If I had the time/money to do it I would so build one. Think it would be a gas to camp in the old school
series shuttle. (Obviously, I am a fan of the original series since the 60's) Kirk was the Mac-daddy.
Picard is a wuss.
Matter of fact, I even had this other page bookmarked to study how this guy is building his....it's built around a truck chassis.
I thought this little detail on his fuel port was purty funny.
This is his build page.
http://www.trexxis.com/shuttle/shuttle.html This guy is rebuilding it now. This go around will be metal, but you could study it for ideas.
I like Grant Whip's idea on the tractor beam tongue.