1964 FJ45 LB “RB1” Project

[miker]

Here's a couple of the wheel well and one of the the rear bed side and corner post.

 

[merbesfield]

Send it over to buckroseau, he can fix that roof no problem. did it bend the door frame? it does not look bent?

 

[miker]

Send it over to buckroseau, he can fix that roof no problem. did it bend the door frame? it does not look bent?

Didn't bend the door but it did bend the door opening.

Would be great to have buckroseau fix it but it would be a long drive to get it to his shop.

 

[miker]

Spent some time on the passenger's side bed panel. Have the wheel opening cut to size. Once it was cut, I had to flatten the section at the front of the wheel well. It turned out pretty good after using a hammer and dolly and then a shrinker around the edge. Next I started to weld in the wheel well lip I made from 18ga and the same shrinker tool. First two pictures show the wheel well lip and some welding.

3rd Picture is the bed side clamped back in place on the bed.

 

[Coolerman]

Excellent! I thought I was nuts (cause it took so long) when I welded a lip to my quarters, but it made them so much stronger!

 

[miker]

Excellent! I thought I was nuts (cause it took so long) when I welded a lip to my quarters, but it made them so much stronger!

No kidding. I still havent finished one side yet. I think now I should have attempted to roll a new lip. Oh well, live and learn. I plan to do some more welding on it as I watch the Daytona 500 this weekend.

 

[Rhinoliner]

Your project is looking great. Sorry about the tree, BTDT.

 

[miker]

Your project is looking great. Sorry about the tree, BTDT.

Thanks.

The 62 is back from the shop. Its not fixed. I'm looking at other options.

 

[merbesfield]

Miker, A couple of questions?
1. when you do the long bends for the bed, do you use a spacing jig to keep each bend consistent? If not, how are you measuring and as you start the pressing does the metal try to move? Or does it just stay on the line and just sink right into the piece as you press?

2. how long doe it take to press one ridge?

3. with the 3-20 ton jacks, would you say the metal creases easily or are the jacks strained?

4. same question as #3, but with regards to the double rounded end pressing for the wheel wells. how hard are they to press.

I have a 25 ton single press. Trying to figure if it is strong enough to press small stuff like the wheel well sizes or rounded ends only. I am almost finished with my jig for small pressings like your wheel well size.

 

[miker]

Miker, A couple of questions?
1. when you do the long bends for the bed, do you use a spacing jig to keep each bend consistent? If not, how are you measuring and as you start the pressing does the metal try to move? Or does it just stay on the line and just sink right into the piece as you press?

I'm just using a tape measure and taking into account how much the metal will shrink with each bend. I figured that out by trial and error. The metal does not move out of alignment once there is pressue on it however the metal does not stay still, it moves up or down depending on the dies. Here is a couple tips: make sure the metal and the dies are very clean. Use a liberal amount of a very low viscosity lubricant on the dies and/or metal. Once you make one bend (rib), clean the dies and the metal before you start another one. WD-40 worked pretty good for me and its fairly cheap.

2. how long doe it take to press one ridge?

Several minutes because I'm using several jacks, I try to press them equally so it takes some time.

3. with the 3-20 ton jacks, would you say the metal creases easily or are the jacks strained?

I don't think the jacks are strained but the frame is definitely being strained. Sometimes scary strained.

4. same question as #3, but with regards to the double rounded end pressing for the wheel wells. how hard are they to press.

Easier (because they were shorter) than the longer bed ribs. I don't know the formula for calculating the force required of a particular bend but after my experimenting, I would not be surprized to find out the length of the piece being formed is a square (like, power of 2).

The problem I have with the rounded end ribs is that the metal will not shrink at the ends as much as along the length. Once you give it a try you will know. Perhaps your machine is better designed than mine and you will have better results.

Let me know how it goes.

 

[merbesfield]

On the shorter presses, do you use all three jacks? Or will my one 25 ton be enough to press say a 18-20" punch with curves at each end? What would happen if you heated the end curve just as you were pressing it? Would the metal just warp all to hell and become weak? I may just press some end pieces to use as fillers, those would be easier to do. I have a 52" brake/shear but your method looks much easier.

 

[miker]

On the shorter presses, do you use all three jacks? Or will my one 25 ton be enough to press say a 18-20" punch with curves at each end? What would happen if you heated the end curve just as you were pressing it? Would the metal just warp all to hell and become weak? I may just press some end pieces to use as fillers, those would be easier to do. I have a 52" brake/shear but your method looks much easier.

The rounded ribs don't seem to be much, if any, harder to press than an equal length rib without the ends. From my experience, heating only the ends would not help the biggest issue, and that is the difference in the amount the metal is stretching vs. bending from end to end. The ends ARE stretching with my machine but along the length there is very little stretching. Along the length its more of a bending action. Heating at the ends would seem to just increase the stretching where the stretching is already occurring. I think the way to do it and end up with flat metal where the metal is supposed to be flat would be to somehow force the metal to stretch along the entire length. I donlt know how to heat that much metal and not create a bigger issue with warping from the heat.
Heating the metal would definitely make it easier to form but again I don't know how you would control the warping on sheet metal. I thought about heat as well but I've never tried it. Most of my experience with heat and flat metal ends up with a pile of scrap.

Using one jack across 18 to 20" on mine, it would probably not be well formed end to end. Two or three jacks is what I would use on mine for that length. When I did the longer ones (66") for the bed, I would move the jacks around to be sure I had fully shaped the metal end-to-end. The center jack basically stayed in place and then I would press the two outer ones, move them, then press again, etc.

I can press just a small end piece or a single rib with rounded ends and not have too much distortion as long as I don't have too much overhang of flat metal surrounding it. Again, it all comes down to controling the stretching from end to end.

 

[malcb]

Your rounded ribs look excellent, I can see why the ends, or the corners would thin as they are formed. I have noticed that on lots of beds etc with ribs taper gradualy in thickness at the edges of the corrugation to make the change in depth less steep at the ends, I suppose more important with deep ribs.

I was wondering if you considered ganging all the handles together as your jacks are the same but as you describe moving the jack around I suppose it wouldn't be worthwhile, perhaps if you had five jacks it would help.

Great thread - you have given me hope that I might be able to make the bed I have presentable - probably false hope as I don't think my skills come close to yours and don't have the time at the moment to improve them much. Still I can hope.

I like the length and proportions you have come up with, one of my 45's has no bed and will get shortened after the axle. I do have to agree though the "right" thing is to shorten both the wheel base and the rear overhang. My frame manual shows the overall frame length on the 43 as 422mm (approx 16.5") shorter than the 45 and the wheel base 220mm (approx 8.5") shorter.

 

[miker]

What is wrong with this picture?

What is wrong with this tailgate?

 

[miker]

Here is a hint.

 

[miker]

Bigger hint...

 

[Henry James the 47th]

pressed the wrong way - the raised field around the 'TOYOTA' letters is pressed in instead of out. Is that what you mean?

 

[miker]

pressed the wrong way - the raised field around the 'TOYOTA' letters is pressed in instead of out. Is that what you mean?

The picture is not that great so it might look that way but no, the raised section is pressed the correct way.


The tape measure is the clue.

 

[miker]

The answer:

The tailgate is about 9" narrower than stock. If you look at the stock tailgate (painted one in post #175) you might see that the spacing between the letters is different than the unpainted one (post #174, and 176).

I removed a little less than 2" between each letter.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Alright then, wrong-o.

I have no idea what the measurement should be (obviously too long or too short) so I'll bow out of this puzzler. It was fun - any consolation prizes?