'71 F350 motorhome conversion, "Bessie"

[Jacksdad]

On my days off, I kept chipping away at the camper box, and making landfill runs. They went from one extreme to another with the original build - it was ether shady as hell, or over-engineered to the extreme. Nothing a Sawzall and assortment of hitting implements couldn't handle though. My kid had a field day with a sledge hammer.
We'd pulled the sliding glass doors out at this point to get a breeze inside while we were working.

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[hfdco4]

Wow, that's a big job! So what ate your plans?

[Jacksdad]

A flat bed/stake bed. It's not going to be used as a truck for now - I just need to get it re-registered as one because the amount of rot made it unfeasible to bring it back to life as an RV, and she's been in the family too long to get rid of her now. I just want an old dually bump to cruise around in. The bed will be pretty lightweight to keep the fees down once it's officially a truck, and I'm working on that now.
The FE is coming out at some point, and a 351W is going back in. Nothing too crazy - Weiand Stealth intake, Lunati Voodoo cam, GT40P heads, headers, etc. Just something that sounds a little rowdy.
I'm still playing catch up with the posts, but they should be up to date soon, when I get a chance to pull the pictures off two phones.
Hagerty is going to insure her as nobody either understood what I was doing, or wanted to deal with a "conversion", so I'm shortening her by a foot so she can be garaged.

[Jacksdad]

So, the breakdown continued, and the extent of the structural rot became increasingly apparent. It was really bad - far worse than I suspected. On the plus side, I don't feel as guilty as I did when I started cutting her up.

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[Jacksdad]

I'm not kidding - do some serious poking around if you're considering an RV of this vintage or older. This thing spent it's life in a dry climate, and it was still trashed. Floor to ceiling - there was either rot or termite damage everywhere.

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I

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[Jacksdad]

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[Jacksdad]

The original plan called for a quick and dirty transition to a truck, and I was planning on simply using the RV floor as a temporary bed, reinforcing and repairing as necessary. It soon became apparent that filling the holes for the step and shower enclosure, and replacing the rotten wood was going to take longer than changing out the whole thing, so off it came. The sheet metal RV wheel wells were bugging the crap out of me too, so it fixed that problem as well. The welded channel framing is actually pretty well done, so that's going to be the base - for now anyway.

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[Jacksdad]

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[hfdco4]

Progress looks good. Now install a back window and you are almost ready to go to work!

[Jacksdad]

I'm going to hit the rust at the back of the cab this weekend (as bad as it looks, it's only surface), finish up the bodywork around the new window opening, and throw the glass in there. I already have a window and gasket ready to go in. That'll be weird after driving it with a walk through passage behind me for almost 20 years. It's never had a rear view mirror either (or a gas tank in the cab), so that's on the shopping list too.
The roof is all over the place - years of supporting a collapsing camper box distorted the hell out of it - but I have a good roof that will be going on soon. Fortunately I have no drip rail rust, so I'm just going to replace the cap itself.
I'll be updating the progress this weekend when I can get over there.

[jzjames]

Cool! flatbed w a headache rack?

[Jacksdad]

Cool! flatbed w a headache rack?

That's the plan, but it might well end up as a stake bed. I'm going for the old farm truck look

[jzjames]

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-some pictures from my saved pics-

[Jacksdad]

The black truck was my inspiration from day one. My personal preference is for a higher bed - ideally aligning with the body line on a bump. I'm not sure I can do it with this configuration, but well be close. When I get it back to my place, we'll start planning to weld up something sturdier. It'll do for now though. I just need it back on the road at the moment, registered as a truck.
I just finished up the paint on the underside of the three panels that'll make up the bed - they have two coats of Killz primer/sealer and two coats of oil based Rustoleum to keep the elements at bay for a while. Back at it on Wednesday.

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[hfdco4]

Glad to see the progress. Good luck with getting it back on the road!