The official rollpan construction page

[Hartman]

Well, the rollpan finally came today! It is a composite fiberglass rollpan from Keystone Restyling products. It is very sturdy and came with a nice finish, too bad I have to hack it up!

When I first took it out of the box, I was like "****, this thing is tall." My concern was that I would have to shorten it vertically as well as horizontally, and that's what I'm going to have to do. The corners are not going to be as hard to fabricate at all, as you'll see in the pics below.

I took a little bit of my framerails off, but not to the point of no return. Since there are two bumper holes in the framerails, and they are diagonal, I think I'll only have to cut one of the holes off, leaving one on each side to mount the stock bumper until I get everything done. I'd rather not ride around without a bumper if I can help it.

Now the introductory pics:

Loose fit, can't really mock it up until I cut the framerails.

Rough fit of the end.

I should have more progress pics tomorrow evening.

 

[james t]

looks good. now get out the cutoff wheel.

 

[Hartman]

Already have.

 

[X~FACTOR]

Looks like a lot of work. Wishing you lots of luck, Man

 

[nnnick]

sweet, glad to see you can finally get to work now. good luck man

 

[Black Magic]

Looks promissing Hartman! Keep us updated.

 

[Black Magic]

Can you put your rear gate down and see if the Curvature of the door matches? I wonder about that. Love to see more pictures.

Hartman is our Hero

 

[Hartman]

I already cut the ends off the rollpan, so I can't really take a pic of the whole thing with the gate down. I can tell you that the rollpan is flatter than the curve and I'll need to build up the middle with fiberglass in order to get it to match.

Endless amounts of work.

 

[Hartman]

Also, I'd like to say that I would NOT recommend using an F150 rollpan has a starting platform on 98+ Explorers. The curvature of the 98+ hatch would be way too difficult to match.

 

[Black Magic]

Yea, I have an idea to make mine. I just need a few materials and time. Looking good there though.

 

[Black Magic]

Also have you cut your frame rails yet? Or waiting untill the last thing.

One last question. Do you have a pic of the rear of the roll pan? How do the mounts look?

 

[Hartman]

I wanted to wait til the last minute to cut my framerails, but it appears that I'll need to cut them right off the bat in order to get accurate measurments. I will be cutting them in about a half an hour when I begin working.

The rollpan mounts at the bottom flange of the truck body with sheetmetal screws. It does not attach to the frame. I will probably be able to use that mounting method. There is also a little black cover that was on the truck that will cover the area where the rollpan will attach to the body, so everything will probably work out.

 

[Black Magic]

Sounds promissing. No turning back after cutting the frame! Good Luck.

 

[Hartman]

The frame is cut! No turning back now! I had to take about 3 1/2 inches off the rails, and I had to cut a big hole in the metal thing in between the rails that surronds the spare tire. I did some cutting on the ends of the pan, and the rough fit is better than expected! Building up the curvature of the pan to match the gate is going to be tough, I'm not exactly sure how I'm gonna do it right now.

Here are some pics:

Center portion mocked up:

As you can see here, the curvature is too flat:

Here you can see the frame cuts:

Mock up of the ends:

Things are going good so far. I still have quite a bit of cutting to do on the pan itself, then I'll start fiberglassing it all.

 

[james t]

shouldve gotten a steel one. then you could have "bent" it to fit the curve. im taking notes.

 

[Hartman]

Very true james. If I had the materials to do a metal one, I would. I'm the guinea pig so you learn from my mistakes.

 

[rocket 5979]

Hey Hartman just a suggestion being that i dont know alot about rollpans and all but another way to go about building up the center is kind of like what James said about bending the steel except that you just cut the top fiberglass of the roll pan in a few key places letting the cuts get closer and closer as they reach the hump in the center. that way should both be pretty strong and will make it look perfect. Let alone save you from building up the center versus just cutting the top horizontal piece so as to allow the verticle back piece that has to curve to the hatch to do so. Like i said i have never doen a roolpan before but i have done alot of custom construction on lots of things and that sounds like a pretty decently structurally sound way to do it instead of building it up. Plus if you want the flat horizontal piece that eventually will mount to the bottom of the truck you can build THAT up a little bit to give it a little more strength, and that way it wil leave a factory already smooth finished curved rear edge. I know i am bad at directions. So if you want a diagram i could make one and take a picture of it.

 

[Hartman]

I can't bend the fiberglass at all. It's solid.

 

[rocket 5979]

You wont be able to bend it the way it is but you can bend it enough to make the curvature of the back of the truck hatch. I know that fiberglass is strudy and all but for instance if you had a flat piece of it it would bend right? Well in essence that is kind fo what you are doing in what i am saying. How thick is the fiberglass material? Being that is looks like maybe a total of 2" flex i say you could get that much out of it even if it were really sturdy. As long as the top is properly perforated to relieve stress then you should be good to go. I hope you understand what i said about cutting slots and tabs out of the horizontal top material so as to let that not keep the verticle material from being able to flex enough to conform to the rear hatches profile.

 

[Hartman]

The fiberglass is about a quarter inch thick and is VERY strong. It will not bend what-so-ever. Relief cuts won't really do anything.

Fiberglass is really strong when done properly.