Hello- new BJ42 owner- Australia.

[beejay42]

Haha
no probs Josh, and nice image John- too funny.

As far as progress, I don't really see myself as doing very much at all. Just tinkering and getting it ready for the road. I look at what most others that I am following here are doing, your plans included John, watching Hamish about to do his FJ to BJ conversion, Matt Mcinnes, etc, etc, and it my works are smaller than chickenfeed.

So today, after a very late start I took a few photos and did a little work.
Got the air ducting in properly and permanently. The big square pipe from the blower to the heater core required a fair bit of caulking to get it airtight.

here is the coolant plumbing. Any time there is a 90 degree bend it is moulded into the rubber. After this photo I actually shortened the front to back length of hose (as it was sagging a little).
I realize this is a bit different to the stock set up (with supported steel pipe in places)- but aside from my rough copper bending, I am quite happy with it so far.








and with ducting in



you'll notice I unconsciously avoided taking an actual photo of the tight bend at the firewall... yeah um, the bend had to be just too tight for my lousy spring bender so that it pancaked a little. Doesn't restrict the waterflow though. I'll force myself to take a proper photo of it another time.
The position of the pipes at the heater core could have been better, but it will do. What was most crucial was the situation near the exhaust manifold and I am totally satisfied with that.

[beejay42]

It rained here a day or two ago,
you know, free car wash.
this is what coats my car already.

here is the culprit about 5 meters away.
I used to live in the lovely old >100yrs old house that was on top of this hole.



so late in the arvo once they had packed up I got into a little painting again.
Got the bezel off, sanded and primed,


got the grill off (put it through the dishwasher to degrease before I will repaint it black), and stuck some rubber foam around the place to hopefully stop the noisy vibration/rattle that happens.


I got a couple of coats of white on the bezel, one or two more tomorrow if the air isn't too dusty.


oh, and this is the dash panel and glovebox lid in my van just before I dropped them off to the platers.
dash panel stripped clean- they are going to patch the two little holes on either side of the stereo hole.

glove box door not stripped- they will do it for me. Tacho surround has by now been simply painted black (was plastic and this mob couldn't plate it).

[jabxyz]

Originally Posted by beejay42

Haha
no probs Josh, and nice image John- too funny.

As far as progress, I don't really see myself as doing very much at all. Just tinkering and getting it ready for the road. I look at what most others that I am following here are doing, your plans included John, watching Hamish about to do his FJ to BJ conversion, Matt Mcinnes, etc, etc, and it my works are smaller than chickenfeed.

So today, after a very late start I took a few photos and did a little work.
Got the air ducting in properly and permanently. The big square pipe from the blower to the heater core required a fair bit of caulking to get it airtight.

here is the coolant plumbing. Any time there is a 90 degree bend it is moulded into the rubber. After this photo I actually shortened the front to back length of hose (as it was sagging a little).
I realize this is a bit different to the stock set up (with supported steel pipe in places)- but aside from my rough copper bending, I am quite happy with it so far.








and with ducting in



you'll notice I unconsciously avoided taking an actual photo of the tight bend at the firewall... yeah um, the bend had to be just too tight for my lousy spring bender so that it pancaked a little. Doesn't restrict the waterflow though. I'll force myself to take a proper photo of it another time.
The position of the pipes at the heater core could have been better, but it will do. What was most crucial was the situation near the exhaust manifold and I am totally satisfied with that.

Hans,
When talking under the hood plumbing stock schmock if you can get it done cleanly and efficiently do it. I like the plumbing job, nice and clean. What did you use to caulk the opening in the firewall where you passed the copper pipes through?

John

[beejay42]

John, I still had the original rubber grommet with two holes. Mine had just had the two holes plugged with rubber that popped right out.
My copper pipe was a little thicker than the original brass, but not so thick that the grommet didn't fit.
Could be a little fiddly if you don't already have the grommet- not sure if they are anything standard that can be bought or not- but I am sure there are a fair few old ones hanging around on rusted out old 40's.

The rest of my sealing/gasketing was done with various adhesive rubber foams-
this thread was a lot of help with restoring the heater- except the foam I used was a lot heavier density that what was used in that thread (plus my heater was a different model)- one of them was a PVC rubber I think, and the other some other sort of fancy (expensive) named rubber- both of them rated for reasonable heat resistance and good wear/compression.
For the heater and the blower doors I used adhesive black sheets about 3mm thick, with two layers wrapped around the heater core (only just squeezed in, so is nice and air tight) and the connections between the outer body panel/grill and the blower, the blower and the firewall, both sides of the square ducting and where the square ducting connects to the heater core box- was all done in a strip-roll of really good quality compressible rubber foam about 10mm thick. Even with this there was an odd gap between the blower intake and the grill on the body that I had to caulk- I used black butyl rubber (harden's up on outside and stays soft in the middle). It all looks and works pretty good. The three positions for the heater work properly (fresh, heat/defrost and heat/vent) and with all the foam on the heater doors and stuff there are no rattles/noises (yet).

btw, my last (and still current until it sells) car... van... but it was called a 'truck' too... didn't have heating- blower had been removed to fit a larger engine- so this is going to be a treat for me no wiping foggy window anymore- Defrost and warm feet can't wait

[thebludger]

Now that looks better nice and clean and looks origanal hopefully we can catch up mate and have a chat over a fewand check out the the 3 fortys mate

cheers
chris

[beejay42]

Sounds good Chris, fingers crossed I'll have mine on the road.
I am really running out of money- I gotta sell my old van, might even need the funds from it to pay for rego for the BJ... a bit of a stress (am not working this year due to full time study)
I am thinking of just putting it on ebay and just getting whatever it sells for, but one hassle is the engine number doesn't match the papers- the rego was updated for the new larger 6 cylinder engine (from 4), but the PO who did it didn't get the new engine number updated at the same time
it would normally be no huge problem- just have to drop into the local VIC roads.... but it is tassy rego and apparantly VIC roads can't update the number for tassy roads

so I don't know how I should sell it on ebay (never sold a car on ebay- but the same van except one year older recently fetched one and a half times what I am asking- let alone willing to take). Not sure to try to explain the whole thing, or not explain it, and just put the actual engine number on, or put the rego papers engine number on... or ....
I just want it gone.

anyway, I ramble.

Some beers and 40's sound good.

Hans.

[hes21]

Sell those monster wheels already!

[beejay42]

Originally Posted by hes21

Sell those monster wheels already!

you might have a point there Hamish.

I do want to sell them eventually, I just wanted to have a play with them first though I'd hate to have to sell them just to get the beast on the road (I want to sell them to buy a new set of thinner 33 wheels and rims)
I really have to get rid of this van. I need the cash but moreso its just breaking my heart
Someone must be around to love my van as much as I have...

Annoyed at my own complaining I've just done a few more online ads for it. If its still not sold in 3-4 weeks, ebay it will be.

BTW,
hows your 3B going?
any progress, de-rusting, de-greasing, painting...?
i don't envy you the work you have layed out for you- but it will be great once you are done, and you will know your truck top to bottom.

Hans.

[tmarx]

Looking good Hans

[hes21]

No progress at my end.

Had lots of uni work, so i deliberately didn't go into the basement for the last few days. Mostly what has me stalling is finding decent paints in a spraycan. I think I'm going to go with VHT engine enamel. Also got to get my engine lifted a bit of the floor so I can get underneath it.

Coming along though.

Hamish

[beejay42]

Cheers Tmarx.

Hamish,
Uni work- tell me about it
Today is my 'get serious day'- I am starting to feel the fear of impending due dates- the sickening fear (I am getting a bit over this feeling to tell the truth).

Just talked to the platers and they won't have my parts ready for me until next week. Positive- I won't waste the whole weekend fiddling with the car.

Good luck with the engine- sounds like you need to build yourself good work-height engine mount or something you can bolt the engine to.
I had a bit of a paint stuff up- on second coat on the bezel it started wrinkling in spots... I cleaned off most of what I could, the two topcoats and the primer- I contemplated getting it chromed- but don't really like the look- especially on my coloured truck- so have just got the electroplate guys to start stripping the original paint for me so I can try another repaint from bare metal- with some different paint and a better primer.

Oh and figured out my blinker problem- Duh!
After following wires, rechecking fuses, looking for relays.... all I had to do was connect the hazzard light switch on again and the blinkers work. One of those problems that would have simply solved itself without my knowing if I hadn't noticed it in the first place.

anyway, time to get to it.

[beejay42]

Way too much Uni work to do much of anything else lately. Still have one more big thing due- but I managed to take a day off to get my dash panel and glove box lid back and put in, and all the switches and cables wired/connect up again. (including all the new switches/cables I got off Hamish)
and, I realise that some of these are probably in the wrong places- but frankly I don't care- and I didn't have much choice. There are different sized and shaped holes that pretty much determined what had to go where.
heres some photos.
It is a brushed chrome finish- and IMHO it is a bit nicer in real life than in the photos. Although the 'brushing' could have been done with a bit more care- I am really happy with it.





some of the up close detail- nice polished up brass bits, and anything else I could polish on a cloth wheel.





Oh yeah- and the cost.

I had stripped the dash panel myself- but not the glove box lid which was still covered in paint.
I also gave them my bevel to strip the paint off,
so
stripping bevel,
stripping and brush/chroming glove box lid,
and brush/chroming dash panel,

all up Aus$70.

damn cheap IMO-

[beejay42]

oh yeah, and for reference, this is what it looked like before

[hes21]

Looking good! Are you roadworthy yet?

And are you doomed to have diagonal switches? I can't remember them being that bad when we took them of mine.

Hamish

[beejay42]

Cheers Hamish,
I should be good to go now- I just have to get the time to do it.
I have one more big essay due this Monday (heavily extended), and then I will take it in for a RWC after that.

I might be able to improve the angle of one or two of the switches a little but some are going to remain out. I'm not too fussed at this point. I am just glad it has all come together, and that I am happy with the finish. I was worried it was going to be too chromey, but I vastly prefer it to the old silver and black paint. It makes it feel really fresh and new in there or something. Much nicer atmosphere.

Oh, and I have a nice ebay Nardi wheel on its way from Japan (14.3 inch), went with a wood one, and polished metal spokes. Still have to get a boss kit for it. it should match in quite nicely once that is in and I love the feel of driving with a wooden wheel


btw- that short 'warm pull' cable that goes to the heater valve thing was too short like we suspected- so I had to uncoil as much as I could of the end loop thing to lengthen it- and that is why that one is so badly twisted at the front. It could to with a little bit more length (I don't think it is shutting the valve completely) but I will see how it goes- if I can feel heat in the cabin when it is off.

How are are you going on your 3B and swap?

[tmarx]

Looks very good Hans !

[hes21]

Engine still on the floor. So far got everything stripped apart from the fuel pump. Painted the water pump and thermostat housing with septone engine enamel - looking good. Using VHT engine enamel for the rest. Considering using rust bullet as a primer for the engine apart from the head. I just finished painting up a few mounts and stuff with rust bullet but didn't allow enough time for the first layer to cure, so I got bubbles from outgassing. Lucky I started on only a few bits.

Hopefully I'll have everything painted by this weekend. Then find the gaskets and pray it all goes back together alright.

The main reason I am so slow is because I'm so nervous about breaking my nice new engine!

I have to get a move on though. All these little faults in the FJ that I keep ignoring because they will be fixed with the swap are adding up.

[hes21]

Oh, and as usual I'm spending my time badly, planning the vegie conversion, then a turbo, then water/methanol injection, then a computer...

way to much time on the net and not enough on the car...

[beejay42]

Thanks Tmarx,

and Hamish, that sounds like you are making some good steady progress.
When I thought I had to pull the head on mine I called around a couple of Toyota dealers and there seemed to be one place with a 3B head gasket kit in stock.
Have you pulled the head off yours?

You'll have to get some photo's up of it soon-
and I have to come and drop off your coolant pipes soon too.
Cheers fella's.

[hes21]

Nah, I am only pulling everything necessary to paint the engine nicely - water pump, oil filter, oil cooler, edic, fuel pump, primer, intake, exhaust. Any proper pampering like the head gasket is beyond me at the moment, although after pulling apart these parts I'm getting to know the engine pretty well.

I'm taking photos as I go and I'll probably post a thread once I've put in the engine - and try and answer all the noob questions that I had, and hopefully (if it all works) show fellow beginners that you can do lots even if it's the first car you have ever worked on.

[beejay42]

Cool, I look forward to the thread, its good to know you are documenting it-
I seem to fine at getting the after shots- it is the before ones that let me down.


on a lighter note- I just got word from my supervisor that she is off to PNG for three weeks- so she doesn't want my final paper until she gets back... sort of good, sort of not drags it out but gives me some relief for the time- at least I can start to look at getting a RWC this week.

Tomorrow is now a dedicated tinker with the truck day

[beejay42]

so the wheel arrived last week- and then I had to get a boss kit.
No one I called had one in stock so the local Repco ordered in an autotecnica one.
Once I got it, it became clear that it would need some work to get it to fit and work properly.
The spline was right but it didn't go on deep enough- the nardi horn didn't fit in- and there was nothing provided for canceling the indicator.
So, as I was going to have it on the lathe anyway- it didn't take much for me to decide to replace the crappy black plastic cover with something a bit nicer

of course I forgot a decent 'before shot' again, so off the net this is the best I can find to show what it looked like. Basically just a two part black placcy cover.


heres the start, a nice sheoak blank,


hollowing it out for a glue-less mallet in snug fit


start prepping the boss


fitted in- rock solid and not moving- and have widened the hole and created a ridge so that the nardi horn button would fit


finish shaping off the boss, and some timber detail.




I drilled and tapped some holes for the indicator canceling and put some bolts through- then had a lot of grinding down and bending- then testing- until I got it just right
may not look pretty but it works.

[beejay42]

and here it is-
a couple of coats of homebrew danish oil (more going on now)



flash shots at night are never going to be too flattering- but here they are anyway (both the wood and the dash look a lot nicer than the photos let on)




oh yeah, and I have switched to the other gear shifter knob- with test driving this one feels better and the wood tone actually matches in better



Indicator cancelation works perfectly- the horn button locks in perfectly...
all up a very satisfying and relaxing afternoons work.
And I definitely prefer the smaller wheel- is much nicer to drive.


Everything is ready for rego now- If I have the money I will take in next week for a road worthy.

[jabxyz]

Hans,
How are you. I have been kind of stuck in one place on my rebuild for a while but when I saw your recent progress I had to stop by and say WOW. You have mad woodworking skills, really beautiful work. Great progress and good luck on roadworthy.

[lostmarbles]

Nice work Hans. I bet you're already trying to figure out where else you can apply your excellent woodworking skills on your cruiser.

[beejay42]

Thanks guys,
I'm doing pretty well- sort of having a little break between Uni Semesters- and for me- woodwork is relaxing and good for the soul. I have to get back into Uni work next week.

I really should've got this on the road by now-
I just haven't had the money to fork out for rego yet- still haven't sold the van-beast.

LM, yeah you guessed it
I am considering doing my door handles- sides and rear- as all of mine are cracked and held on with black ducting tape- look pretty nasty and no doubt rattle around a bit-
but aside from that there is not much else I can do really- today I made a lovely really little knob out of the same timber as the gear shifter for the heater leaver thing (mine didn't come with the plastic knob). Its even got a little copper ferule on it-
all up about the size of a grape- and only a little less work than the whole boss project
Looks pretty nice