Builds Montana 65 FJ45LV "Tin Zen" (1 Viewer)

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Rear brakes and brake lines on. Test fit one of those massive Foam Cell Pro shocks to verify clearance all around. Got the wheels back on and the motor swinging from a makeshift hoist. Going to try and get the motor into the chassis today.

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Did the Foam Cell Shocks end up fitting? Will be curious to hear how they ride.
 
Did the Foam Cell Shocks end up fitting? Will be curious to hear how they ride.
The front driver's side shock lands about 5mm from the drag link. Not sure how much the leaf springs flex side to side but I expect there might be some contact between these pieces at some point. The other 3 shocks fit nicely.
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There was a cooked and blistered wire coming off the the alternator plug, also one coming off the voltage regulator. I started unwrapping the loom and discovered that it was two ends of the same wire, easy fix. Installed a new VR at the same time.
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Been using the uncut '67 FJ40 as a template to try and build the LV back as correct as possible. After replacing the junction blocks it was time to run some electricity and see what happens. The headlight switch required a little jiggling to engage. It could probably have been cleaned but I had an NOS switch on the shelf, so I used that. Put a new igniton switch in too, haven't wired it yet though.
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Been using the uncut '67 FJ40 as a template to try and build the LV back as correct as possible. After replacing the junction blocks it was time to run some electricity and see what happens. The headlight switch required a little jiggling to engage. It could probably have been cleaned but I had an NOS switch on the shelf, so I used that. Put a new igniton switch in too, haven't wired it yet though. View attachment 3007149View attachment 3007150View attachment 3007151View attachment 3007153View attachment 3007154
That all looks quite familiar!
 
More fun with CLR. That stuff is ridiculously toxic but it sure gets the job done.
Found a roll of cork gasket material at Napa for $8, spent 15 minutes and made some turn signal lense gaskets. Fuel sending unit gasket is next on the list.
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Tire shopping sure isn't what it used to be, just because you decide on a tire doesn't mean there are any to be had. After striking out several times I just ordered some bias-ply and tubed Astro Silverstones online, only to then learn that my rims won't take tubed tires. So it was back to the drawing board...
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After some more searching I was able to find some radial MT's that fit the bill, the directional Linglong Crosswind MT in a 205/80 R16. They run about 7" wide and about 29.5" tall, pretty healthy at 36lbs each too. The wheels are FJ Company 16" one-piece alloys with the hubcap clips removed, they stick out about 1/4" from where the steel wheel landed.
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Looking great Steve! I’ve never seen those wheels before. Looks cool!
 
Looking great Steve! I’ve never seen those wheels before. Looks cool!
Thank you very much Ken. I ordered the wheels pre-sale back in February at a reduced price, first set of aftermarket wheels I've ever bought for anything. They're made in Spain for FJ Company by Braid Wheels, nice quality.
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Put each door on the bench individually and cleaned and waxed them, then started re-installing them. Front doors received new wing window gaskets from Slocruisers, nice fit. All door hinges received new hinge gaskets from Cityracer, not an exact fit for these thick cast iron hinges but I think I can make them an exact fit with my Xacto knife.
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You have done a lot of work to this LV and it’s really looking great. Any projected date of the “first drive”?

( FYI - my LV first drive is probably about 5 or so years from now. 😵‍💫)
 
You have done a lot of work to this LV and it’s really looking great. Any projected date of the “first drive”?

( FYI - my LV first drive is probably about 5 or so years from now. 😵‍💫)
Thank you very much for the kind words. About the best I can hope for is to have this thing on the road by the end of summer. It's in the queue over at Classic Cruisers to get some systems finished off. They're replacing all the hard lines on the brakes, fabricating and installing the entire exhaust system, rebuilding and installing transfer case and finishing a little wiring. I've got a little list of items that I need to finish before it goes there.
I'm starting to get a little concerned with the upholstery situation, hopefully those benches come back soon.
Put another coat of paste wax on today instead of digging into the more complicated things I should be doing.
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Spent a total of about 5 hrs this weekend just on the tailights. I started with repairing the wiring to get them functional. Next was the lense screw issue. The car came with only 2 of the 10 original lense screws, the rest were drywall screws or no screws and a few holes were stripped out. I ended up going 1mm larger diameter screw, from an impossible to find M4x.75 screw to an M5x.80. Reptappped the holes and ground down the larger screw heads to fit in the countersunk lense hole.
After that I polished the lenses, added the new gaskets and tried them on.
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