I built my RPU bed and now I'm wondering if I should come up with some sort of panel to fill in the area circled in my picture. My frame pinches in there and the frame side rails end abruptly there and the kickup under the bed is narrower. As a result the open area you see ahead of the wheel. I was thinking that some sort of panel to fill the area and transition from the end of the frame to the bottom of the bed skirt might look better than leaving it open. What do you think ? Any examples of what I'm thinking ?
probably too late to mount the bed a little lower. (?) I'm not feeling what you have drawn there... maybe something going straight back under the bed, but no lower than the frame. roll a bead or 2 and put some "lightening" holes in it. EDIT: ... or louvers.
do what Cooter did - it looks nice and it's 'period perfect'. We used to louver everything we could afford to.
Honestly, as you can imagine I louver everything, but I would look at dropping the bed just a bit. I've just gone through almost the same deal but opposite with my '29 RPU. Every direction I looked at it from I loved except one... The answer in my case was to raise the bed back up to where it should have been. Proportions fixed.
It's not too late but not an option I like. I like the look as it sits now with the bed mounted on top of the kickup. I wanted the bed to have some capacity to it, right now it is 13" deep and 37" wide inside, 34" long. I really need the room at the front of it for my fuel tank. With my modified triangulated 4 bar rear suspension design there is really no room elsewhere for a tank. I like the look of the louvered panel, maybe I'll give that a shot, I think it may look good. Any other ideas, post away.
I would compromise, fab a piece that covers half the hole so it looks like part of the bed, like Jimmys truck above and not a panel there just to fill a hole....do louvers as suggested.
Used a section of Model a Splash Aprons on a RPU I helped work on once to fill that area. The shape was perfect and looked like it was supposed to be there. Depending on how high that area is on yours it could work.
I think that what you have drawn will look better as the frame won't look as sawn off, rather it will draw the eye to believe the frame swoopes upwards. Good looking RPU btw!
No offense but the bed does look like kind of an after thought sitting way up in the air like that. There must be a huge expanse of emptiness from the back. I definitely think the hole needs to be filled and Shine's truck is a great example but I fear in your case the panel will need to be pretty big and may look out of place. I hear you on wanting it to be functional but sometimes IMO function has to give way to asthetics when building a hot rod.
I'd do a louvered panel from the bottom of the body and bring it back behind the wheel. You could all so run your exhaust out the side in front of the rear wheel using that panel. That's if your going to do an inside the frame exhaust.
I see the same thing the others are talking about, the bed is a little too high. They look better if there is some drop down after the cab. Even 2-3 inches would make a big difference. That filler panel Cooter pictured is really sharp. Don
The bed is not perched way up in the air and there is not a huge space underneath it. With the skirt there will be room for the licence plate below the bed and the exhaust pipes too. You won't see much more or less of the rear end from the back than most other RPUs. The bed is well within the proportions of many other RPUs that I have seen posted here. It doesn't sit much different than many of them. I collected a lot of pictures. The picture is deceiving and the panel I would need is not that big at all. A rear view, and don't forget its sitting up on the ramps for the pictures too.
I know what you are saying Don, I just need that in the box space. I like that panel Cooter did, I'm going to try that out first. I don't want to give up in the bed space, hope I don't have to.
I have little if any sense of style, but what if you added to the back of the frame to make it look like it continues to the back under the bed, then added the filler panel? Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Make up a filler in poster board, and play with it till your happy. Then post pictures so we can pick it apart!!!
That is an option I could also consider. It might work, even if it was a dummy section that gave the impression of the frames continuation sweeping up under the bed. Then the panel could also be more proportional. When I built the chassis I was mainly concerned with the side rails and then the kickup to fit my suspension design and give me a proper stance. Here are a few early pictures of my bare frame sitting on the wheels (at floor level) before any crossmembers or much of anything else.
Yeah, fill it, throw in a couple louvers, looks good. Night prowlers sells louvered panels, might be able to make something up easy.
Something else to keep in mind is that my body is mounted hiboy style on top of the rails not channeled so the bed doesn't really need channeling either. I am happy with the overall look of it now. When it's off the ramps sitting on the floor it looks good. The idea of the panel is to somewhat fill that hole and hide the exhaust and rear end - driveshaft just a little. I think if I play a little I can come up with a panel that will look good there using some of the ideas you guys threw out.
The problem is that your frame rails are bent badly just behind the cab. Straighten the rails and the gap will go away.
Here's a shot of my '26 track roadster pickup. The kickup is inside the bed. May or may not be helpful to you.
Yup, rpu28 is correct.. Or you could make your bed sides taller and keep your current bed capacity. Keep the top where it is and just stretch the bottom of bed sides down. Instead of a filler panel, the bed sides will be your filler. That's what I did on my current 29 rpu bed. Keep at it, Good luck.
I put this as an update on my build thread, but since I have this thread I may as well show you what I did. My solution, a panel that is a bit of a fake out, making it appear that the frame sweeps up under the box (which it does just inboard.) I started with a poster board pattern and then made the real thing in 18 ga metal just like the bed. I like it, better than the hole there I think.
Wow .. I was just going to say to add a filler panel with a bead rolled in it. But waht you did is killer.
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