[Lil'John]

Next set of pictures is of the spring over work done Tues.

First two pictures show how to do a one man spring over. Basically, I used ratchet straps to hoist the housing into place then ubolt the housing up. Then I assemble the axle. I'm still waiting for a passenger side ubolt plate but otherwise ready to go.

Last picture show the new look with drive flanges and another set of 17" aluminum rims The rollers are procomp mud terrains.

[Lil'John]

And last for the spring over pictures. The end numbers for the spring over are:
6'5" to the rain gutter without any drivetrain. I should end up dropping an inch or two when the drivetrain gets in there. So no problems with a 7 foot garage door
24" to the bottom of the frame. Again, pre drivetrain.
27" to the lowest portion of the rear quarters.
29" to the bottom of the doors. Should be 27" to the bottom of my new rockers

First picture shows the spring pads I'm using. I can't recall who Don said made the pads I'm going to use the middle hole initially but I may end up moving the axle back one hole Due to not wanting to change out the center pin, I opened up the holes a little bit.

Second picture shows the semi finished product. Those are 35" procomps.

[Lil'John]

Today, I finished pulling Durabak off the fenders and painted the fenders. It looks 100% better. Don had the front bumper finished off by today and was starting the rockers. When I finished up with painting, Don had both sides cut out. We ended up finding a few minor issues underneath.

First picture shows how the Durabak peeled off. I used a razor blade to start a section and simply pulled it off. I used NO heat at all As mentioned earlier, short of stripping to bare metal, I couldn't have prepped any better.

Second picture shows the front bumper. The ends are removable from the frame rails out. It has towbar mounts hard welded on. You can also see the top mounted tow strap hooks. Those were pulled off an 86 S10 blazer. The roller fairled was there just for giggles. It will be getting an aluminum hawse style fairled to go with the winch rope. The winch sits VERY low in the frame rails. I believe that half an inch of drum will be below the frame rails.

Last picture shows one of the issues we ran into after the rockers were cut. That is one of the body ribs that is rotted out pretty bad. The driver side one matches

[Lil'John]

The next series of pictures will show how to do the cut rocker style rocker guards. I have never seen any real good pictures showing what was going on when this is done... just the final results.

My rockers are being made out of 2"x4" 3/16" wall square tubing. It is going to be welded at the top outside edge at the door jams and then to the inside "rocker" after it is cut back. Finished pictures will show what I describe better. There will then be some steps that should start from the front door and end at the back.

First picture shows after the first cut has been done and the outer part of the rocker is cut. In the bottom of the picture, you can see the nice laser transit that Don used to make a perfect cut... damn hitech fab people You can see the stock "inside" half of the rocker. It will need to be trimmed also.

Second picture shows how much of the back half of the rocker is getting cut off.

Last picture shows the result after cutting the back rocker off and it being prepped for welding.

[Lil'John]

More pictures

First picture shows a profile view on the driverside. It gives a rough idea of how much of a cavity exists above the door jam... it also gives an idea why this modification isn't super easy.

Second picture shows how bad the body rib was rotted out More magic for Don to fix

Last picture shows the passenger rear door opening rot Not sure how I'm going to deal with it yet. Driverside was solid. Don is going to be adjusting the gap at the leading edge of that rot so it isn't so bad.

[LC_Hamma]

I've spent countless hours under my & I know that's some dirty work I cut off about all of my rusted outriggers & just braced the body to the frame off the rocker guards. How are those front body mounts under the floorboard? I had to redesign & rebuild both mine - they were holding caked in mud My new design allows NO mud to be trapped anymore Lookin great John!

[Lil'John]

LC_Hamma,
Don handled all the cutting... but compared to some of the rockers I've seen cut up, there was minimal amount of rust/dirt coming out

I recall seeing your pictures about the front mount issue. I gave a couple of quick pounds on mine and they seemed solid. I may cut a drain hole in them just to make sure

Thanks for the compliment... wish it was my work... just my ideas

[Lil'John]

Went down and finished up the engine bay(core support). Nice and white I need to paint the outside of the core support black but all ready for the engine swap on Wens

Don had some misc work to take care of so the rockers got delayed a little bit. But he should have them on tonight

The picture is just to show the steps Don made. I chose not to run the steps the full length. There is a little chance I will expand the front fender opening so the rocker guards will get trimmed if that happens. They will get coated in Herculiner

[LC_Hamma]

I was lookin back in your thread about the rebuilding of your NV4500. I was curious if you had the 5th gear fix/ gear upgrade installed? I only ask cuz my 5th gear let go in my NV4500 (160K on the clock) this AM on the way to work. I used to think this was an awesome tranny Hope yours' lasts many years to come

[Lil'John]

Originally Posted by LC_Hamma

I was lookin back in your thread about the rebuilding of your NV4500. I was curious if you had the 5th gear fix/ gear upgrade installed?

I'll have to check my receipt but I believe it has the upgraded shaft in it.

[Lil'John]

Came down with a flu that screwed all last week up

But I made a little headway today: Georg, Clutchee, and I man handled the drivetrain in and bolted it up Took a fair amount of time cleaning and installing clutch parts... and figuring out that

I also got around to painting the outside core support black(no picture of that

Onto a couple of pictures(excuse the tape):
First you see the back of the core support in nice white. In the back ground, you can see the tranny. On the left side, you can see the S10 tow hook I'm using.

Second picture, you can see the driver side. The hole needs to be trimmed and cleaned up... otherwise it is ready to get buried in wires and electronics

Third picture, you can see the passenger side. I need to uncover the engine bay ID plate... but otherwise ready to bury also.

[Lil'John]

More pictures:

First picture shows the firewall. The steering column bucket is going to get pulled and painted white like the rest of the firewall.

Second picture sort of shifts the focus to the front of the core support done in primer. This side of the support was painted black. Next trip it gets assembled minus head light buckets and grill.

Last picture shows Don's Vortec mounts... it also highlights the four bolt mount pattern of the Vortec vs the older three bolt style.

[Lil'John]

Last pictures for tonight.

First picture shows top view of Don's belly pan. The front mount is for the tranny and has a speed hole in it Back mount is for the traction bar. I slipped up on the frame rails and the 5/8" bolts finger tightened right in with no effort Wish I could do blind nuts with that accuracy

Last picture shows a side view.

Overall, VERY overkill on the belly pan. One man could hoist it up but it is a bit of work. Georg and I were able to hoist it up fairly easy. VERY heavy and well made.

Hopefully during my next visit(tomorrow ) I'll at least get the clutch lines run as well as fuel and brake frame lines. I'm hoping to get most of the "engine bay cruiser" related electrical done at the same time. I might get the engine to turn over

Don has another project he's getting on but he's coming up with ideas for the tranny cover and seat mounts.

[Lil'John]

Stopped by GM dealer today to order a sticker and a vacuum nipple for my engine.

Hmmm.... I guess fan belt routing stickers are used for something illegal Otherwise, GM wouldn't have given me the "we need the VIN of the vehicle and then we have to place the sticker for you" line

The devil's in the details but that is ridiculous.

OTOH, the vacuum nipple was around $6

I've also got my rear disc brake brackets and Dana 60 stud ubolt plate from Dan at RuffStuff ALWAYS a pleasure dealing with him. Great looking brackets as always

[Lil'John]

Nice long weekend and not much worth reporting other than busted BMW steering wheel cylinder lock housing breaking

Well, that and I got a vacuum pod to play with for the 4wd shifter that I'm going to hack up

Here are a few pictures:
First picture is the painted core support. The outside is black as shown... the inside is white as shown earlier. Next step is some assembly on the front and painting the headlight buckets

Second picture shows one of the 65 and earlier vacuum pods. My intention is to cut the part off that bolts to the tcase and use the rest and a link to shift a mechanical shifter. Hard to describe but I'll post pictures as this pans out. I'm using the older version because of the exposed vacuum rod and boot cover.

Last picture shows the "finished" rockers. Next step is to paint em with Herculiner along with the fender lips.

[Lil'John]

Three more of the rockers.

First picture shows how we supported the front fender as well as the rocker being tapped for air. We had a few ideas on how to handle the front fender being lose:

• Weld the fender to the rocker. This was thrown out because the fender might need to be removed.
• Weld a chunk of angle to the rocker and bolt the fender to that. This was thrown out because I didn't like the idea of exposed bolts on the outside.
• Weld studs to the fender and brackets to the rocker. This was thrown out due to "weld fatigue" that could happen with the small area of a stud.
• Weld brackets to the fender and rocker as shown. The down side of welding to the fender is shown in picture two.

Second picture shows the result of welding to the fender. It also shows the gap that resulted from keeping the door line on the cut. Hopefully the Herculiner will fill in the gap.

Last picture shows the back side of the rocker. I'm still up in the air on using seam sealer as shown or just cutting a "large" hole back and front to prevent future rot.

[Lil'John]

Got a little bit done on the short work day today.

Mainly spent time moving wires around With a little help from Georg's big brain, we found where to mount the PCM(on the passenger side fender)... but that means two wires will need to be spliced about 4 feet longer

Also got the horns mounted... went with BMW horns... figure I should be heard as well as being seen

We also moved the cruiser in the shop... make it easier for both Don and Georg to break it

Picture:
In the picture you can see the new horns as well as the bent valance. I had to mount the horns out of the core support because of the potential for AC.

[Mrbinks79]

Looking good some day I'll have the time to really clean up my piggy. Right now I'd like to here it snort a lil.

[89s rule]

I remember when this 55 was for sale 2 owners ago. I considered it but wasnt in the position to get anything done. I look forward to seeing the progress.

[Lil'John]

Thanks for the thumbs up.

Got more done on the project.

Got most of the brakes done. Down to the axles.

Got a good portion of the wiring done. A few more engine wires to lengthen. A few more wires to add. A few more wires to solder together. Should have the engine bay wiring wrapped up and loomed tomorrow

A few pictures:
First picture shows the clutch lines all set up. It doesn't block the hole like the picture looks.

Second picture shows the brake master and lines setup. I've got a nice wilwood proportioning valve at the front there. The two mounting bolts there are temp. I plan to replace them with buttonheads.

Third picture shows the brake master and lines again. Not sure on the short line from master to proportioning valve.

[Lil'John]

Here are some more pictures:
First picture shows the fancy catch can(aka radiator overflow) I'm using and the fancy bracket I made up for it

Second picture shows the ECM holder. This is the factory holder with added brackets. Thank you Georg for the perfect idea on that

Third picture shows the blank spot where the ECM is going to mount. It shows the catch can on the very far left mounted. I am planning to rivet the vin plate to the left of the battery tray. The hole in that area will be the upper left corner.

[Lil'John]

Last set of pictures for tonight.
First picture shows the ECM mounted. Almost looks like it was made to go there

Second picture shows sort of how the ECM wiring it going to be routed.

Last picture shows the organized mess on the driverside Hopefully by the end of tomorrow it will be loomed and nice

[Lil'John]

Got in some good work yesterday and today. The driverside fender wiring is almost all buttoned up. I need to pull my ARB related wires and offroad lights wire. Then loom it up.

Turned out VERY sexy. Once it is loomed up, it should almost look factory

Of course, I forgot to haul the camera with me so no pics

I've also got the rear axle tacked up ready for Don to lay some serious welds on it.

Lastly, I snuck in the air compressor. Pretty tight fit but it fit Next step is mounting the air block and track down some air solenoids for the ARB.

[Lil'John]

Here is a nice picture of the wiring harness before it gets loomed.

Not so scary looking at integrated well into the mildly modified stock harness. In the upper right, you can see the Viare air compressor.

For the wiring, I sub-bundled the wires together as I ran them and used cold shrink tape to bundle them together. In the harness on the fender, I've got a engine power related bundle, a engine related bundle(drive by wire, engine diag lines, etc), and finally the chassis bundle(lights, air, etc) I then cold shrunk taped those bundles together.

Cold shrink tape is some killer stuff. It is used where you would use electrical tape. Except there is no sticky residue to it. You basically stretch the heck out of it and wrap it... it sticks to itself. Costs about 5x as much as the junk electrical tape but I like it 100% more

[Lil'John]

Went on vacation and more work was finished up on the rig. Getting toward the home stretch for driving

I got the rear axle all welded up: perches and sway bar mounts. The sway bar links were lengthened

The inside got the driverside dash fixed. The light switch and ignition switch area had a LOT of extra holes. Since I am getting a 12volt guy panel made for the area, I figure a nice clean chunk of metal would do wonders I haven't got the panel yet but it is on his list.

I've got my custom VSS setup on the way. Should have it next week Basically machined a stock Land Cruiser speedo housing to work with a stock GM VSS instead

Don is currently working on the transmission tunnel.

I've got the new radiator, brake flex lines, and oil cooler lines on order. Hopefully next week. I'm trading my old radiator to Don for his FJ55

I've got the driveshafts being made up now. One is 33", the other is 34 1/4" Not bad for not taking into account driveshafts when placing the engine.

I'm heading down tomorrow to do a bunch of misc work around the outside: checking temp sensor location, checking oil pressure sensor location, making a bracket or three, pulling some more wires in the engine bay, and finally looming up the engine bay.

I'll also be snapping a bunch of pictures tomorrow and posting up

[LC_Hamma]

Are you going w/ an aftermarket heater? Didn't see any A/C stuff either (?) You have any plans for a roof rack? This is gonna look once it's done.

[Lil'John]

Originally Posted by LC_Hamma

Are you going w/ an aftermarket heater? Didn't see any A/C stuff either (?) You have any plans for a roof rack? This is gonna look once it's done.

Not sure on the heater. Right now, the big deciding factor is the tranny tunnel. If it is "too tall", I'm stuck going aftermarket on the heater. I'd love to keep the stock heater(s) so I can keep the heater controls in the dash.

Ideally, AC is going in also. This is also being held up by the tranny tunnel. If I can go stock heater, I'll go with the stock interior AC parts. I've got ALL the exterior AC related parts when I got the engine

And of course, all the AC stuff is screwed up by the tcase shifter "pod" portion of the dash

The roof rack is still up in the air. More than likely it will eventually get one. But the big things on the list right now are getting it running, get the "luxury" items for the interior done, get the interior heat/cooling done, etc.

The dash is another item that I'm still mulling over. With no aftermarket options for the early dash pad, I'm seeing what I can do there. The nice big seam being the big issue with just filling in holes. I've also got a couple controls disappearing: wiper mainly but maybe the heater controls. I've also got the gauges to install along with a radio

[cruiserbrett]

You could find the early fj55 oem a/c unit that is standalone. not too hard to find, sorta like the OEM FJ40 ones where it sits under the glovebox, and has its own fan. tends to cool the passengers knees, but, it will fit with the early dash pod. Pics of the unit:

[Lil'John]

Brett, I think we talked about the factory AC at some point. It gets air from inside the vehicle right?

Another day of work and I forgot the dang camera again

Finally got the rear axle almost buttoned up(got the hub nut I needed) Last two things are modifying the RuffStuff brackets to fit my axle and then plumbing it all.

I got almost all the engine bay wiring done. At least all the wires taped together except for the onboard shower Still trying to find a place to put that pump

Talk about 2 quarts of crap into a one quart bag. The engine bay is stuffed: PCM, electric air pump, air block, heat exchanger, water pump, etc.

The engine bay is looking REAL clean. I made up a bracket to hold five GM relays. If you look up in post 202, you can see three relays bolted up on the driveside fender. I wasn't too happy with the layout plus I felt I needed more than three relays(one was horns, the other was fuel pump). My bracket bolts in place of those relays and moves the relays down the wall two inches.

I'm still trying to figure out where to mount my air block. But it is looking like it might end up at the front air hole on the driverside fender.

As mentioned above, I'm still scratching my head about the onboard shower I've got a pump and heat exchanger I need to mount. The heat exchanger may be hanging off the battery tray.

Don was starting the new tranny tunnel while I was there. He did the almost final cut on the floor and was cardboard templating it. The only requirement I had was not having any 90 degree bends coming off the floor because of my intention to carpet the rig in the future. In theory, it is going to be solid with an access panel for the tcases.

[Lil'John]

We've got tranny tunnel But we got a new issue

Aside from the tranny tunnel, there is very little that has been done that would be visible.

I think Don is starting to hate me for this project:

1. I had tacked the spring perches and sway bar mounts on the axle before vacation. Apparently the support under the spring pointed the pinion down when un-wrapped... and the sway bar mounts got cockeyed
2. He really hates my stock Tacoma bench seat. All the rails were different... and one was an inch lower than the other three Hopefully he'll have them mounted by my next visit. He had a VERY good start on it yesterday when I left.

But here are some pictures:
First we have a picture of my dash being fixed... well, at least the left hand side. Removed a TON of holes. Now I'm just waiting on my 12volt guy panel to bolt over that

Second picture is tranny tunnel. Biggest thing to not is the lack of a 90 degree where it meets the floor. The other big thing is the access panel. Easy access to the tcases so I can setup the shift cables eventually The other thing to note is the white line between the shifter hole and the access cover... that is actually a strengthening rib Don thinks of everything... that's why he gets the big money

Third picture is other side of the tranny tunnel.

Odd facts about the tunnel:

1. It is actually done out of four pieces of metal: left side, right side, back half, and front half. Those are actually bends on the sides and not welds
2. I plan on replacing the sheet screws with button heads and nuts of some sort. Even though it gets buried under carpet
3. I plan on running some rubber around the opening to seal it. I'm not going to caulk the heck out of it