol, I would actually like a nice new tent in the, what is it....light gray color? One CAN have too much black I suppose.

I had big ideas of building the inside like a boat, textured fiberglassglass floor, nice shiny white fiberglass cabinets, shower, etc. I'm getting tired of itching and after those simple repairs it re-occurs to me how much work it is.

I need to use it first so let's see how the old lady likes it and we'll go from there. She grew up on a farm in Honduras, not scared of much, not afraid to get dirty... yet I have never seen her dirty. She struts around in her Beemer with $500 sunglasses and a purse that reminds me of my grandma's wicker rocking chair... but costs more than my FP did. I'm going to take her shopping at wally world and show her the Appalacian Mts. with the FP, if it's a success we'll know soon enough. If not then I won't lose much when I sell it...or sell out I guess I should say.

'Murdered out' gets me more looks and comments than I care to have. If I could do it over I would have left the truck as is when I got it.

<---Big Dummy.