Build 1960 FJ28L - Project Lara

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We are getting oh so close on the body finally. Should have some good photos to share soon. I’m heading back to Phoenix in a couple weeks to start kitting all the rest of the parts together for the reassembly once we get her painted. So I may be on here begging for parts soon but I think I have 99% of what I need to put to together - mostly thanks to this community.

One thing I know would be nice to have is a hood spear in excellent condition. I have one but it’s a little bit rough, and difficult to restore. They’re on eBay fairly often but don’t see any at the moment.
 
A few teasers, the split hood is finished and the window channel covers.

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Had a good visit last week kitting parts for Lara, got me a bit excited again looking through all the parts I spent so much time trying to find. She is ready for paint but there are a few loose ends we are trying to figure out before we paint, so we don’t have to make any holes again… one of them is how to vent the clamshell heater. I am thinking at this point of using the early 40 series vent (60-71 I believe), which the cover plates are easy to find. However I would like to find the recessed cowl piece the vent mounts to, to cut-in to the 28 cowl. I posted a wanted ad below, let me know if anyone has an old cowl they’d be willing to cut for me.
forum.ih8mud.com

Wanted - 1960-1971 40 series side cowl piece for blower motor vent

We are finishing up our body work on the Fj28 (see link in signature line if you aren’t familiar with the build) and trying to figure out a clean way to route the fresh air vent for the clamshell heater. I have the vent piece itself (first photo) but would like to find someone with an old cowl...
forum.ih8mud.com forum.ih8mud.com
 
pardion said:
Yes, interchangeable.
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The FJ40 and FJ45 vent is the same as the One for a FJ28? Never seen these vents on anything before the factory heater started in 1964. Thought the earlier FJ45 van had a early heater with a different vent for outside are.

Believe by 66 it was a horizontal vent that with the blank plate could be spot welded on either side to make the good for RHD or LHD. Diagonal were either RHD or LHD. Heater was an option on the 65 models. So not only used for a short time they were an optional.

I assume you got this covered John?
 
Living in the Past said:
The FJ40 and FJ45 vent is the same as the One for a FJ28? Never seen these vents on anything before the factory heater started in 1964. Thought the earlier FJ45 van had a early heater with a different vent for outside are.

Believe by 66 it was a horizontal vent that with the blank plate could be spot welded on either side to make the good for RHD or LHD. Diagonal were either RHD or LHD. Heater was an option on the 65 models. So not only used for a short time they were an optional.

I assume you got this covered John?
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EDIT: did the clamshell just pull air from inside the cab??? I’ve only ever seen the diagrams for the early 45LV, which had the cowl vent. But the 45LV also did not have kick vents.
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The heater has to have an intake somewhere right? I have never seen how that worked on a 25 with the clamshell, so I’m just trying to find a clean way to do it.

The earlier 45LV has a similar cowl vent but it’s a slightly different size. I’m sure I’ll never find one of those… the later 45LV had the same recessed cowl vent as the 40. Since that was also Gifu-built, I think that’s as close as I’m going to get. sometimes I have to be realistic about the parts I can find and just try to make it look as clean as I can.
 
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I have seen and touched 4 early wagons with clam shell heaters. 2 had a triangular metal addition plus a rudimentary flex to bring air w a kick vent (sorry, lost all my photos). The other two were just recirculating types with no fresh air intake. I would go with later.
 
rick_d said:
I have seen and touched 4 early wagons with clam shell heaters. 2 had a triangular metal addition plus a rudimentary flex to bring air w a kick vent (sorry, lost all my photos). The other two were just recirculating types with no fresh air intake. I would go with later.
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Thanks @rick_d I think this is the direction I’m leaning too - just recirculating.
 
pardion said:
It’s almost time for an update.
I see a HOT SPELL is going to hang around.
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It’s been a productive few months. We are waiting to paint until we are 100% sure we have every hole in that body that needs to be there. In the meantime have been focusing on restoring and fitting parts. Mated the DD40 up to the FA intake the other day on the engine, that was pretty cool. Got the steering box refurbished and installed. Air cleaner, etc

It’s starting to feel like a fun project again!

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scoobiedubes said:
It’s been a productive few months. We are waiting to paint until we are 100% sure we have every hole in that body that needs to be there. In the meantime have been focusing on restoring and fitting parts. Mated the DD40 up to the FA intake the other day on the engine, that was pretty cool. Got the steering box refurbished and installed. Air cleaner, etc

It’s starting to feel like a fun project again!

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Ohh and got the PTO on. But sadly in all these shop moves we somehow misplaced the PTO lever 😭 will end up having to try to make something.
 
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