Re: WTS: 1979 Tucker Sno-Cat
Dave and Mark,
Thanks for the kind words.
It was a big job. I've included a photo of the rear of my first Tucker, a 1980 1543. This was the point of reference in terms of the design changes.
If you look at the bulkhead you'll see it's several inches below the roof and it's very difficult to get from the front of the Tucker to the back, crawling through the opening in the bulkhead. You'll also see the vertical supports are several inches inside the exterior of the Cat.
We spent considerable time on the rollbar. It was designed to be right next to the sides and in fact the skin is skip welded to the roll bar. Similarly the roof's aluminum skin is riveted to the top of the rollbar. (We painted the roll bar before the riveting and used an adhesive as well. That was to prevent or minimize galvanic corrosion.)
If you look carefully at some of the photos I posted earlier you can see the rollbar has radiused corners. My partner-in-crime Scott and I did the calculations and laid out five pie shaped cuts for each corner. Once the cuts were made (and the pies removed) Scott easily bent the 2" x 2" square tubing and welded up the cuts. This really was a pain to get it to come out exactly right.
As far as the roof itself we used 5052 aluminum sheet. IIRC is was .063. (Aluminum is sold by the decimal size as opposed to gauge.) It was the same thickness as the original Tucker roof. The drip edges were formed using a sheet metal brake, but the roll was pure Scott genius. He basically created a device to form the roll with some steel tubing in the diameter to get the radius right. It worked surprisingly (to me) well.
Obviously Scott is a pretty darn talented and creative guy. Without his skills it would have been necessary to go to a sheet metal shop and have them form the roll. (I tell people he's the brains and talent and I'm the one with the bonehead ideas.)
I've been considering a writeup, but not for this machine. Our current project is basically a Tucker "resto-mod". The cab (four door) has been rebuilt because of rust and corrosion, but except for some structural changes the cab's sheetmetal appears basically stock. Lots of modifications elsewhere: big motor, automatic transmission, hydraulic winch, frame changes, hydraulic system changes, new bed, etc. Scott calls it "Super Cat". It's been a lot of work and we aren't close to being done.