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"Retrofit" Pickup Topper
When retired carpenter John Kravenas decided to put a topper on his 2000 Chevy 1500 1/2-ton pickup, he didn't like the ones he found on the market.     
    "I wanted a topper that would fit around the side toolboxes in my pickup bed. I talked to a couple of local companies about building me a custom topper, but they weren't interested or would have charged a lot to custom build one. So I decided to make my own," he says.
    He found a used aluminum topper in someone's yard and paid $50 for it. "After making a few measurements I knew I could make it work."
    He removed the topper's side windows, which happened to be the same height and length as the toolboxes, but kept the topper's aluminum trim and gaskets. The topper was a little shorter than the pickup bed so he had to do some fabrication work to fit the rear window over the tailgate. He also added a garage door gasket between the topper and the toolboxes. A piece of plexiglass on front forms the front window.
    He sawed out a piece of aluminum that ran the length of the topper, ensuring the topper would fit when lowered down onto the pickup bed.
    "I have no idea what kind of pickup the topper had been used on originally. But the conversion turned out really good and I've had a lot of compliments on it. I spent only about $100 on the entire project," notes Kravenas.
    Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John Kravenas, 291 North Oak Street, Crystal Lake, Ill. 60014 (ph 815 459-1993; kms849@aol.com).


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2011 - Volume #35, Issue #2