Thread: Progress on My Unimog

It has been quite a while since I updated the blog - I have been a bit distracted on the Unimog since getting this - my new Land Rover Defender 110. This is what it looked like the day before got my grubby paws on it....

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This it what it looks like now - just can't seem to leave things alone. We are going up to Cape York in July, and since the Mog was not going to be ready, I had to have something to drive - it's a long walk otherwise

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Anyway, back to the camper build.

Next up was the fridge slides - Anyway, about a month ago I started work on the fridge slides, and after much fabrication and engineering - this is what I ended up with this.

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There is a lot of detail in this slide, first the two runners have to be off-set, as the bolts have to be countersunk to allow the runners to pass - so I could not just bolt them back to back. The frame has to allow for the slight sag on the runner due to the weight of the fridge, and not hit the floor or the framing.

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The sliding parts have to fit a "standard fridge" - otherwise if we have to replace the fridge on day, we may have to remake things. The slide is now the standard size for a 40/50litre fridge. In the end it was a neat fit - I have primed it and will paint it when I paint the rest of the things that will need painting - no point mixing up 1/2 a litre of two pack paint just for this little thing.

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Next thing on the list was the water tanks

In order to fit the water tanks into the rear quarter panes, I made a mock up out of thin craft wood the exact size of the space available - only to discover that there was no way to actually get the tank in. That was the purpose of the mock up - I need to make sure I can get them in and out - I read on a few other truck builds where the builders installed the tank early on in the build, only to find out a few month later that once other things were installed, the tanks became permanent fixtures - on poor guy had to rip up half of his floor to replace a leaking tank a few years later. What should have been a 1/2 day job for him turned out into a month long re-build.

With a bit of cutting I managed to get a mock up that I was able to fit into the space without having to dismantle anything. That made the tank a bit smaller, but I made it slightly wide to compensate.

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I has Atlas Tanks build the plastic water tanks from my drawings - in the end I decided that 100 litres each would be enough and keep the rest as "boot space". The initial idea was to have a chamfer in the corner as per the mock up - but when they told me how they make the chamfer - first make the tank with a flat plate on the angle part, then cut the chamfer into it, then weld in a new piece of plastic - and that would cost an extra $250 per side - and would only gain 8 litres. I decided to just go with the flat rear plate. So now instead of 2 x 100 litres, I have 92 litre per side ( probably around 88 usable unless we part the truck downhill). We have another 20 litres in the hot water calorifier, and for the $500 can easily get another 100lt flat water tank in the boot if we need more water.

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I've made up all the brackets to hold the water tanks in place - there will be another on behind as well - I don't want 100kg of water tank moving around.

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I also decided to completely separate the rear boot area from the rest of the truck. I made up some brackets and a sheet of 3mm chequer plate to form a bulkhead. There will also be a solid lid to the boot, with inspection hatches to allow me to remove the water tank hold down straps, the senders etc etc. I'm still deciding whether to make it from aluminium or plywood. I will also run part of the heating system through into the rear boot compartment - probably just a few runs of copper tubing - to ensure the water tanks don't freeze up.

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Finally, this weekend I got back onto the door. I needed to move the lock from where I had originally wanted it ( about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom) , to the middle of the door. The was just no way the door seals would seal properly at the top of the door, when the lock was so close to the bottom.

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I cut the new position for the lock, and put the cut piece in the old hole. With a bit of magic and hot metal, the hole moved to the right position.

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Next came the cladding of the door. After rough cutting the aluminium with the plasma cutter, I then clamped it to the door frame, and using a bottom bearing bit on my router ( and some spray oil for lubrication) cut the aluminium to the exact size.

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This photos shows the result late last night of the nicely clad door - I went to the beach today, but we have a day off on Monday so I'll fit the rest of the lock so I can actually get in to the truck

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After two days of deliberation of where to put it, drawing circles all over the mog, just before I went home at around 10:00pm last night, I decided that the best place fit the water tank filler was next to the door. You can stand on the steps to reach it once the camper back is on the truck - it has to be a gravity feed to the tanks, so that means being higher up the than the top of the tanks - so that is always going to be above head height.

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I've started the "armour plating" - 3mm chequer plate is to strengthen the edges most likely to get hit by something - and to provide my double layer seal. Each horizontal seam/joint in the aluminium cladding on the truck will two layers aluminium - to create a double seal.

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I also put in all the supports of the lining and finished off the window frames. Then I cut the roof skylights in and made the frames for them.

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The skylights are the same brand as the windows - and are double glazed polycarbonate. For some strange reason, the skylight do not come with a sealing strip.
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Their website says this is because the Australian rules for gas appliances in caravans require them to be open - They are not supposed to leak, but I'm going to get some seals for them because I don't believe them.

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The roof hatch stands proud even when closed - about 100mm - so I had to have a re-think of the roof mounting system for the solar panels and roof racks as the solar panels are only 50mm thick- I will have to make something to allow branches to slide over the top of the hatch. It will be back to the drawing board as far as the roof layout is concerned.

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Anyway - that's what I have been doing the past month or so. Things progress slowly and within a few weeks, the back goes up to the Sunshine Coast to get the interior fitted out. I've built a "travelling frame" to hold it for the 100km trip on a flatbed up the coast. I've made a heavy frame to take the place of the legs and will weld it on before the trip.

Whilst it is gone, I will get back to working on the truck itself - and get it up and running for the first time in two years.

Long time no progress report.

I have been progressing, on the Mog, just have not gotten around to posting anything.

I started on the roof rack last weekend. I'm making it out of 40mmNB Gr350 2.9mm wall thickness ( 48.3mm OD) I bought a JD2 Model 32 bender from OPW, after much discussion and bargaining I got it at the same price as shipping it in from the USA direct from JD2

First off was to make a template of the camper box - the roof rack will provide additional protection and incorporate some branch sliders to lift up trees over the top of the camper.

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Next was to use the template to design all the bends - search Pirate 4x4 for Bending 101. This is a great method for doing simple stuff.

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Then to bend the steel. As it turned out - this hoop required a 5.7m long length of steel, and that was too long work in the area where I secured the bender - there was a pole in the way. Cutting the steel in half, then re-weld it after bending was a whole lot easier than finding a spot that could handle the long lengths of steel - especially as it involved moving the truck which weighs a bit when you have to move it by hand.

The Model 32 bends this easily, but it is still quite a work out.

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I made up some mounting plates to the cab - 8mm steel supported by 2 x M10 bolts through the double skin section at the rear of the cab, and 2 x M10 rivnuts. On the top I'll fit three of each to provide further stability and support.

I'm doing this all by myself, and handling a 5.7m long hoop and getting the bends exactyl in the right place would be very difficult, so I decided to make up short tubes on the support plates, then measure the exact height of the hoop part by using spacers on the cab.

I bent up a short length of the tube at the appropriate angle and welded it onto the plate - then after getting the height of the hoop tube right, I welded it to the shorter tube. I used a piece of heavy angle and clamp to ensure a good alignment. I'm getting quite good at this metal glue gun lark

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Same for the other side, and this was the rack on Saturday night.

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to be continued.....

The rear was the easy part. I looked at loads of Mog roof rack designs on the net - some seemed weak, other seemed like over kill. In the end I decide to copy the most respected Mog builders of the all - Hellgeth and Unicat and mount the front support to the top of the front wings.

Next was the front support tubes. I drew out the front profile of the truck in chalk on the ground, and after much measuring and bending, made up the first tube. Then there was the problem of how to hold onto it, I welded the back vertical tube on with the right notching, I could push it into the rear hoop and hook it onto the back cross member, whilst I measured up the angles etc. Doing everything by yourself means you have to get a bit "inventive" when it comes to supports. The wood blocks hold the front supports vertical, and the pipe is supported on the inside of the wing with more wood in order to get the angles and measurements right.

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I made up the other side, then cut them both to the right length.

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Next was the support plates, using more 8mm plate, I made up a sandwich plate to bolt onto the top of the front wings. Hellgeth and Unicat use this method on their Mogs. I'll look at adding inner bracing to the wing, but neither of the above manufacturers do so. I welded on some nuts on the inner plate to make it easier to install.

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With a bit more cutting and grinding, I got a good fit, then it was out with the metal glue gun again.

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This is what the two finished supports looked like.

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to be continued......

Next was to properly connect the support to the rear hoop and add a cross beam to stiffen up the whole frame.

This took a whole lot of measuring, notching, cutting and grinding to get it to line up and a be parallel to each other, but eventually I got there.

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With a bit of craft wood to spread the load, I could sit on top of the roof of the Mog and do all the welding. I've just tacked it in place, but they are substantial tacks. I'll weld everything up properly once I've finished fitting all the members and taken it off the truck. I'll also paint it as well.

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Next was to figure out the supports for the roof lights. For those of you that don't like roof lights, then look away now, as this truck has "Mog" sized lights. I've got 9 Hella Rallye 4000's in my shed in various variants from pencil, driving and cornering, and 8 of them are going on the truck four on the bullbar and four on the roof,

This is how I figured out the front cross beams, using a straight edge and the covers. Since they are so high up, they will be well set back behind the branch lifters, and have a grill over them as well.

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After much measuring and figuring, I transferred it all to the template, and worked out the bend angles , start and stop points etc.

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Then I had to bend a bit of steel. The reverse curves were really tricky, I messed the first one up but get the next one right

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to be continued.......

This is is what the top cross beam ended up like.

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and this is what the bottom cross beam looks like clamped in place with the Hella covers hanging off the top.

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another angle of it.

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and yet another angle.


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The snorkel fits in nicely behind the bar work, but it will need a few extra bits of tubing to protect it properly.

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and that's it for tonight. In case you are wondering why the long winded thread, well that's because I'm updating this thread from the "Swag Motel" in Middlemount, nothing much else to do.