Retrofit camper shell from S10 to fit 1999 Extra Cab 4x4

There is a great shell on sale near me. The guy told me that it came off his daughter's '02 Tacoma, 6' bed. I tried it on mine today. It didn't fit bc the front curvature would hit the third brakelight. So the shell couldn't be pushed up far enough and would leave a gap in the front of the bed. It was also not as high as the cab. Then the guy says "oh yea, it was from an S10" Haha.

The guy suggested raising the shell by inserting aluminum beams all the way around and then extending the bottom of the window to reach the tailgate. That would make the top of the shell the same as the top of the cab and the curvature should match up better to allow the shell to be pushed forward into the proper position.

Wondering if anyone else has tried to retrofit a shell like this. I think maybe it would fit a regular cab? So anyone try to get a regular cab shell to fit an extended cab?

Thanks!

 

Sounds like quite a bit of work I guess it comes down to just how cheap it is plus the cost of making it fit.

If you can do this work yourself

Then if you can live with how strange it might look.

 

Actually the guy was really nice and said he'd work on it for free for me (though I'd obviously still throw him some coin).
I was just wondering if anyone actually did make one fit and how it worked out...
It is in pretty good shape with a yakima rack on top for $275. Though like 3 hrs drive away -- but on the way to Tahoe.

 

Great price.

 

I bought a shell from an S-10 for 100 bucs and all I had to do was modify the door at the back because it was a bit too short. Of course it will also depend on what make of shell it is, I couldn't use standard clamps and had to fashion some a custom hold down solution but it never even came close to the third brake light. Its not a perfect fit but I only run it in the winter for a bit of weight and so I don't have to shovel out the box.

 

Hmmm. Well, it's a Leer. Interesting that it didn't hit your light.
The guy actually has custom made bolts with a hook he hooks to the tie down points to attach the shell. In my opinion, it's way better than the clamps they give you anyway.

Hey, btw. How much clearance between the shell and the cab should I have so it doesn't rub when I am driving off road? Is 0.5" enough?

 

I had a junky old s10 shell with the same issue on a 2000 for a while. Honestly sounds like a lot of work to lift that high but certainly doable. Don't know about yours but mine was gonna take a lot of material to lift that high, and by that point it really might be better to find a different one. I was never quite happy with mine. But ymmv.

 

Yea, I think we ditched the lifting idea (potentially unsafe) and are going to cut part of the shell that would rub the light. Kinda sucks bc I'll lose about 2.5" of headroom and I plan to live in my truck for a while. On the plus side, I'm short (5'3") so maybe I won't notice too much?
I'd love to just go buy a new one, but I can't afford it.
Interesting to me is how most used shells are for the 4-door version.