my god, 7am, you early riser you :) out here in the real world of business, we often wake up before midday. there's this thing called "breakfast" we do too, you should try it sometime ;) on days where we have to go racing, 5am rises aren't unheard of. that is wierd, waking up while it's still dark, not really my cup of tea
and if you were going to make a ute, you'd use a wagon or a panelvan to start wuth. that way you don't have to make the bottom of the tray, cos it's already there. a hardtop has like NO structural strength once you cut the roof off, it would likely fold in half on your driveway when it even heard the angle grinder start up :P