1965 FJ45lv build up/resto thread

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 07:48 AM

I was debating on whether to start a thread on my (EDIT:THE WIFE'S-I CAUGHT HELL FOR, "MY") resto/build up project for the wife's 65 lv. But, figured it might help a few people and more importantly, help me if someone see's something or recomends something before I am about to do it!!

I've had a good month or 2 of obtaining parts and also determining what I wanted and what I wanted to do. I would say actual working on this rig started approx. 2 weeks ago around 3/15/2005.

I've always kinda considered myself somewhat of a purist, not die-hard, but liked to see things kept mostly stock. I will be deviating from that belief somewhat on this project. Sorry if I offend anyone, but for me what it came down to is I want to use this rig, a lot! I want the stock look, but more power and a nicer ride. So I am building it with some creature comforts in mind.

Mod's in mind:

350 sbc
700R4 auto tranny
Saginaw power steering
parabolic springs
79 disc axles w/ 3.73 ring and pinion
Ididit steering column, tilt, cruise control
Vintage air - A/C
more stuff as I think of it?

I'll start posting pics and if you want me to stop, just let me know. Threads can be deleted anytime.

And of course as always, more pics on my site - www.crustycruisers.com

Thanks, Matt

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 07:49 AM

The Donor 79, to be sacrificed in the name of the Wagon!!

Chef · 03-28-05, 07:54 AM

Cool!
Pretty transfer case.

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 07:54 AM

more pics

Chef · 03-28-05, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckroseau

more pics

where

not even a red x here mate

Bring em!

edit: there they are! We musta been typing at the same time

Shiny bits!

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 07:56 AM

even more pics

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 07:57 AM

1 more post for now

Chef · 03-28-05, 07:57 AM

Goodwrench crate motor?

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chef

Goodwrench crate motor?

No, building it from scratch. Had the block machined locally for the pistons I am using, ordered up all the parts that I wanted. Good mechanic friend of mine is giving me a hand doing the motor.

Matt

cruiserwanted · 03-28-05, 10:33 AM

Matt,

Just curious where you found this 65 lv? Are you finding this stuff in Northern MN? I have not been able to find anything up there. I haven't looked REAL hard but just curious. Nice looking project. Can not wait to see it done.

cruiserbrett · 03-28-05, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cruiserwanted

Matt,

Just curious where you found this 65 lv? Are you finding this stuff in Northern MN? I have not been able to find anything up there. I haven't looked REAL hard but just curious. Nice looking project. Can not wait to see it done.

certainly didnt come from MN. came from Mariposa area of California via San Diego...

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cruiserwanted

Matt,

Just curious where you found this 65 lv? Are you finding this stuff in Northern MN? I have not been able to find anything up there. I haven't looked REAL hard but just curious. Nice looking project. Can not wait to see it done.

What Brett said, he's the guy I bought it from down in the So.Cal area back in Febuary. I would imagine most in the Minnesota area have been re-claimed by the earth.

I will keep the pics coming as progress is made. I tore apart the front clip, doors and other misc. things yesterday afternoon. Plan is to pull the stock motor and drivetrain this evening. I am probably going to trailer it up to friend of mine on Tuesday who is a body man, he has a frame rack. I have boughten all new / used parts for the front end. Every front clip part was bent up and full of bondo, just wasn't worth trying to fix. After pulling the bumper and parts I noticed the frame is slightly swayed to the driver side, not bad, but it has to be put in a frame rack and pulled straight before I weld in the motor mounts and saginaw plates. I imagine it was hit in the front end sometime during it's life, hence all the filler in the front sheet metal.

Plan is to get the new drivetrain in this weekend, should have lots of pics after that. Bought some steel a few weeks ago to build a body rottisseri, gotta weld that up before the weekend. I'm going to mount it to that so I can roll the body inverted and start on the bottom.

Matt

treerootCO · 03-28-05, 01:21 PM

Glad it went to a good home.

Save the 135 engine parts, someone may need 'em.

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by treerootCO

Glad it went to a good home.

Save the 135 engine parts, someone may need 'em.

I throw nothing away when it comes to LC's

Few more pics of fun from later this afternoon. It looks crude, but I want to get this messy stuff out of the way outside before I bring it in the shop.

Matt

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 04:06 PM

1 more

buckroseau · 03-28-05, 08:43 PM

Worked on the 350 a little this even, got most of the acc. bolted on, few pics

Also, do I have my mounts correct on my rear AA T-case bracket? AA says small donut on the bottom and large on top, but in the pic in there instructions the small donut looks like a smaller dia. Both mine are the same dia., just one is thinner.

Thanks, Matt

fjwagon · 03-28-05, 09:36 PM

It's looking better and better....great job.

Mikesta · 03-29-05, 12:59 PM

Looks awesome!

calfj60 · 03-29-05, 02:26 PM

Wow!!! I guess I will have to follow this build up too...amazing work so far...

buckroseau · 03-29-05, 09:27 PM

Loaded up the LV tonight and brought it up to a friend of mine who owns an auto body shop. He has a frame rack and I wanted him to take a look at the front end, since I noticed the frame was swayed to the driver side slightly when I took the front clip off.

After some quick measuring on his part he determined the front end was about a 1/2" out of square to the driver side. Frame rack not needed, but porta power and torch was. Some precision heating, targeted porta powering and a little BFH'ing, all is well and square now, amazing how fast he did it.

When I had it up there this evening I noticed the passenger side shock tower was bolted on instead of buck riveted. With a cast piece like a shock tower, I imagine if it got hit on the side it wouldn't have bent, it would have broke. With the amount of filler in the front tin and the shock tower, must have been hit in the right front corner sometime during it's life? Oh, well....nice and straight now.

Matt

buckroseau · 03-30-05, 07:28 PM

Got the lv in the shop tonight. Plan was to just get it in the shop, clean up, get all the parts in order and ready for Friday night.

My buddy Chad and I got a little ambitious and spent about an hour and unbolted, busted and torched body mounts and misc. fittings off.

Got the body off and up in the air sitting on the hoist. Have a few more things to get off the fram and cleaned up ready for welding. Might have the motor and tranny mocked up by Friday night. I think we should have all mounts welded in sometime Saturday afternoon???

Matt

buckroseau · 03-30-05, 07:29 PM

1 more

cruiserbrett · 03-30-05, 08:24 PM

Holy crap, you werent kidding when you said you'd have it apart in no time. Looks good!!! Never noticed the frame or the shock tower, sorry about that.

JasonH · 03-31-05, 07:22 AM

Cool shop!

Nice work.

cruiserwanted · 03-31-05, 07:49 AM

Looks Awesome. Extremly Jelous. What is the goal time for completion? Was it Memorial Day? Making nice progress. Keep the pics coming.

buckroseau · 03-31-05, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cruiserwanted

Looks Awesome. Extremly Jelous. What is the goal time for completion? Was it Memorial Day? Making nice progress. Keep the pics coming.

I've got a buddy that I am/was helping with a 75 Bronco, the goal on that was memorial day. But, he's lazy and quit working on it, even though he just got a new fiberglass body for it 3 weeks ago.

I won't go so far as to commit to a date, if I miss the completion date the dreamstompers will be all over me telling me how the world is flat.

I spent a good month and a half sourcing parts and getting my chit together before I even touched a bolt on the lv. Now that I have the majority of my parts, I probably will bust ass and try to hammer it out as fast as I can. I have been building my own house for several years now, and I have to keep the wife happy by working on that once and a while. Should be able to sneak the LV in there quite often though.

I had an extra hour before work this morning and I pulled the driveshafts in the 79 donor vehicle. I want to have the front and rear axles pulled out of the 79 by Tuesday and try to get them de-greased by Wed. If all goes as planned this weekend with motor mounts and saginaw plates welded in and then disassemble everything off the frame: I plan to drag everything down to Fargo, ND on Saturday, April 9th and have it all sandblasted. Spoke yesterday with a buddy of mine who does comercial powdercoating locally for Polaris ind. He is going to order up black in 100% gloss today, frame and some other misc. parts are scheduled to be powdercoated Monday, April 11th, 2 days after they will be sandblasted. I am going to paint the axles after blasting with PPG DP90LF and topcoat with PPG's/MTK single stage urethane in black. I just don't want to pull the axles apart if I don't need to.

What is going to slow me up is Parabolic springs. I ordered them in Febuary and supposedly they are just now somewhere over the Atlantic? I have a strong suspicion that I won't see those for another 3 to 4 weeks, we'll see I guess? If I had the springs in the next week, I think I honestly could have the frame, axles, entire driveline and other misc. chub bolted in and ready for a tub in 3 weeks. Without springs, I'm dead in the water.

If I'm waiting for springs I will start on the tub. Should be bolted onto the rottisseri this weekend and ready to be spun anytime.

Pics will be coming shortly.

Matt

treerootCO · 03-31-05, 11:19 AM

I was wondering about gloss vs semi-gloss on the frame for LVs. Gloss is nicer but I was thinking Semi-gloss might be closer to stock. What is your opinion on that?

buckroseau · 03-31-05, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by treerootCO

I was wondering about gloss vs semi-gloss on the frame for LVs. Gloss is nicer but I was thinking Semi-gloss might be closer to stock. What is your opinion on that?

All things shinny !!!!

Just kidding not all. The guy doing the powdercoating actually has 45% gloss that they use right now all the time. I would say fresh out of the oven it looks semi or satin as far as gloss. Here's an example of a 75 Bronco frame that we powdercoated about a month ago.

http://www.crustycruisers.com/b38.jpg

It looks a little shinnier in the pics than it actually is.

That is fresh out of the oven. What I have noticed, for example on my 77 FJ40 that I restored. I used singlestage ureathane on the frame in black, which was like a mirror when I was done. A year later after going up and down my gravel road every day and what ever road grime on it over the course of the year, kinda satin/semi-gloss now. Not chipped or rusting, just not as shinny.

I would say if a guy was going to leave it in the living room in an auto caccoon for ever probably semi-gloss. If your going to drive it, as shinny as possible, because it will dull somewhat.

Matt

Chef · 03-31-05, 11:35 AM

Springs are *supposed* to be about 2 weeks out. Then they gotta get cleared thru customs and re-shipped. So 4 weeks to your door might be right. Not real speedy. If you had ordered 40 springs, you'd have 'em by now

treerootCO · 03-31-05, 11:45 AM

gloss it is then

Keep up the good work, and take lots of pics. I never get tired of them.