"Vintaging" Elsie (1 Viewer)

[hairy_apple]

I thought I would make a "build" thread for my cruiser. I'm getting ready to hopefully do some major changes in the next few months and thought I would document it.

While I was in HS I started thinking I wanted a 4x4.. my dad had owned a cruiser before I was born and my family has always had 4x4s. Some of my best memories of being a kid were just exploring backroads. I started looking for a cruiser when I was 15.

Oddly enough, not more then a month after I had settled on wanting a cruiser, I looked up to see an orange FJ40 driving around at my neighbors house. I went over and asked if he was interested in selling it. Nope. OK. Well, that summer I did a bunch of work for him fixing his roof and fences and other work. Kept bugging him about the cruiser. Pretty much went and stared at it, sat in it... looked it over almost daily when I worked there.

Finally about 6 months go buy and he called me and said he's sell it to me. I was a pretty happy kid. Just had got my license and now I was already owning my dream car. Drove it home the next day after figuring out the whole 3 on the tree thing.

The day I bought it:

I thought I was pretty awesome being 17 with an FJ40

I wheeled it for years stock, being a broke kid who could barely put fuel in it, but it was reliable and was my DD through HS and college. All the while I dreamed of building it.

Finally got working full time and started building it when I was 20. Spring over and PS and disk brakes.

A year later the oil pressure gauge was showing no pressure and I ignored it thinking the gauge had to be wrong... it wasn't. V8 and SM40, new seats, new paint.

I wheeled it for a few more years like this and it was a great wheeler...

Now, I'm 28 and my cruiser is almost exactly what I wanted it to be when I was 16 and bought it... only thing is... my tastes have changed a lot. I tried and tried to make it a crawler and in doing so I feel like I lost a lot of the charm that made me fall in love with it to start with.

So... the plan now is in the next few months:

Widened stock wheels and hubcaps.

Repaint it the original color. It was orange when I got it, but it was spring green originally and I love that color.

New seats that are more of 70's vintage. Either stock buckets or Procars.

Replace all the emblems that I took off.



Long term plan for next year or so:

2FE to replace the V8. I have always kind of missed the F engine
H55 and split case with 4:1 gears to make up for losing the SM420



Basicly, I want to get some of that 60's sexiness back!

And make the drivetrain something that will make hopefully an even better wheeler and more reliable and more street friendly with a 5 speed.


Here is how it sits as of a few weeks ago:

 

[hairy_apple]

Bought a new emblem and repainted the bezel white again.

Also have been searching this week for Spring green paint that isn't $300 a gallon. Don't want nice paint as it's going to get wheeled still and don't want to spend that kind of money on paint just to scratch it and bash it into things all the time.

Also started searching for stock wheels and stock bucket seats. Found the wheels, going to hopefully pick them up Monday.

And in a little tribute to my dad's cruiser which had a wooden shifter I made these today. Also cleaned the paint off my apron emblems:

Tomorrow I'm going to finish them. Stain them nice and going to make an insert with the same emlem on the horn button to put on the top. Should be sweet.

 

[cruiserjunkie]

No 4to1 split case that I've ever seen. Marks gears aren't that deep. Looking forward to seeing this transform into a sleeper rig

 

[phishtaco]

No 4to1 split case that I've ever seen. Marks gears aren't that deep. Looking forward to seeing this transform into a sleeper rig

AA has 4-1 for split case.

 

[cruiserjunkie]

Since 2011 where have I been? Thanks now back to lurking

 

[cruiserpilot]

I like what you're doing. Really like those wood shifter knobs, interested to see what else transpires.
Are you going back to SUA, or not that far back?

 

[hairy_apple]

Nope, not that far back at all! My main goal for this stage is to get the looks close to factory without losing any wheeling ability. Thus, paint, seats, factory wheels and hubcaps. Still going to be SOA and V8/SM420 for now. There is no way my cruiser budget will allow the drive train swap any time soon. Right now, it's all about the looks. Getting it to look closer to that 60s look again.

Been working on the knob most of the morning. Pretty happy with most of how it came out. The threads on the shifter are stripped beyond any hope... so I'm going to have to epoxy it on there which kind of sucks, I wanted to thread it... but whatever. On my way now to my parents house to make the artwork for the insert on the top. I'll post pictures tonight when I'm done.

Also experimented with a few more rattlecan attempts to get something close to faded spring green. Issue I'm having is I've seen soooooo many variations on that color I have no idea what's right. The parts of mine that still have green are different all over... some is more blue, some is more green. I saw a cruiser last week that had faded to MINT green. I just can't seem to figure out what the correct color would have been. My doors have some REALLY nice paint on them on the inside. I am thinking I might just have to go ahead and spend the money and time and buy automotive paint and just do it right, but that will mean a ton of body work and stuff I didn't really want to take the effort to do. But.. I've got my heart set on Spring green and close just isn't working for me right now.

Searching CL for factory seats, or something that look good. GOing to go pick up the wheels Monday, then I'll have to figure out if I want to use my existing 10x15s and put the centers into them, or get 10x8s. From the reading I've been doing, most people with a 12.50 tire go with 8"(I like the way the factory wheels look at 8" too), but I really like the stance and handling of my cruiser the way it is now and don't want to change that with a narrower wheel. Plus to doing 10" is I can use my wheels I have now and save $$$. Going to need new tires by the end of this year one way or another. I'll see when I get there, I may just sell my back 10" and start from scratch with the widened ones in whatever size I pick.

 

[hairy_apple]

Very happy with how it came out. The Tcase one I'm going to redo, it was my practice one anyway. I've not really ever used a wood lathe before so I wanted to practice before using the nice chunk of oak I bought for this.

I think I'm going to make one for my 55 too. I really like how it came out.

 

[hairy_apple]

So I've spent most of the night reading on wheels. I am picking up a set of stock wheels Monday, and plan to widen them. However, I'm trying to figure out what size to widen them to.. 10" or 8.

Right now, I have 10" wheels. I love the way the cruiser sit on them. I don't know if I want to change that.

However, I understand that 8" wide wheels will hold the bead better, and I like the look of the 8" a lot better... the 10" look too deep to me. But then the tire seems shorter and fatter on an 8" and I don't really like that look at all. I like the straight sidewalls so it looks narrower and taller.

What will the disadvantages be to going to an 8"? I'm about a loss of handling on the road, and side to side stability off road.

I'm also worried about rubbing the leaf springs with an 8" and I don't want to have to run spacers which is seems like is an issue.

Backspacing on mine I think is 3.75... I think. I really like the way the narrower wheels look, but don't like the way it squishes the tires out fatter and don't really wan to change the way my cruiser handles for the worse.

As far as holding the bead better... I've aired down to 5-6lbs in the snow and only had one come off once and it was because it was leaking and went totally flat. So I have not really found it to be an issue.

 

[JohnnyC]

Liking the old school toyota motors incert ... Did you make them? Or buy them?

 

[hairy_apple]

Thanks. I made them. I Just found 1" clear glass and printed out the logo and glued it between two of the glass parts. Counter sunk it into the shifter and glued the whole thing in. Came out sweet.

 

[Chamba]

Bought a new emblem and repainted the bezel white again.

Also have been searching this week for Spring green paint that isn't $300 a gallon. Don't want nice paint as it's going to get wheeled still and don't want to spend that kind of money on paint just to scratch it and bash it into things all the t.

Buy yourself a decent paint gun, a gallon of reasonable acrylic urethane and borrow a decent compressor. I bet you'll spend less than you will for the equivalent in rattle cans and it will be significantly more durable.

Great plans for the rig-nothing beats a stock cruiser drive train for character and all around usability.

 

[hairy_apple]

I found a place that said they can match whatever I bring them in an industrail paint, the paint on the inside of my doors is pretty good so I think I'll bring them a door tomorrow and get it mixed. It was like $50 a gallon so pretty reasonalble. My dad's got a a spray gun or two so I'll borrow one and do that.

 

[69LC]

I just clicked on one of your photos and it showed me your photobucket photos. I really liked the one of my old aircraft.

Did you blow up an Optima battery?

 

[DSRTRDR]

I found a place that said they can match whatever I bring them in an industrail paint, the paint on the inside of my doors is pretty good so I think I'll bring them a door tomorrow and get it mixed. It was like $50 a gallon so pretty reasonalble. My dad's got a a spray gun or two so I'll borrow one and do that.

for my rig, we are planing to have the paint flattened to match the patina in the front, since only the rear will be newly sprayed

 

[hairy_apple]

I just clicked on one of your photos and it showed me your photobucket photos. I really liked the one of my old aircraft.

Did you blow up an Optima battery?

Which old aircraft... I had a ton of pictures of planes in there. ha ha.

No, the battery was not the issue, I had a fuel fire last year that ate up everything soft in my engine bay. Very uncool. The battery is all blackened and singed and looks aweful, and has worked fine. No issues at all even with it being so nasty looking. Not sure I would trust it to be the only battery way out in the middle of nowhere, but I haven't replaced it yet because... well, it's still working fine.


As far as the paint... going to spend most of tomorrow trying to figure out if I can get it matched to the doors. If not, I'm going to rattlecan it with the green I found this week that's damn close to faded spring green and call it good for now until I can afford the real deal. I have a lot of body work I'd like to do before spending any real cash on paint.

I think a rattlecan job will be fine for now if I can't get the door paint matched in an industrial paint.

Didn't get any work done this weekend on anything other then the shifter. Ended up going with my parents and cousin up to Tahoe. She wanted to take her kids who have never been to CA (live in Florida) to Tahoe. Nice day, saw a bunch of nice crusiers through out the day and made me want to be driving mine.

Tomorrow though, nothing to do so I'm going to tear her apart and start sanding and get it primed for paint. Not going to go nuts, just want to get the edges of the chips smoothed out and the paint that's pealed from the fire removed. Most likely not going to go all the way to bare metal for now. Just clean it up and prime it and I'm hoping to have it painted by the end of the week. Going to the Rubicon next weekend and would love to have it green by then.

 

[hairy_apple]

And pictures because threads are boring without them.

Shifter installed and test painting.

Last one is pretty close....

 

[hairy_apple]

Minty!!!

Long day of sanding. But I love the color. It looks great. Going to get the other side finished up tomorrow and I'll be a happy camper to have it minty green. Not quite the "spring green" but very very close. Close enough.

I really plan to do a frame off on this thing in a few years when I'll do all the body work and make it perfect, but I'm very happy so far.

 

[Chamba]

I think we all need to chip in to a 'masking tape fund' for you.

Looking nice - will be nice to have her all one shade of green, eh?

 

[hairy_apple]

Ha ha.. I'll tape off anything that isn't going to get repainted. The roll bar is getting worked on and repainted before I put it all back together so I wasn't too worried about it. The gas cap I wasn't sure if I wanted it painted or not. After doing it, I should have taped it off and left it bare. Wire wheel time...

I am totally loving the color. I wobbled a lot on even repainting it at all because it's been orange for so long... everyone knows my orange cruiser in town. But I am happy, it looks awesome.