Other Body Work

Odd jobs and musings of a bodywork nature...

Dodge Dakota Roll Pan

I inherited my Dad's old 2wd Dodge Dakota strippo 4 cylinder some years ago, and I intended to just drive it and then junk it when something broke. I used it pretty hard with hardly a care.

Saggy 2000 RC Dakota

Well, this little truck grew on me, and now I can't help myself when it comes to keeping it going. For a long while now, it's been my daily driver because I can get 25-27 mpg with it on summer gas, which is pretty good compared to one of those skittish mini pickups.

However, the corrosion rate has accelerated of late, and loss of body surface area has been measurable in units of square feet.

Recently, I found myself mildly embarrassed by it's appearance at an event I attended. This motivated me to do some bodywork. Not "nice" bodywork, but more of a spartan, utilitarian style that features pop rivet fastening.

Well, the patches looked pretty good, so I washed the truck. Hmmm, it still had some shiny parts. With those improvements, I decided the front bumper (which was mostly holes) had to go. I procured a 92 dollar special no-name ebay replacement, massaged out the tooling marks, painted it body color with duplicolor spray bombs (rather than the original black) and bolted it on. I threw on a pair of 18 dollar wallyworld fogs into the fascia to replace the long defunct, smashed originals.

Crusty 2000 Dodge Dakota with new bumper and fog lights

So you see the slippery slope I'm on here: Now the rear bumper was just not up to standards (it also was about half it's former self due to rust). A search was commenced for a replacement rear bumper, but all candidates, new or used, exceeded my budget. So I figured I don't need a bumper, I could get by with a roll pan. Roll pans can be had cheaper than bumpers, but they can still be a tad pricey.

Around this time I got my hands on a steel storage cabinet. I grabbed it because I like cutting up stuff like this to have sheet metal around for various projects. Projects like roll pans. So I engaged in a hare-brained scheme to make my own roll pan. 

When I started "project roll pan", I wasn't really too serious about it. I took a door off the cabinet, and cut off the edges and hat channel, and grabbed some 2x4's and clamps.

Cabinet door ready to be cut up for a roll panchannel removed Forming the "roll" of the roll pan

I formed the "roll" first. I clamped a long edge of the metal in between the wood and curled the metal around a heavy 4" diameter cardboard (typically found inside a rolled up carpet). I made up a template of the desired pan profile from the side panel at the rear to check the "curl" of the pan. The curl came out rather wrinkly, but it wasn't a show stopper. Once the curl was good, I formed a right angle lip at the bottom of the pan for strength.

Next was a set of folds at the top so it could be attached to the bed underneath the tailgate. The 2x4's and clamps served nicely here too. I generally used a block of wood to pound the metal over the edge of the 2x4 wood form to make neat 90 degree folds.

Extruded shape of Dodge Dakota roll pan

Once the pan was completely shaped, it needed to have end caps and internal "gussets" installed. I broke out the MIG to weld them on.

Making ends and gussets for Dodge Dakota roll pan

A license plate mount is a pesky necessity, and for looks it might as well be "frenched" into the pan. An agreeable shape was made with a marker and then cut out.

Getting ready to french in a license plate on a roll pan

The sides of the frenched opening were formed by using a scrap of the cabinet door that had a nice soft fold on an edge. To bend an easy curve into the scrap, I cut wee triangles into the short "leg" of the scrap so it could be formed into a smooth curve. Here's the scrap before "birdsmouthing":

Using scrap metal for forming sides on a sheet metal pocket

After "birdsmouthing" and folding it over a form:

Forming the sides of the frenched license plate pocketForming the frenched license plate pocket sides

Once fit into the opening, the sides were trimmed to fit the profile of the pan curl. A rectangle was cut out to serve as a back and the whole thing was welded up and smoothed down with roloc grinding discs. Note also in second image below I cut a hole in the top to access the bed spare tire hand winch (it's enough to get a 12mm wrench in there to turn the winch rod). And make another note of the goofy hole from the cabinet door handle. 

The frenched license plate feature ready to be welded inMetal welded inSmoothed frenched roll pan license plate feature

I shot the whole thing with epoxy primer, then did some filler work to smooth out the dings and wrinkles.

Homemade Dodge Dakota roll pan filler work

I layed down some 2K, and smoothed it a bit more.

Dodge Dakota Roll Pan ready for paint

I bought a couple more spray bomb cans of duplicolor and shot the pan. The color match is amazing, but the finish texture is hideous. I used some leftover RM clear I had and layed down a couple coats. Ironically, despite my nonchalant effort, the clear came out smooth and beautiful. Done.

Roll pan on dodge dakota

I could not find a good, stealthy license plate light to mount on the underside of the "frenched" opening, so I sourced a pair of 6 dollar motorcycle license plate mounting screw/LED lights to mount the plate.

license plate lights...cheap alternative

The LED's were too bright as delivered, so I put in an additional 300 ohm resistor in series with each light. They look great.

Junky old Dodge Dakota with zooty Roll Pan


SFS

Links:

Willys Jeep CJ3A Forum

www.cj3apage.com

There exists a nice set of webpages for CJ3A's. It's got a forum too that caters to both '3A's and  CJ3B's. It's a great resource, and frequented by very knowledgible folks.

1967 GTO Original Owner

These two videos feature an original owner GTO. This car was featured in Hemmings Muscle Cars magazine a couple years ago. Part 2 has inside and outside shots of the owner driving the car. Very nicely done.

Blues Maker

"Mississippi" Fred McDowell. One of the great Bluesman. This is a documentary made in 1969.

Pinstripes

Pinstriping the ol' fashioned way. Pretty nice.

MGB Racecar

I've always liked MG's. Watch this MGB lift it's inside tire a few inches off the tarmac when going "'round the bend". Awesome.

Pepsi Throwback

Pepsi Throwback with Sugar!

Pepsi has put out a "limited edition Throwback" version of Pepsi with REAL sugar, instead of high fructose corn syrup which has been used since the 80's. Holy cow there IS a difference; it's WAY better. Find some quick!

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