Terry is at it again.....

I had reason to call at Terry Lofley's bodyshop the other day and found him beavering away on another truck cab conversion for some lucky soul....

I've forgotten the year of the shell but it is extremely clean, especially around the headlights..... The underside, inner, outer wings and front panel will be prepped and coated in Raptor, then a full respray in silver i think he said.

     

He's got an absolutely mint, full car, 16 plate shell that got a scrape down the side and he is putting a full side in it. When completed. it will be better than new...... All cavities are waxoyled alongside the Raptor coating, good for many years. 

It will never be cheap to have a bodyshop, strip - repair - paint - rebuild a car, but if like me, you have a chassis and drivetrain that you are happy with but a body going down hill (sounds like entering your 50's)... ... It made more sense to spend a few quid than start swapping bits to a newer car.

"Imagine my well prepped off roader, fully rebuilt in to a shell that will last 20 years+ and finally be worth something like the money I have in it...."

That's how i sold it to my wife.....

sniper

Hi, I could be that lucky soul? I've been following your thread with great interest as Terry guided me to it , My car is currently with them to do very similar work to yourself, I spotted yours on Facebook and thought I want one of them! So thanks for the inspiration....they've only just received it late last week so probably nothing happened yet but I did speak to Terry and he said something about he'd started work on a body, I'm absolutely obsessed with it at the moment, fantastic work being done there, my turn to wait.

I love watching these conversions take shape, absolutely incredible work! Please post photos of yours when you get some Gazmo.

hi guy 
its been a while since my last post, but we curtaily have been looking at the excellent threads you all been putting on hear. 
many thanks for listing this sniper, as you know we are always very busy with work and time to list pictures and comments seem to get missed as the days go by.
this project is being done  a order for the customer and being built to his requirents. 
we hope to clear up some other work very soon, so we can get the full bodyshell out and prep it for a possible customer in the near future.
then we have planned a full pickup conversion to do for ourselfs as its been sitting arround in the yard with all the bitz for some time now, sure we will do a full thread when we start, realy miss haveing one arround as a shop truck
for now guys is back to work for me 
so all the best guys keep smiling and most of all be safe 
the doc 

Terry sent me a few more pictures....

  

Looks like it will be very nice job again and another jimny that should see it's 50th birthday....

sniper

This make me want to take mine round for a make over 
Terry does a proper job 
But i can't stop buying new boots for mine 
YOKOHAMA GEOLANDERS in the post 

Hi Furo, looks like the Doc has added more photos, I've not been able to contribute as this is all being done for me remotely as the docs workshop is many miles away, you wouldn't believe the excitement this is creating for me, Terry is very good at communicating so I'm getting snippets of information and the same photos you're getting, looking good isn't it, I've got the feeling this car should last many years yet, Terry and Reece should be rightly proud of their work.

One thing I've often wondered (and done a lot of research on) all these pickup and tray back conversions - are they actually completely road legal with regards to IVA tests- once the chassis has been chopped - correct me if I'm wrong but I'm guessing you chop the overhang off- surely that's classed as radical alteration and looses all its chassis 'points' on the government system to keep it on its current reg/ not require an iva. Sounds daft but even just a couple of inches chopped and a new crossmember made I believe falls under that category. Do most people just use the 'grey area' of the rules, do you have them tested and signed off or am I completely wrong? Something I've been thinking about for a while but don't want to start cutting something until I know its 100% legit on the road.

On a side note looks a cracking job by the way... 

The ones I have seen leave the chassis alone and just add supplemental structure to the existing but it's a very interesting point and one I would also be wary about. It's like the high floatation tyres on some of the KAP conversions, very cool but how road legal?

When I was doing green lane runs, one of the entrants had a traybacked Hi-Lux on 10" or so wide tyres. With the reduced weight in the back plus the wide tyres his ground pressure at the back was so reduced that traction, especially in the wet was abysmal. On muddy tracks he was going nowhere. This would also influence daily driving on sealed surfaces such that it became a nightmare to drive.

Roger

There's that but also the high floatation ones selected are agri types and not possessed of enough speed rating for the road from what I can find.

Trialled in Duns on the Scottish borders about 30 years ago, owner of the site was called Ronnie Dale, he had been in Camel trophy and drove around in a Foers Ibex with Avon treadlight tyres on, like massive quad tyres. Should have heard the howl!
Asked him about the legality and he said that after Lockerbie that all police drivers were sent to him for a residential 4x4 course because they got stuck in defenders and Range Rovers, trying to get to crash site! So he didn't worry about getting'done' for it, also he was a farmer and that's the ultimate get of jail free card!!
So if you want flotation tyres and get stopped, just say your your checking on your sheep..