RR Nimbus Jet Pickup Truck

My first attempt at a Jet Powered Pickup Truck.

Day 1 for the Caddy, this is the first time I have seen it in the daylight. It doesn’t look to bad.

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The truck man cab and the mirrors will have to go!

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Its going to be a mean machine. Need to get some alloys on it as soon as possible.

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Who’s that nosey dog?
Now the truckman top has been removed, its better to visulise how this Jet Pickup will end up looking.

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Undecided whether to take the bumpers off or not.

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The worst bit of rust on it, shouldn’t be a problem.

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Time to lower the rear suspension, I have to say thanks you to Al form Hanwood Garage for the use of his workshop. As you can see from the picture, the axle is underneath the leaf springs, by moving the axle above the springs you can effectively and cheaply lower the back end of the pickup a substantial amount.

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Rob and yours truly cutting the support lugs off that stop the axle twisting when the brakes are applied. Once cut off, you rotate the axle 180 degrees and drill a 15mm hole for the locating bolt to sit in, re-weld the lugs back on upside down and then simply bolt the axle back on.

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This shows the axle with the supports now inverted and mounted on top of the leaf springs rather than underneath. We were lucky that all the bolts came undone without to much fuss. Time to get the alloy wheels ready for fitting.

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I have now sorted out how I am going to get the aluminium Load Liner made, its going to be with the help of the one and only Anthony Doorbar, inventor extraordinar. He helped me make these aluminium door liners in less than 30 minutes in his workshop!

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I felt that covering the bank of the panels with gaffer tape would help stop road noise, rattling and also help with the metal to metal insulation when fixed in place. We decided it would look better if the panels were given a matt finish, so this was a job for an orbital sander. Finish looks great!

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The panels have yet to be fitted properly, but this gives me an idea of what they will look like. I’m trying to get hold of some stainless steel self tapping allen key screws, wish me luck!

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Side windows tinted to go with the on-going blue and silver theme. Pretty good but not the best job in the world.

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We now getting on with the load liner as we have the use of Anthony’s workshop to work in. Pictured is Anthony trimming the tail gate section out of 3mm aluminium checker plate.

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Just the sides to go, a job for tomorrow. Doesn’t it look lovely and new. Time to relax for Ant, Sarah and Jess the Dog! The tail gate section has a few adjustments yet to be made, a job for another day.

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Finally complete! What a hassle this was, aluminium is a right pain to weld, it warps a the slightest thought of getting welded. Well at least I can now get on with some more enjoyable parts of the pickup. Thanks to Quest Fabrications of Stoke for doing the welding!

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This is the Turbine starter panel located in the space where the radio should be. The panel works from right to left. Firstly on the right is the master power on/ off switch, followed by the fuel pump, starter, fuel valve & torch igniter and then the electronically operated HP fuel cock. All switchs have 24 volt status LED’s.

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Now that we have eventually got hold of some half decent front suspension, I am quite keen to get them fitted after wasting a lot of time waiting for a third party to supply them. This is what it looked like before we started on the Pickup.

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Ooooh, Look who it is, its the ever faithful Rob doing what he knows best – fiddling! He can be seen here fitting the strut top bearings to the new suspension. We later found out that the two springs fitted were different, that will teach me to buy from a dodgy car dealer again.

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Here’s the new suspension fitted in place. Oh the joy, we now find out that the new alloy wheels rub on the springs on the top of the wheel – great, just what we need at 10 o’clock on a monday night and its just started snowing! I really need to buy a house with a garage!

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Wheels fitted and they look good! Still have a few issues with the camber/ spring rubbing issue. We have temporarily put 5mm spacer plates on the wheels to overcome the problems, for now anyway. A trip to Chase tyres in shrewsbury put the tracking right. Interestingly they appear to be the only people locally that can work on lowered vehicles like this.

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That’s the rear suspension height done, it will still probably drop another 20 to 40mm when the engine is mounted in the rear. The weather is still letting us down, oh well to be expected this time of year I suppose.

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Suspension height test with engine mounted.

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The Beginnings of the battery, fuel and electronics control box, which is split in to 2 compartments. The Nimbus connector can be seen at the far end and the space in the foreground is for the fuel tank.

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View from the left hand side showing the battery’s and fuel tank in the locations where they will be mounted.

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I made an aluminium frame that allows the engine to be removed easily by sliding on and off.

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Another photo opportunity, Steve and Twix, not sure which ones which.

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Graphics – The Roof (V 1.0)

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Pleiadean Media, my company as what then named…

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Lighting fitted to the sides of the load liner to give it a warm glow at night. Simon (Hung Like a Baboon) Buckley says “it looks mint mate” so I guess it was worth all the effort.

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Front view from the bonnet 🙂

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