It Has Begun... (1 Viewer)

[2fpower]

Today is a huge day in my Landcruiser life.... my partner in crime Rob and I started dismantling the first 74' FJ40 today!!!

After my busy season was over in April, I moved all of the stuff out of my detached shop knowing that it would be 110 degrees in there by June, and insulated and drywalled the place off. I have not got the AC hooked up yet, but we got it painted a couple weeks ago, so I was able to "move" back in. So, it took longer than I hoped, however it really was good to do it.

I will try to post some pics later... (first time posting pics -- heck, first time I had something to show!!!)

The main thing we did today was to remove the top and seperate the sides from the top and all of the reinforcements for the top, pulled the broken windshield, and removed the windshield frame.... (Those phillips screws are not pleasant to remove!)

The plan is to strip the 74' and put it aside, then get the 75' in the shop and start the restoration process.

Thanks for all the advice, and looking forward to posting more progress in the future.

Kelly

 

[Ranski]

Kelly-

Where are you located in Lenexa, I'd love to stop by sometime and see your progress.

I live in Shawnee off 75th Street just west of K-7.

 

[trainrech]

An impact screw driver works well on removing those windwhield screws/bolts. A little late on the advice, nonetheless.

 

[2fpower]

Hey Randy, I would love to have anyone stop by and tell me what to watch out for. I am off of Midland drive and Lackman. I will PM you with my phone. I should be in most of the weekend.

We did use an impact screw driver I bought years ago from JC Whitney.....without it, we would have never got the screws out. I still had to grind the bits sharp a couple times, and desroyed a couple screws.... but they all came out, so I will say that was success.

Kelly

 

[2fpower]

pics of the progress

 

[2fpower]

down to a rolling chassis

Down to a rolling chassis. We rolled the 75' in last night, and now I get to strip this down. I already have begged Erik and Rob to assist me with the GM Saginaw power stearing conversion. Once I get it to a rolling chassis, I will see if anyone can help me understand the tricks to this process.

The question I am pondering is that I want to switch the front to disk brakes. I have two options.

1. I have a front axle from a mini truck, that we can take a part and put on -- I have no idea what year or what this came from though.

2. I have a 79' fj 40 front axle with factory disc brakes that I could swap out the entire front axle, however I have no idea what gearing is in it.

Any thoughts?

 

[2fpower]

pics

pic of the chassis

 

[kc_chevota]

opt 2 is the easyer one, to figure out the ratio hold one hub and count the number of times you have to spin the pinion to turn the ouher hub 1 rev, and devide by 2. a 79 should be 3.7:1. any questions give me a call

 

[2fpower]

now that is thinking

Rob-

Thanks for the answer to my riddle. It sounds so easy, even I might be able to do that!!

Happy 4th everybody....

k

 

[2fpower]

started on the 75'

My friend from Chicago Kyle was in town and wanted to play out in the garage, so we tore down the 75' today. A few things

1. We found a bunch of rust on the piece of metal between the windshield and the black dash pad. looks like I can weld a patch into the back of it and then seam seal it.... any thoughts?

2. I wanted to try and start the motor, since I have never heard it, and could not get it to fire. I was getting a very weak spark off of the spark plug wires and (using ether) could not get fire.

My question may sound silly, but it has been a while since I played with ignition. I connected the battery positive to the resistor, and the resitor then went to the positive side of the coil, the negative side then went the distributor on the connection on the side (points). I got a spark off the plug wires, however it seamed really weak. Any thoughts what I am not doing? Or what could be wrong?

3. It appears to be a california car, any thoughts on the smog equipment? SHould I just cap off the stuff, or is there I should undo, that voodoo, that california does.... so well.

My daughter thought I needed a princess on this page..

Here are pics of the progress.

Next up is the rear disk brakes conversion, front switch, and power steering..... Anyone up for a consult?

Kelly

 

[2fpower]

Off with the rockers

Well, my other buddy, Rob (prior life body man) came and helped the other Rob and I out and we got both of the rockers off.

I was on the fence about just cutting out the bad part instead of taking it all apart, but now I am so glad that I was convinced to cut it out. At some point in time, someone just left the old rusty rocker on, beat it in a little, and scabbed a piece over it, hiding the rusty mess. So, we cut it all out.

We also cut out the scabbed pieces that went where your feet are at. Again, they were hiding the rusty parts. I will cut out the old and replace with some parts from my donor vehicle.

Here are pics of the progress....

Thanks to Rob and Rob......

 

[2fpower]

getting lighter

Well, the question I keep asking is when should I stop.... well, I discovered that the prior replacement of the floorpan was not quite up to my standards. The old flange of the old floorpan was not removed on the backside across the entire tub, so the new flange was welded to the old rusty flange which was falling apart. They also tacked the top, however I just want to do this "right". So, out came the floorpan. It sure looks different. Appears that I need to take and make a little patch where the floorpan attached to the back, but we should be done taking metal off.

Here is a pic of where we are.

Oh, and my buddy Rob (shorty) got the replacement foot area from my donor rig straightened up and it is about ready to weld in.

My other buddy Rob got the passenger side floorpan out and ready for replacement. I need to bend a piece at the welding class this week for the passanger side and we should start welding.

One question.... Anyone have measurements where I can check to make sure we didn't twist anything before we weld it back up?

Thanks,

 

[2fpower]

Metal by the foot

Finally, after a month of hacking all of the rust off, we are finally putting nice shiny metal on the FJ>

Thanks to Andrew and the welding class brake, we fab'd a new piece for the passenger side feet area that fit like a glove. (how about a "fit like a sock" given the area). A little welding and it looks stock.

On the driver side, after a little TIG welding some areas at class, and a little more fitting, Shorty (smile Rob) welded in the replacement foot area. It looks awesome. You might think he knows what the heck he is doing.

Elsewhere, after pulling off the old floorpan we found some rusty areas behind the driver seat, so we cut it out and replaced it also.

Lots of progress!! Next up is to do a bunch of grinding and cleaning, then start fitting the floorpan after working on some level work.

 

[2fpower]

live, from LA, the doors......

Well, it was a long day, but Shorty and I got the doors hung. The passanger door looks great, with gaps that are at least straight with the door. The bottom gap on the new rocker was terrible, so we had to cut the rocker beat on it and straighten it up quite a bit. Rob welded it up and ground it to perfection.

The driver side is not as good. The door lines look terrible. I am going to try a different door to see if it fits differently, and then try different hinges. Question: are the door hinges interchangable (top and bottom) left and right?

If none of that works, then I need to start thinking about moving the door opening some. I only tacked in the floor and the inside rocker, so that should not be easy, but not be too difficult.

I should not be surprised, however the replacement inside rockers fit terribly. I had to heat and beat them up something crazy. On both the front and rear of the inside rocker, we had to cut and move the lines and they didn't even have the bump for the floorpan, so we had to cut, heat bend and beat in the opening. I got these from the prior owner when I bought my cruizer, so I have no idea where they came from, so I can't even badmouth whoever made them.

Well, I must admit it feels great to get the doors just hanging on the tub. It has been much more work than I thought, but I read that on every build thread.

TOTI (tip of the iceburg) I get the feeling that the work I have done is just that.

Kelly

 

[2fpower]

update

So, you all have been there, but I keep taking pictures after a bunch of hours working and they don't look any different than last time. Hours of welding and griding don't make the panal look much different than when it was hanging there. Sort of depressing some days.

Well, the good news is that the doors fit finally. The drivers door was an absolute head scratcher until shorty came over, did his magic, and as Julia Childs would say "wholla we have the chicken!"

So, both doors are hung and fit good, the inner and outer rockers are welded in place, and about 80% of the floorpan is welded in place -- I need to get it off the bench to weld the final parts. A couple more hours of welding and grinding and I think we can take out the temporary support metal and get this back on the frame.

Andrew is going to set me up with some new mount material, so I should be ready.

I wanted to get rid of the side marker lights, so I welded those in too. The po had welded in all the nuts for the rear tire carrier, from the outside you could not tell, but on the inside it looked terrible, so I ground off all the nuts to give it a clean look. I think I will fab a tire carrier on the new bumper, so I don't need to replace it.

I got some nice fully power seats from Techtafab from a 93 Lexus that I hope to put in the cruiser now. The only issue is the gas tank (thanks robbo for pointing out that error in judgement)

I also put some tape on the line to make the half doors. Tell me what you think, or if you have any ideas.

So here are some pics of the progress.

TOTI

Kelly

 

[2fpower]

forgot the current color thought

I know the purist will hate me, but I promise to put my bezel on right.

 

[mwalls54]

wow you work fast. like the color

 

[2fpower]

Ha!! I like to think that I work pretty fast, however not that fast. That reminded me of a story that my friend shorty said...... he had to draw a circle on the ground with chalk around his dad to see if he really was moving. Now that is slow. I am somewhere in between

I wish that was mine in the pics... unfortuanately, I am a detail person, so it is going to take me a while. With luck I will have it rolling next year. My goal is to have it media blasted, primed and undercoated before January.

The pics are from another helpful IH8Mud member. I have been on the fence about what color to go with. I like the desert tan however I had this crazy idea about copper and I asked for pics and got those. I think it may get a little attention.

Kelly

 

[2fpower]

frame work

Well, the plan to have the tub media blasted is on hold.... I most likely will blast it myself in late April or May..... so I may ask to borrow a big air compressor then. So, I have a few weeks until work heats up such that I will not have FJ time, so I have focused on the frame, trying to get it ready for POR 15. Well, I worked a bunch this weekend on it. I finished welding on some 1/4 plate reinforcements to the frame where I plan on bolting on my sliders. Then I worked on the rear bumper that the PPO put on it, I wire brushed, sanded and ground the entire frame and when I thought I was done, I was blowing it off and noticed a crack on the back of the boxing near the rear spring (front perch) See pic below.

Being a goal oriented person that about crushed me. Well, a little research on MUD and found that to be a typical problem area, I TIG welded the crack together, then wire feeded a bead on top of that at the crack, then I welded the inside and outside of the box together. Because if a little is good a lot is better, I then made some supports to reinforce the perches -- a design I found in the AZ cruiser section. (ROB - check out the triangles!) Then just to make sure that I overkilled this issue, I boxed in the rest of the frame up to the rear shock mount bar.

So, now I wait for the degreaser and etcher and then POR 15 and this one is in the history books.

 

[trainrech]

Are you sure it is stout enough?