Cooking With The Crockpot (1 Viewer)

[roadstr6]

Ugh! Good to know though. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[roadstr6]

John Vee came by last night and helped me pull the top off of the Crockpot (Thanks John) . I will need to drill some holes in the cage for the upper pivot points for the three point belts I plan to install in the back for the kids. Having the top off will give me a chance to wire wheel some of the crust from the top sides where it meets the body, treat it and paint it. I went ahead and pulled the hood off for prep and paint as well. I ordered a new fuel sending unit so once that comes in I will drop the tank, install the sending unit and install the Bestop rear bench and rear seat belts.

 

[alk747triodad]

Wishing you luck on that fuel tank. Since it was Meatball and I that tried to remove it, I'm sure you will have no problem.

 

[roadstr6]

Wishing you luck on that fuel tank. Since it was Meatball and I that tried to remove it, I'm sure you will have no problem.

Kenny, not questioning your wrenching skills whatsoever, but I hope you are right. John Vee and I looked around at it with a flashlight last night and we couldn't really see anything that would keep it from dropping down. I guess we'll jump off that bridge when we get there..........

 

[roadstr6]

Still waiting on the fuel sender to come before I drop the tank. Last night I decided to prep and paint the hood. The underside of the front lip was a little crusty, especially in the corners, and there was a crusty spot under the hood above the battery where there had obviously been a leak at some point. I scuffed off the scale in these areas and brush painted with POR15. I have had success in the past painting over POR15 when it is still tacky. Last night it started to get dark and I got in a hurry and painted over the POR15 too soon. The top coat of paint crackled on me. I plan to hit these areas again with paint. If they don't stick then I'm not going to worry too much. The POR15'd areas are under the hood and won't be seen much. The CP is coming along. It's slow going though because I just don't have big blocks of time that I can spend in the garage. It's an hour here and there mostly at night after everyone else is asleep.

 

[fj401978]

In my parts stash was part of an old Con-Ferr jerry can mount. I had looked at jerry cans at the local 4wheel parts store and the new cheapo paper thin Chinese ones are rounded at the bottom and don't have the lip needed to use the Con-Ferr mount. I decided to give Craigslist a try. Lo and behold I found a "real" jerry can. This one is a Russakov can from 1952. I assume Korean War vintage. It's solid and fits my Con-Ferr clamp. Now I just have to fab up the rest of the mount.

I have a Con-Ferr Jerry can mount, if you need to copy anything from it, let me know, you are welcome to use it.

Skip

 

[roadstr6]

Gas tank removal was a success! It didn't just drop right down. I had to work it around quite a bit to get it to drop. It wedges in there pretty tight. Rear seat is installed and tomorrow I'll install the new sending unit and raise the tank back into place. Pics to follow.


...via IH8MUD app

 

[roadstr6]

The Crockpot had a busy Memorial weekend. As I said earlier, I dropped down the tank to allow me to drill the tub for the rear mounting plate for the Bestop rear bench seat. Once I got the hoses and the straps off, it took quite a bit of effort toget the tank to release from its position. The tank is a tight fit with wedge shaped tabs on the top that tuck behind the support member on the body underneath. The CP has a receiver hitch which wouldn't allow me to move the tank rearward to release it. With some twisting and pulling it finally let go. I bought a new sending unit from Toyota and it tested within spec. Once I removed the old Con-Fer sending unit it was obvious that the Toyota piece would not be long enough to read the fuel level with any accuracy. I needed about 2 1/2 inches of extra arm length to allow the unit to drop down to within 3/4" of the bottom of the tank. I tried bending the arm to strighten it out but that only got me a half inch or so. I remembered that I had another tank (the factory tank) in my parts stash so I removed the old broken sending unit from that tank, cut off the float and about 2 1/2 inches of the arm and grafted it onto the new sending unit. I used a roll pin that was a tight fit for the arm to slide into. Once I had the two ends of the arm wedged into either end of the roll pin I chucked it in my bench vise and mashed the roll pin super tight onto the ends of the arms. I don't think this thing is going to move around on me. I guess time will tell.

 

[roadstr6]

Before I dropped the unit into the tank I hooked up the leads, turned the key and had my wife to verify that the gauge made a full sweep as I moved the sending unit from empty to full. The old gasket was okay but I used a little Permatex fuel resistant gasket juice to make sure it sealed up tight. The next order of business was to install the Bestop bench (PN: 39435-01). I had installed this exact same seat in my last 40, so I knew what to do. I sat the seat in place, marked for my holes and drilled the tub. The seat and belts were installed with grade 8 fasteners and large, grade 8 washers. The CP tub is in remarkably good shape but I feel alot better having some extra metal behind these mount points. The rear three point belts and mounting hardware were purchased from Steve at Seatbelt Planet. Those folks are very helpful and can make custom belts for any application. They can also re-web your old belts and replace or refurbish your old latches. Here are a couple of pics of the finished installation.

 

[roadstr6]

The kids couldn't wait to take the CP out for a ride. We made plans to go fishing yesterday at my folks' house down in Marshville, NC. I knew that Adam had given me a bikini top for the CP so I decided to install that to give a little shade but I wasn't sure what to do about the kids in the back. Luckily I found another old bikini top in the parts stash. The second to was a dingy and well-worn Bestop bikini. Using my redneck ingenuity, I used the two bikini tops together to make one full-length bikini top that keeps all the occupants under cover. Basically, I just rolled up the front section of the old Bestop bikini, punched a couple of holes in it and zip-tied it to the roll bar. I then installed the nice newer bikini over the top normally and pulled the straps for both tops tight in the rear. It may look ghetto-fabulous but it works!

 

[roadstr6]

The Crockpot got the kids and me to Marshville and back without issue. Many fish were caught and much fun was had. This is not my kids' first rodeo when it comes to off-road vehicles. We have a Heep JK and we've had another 40 but they assure me that the Crockpot is their favorite.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I have a big fat grin reading this thread. I'm glad the Crockpot continues to get the love she deserves

 

[roadstr6]

Hey Johnny,
One more thing. When I buttoned up the fuel hoses I re-routed the three lines from over the fill tube to under and I cut about a half inch of length off the fill hose. Doing this enbled me to straighten the fill hose so that there are no kinks. When I filled up at the gas station Saturday, I was able to run the pump at full blast and it didn't cut off until the tank was full. No more slow filling and with the new sending unit the gauge works perfectly! Woo hoo!!!!! I'm all about the little things. That's what I love about this rig. The big stuff is all good. It runs and drives fine. It's just the little details that need attention.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I hoped that's all the fill neck would need. Awesome!!

A working fuel gauge seems to be a rarity in old Land Cruisers, but when it works well, it sure is nice

 

[roadstr6]

I got alot done on the Crockpot this weekend. My main focus was to tend to some rusty areas and get more of the body painted in flat khaki. The seam where the cowl meets the body had some bubbles. I wire wheeled this seam to find a couple of pinholes. Once I welded those up I used a die grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut out the old seam sealer. I used POR15 to treat the rusty spots and followed up with POR Tie Coat. Then skim with body filler, sand, prime, re-seal with seam sealer and finally paint. It all sounds easy but it is a very labor intensive process.

Digging out the rust:

 

[roadstr6]

Treating the rust with POR15 and Tie Coat:

 

[roadstr6]

I dropped the windshield and prepped and painted the inside of the windshield frame.

 

[roadstr6]

With the cowl rust knocked out I turned my focus to a quarter-sized spot of rust-through down by the rocker. Once I cut out the affected area I discovered that the structural metal underneath was bad. There was a large accumulation of dirt and sand behind this panel, likely the cause of this rust. Guys, take your shop vac and vacuum behind here on occasion to keep dirt from getting trapped here and harboring moisture and leading to rust.

 

[roadstr6]

Here it is going back together. I used weld-through primer to treat the area prior to welding in the patches. I will follow up with POR15 on the inside of the panel to keep the rust from coming back.

 

[roadstr6]

This is my shop assistant, Nathan. He loves working on this old thing with me. He's learning alot and he's handy to have around.