DIY Transit Connect turned pickup project

(Facebook/Up to Scratch)

Last week, after we featured the VW Tristar here on Fun Trucks Friday, the FTF staff got to thinking (always a bad idea): What if another van maker offered a pickup truck version of the platform?

Thanks to miracle of global search that is the Internet, we found a prototype – sort of. Even better, it comes with step-by-step pictures! (Believe it or not, we’re only featuring a portion of the photos here.)

All credit, both conceptually and for the slides from their Facebook page, goes to the hard-working team at Up to Scratch, a body and detailing shop in Cardiff, Wales.

For starters, you find an orange Transit Connect ripe for picking apart, then eyeball and outline, drill and saw. Find a buddy to help lift and separate (so to speak), and wow, you’re almost done (Slides 1-5).

Hardly.

Next come some fabrication and welding then fun with the grinder and filler (Slides 7-12).

Install your cool Recaro seats to help motivate you for the interior makeover (Slides 13-20) and before you know it, it’s time for the primer (Slides 21-26).

You mustn’t forget the signature, custom trim touches, and who knew there was a Transit Connect lowering kit on the market? (Slides 27-30)

And what’s pickup without a tailgate and bedliner? Then it’s into the booth for the paint and things are shaping up (Slides 31-40)

Oops. Still needs a bumper, and an interior. Then off to the graphics shop. And isn’t it odd how the last 1 percent of the work requires so many tools. (Slides 41-46)

Then you’re done. Nothing to it. (Slide 47-50)

Thanks again, Up to Scratch. Keep up the good work. (And if you come across a Sprinter that could be repurposed as a truck, do let us know. We’re thinking a crew cab would be sweet.)