After having stripped the Toyota truck of all the unnecessary parts it was time to get started on the construction of the chicken coop. I started off in the engine bay as this area would be the nesting box area. Unlike the Mustang Chicken Coupe this truck won't have a brooder area as we won't be constantly breeding chickens or getting babies that will require a large brooding area.
I had to start off with the welding up of the right side fender apron as it was rusted enough to be flopping around. After a crude weld up to hold the section of metal I moved on to welding a couple of pipes in place to be the supports for the floor of the nesting area. With the support pipes and fender apron welded I proceeded to start cutting and welding in metal around the open areas below the fender aprons and over the engine area. I had to cut multiple pieces of sheet metal from my scrap stock to fabricate the floor for the nesting area. The biggest pieces of metal were those that were cut to be welded to the edges of the fender aprons and the floor where I welded in the pipes since this metal would help close the opening where the engine would've gone. The floor consisted of two large pieces of scrap sheet metal. These pieces had slots in them from being metal that was used on a computer or some other electrical hardware and would require ventilation. This would provide a good means of drainage during cleaning. Of course I had to bend the sheet metal and trim off excess that was in the way of mating the sheet metal together as neatly as possible. This ended up taking a fair bit of time because of the cutting and measuring multiple times. With the floor in I was able to get the sheet metal from the fender aprons welded in place to help make up the nesting area floor and walls. In the end it did get done though.
Sheet metal cut and welded in place on the right side of the engine bay. As with the left side, the fender aprons provided a suitable spot for the metal to be welded to in order to close in the area from the outside. As can be seen, larger sections of sheet metal were welded in to make up the actual floor.
The last segment of the nesting area was the firewall. I had to start off by cutting out the doorway in the firewall so I can know where to put the extra sheet metal that would go from the bottom of the firewall to the rest of the floor and fender apron sheet metal. When I cut out the opening I left the section of metal attached at the bottom so I could bend down the metal to serve as a ramp for the chickens. That section of metal was welded to the floor. Just like with the other areas of the nesting section I had to cut a large piece of sheet metal and weld it in over a couple of spots then shape the metal and cut the excess off prior to welding. After getting one side of the firewall done I repeated the process with the other side. I finished off welding everything up as needed to fully enclose the back section of the engine bay. It took a lot of welding to ensure that all the joints were solid and would not fail in some ridiculous manner when the weight of several chickens is upon it. With the sheet metal all welded in place and the nesting area pretty much made solid all around, the next thing I had to do was make a trap door for the front at the radiator support panel. This, just like no the Mustang, is to be used for easy cleaning by sweeping the mulch out of the front and onto the ground. I will have to be creative since opening is pretty flush and doesn't facilitate holding some type of panel like the Mustang was. I will continue with this fun project in our next installment.
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