Another concept with the Pt Cruiser occured to me as a convertible pickup. I had a 53 Ford Flipnose kit, with which I had no idea about what to do, and I decided to use its chassis and bed for the purpose. The story would be: A man had a 53 Ford pickup, and loved the Pt Cruiser, so he decided to replace the cab and drive a Pt as his pickup truck.

This project was started on September 27th, 2001.

28 September 2001: This was the first inspiration. I had cut off the roof and was trying tents on from my parts box. This one, from which kit I cannot remember, fit in well. The side window openings would have to be enlarged a bit in the future.
This was my initial design. None of the ModelCarList responders approved this. So I finished with it.
I then resin-copied the rear fenders of 48 Ford Woody. This design was approved, but the common trend was to make use of Pt's rear fenders and blend them in somehow. Respecting the voice of the majority, I gave this design up as well.
Putting on the tent, I cut off the rear part of the body.
From styrene sheet, I trimmed out a rear panel and glued it to the cut front body. The joint had reinforcement styrene slabs at its inner corners. I gave a radius to the edges of the rear panel, so the cab body would make a smooth corner.
The floor panel was also cut to fit the cab. Then came fitting the 53 Ford pickup chassis. The first fit was as you see in the pic. I had to cut some reservations for the chassis arms in the floor pan.
But the cab stood too high at this position. So the front axle had to be raised up by 4 mm.
13 October 2001: The raising was done by cutting the chassis at the leaf spring ends and shifting the front arms up as shown.
The chassis was reinforced at its sides as shown, with styrene slabs.
Now it sits properly.
To finalize the front construction, the protruding triangular parts of the front chassis arms were trimmed off. (Compare with the pic, two before.)
Stimulating the bed position showed that the wheelbase had to be stretched, as well as the rear axle also be lifted.
Taking measures, I extended the chassis by 7 mm., glued the spacer styrenes and side reinforcements as shown. Later, the outer sides of the chassis arms received reinforcing slabs too.
To lift the axle up, it was sufficient to give the chassis some angle at its stretching point.
16 October 2001: Now it was the turn of the hardest part of this project. The bed. First, I glued two styrene slabs to fix the fender widths. I glued the rear fenders at their touching edges with the slabs, and to the bed wall at the top. So I fixed each panel at 3 points.
This is the normal view. The rear panel of the Pt will also be used.
I fixed the fenders with marble glue, applying generously.
This is the top view. I trimmed the upper edges of the bed to suit the curve of the body.
I cut a tailored extension sheet from styrene for the bed and glued it in.
18 October 2001: I filled the gap between the panels with tailor-cut styrene sheets.