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Took the day off, it's amazing how much I can get done with no one bothering me. Solid 9 hours today on the lv and got exactly what I wanted to get done.

Basicly got all those rear sill pieces fabbed and welded in, ground down and primed. They all had there little issues with the curves and bends, but I just took my time and got everything bent up real nice and welded in.

I don't know how much I will get done this weekend, if any. I kinda have to start tearing into the rear quarters now and am still hoping my body man buddy comes through to give me a hand on those?

Matt

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[74fj40]

maybe ill come and visit you when i have a 45 an it needs restoring?

[Mikesta]

WOW! you have some great fabrication going on there Matt! Looks great...

What do you think this rig would be worth with all this kinda work (farmed out)... ya know, to have this kind of work done on a body, a frame off... I would have to say around $70k to $100k Easy... I know people who spend up to $250k on their modified hot rods. I am estimating that this is going to cost you $20k doing the work yourself.

[buckroseau]

Body man buddy called this afternoon. Wants to take the weekend off, but thinks we should be able to start on it Tuesday night. It wasn't raining today so he thought he would call and see if I could haul it up. About a 40 mile drive from my house to his shop.

Anyway, hauled it up. He looked it over, didn't see anything that scared him on the rear quarters or that inner panel. Just a lot of work with the hammer dolly and torch.

He told me to get all 4 doors stripped down, no glass or any hardware in them, as light as possible. I'll need to try out those new door bushings also, he wants to start fitting doors up at his place also. Told me to blast the rear tailgate skin to get the paint off and bondo (it's all bent to hell of course) said dril out all the spot welds around the edges and grind the welds on the edges off and remove the rear skin. It's so bent up he thinks that we should re-skin the whole thing, I agree.

So I guess I've got some work to do for a couple days now

Matt

[buckroseau]

Originally Posted by 74fj40

maybe ill come and visit you when i have a 45 an it needs restoring?

I don't know if I want to do this again At least to this extent.

I would like to do a 45 LWB next though If I could find one super cheap and drag it out of the field, that would be the next project.

Matt

[buckroseau]

Originally Posted by Mikesta

WOW! you have some great fabrication going on there Matt! Looks great...

What do you think this rig would be worth with all this kinda work (farmed out)... ya know, to have this kind of work done on a body, a frame off... I would have to say around $70k to $100k Easy... I know people who spend up to $250k on their modified hot rods. I am estimating that this is going to cost you $20k doing the work yourself.

As soon as I got a good look at this LV in the daylight after I picked it up and gave it a once over. I estimated a 1250 to 1500 hours to bring it back to life, or at least the life I wanted it to have. I would say that I'm going to be in that ball park as far as man hours right now.

1250 or 1500 hrs. x's (whatever shop rate you come up with) = (A lot $$?? of labor cost)

That doesn't include any material, that is just man hours. Add on what you think the material has cost me? I've saved a few bucks by building the motor myself also, but still was fairly pricey, I tried to put some good stuff in it. Tried to save a buck where ever I could/can??

Matt

[cruiserdan]

Very easily a $100,000.00 + project to pay someone. Could exceed $150,000.00.

It real bummer about something like this is after all this work a raunchy tail light that is not replaceable or a critical piece of trim or glass will spoil the whole thing.

To those of you who have never attempted a restoration and want to. Start by locating all the finish bits that ice the cake. If you can't find that stuff you will be very disappointed with the end result.

[krzyabncanuck]

Matt,

Just a quick question, what size spot weld cutter are you using for this ? Was looking but could not find which size. Am getting ready to start on my 64 45lwb. Thanks much for all of this, after seeing what you are doing i now feel confident to tackle mine.

Thanks,

[buckroseau]

Got about 6 hours of work on the lv today. Got all 4 doors tore down. Plan on blasting the edges of the doors tomorrow and the door hoops, get it primed and reassemble those 2 pieces.

Also pounded out the hinge pins in the doors, what a pain in the ass that was. Couple pins were not that cooperative, the key was in the size of the hammer . Had the wife holding the hinge over the vice with a pair of pliers while Beat the living @$% out of it. 2 came out a little tweaked, I was able to straighten them pretty good in the hydraulic press, I think they'll be fine.

I also slid in a couple of those new bushings, I think there going to work fine. After I get each piece blasted and primed tomorrow I will assemble the hinges again for good so I will know for sure.

Started screwing around with the rear tailgate also. Blasted everything and drilled out all the spot welds and removed the outter skin. Can you say Bondo???? The ironic thing is that my wife and I went to a demolition derby this evening, I thought of the LV I hope whoever entered the lv in a demo at one time won Holy bent up bat man.

Anyway, pics, Matt

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Even got the wife out again helping.

[buckroseau]

Originally Posted by krzyabncanuck

Matt,

Just a quick question, what size spot weld cutter are you using for this ? Was looking but could not find which size. Am getting ready to start on my 64 45lwb. Thanks much for all of this, after seeing what you are doing i now feel confident to tackle mine.

Thanks,

I use a 3/8" spot weld driller. I also use about a 5/16" pilot point pit sometimes too. The pilot point bits have that little tip and then the cutting surface is flat. If you get handy with that pilot point bit that actually works faster and better than a spot weld bit. You can just puncture the first skin and usually the little tip just barely punctures the back skin. That doesn't matter since your going to be plug welding it anyway. Also works better because you don't have to go back and grind the spot weld off either like you would with the spot weld cutter.

Hope this helps, Matt

[buckroseau]

About another 6 hours today towards the lv. Once again, got the wife out helping. Had her finish peeling the felt that is inside the window tracks, that was a pain in the ass for her to do

Most of the day was sandblasting and priming. One thing that did kinda suck is that I had to drill off the heads of 3 bolts that hold a latch tab on the upper tailgate. I had to cut into the rear tailgate to get those pieces out, make new ones and then weld a piece back in. It looks kinda off on the holes that I welded back in, but they are actually better now than they were before. Before it looked like someone at the Toyota plant had chewed some in there??

Blasted the upper tailgate hatch, hinges, window tracks and the edges of all the doors around the jams. One of rear doors is bent up worse that the others with quite a bit of bondo in it, going to take a little time to get that straight.

Heading up to the body guys shop tomorrow after work, start hammering out rear quarters I think?

One BIG question for you LV guys and this is important!!! If I don't get an answer fairly quickly I might start another thread just for this one?

DOOR HINGES: I didn't realize it until I sandblasted them, they are numbered, 1 to 8 to be exact, 2 of each number. It looks as though 4 of each set are they same, although I can't be totally sure. Can anyone tell me what #'s go together and there location on the doors themselves. i.e. Which ones are for the front and rear doors, lower and upper hinges??

If someone or mulitple people could answer this question I sure would appreciate it.

Thanks, Matt

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