Overland truckbed 1985 toyota

[EddieBear]

I have a 1985 and like most of them. The bed is gone. Aftermarket doesn't have much variety.
I want to build one and have the layout but curious if I could build it out of alum and rivets.
it would have to have at least 3/8 thick bed floor and side walls.

would attempt to design it after the M101 CDN2 trailer with a tail gate. Including images of the build I want to make but with a CDN ( Without a tailgate )

Any comments or suggestions would be very welcome. I am very mechanically inclined but have never done this type of construction and this idea has driven me nuts for about a month now.

[OP827]

I have one comment about aluminum on steel. You may already know this, aluminum in direct contact with steel will be galvanically corroding unless it is electrically isolated with plastic, silicon, polyurethane etc. It is possible to do, but it involves a lot of details to ensure such full isolation. I noticed that even Toyota does not address this issue in their design of thin aluminum thermal shields directly fixed to painted steel body. The aluminum shields get corroded around the bolts and washers and falling off from a road salt environment. Planned obsolescence. Due to Galvanic corrosion, steel will generally also corrode quicker in contact with aluminum, but aluminum will corrode faster than steel. Lanoline or oil based undercoating would reduce the corrosion speed by displacing road spray with the grease.

[EddieBear]

Agreed !

I use to do Custom Harleys when I was younger. I have seen that reaction in the worst most costly spots many Motorcycles.
I will take that into account for certain.

This will be my first build with Rivets and aluminum. I think Ill do a small scale mock-up first.

Thanks so much for you reply.

Eddie

[OP827]

You are most welcome and I wish you all the best with your project. This is a cool looking truck. I do not recall seeing such design in Toyotas rear, was it custom made? I am no expert in Toyota trucks though..

[EddieBear]

Sorry for the late response Yes it was created by a man in Canada very cool design though. Those bed all rotted and there aren't many replacement options except fiberglass (-_-)