Builds FJ45SWB recovered from a barn (1 Viewer)

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Truck is outside, but I brought in the 1962 tunnel with massive holes in it from several different tranny & engine combos. Laid the rusted 1978 tunnel cover on it and fingered out that it was wider, shaped different, yadda... But both covers fit against the firewall exactly the same way.

Using the firewall flange as the datum point, the 4speed tunnel was cut into pieces until it was just the right height & had the 4 speed shifter hole in the right spot. 2 pieces of 16ga scrap were put in the press & rolled to match the top radius of the original cover.
Then came the time consuming final shaping & trimming. Just got done with that.

Tomorrow: weld up these random scraps & test fit in truck. Then grind down welds & paint.
I have found a can of Rust-Oleum decorator satin spray paint that matches the dull OE paint. Should the hump be painted body color or gloss black to match the POR15 on the rest of floor?

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Checking in over a bite of fast food. Showed Tina the pic, and she spontaneously asked if you were preparing for the 24 hours of Lemons? LOL.

IMO , yours is way better than the geter dun crowd.
 
Not preparing the 45 for 24HL.

But I have been helping prepare a '77 Monza. We race 2 weeks from now.

I gave a rusted out 78 Fj40 to another team, but they haven't managed to make it into the hat car I was promised. May have to take it back and drape it over a Miata.
 
Braking news (get it? Ha!)

When I threw this together I had in stock the common 1" 4R/FJ80 MC, so I hung it and ran the lines. But it proved to be way too weak with manual brakes. Initial calculations using the brake size calculator from BillaVista's brake page say a 11/16"MC was needed.

So I ordered a reman 4R turbo MC with 13/16" bore, which reduced piston area from .785in^2 down to .518in^2.
That translates to a 1.52x increase in braking force.

The MC arrived from Rockauto and I was pleased to see it was a remanufactured Toyota/Aisin MC with the correct Aluminum body.
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It got dressed up with an FJ60 reservoir.

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It was bolted on and bled. It seemed to work OK, but was not 100% confidence inspiring. It felt like sometimes the pedal was lower than it should be. Eventually the symptom became regular enough that I was able to catch it in the act, finding the piston was not fully returned, even though pedal was all the way up. The MC was disassembled & inspected, nothing was found terribly amiss, so it was cleaned out, greased & reassembled, worked good for a day, but was acting up again shortly. Rockauto said send it back, but we have no more, so you can have a store credit instead of a warranty replacement.

No problem, I decided to order a brand new Aisan. They didn't have it in an ADVICS box, but did have one in a Centric box. It was $100, but worth it for OEM quality. Here's what I ordered:

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Note the OEM correct colored connector, correct reservoir, correct aluminum construction, correct gold anodized fittings, yadda yadda.

Here's what arrived:
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Nothing OEM about that cast-iron MC. Kinda expensive for chinese crap when other chinese crap is $50. :mad:

But, there wasn't much choice. It does have proper fit, correct 13/16 bore, so it gets installed.
The good news is it works. It has good feel, good pedal effort and it fully returns every time the pedal is released. Brakes are done.
 
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One last thing, to bring this up to date. Finished welding up the tunnel cover. Showed it off to the old farts hotrod club. They said "That's real good, just a little bondo and all those welds will disappear." Uhh, no. I'm not ashamed of my fab work, why should it be hidden by filler?

Bottom side was wirewheeled, painted with rusty metal primer, then rubberized undercoating. Top was primed & painted with rustoleum decorator beige.
After all the rattlecan coatings were laid on and dry (took about a week altogether), installed with new generic weatherstripping. Only 2 holes are empty because of broken off M6 bolts. Otherwise, all fasteners are in, 1983 FJ60 boot is installed. It's much more civilized to ride in.

Done:
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Went the local airport this morning for open house/fly-in/EAA breakfast/carshow.
The weather was good, so I decided to drive the 45. When we pulled in, they said "Oh, you're here with the vintage cars? OK, park right there next to the hangar." Yes, OK, sure.
Bear in mind, this truck has not been washed since the 1980s.
So the FJ45 bespoiled their vintage car display.

One of these does not belong:
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It's been a while, time for an update. Overall, truck has been running, driving, steering & stopping just fine.
Been noodling away at the punch list over the last several months:
- Fuel gage was essentially inop, even with good wiring and a new sending unit. Found that bimetallic gage arm had been cooked, resulting in a permanent E reading. The bimetallic element was bent back straight-ish using tiny needle-nose pliers, then finer adjustments were made with the adjuster tab in the gage. After some more fiddling it was deemed 'close enough' when an empty tank read E and a full tank read about 3/4. A new gage is the correct fix, but the E-72 gage is NLA.
- Turn signals were inop. First thing was to R&R and rebuild the TS switch. Testing with VOM showed it was not making good contact much of the time. After prying it open, cleaning out old desert dust & petrified grease, it worked a peach. Now the brake light would reliably go out and come back on when the lever was flipped. Digging around up in the dash, 2 empty spade connectors were located. DVOM testing showed that one was connected to turn lever, other was switched power. New ebay adjustable, solid state flasher was installed, and it works. Blinkers are blinking once again.
- There was an unconnected mechanical oil pressure gage in the dash that was reading off the previous SBC. The 1/8" copper line was re-routed to get down to the oil cooler. One of the big oil cooler banjo bolts was drilled & tapped to 1/8NPT. A connector from 1/8NPT to 1/8"compression was sourced from local CarQuest store. With everything hooked up, there is now a reliable oil pressure reading. 55 cold, 25 hot idling.
- The stock oil idiot light did not have a wire connected to it. A new wire was connected to stud on instrument panel, run out to OP switch mounted in big oil cooler banjo bolt. With key on, light is on; engine running, light is off.
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- Stock temp gage had no wire either. Ran wire from temp gage stud, out to NOS E-72 temp sender mounted in tall sender adapter on top of head. Gage does move with power on, but it doesn't move far enough. It has apparently been cooked, similar to the fuel gage.

That was enough for one saturday.
 
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Those sure are some shiny tires...looks good. Need a hubcap on that spare?
 
Does it need a hubcap? Yes.
Am I gonna buy another $80 hubcap to put on the spare? No.

Now that you mention it, I have some dinged up 1970's hubcaps. Maybe one of them should go on there just to give it a little more finished appearance.
 
Decided to update to modern tires for improved reliability, drivability and a little rubber overdrive.

Pics of the truck on new 30" tires are on other computer, oops.

But that leaves 5 shiny Dunlop Snow Cruiser 78s in the trash pile. They are round, hold air & have legal tread depth. Free for the picking. Post here or email if interested.
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Been busy fixing other details. Pics to come tonight when it's snowing. Too nice outside to be on interwebs right now.
 
Jim - hard to tell but it looks like you still have the masonite-like panels in the interior back wall of your cab? If so, what do you think of them? I’m trying to decide if I should attempt to replace mine (only a small piece left) or bag them and fill-weld all the sheet metal screw holes.
 
Random thread update!

New 30x9.50 tires. That's the tallest that will go under the rear fenders. Anything else is too wide and too tall, touches the front of the wheelwell under compression.

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Got tired of the rusty OEM hub bolts staring at me through the center of the new hubcaps. Replaced with stainless, since this part is not loaded.
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Sits a little taller now, drives better, rides better.

Edit: also visible in this pic, 2 functional wipers! Removed the seized DS wiper motor, disassembled and found that the 50 year old grease in the motor had turned to lacquer, seizing the shaft in place. cleaning & new grease got it moving again. Cobbled together a wiper arm & blade and driver side was fully functional. On the passenger side the motor is missing entirely. Tried rebuilding used Japanese motor that @pardion sent me, but it was DOA, broken gears inside. Next, install new Taiwan universal army Jeep motor (also from Pardi care package). Shortened the shaft slightly and it fits.

Also removed bezel and sanded off black rattlecan paint & a few rust spots, exposing 95% of the original paint. Wiped it with Fluid Film to keep the rusty spots from re-rusting.
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Recent underhood updates: Traded the group 27 battery out of another Cruiser, because it is the correct battery for this tray & holddown. Yes, a 27F is the perfectly correct size, but since this early truck doesn't have any accessory wires connected to the battery, I'll let it slide.
Installed a Toyota coolant overflow jug on custom mount.
Installed cold ram air pipe on air cleaner snorkel. Eagle-eyed observers will note that the plastic pipe is actually a heater duct from FJ60.
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Worked on some interior stuff:
Serviced the sticky cable for 4wd vac valve, got it working. Connected vac hose from manifold to valve, vac hoses from pipes to T-case. Pulled knob, green light on dash illuminates to confirm t-case has actually shifted.

Rebuilt the 'Vader light', wired it to a fuse, got it working.

Not visible: pulled wire from fuse to cig lighter, it works now. Pulled wire from fuse to 12V trouble light plug.

Yellow light is oil pressure idiot light, working as designed. Red light is TS indicator, caught mid-flash in pic.
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What year F135 came with that small window single barrel versus the big window? Does one do better than the other?

Edit....that is a cool cluster. What year were they used?

Its an FJ60 motor Nolen.
 

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