Custom forklift

[wildfire]

Well for those who have been asking about my old forklift project I'm happy to say that I got it completed. This ends a very long rebuild for me with this old forklift. I purchased it around this time last year and started in to rebuild it shortly after. I wanted it to be a fun project and to a point it was only for all the hard long hours it took to get it to this point.

Basically everything had to be done. I had to remove all the paint, rust and crap others had done with it over the years before I could even begin to start the rebuild. the first thing I had to do was build a new engine hood for the beast. Toyota wanted over $3000. just for the hood so I fabricated the one you see on it now out of 1/8th plate. This one will be awhile before it rusts out.

Basically I went right through the complete machine. New rings, bearings, lapped the valves and installed new valve stem oils seals. I rebuilt the mast. all new bearings in it as well and had to rebuild some of the hydraulic cylinders because they were leaking. Some of them had to even be re-chromed due to the pitting on them.

After all that was done I sand blasted, primed and painted it. I fabricated the custom stuff such as the headlamp guards. Custom built the rear light bar and all the lights you see in it are strobes. I built sun visor as well and added some more aluminum plate to the sides to **** it out a bit. The top have a plexy glass top in it now. I added all new gauges and even fabricated new sections of the dash because it was in pretty bad shape. It even has air horns now along with chrome duel exhaust stacks. I had to design some custom adapters to get them to work on the lift but they sound nice so it was worth it.

I removed the old Toyota charging system and it's external voltage regulator and installed a GM alternator with a built in regulator. Of course that's harder than it sounds because I had to make up new brackets to get it to fit. I also added a cool hook up to the engine cover that I can just plug my booster cables into so I don't have to pull up the lid to do it.

Anyway there's much more to this story but I'm sure you'll see by the pictures there was a lot of work involved. One thing I did learn out of this. Never try and rebuild a forklift unless you have a forklift to help. These buggers a very heavy. I'm happy with the outcome. It's runs like new and will come in handy around the shop. Here's some photo's.

[wildfire]

New charging system installed:



Some of the old wiring I removed:



Booster cable hook up:

[wildfire]

More photo's.

[wildfire]

Making of a storage box and light bar. It took me almost two days to make the light bar and another to build the box.

[wildfire]

[wildfire]

Considering I'll be using the lift around the yard either boosting vehicles or even towing them I realized I needed a storage box to put the cables and tow sling in so that's what I made yesterday. I had a bit of checkered plate left so I used that on the project. I also had to decide who I was going to mount the box and not wanting to drill or weld the counter weight I decided to machine a few parts for the lift holes and use two small pieces of threaded rod to hold them in place and then I could just simply bolt the box on the back and not alter anything. Here's how it ended up.

[wildfire]

[wildfire]

This is the last of them!

[fabricator]

Someone please give that man an award.

[Don52]

Awesome job. Nice looking welds. I noticed that you welded the box without supporting your wrist or arms. I have found that I shake too much and need to support my arms or wrist for stability.