1966 FJ45LV restoration/buildup project (1 Viewer)

[merbesfield]

Progress

4.5 hours Saturday. Worked on turning the pile of rusted metal into solid steel. Got a couple of pieces of the main support redone and the floor patch started.

 

[merbesfield]

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[merbesfield]

Got a good 4 hours in today.

Worked on the rear floor patches. Got the middle one mostly done. Need to add a small piece of filler and it will be done. Next came the hard one. The rear corner. It required hand forming rounded ends and turning the ribs at 90 degrees to the main floor pan ribs. Lot of hand work, but not too difficult. Used some forms I fabed up to help and creative thinking. It is mostly finished, but I did not have time today to start smoothing the metal from all the hand working marks or close up the seams with the welder. Also still have to trim to size and bend one more 90 on the other side and weld corner together. First pic shows large panel I bent, second and third show middle patch fitted and ready to burn in.

 

[merbesfield]

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RR floor pan corner.

 

[merbesfield]

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[1tontoy]

Nice Work!!

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Yes - great hammer work!!

 

[merbesfield]

Thanks guys. We are off to St. Augustin, FL for a family wedding so no Cruiser work until next week. I picked up a nice HD Rotary four post lift from the Land Rover dealer. They were remodeling. I am having it installed at the shop tomorrow. Should be a big help for us. Will post up pics next week.

 

[Chamba]

Yes - great hammer work!!

OK, my dream team for the Cruiser makeover would have you and Kevin on it, that's for sure.

Nice work, and I'm glad your back is back. I can't wait to see this thing all done - it is going to be amazing.

Josh

 

[Lucy_FJ55]

WOW! Nice hammer work! Keep it up.


... and thanks for sharing!

 

[merbesfield]

4 hours today. These rear qtrs. are eating some time that is for sure. But getting close to having one side done.

 

[merbesfield]

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[merbesfield]

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[merbesfield]

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more 4. Last one is the Birthday present I bought myself.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Nice!

You'll love the helmet. I recently bought one and had no idea how lame the helmet I was using before was. Night and day difference!

Dan

 

[merbesfield]

I was able to use the helmet a little this weekend and you are correct, amazing difference. I just kept putting it off trying to be practical. What a joke. If you do not have a good helmet do yourself a favor and get one. It may be hard to weld, but it is almost impossible to weld well with a crappy helmet. So happy I got it.

 

[merbesfield]

Worked about 4 hours on Thursday beating the PS quarter back from nothing. Then spent another 6+ hours today fine tuning it and working on the lower quarter panel. It may not look like much, but given what I started with, I am very pleased. There will be very little filler. After blasting away the bondo, the qtr was really smashed in. Took lots of time working the metal to get it back to specs. Great upper body workout. You can really tell these trucks were all hand built. The original part was hand hammered IMO bc the entire piece has hammer marks all on the inside, before I started. I included some before pics.

 

[merbesfield]

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[merbesfield]

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[merbesfield]

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