[Henry James the 47th]

Hello out there FJ45 freaks and resto-maniacs. I have a 47 series, i'm taking it all apart and putting it back together, will be taking photos,
...and thought maybe this would be the most appropriate place to post details about the rebuild. Whaddya think?

[buckroseau]

Yes, this is the most appropriate place.

Lots of pics and lots of details....can't go wrong.

have fun, Matt

[Henry James the 47th]

Originally Posted by buckroseau

Yes, this is the most appropriate place.

Lots of pics and lots of details....can't go wrong.

have fun, Matt

Thanks! I'm learning everyday from your 3300 miles later piece, Matt.

I'll be skipping the discussion of the strip-down 'cause she's pretty stripped down by now. I'm 90% complete on repairing the wiring harness, figuring out what's what, and now rewrapping the sucker. Wiring was the most intimidating thing for me as far as vehicles go, so I thought I'd jump right into the fire and start with that. As a result, I feel a lot more comfortable with diagnosing wiring issues with my truck at least.

I've picked up a cabinet sandblaster but am finding that the shop compressor is worked a bit too hard whne I'm blasting and that there needs to be an air/water inline separator because the nozzle is plugging frequently. I'm going to send the major sheetmetal sections, like cab, hood, fenders, etc, to somebody in the area for walnut-shell blasting, and I'm hoping to handle the small stuff myself with the cabinet.

Matt's fine work, among others, has movtivated me to plan the purchase of a small mig welder. There are a few panels in shipment already.

[Henry James the 47th]

I got the truck from Australia, it arrived in November of last year.

I was hoping to tidy it up and get it through inspection and on the road again, but after driving it around the backroads here a short bit, and taking a close look at the situation, I decided to tear it down and fix it right. I'm not going for the last-detail, concours sort of resto, i want to have the truck working right, solid, reliable, and without rot.

Though the seller claimed "no beach, no bondo" when I queried him about the body condition and where the truck had been, it wasn't the case upon closer inspection

This is the underside of the floor pan and sill area:

[Henry James the 47th]

Definitely on the bright side, the chassis is in very fine shape. The channels in the chassis were half-filled with dry road dust, and I have gotten most of it out.

[Henry James the 47th]

Another couple of view of the chassis, and the front right spring rear perch, which has been fiddled around with. The ties rod has a smallbend and the bracket arm on that side is really close to the backing plate for the drum. I wonder what really happened?

Taking a truck apart that you have little direct knowledge of does mean for a fair bit of detective work - more on that to come!

[jsaltlick]

Nice 47! Surprised you got an 82 in under the 25 year shipping clause. Nice work.

Good luck and keep the pics coming!!!

[Henry James the 47th]

Originally Posted by jsaltlick

Nice 47! Surprised you got an 82 in under the 25 year shipping clause. Nice work.

Good luck and keep the pics coming!!!

I'm up in Canada, where the cut off line for vehicle imports is 15 years, not 25 like in the US. I could have brought in up to a 1991, but was after total simplicity in a vehicle. With this 47 series, even another 8 months older in build date and the infestation begins: seat belt buzzers, glow plug timers, etc. Still, now that i think about it (and have come to understand my trucks electrical system so much better, I'm wondering if getting a 75 series pickup with 12ht, 5 speed, factory power steering and a/c might not have been a cheaper route to go, and still largely kept the virtues of simplicity (not so much with the a/c mind you).
That said, I am having a lot of fun and learning so much! More pics later today.

[cruiser ken]

On the '82 FJ40 I had the front spring hanger rivets had stretched and the hangers actually wobbled. I had to weld them up like was done in your pic.

[Henry James the 47th]

Originally Posted by cruiser ken

On the '82 FJ40 I had the front spring hanger rivets had stretched and the hangers actually wobbled. I had to weld them up like was done in your pic.

Maybe that's what happened to mine as well...

[Henry James the 47th]

here's another bunch of pics of the rusty bits I wam going to deal with. Got some new floor pans from 4WheeelAuto today.

[Henry James the 47th]

next set

[Henry James the 47th]

And then there is this 'problem': the ledge on top of the cowl that supports the window frame assembly is bowed in the center nearly 1cm from the reference of the outside corners. I put a ruler on to help show this (pic 3) While the build quality on the later 40 series was apparently worse than earlier models, I'm having trouble believing the factory would do such a bad job - or is this how they are supposed to be?

[Henry James the 47th]

Some pictures of the rear of the chassis. On the end crossmember, there are some stubs of metai from something that was welded on each side - any idea what these were?

[Henry James the 47th]

And finally there is the 'dash mishmash' in which a leter model of dash was hacked into place. No welding, nothing. I like the more modern dash plate with digiclock, etc, but P.O. was no sheetmetal artisan

[buckroseau]

Why is the dash are bent? Also, if you run your hand across the top of the cowl how does it feel. Straight or bowed in?

Matt

[Henry James the 47th]

Matt,

I'm not sure about the upper circled area and the bend you asked about, but I'll take a closer look tomorrow and get back to you. The cowl generally looks evenly convex in its curvature - and I wonder what will be revealed when I get the cab sandblasted...

[ColoCruiserJeff]

Looking great! Awesome progress for sure! Can't wait for the next update!!

[Henry James the 47th]

i've been sandblasting and priming some parts, and I haven't been snapping pics. I'll do some tomorrow though and post them.

The cab window frame support is bowed and will require major surgery to correct. I see bondo already in the few sections of bubbling in the cowl paintwork. Likewise the lower vent panel attached to the cowl need some attention on both sides. I will find out more if I media blast the cab, of course, and that will cost $$. That repair problem, along with the rust in the LH window hinge support, is giving me pause to consider replacing the front cab entirely and going to a new firewall and LH steering. A major decision, and one with $$$ implications. Re-doing the wiring harness again sounds time-consuming and tedious, not to mention the fact I just finished re-wrapping it. The console panel with the digi-clock and the warning lamp cluster would be backwards. The shifter would be closer I think, and, of course, no hassles at any sort of drive-through situations. Then there's the heater relocation, different ductwork...

Pros and cons, man alive. What to do?

[Henry James the 47th]

Well, after more thought on the full scope of work needed to the cab, I decided that I would look for a cab firewall that would fit - and be LHD. Fortunately, another 'Mudder on this site, Seapotato, had exactly what I needed. And he gave it to me (thanks!) so it worked well with my current finances! Hopefully I will be able to help him out with something one day.

Got the bulkhead into the back of my Mazda 323 and brought it to the shop. I've aleady drilled out a bunch of spot welds and have removed the vestige of the transmission hump sheetmetal. Yeah, I know, pics would be nice Trying to decide exactly where to slice and dice is the next consideration.

Now I need to find the heater ducts to work, and a heater I believe, maybe the blower too, and steering gear (lotsa decisions to consider with that especially, though I will definitely be going with a power steering box. I'm considering using my 60 series steering linkage, as it is beefier and could undoubtedly be modified to fit properly. I would love to keep the current '84 vintage dash, but I would need to find a LHD donor dash from a 1984 - anybody have something like that kicking around their yard?

Then there is the windshield frame issue with the reversed wiper arrangement - maybe I can cut out the lower sheet metal and reverse it 180˚. Has anyone tried that?

The wiring harness should be fairly straightforward to reconfigure.

I have a bunch of photos on the camera that I will try to post up in the next few days.

With the firewall to retrofit, I can feel a little overwhelmed sometimes! Just remember to breathe and be confident...

Cheers.

[seapotato]

C'mon man, where's the pics

Heh, I just wanna what use the final remnants of the poor ol' Crackwhore come too...( and yes, that's the name my Bj40 lived with for all those years I drove it....your 47 is tainted now.... )


cheers,
ryan

[Henry James the 47th]

finally got some pics for ya..

The first couple shows the where the patched-in 1984 dash section in the RHD cab used to sit, along with the dah section itself. Still haven't decided how to use it, or whether to bother. The question is whether to hack into a perfectly good earlier dash for the sake of the digi-clock and the sedimenter warning light. It would also be left-right reversed from what it should be...another decision to make, but not immediately. The last picture is my sandblaster cabinet/pit area, where the chips are a flyin'

[Henry James the 47th]

here's some of the parts I've blasted and primered so far. I'm using a rattle can etching primer for now, but tried primer-surfacer first (the yellow primer)

[Henry James the 47th]

And here's the Sea P cab from the BJ42, showing the inside as well as the area where the firewall sheet panels turn in into the floor. There have been repairs to the main body mounts with studs welded to box section steel, and I'll be cutting that out and using the mounts on the existing RHD cab - which themselves need some repairs

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's some shots of sectioning out portions of the lower firewall on each side

[Henry James the 47th]

One difference in the two cab firewalls is the mount for the clutch - the Sea P. cab firewall has the older 3-bolt mounted clutch master, while the 47 has the 2-bolt. Either I will use the older clutch master (which I'd have to buy), or modify the wall to accept the new one. Another cab detail on the 47 is that the fuel evaporator unit is mounted externally on the back of the cab - see pic 3

[Henry James the 47th]

Well, things are moving along somewhat. I took a bunch of panels to a local media blaster. He did the new cab firewall with copper slag media, which although is fine in my cabinet, with the pressures he was running turned out to be too abrasive for my liking and left a rougher surface than I wanted. Lotsa work ahead

After I expressed my concern, he switched to crushed glass media, which worked far better and left a fairly smooth surface.

I sprayed etching primer on as soon as he was done each piece, but ran out early as I had only 3 rattle cans. Took 2 cans to do the firewall alone.

[Henry James the 47th]

The roof turned out well, with only a couple of minor dents, and a patched area in one corner. Not sure what is under there yet, but will find out soon enough. The bonnet had a couple of major slabs of bondo on it, and when it was removed, all it turned out to be was a couple of shallow dents. WTF? why didn't the dude who did that sloppy work just use a dolly to bring the metal back up - or even a good whack with his hand to pop it back up? I don't get why people choose to take the hard road like that..

[Henry James the 47th]

Picked up some cans of primer-surfacer this morning and flailed away.

[Henry James the 47th]

As you might expect, the blasting revealed a few problem areas, like the middle of the cowl seam on the firewall. I'm seriously thinking of welding the entire seam up, since it is totally dependent upon the seam sealer, which eventually will fail. The cowl gets blasted by the sun and has all the water from the windscreen and bonnet running right to it.

Can anyone tell me why i shouldn't weld the whole seam up - or any seam for that matter?