75 Dually build

[75Dually]

OK you guys have been very patiently waiting on the reveal of my special project. A big thanks to everyone! A special thanks to the guys who guessed correctly. Man it was tough not to reveal what is was... Well it turns out I have to go out of town again this coming week so I won't get much chance to work on it for quite a while, so I thought just show them! As you can see it is no where near finished, but I am getting there.

So this started out because a friend of mine in California found a sleeper cab with a turbo wing for $200 for his square body on Craigslist. I always liked that look. So the next day I went out to the shop and took a sawzall to my 61 cab. The cab was junk (it was the cab I took the dash out of) and the bottom is completely rusted out. So my neighbor helped me mock it up on the dually, and I was off to the races. I will post the build pics to date in another set of posts, but I wanted you to see it as it sits today.

What is left to do: I need to order the new back window and seal. The lower portion needs to be body worked and primed. Obviously it is not painted yet, but will be as soon as I get some free days. The interior portion needs a cushion made (reminder to self, be nice to the wife!). The seal between the cab and the sleeper will be a door seal, so it should be fairly weather proof.

In the pictures you see the stainless door pillar trim. In these shots it is just held on by some tape for these pics so it is not even mounted. It actually needs to be trimmed up so it sits flush with the panel. One more thing on my long list of things to do...

Like I said from the beginning I think this is going to be controversial. Look if you don't like it then that's cool, but please don't be ugly. I really like the 80's sleepers (especially with a turbo wing on them!), they were awesome in my mind. I just wanted something that no one had ever done, and something that set my truck apart from all the other square body dually's out there today. I think the rear portion of the 61 cab looks like a wing, and the shape of the rear window surround is just amazing. Again this is not going to be for everyone, it was never meant to be, but the more I worked with it the cooler I thought it looked. I will pull the truck out tomorrow and get some better overall shots with the new sleeper.

Ok there you go. What do you think?

[COS399]

Winner winner chicken dinner! I like it! It will definitely be a unique sleeper. When you put "controversial" I suspected it was a sleeper or topper because I didn't think you would do a "Dancing Bed" with an eight foot dually bed.

I still miss my first crew with a sleeper. We had to assemble the subwoofer boxes inside it for the 15" Rockford Fosgate subs. I'm still trying to talk my brother into putting a sleeper on his "T-A Hauler" crew.

[Dieselwrencher]

Honestly, I think it is pretty bad a** looking! If some don't like it tell them to pound sand. Being unique takes kahunas. I really like that back window area. Nice work on it.

My Dad has a "cowboy" sleeper on his 91 F350 crew cab dually. It is the one that has the raised section and 2 windows in it kind of like an old KW sleeper. I think it's cool. You sure can pack a lot of stuff in there and it is more comfortable to sleep on than a back seat. Haha

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by COS399

Winner winner chicken dinner! I like it! It will definitely be a unique sleeper. When you put "controversial" I suspected it was a sleeper or topper because I didn't think you would do a "Dancing Bed" with an eight foot dually bed.

I still miss my first crew with a sleeper. We had to assemble the subwoofer boxes inside it for the 15" Rockford Fosgate subs. I'm still trying to talk my brother into putting a sleeper on his "T-A Hauler" crew.

Thanks so much! You were one of the guys who just nailed it.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Honestly, I think it is pretty bad a** looking! If some don't like it tell them to pound sand. Being unique takes kahunas. I really like that back window area. Nice work on it.

My Dad has a "cowboy" sleeper on his 91 F350 crew cab dually. It is the one that has the raised section and 2 windows in it kind of like an old KW sleeper. I think it's cool. You sure can pack a lot of stuff in there and it is more comfortable to sleep on than a back seat. Haha

Told you it would be worth the wait... Thanks so much!

[aggie91]

Chris, I too like the old sleepers with the wing from the past. The 60's cab does have that wing look them. Something bugs me on this one, I think it is the 60's cab drip rail. I just seems to not flow with the cab lines and its at a different elevation than the drip rails over the doors. But I do like the idea!

Are you planning to go to LST in February?

[daddyjeep]

That is a thought....shave the drip rails on the truck. As Karl said, something was bugging me too. I like it though, it is definitely unique. I really like the look from the back.

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Chris, I too like the old sleepers with the wing from the past. The 60's cab does have that wing look them. Something bugs me on this one, I think it is the 60's cab drip rail. I just seems to not flow with the cab lines and its at a different elevation than the drip rails over the doors. But I do like the idea!

Are you planning to go to LST in February?

Originally Posted by daddyjeep

That is a thought....shave the drip rails on the truck. As Karl said, something was bugging me too. I like it though, it is definitely unique. I really like the look from the back.

So I had a good friend over last night who is a professional hot rod builder, and when he saw it he thought the drip rail should tie into the dually cab so we played around with some really good ideas last night. I think we came up with a good solution, and I will present it later once I get it mocked up. Other than that thanks for the comments.

Yes I'm already signed up for LST. Can't wait!

[75Dually]

So this is how the project started out. I cut the back half of the cab off and my neighbor helped me set it up. Then we were off to the races.

[75Dually]

Ok this is the first time I've had it out of the shop with the sleeper on it. I'm more stoked on it today than the first time I started this project.

[Dieselwrencher]

That will look really sweet if you can get the drip rail to match!

[ProudSoul]

dang, looks really good. the cab sails and the way the back bumps up like a little spoiler/wing looks sweet and it blends really well with the rest of your truck!

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That will look really sweet if you can get the drip rail to match!

Had a friend over last night and we talked about the drip rail. I think your going to like the outcome of that discussion. Should be trick, I hope...

Originally Posted by ProudSoul

dang, looks really good. the cab sails and the way the back bumps up like a little spoiler/wing looks sweet and it blends really well with the rest of your truck!

Thanks! I'm so stoked on it. Now I just have to finish it...

[75Dually]

OK so where did I leave off... So I made an inner structure. I had some old parts from a headache rack that I cut up for this use. Then I started to mock up the side panels. In the next set I will show you how I made the one piece side panel.

Stay tuned!

[Crcrft78]

I like the direction your going in with the sleeper but I'm wondering, didn't someone make a seat for these trucks that folded out into a bed in the cab? Choo Choo Customs or someone? It just seems like climbing in and out of that to sleep in would be a little troublesome when you can just fold the seats down and sleep in the cab. Either way I love your build. Your doing one hell of a job on the truck.

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by Crcrft78

I like the direction your going in with the sleeper but I'm wondering, didn't someone make a seat for these trucks that folded out into a bed in the cab? Choo Choo Customs or someone? It just seems like climbing in and out of that to sleep in would be a little troublesome when you can just fold the seats down and sleep in the cab. Either way I love your build. Your doing one hell of a job on the truck.

Actually we're just going to use this sleeper to store items on long trips. I doubt I can even fit through the slider window! LOL!

[75Dually]

So now we move on to making and shaping the side panel. OK so you know up front I'm not a professional body guy. I try to make it look as good as possible, but there you have it... These panels were actually fun to make. They took a lot of time and planning to come out right. So I spent a lot of time cutting out the cardboard templates. BTW these panels are all one piece.

As you can see in the pics below the lower edge has not been shaped round to match the original profile. I went back to the press brake and bend it a second time, and then used a hammer and dolly to refine the shape. Eventually they still needed some massaging and a little bit of body filler to perfect the round shape. I spent a lot of time on this element alone. It's items such as this that makes or breaks the outcome of a project in my mind. If someone can walk by it and not notice any flaws in it then I did my job correctly.

More to come...

[75Dually]

I got to looking at my pics again today, and one of the parts of the puzzle that was hard to solve on this project was the overall height and the profile of the sleeper that seems in some angles to stick out beyond the profile of the trucks roof line.

If I counted the hours I spent working on this problem I could have cured some horrible disease or something like that... You see the issue is that the rear part of the roof line on these crew cabs slopes a lot in the last 4 inches or so. What looks like a flat roof line is anything but that. So If you lined up the top of the sleeper with the corner of the roof then the sleeper would have been much lower and even more shrunk in on the sides.

So what to do? I took a long straight edge and lined up both roof lines to have the same overall height. That way when you look at this truck from the side profile the roof line matches. If I would have dropped the sleeper down to meet the corner on the trucks roof line it would have made the sleeper look like it was shrunk down to 9/10ths scale, and would have never worked in my mind.

This project had some many fun challenges. In the end some have liked it and some have not. And that's OK by me.

Stay tuned...

[75Dually]

Since the beginning of this sleeper I wanted to incorporate the stainless side trim from the 61. So I have yet to trim it up so it will fit the new panel, but will soon do so once I get this thing in paint. I will use the super duty 3M body molding double sided tape to adhere it to the side panel and the rear of the trim uses a single screw to attach it.

In the pictures below I copied what I had done on the drivers side on the passenger side. Naturally it was a lot easier the second time... From there I pulled it outside and shot a coat of oxide primer on it to give it some protection after I sanded the outside surface and got rid of all that surface rust. I then started to do the body work on it. That was a lot of work

More later!

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by 75Dually

Like I said from the beginning I think this is going to be controversial. Look if you don't like it then that's cool, but please don't be ugly. I really like the 80's sleepers (especially with a turbo wing on them!), they were awesome in my mind.

I'll reach out here & be on that limb alone.....

I understand the 80's sleepers look so I do like what you did. I like the "Idea", just not for this app.

It would be spot-on for a 6x-66 cab in my humble opinion. The issue that I have is not only do the drip rails not match, the cab pillars don't either. Drip rail mods can/will fix that issue; cab pillars will require more extensive mods.

That being said, it's def possible the "in-person" look changes one's perspective.

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

I'll reach out here & be on that limb alone.....

I understand the 80's sleepers look so I do like what you did. I like the "Idea", just not for this app.

It would be spot-on for a 6x-66 cab in my humble opinion. The issue that I have is not only do the drip rails not match, the cab pillars don't either. Drip rail mods can/will fix that issue; cab pillars will require more extensive mods.

That being said, it's def possible the "in-person" look changes one's perspective.

I appreciate your comments Scoti. Like I said this is not for everyone, and the fact it was going to be controversial. However I have been really surprised at the overwhelming positive reaction. You never know until you try!

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by 75Dually

I appreciate your comments Scoti. Like I said this is not for everyone, and the fact it was going to be controversial. However I have been really surprised at the overwhelming positive reaction. You never know until you try!

Agreed buddy.... Agreed.

[Ghostwhite]

I have the same thoughts as Scoti, great concept but fitment and lines are the killer. Between the width change after the rail and the cab slope you mentioned creating a dip. I do love the 'wing' idea though.

I'm also jealous of that big window, I have a 62 small window!

[75Dually]

So to round out where I am at to date with the sleeper cab. I did a lot of finish work and then shot some grey primer. I then got around to making the lower floor pan and the inner structure for that.

I still have a lot left to do on it. I need to finish all the prep work before I paint it, order a new rear window and seal, and much more...

Stay tuned!

[COS399]

I still like what your doing. Any plans for a third brake light?

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by COS399

I still like what your doing. Any plans for a third brake light?

Had not really thought about a third brake light. Interesting... I wonder where would be the best place for it?