Build 1977 FJ40 Rebuild – Focus on Custom Stainless Tub

[psmbfuer]

Wow. Awesome. Just started reading thru. Having the right tools is key.

Thanks Tommy and welcome to the thread. As you said, the right tools certainly help, and a baseline set is mandatory for a given job. And for a home shop, we are in very good shape, but I have always been of the mindset to be creative with the tools that you have, and of course to judiciously grow that set as new jobs come along. I'm not much for borrowing, but renting also has a place in all of this, as does farming out certain work when needed, for example, sandblasting.

With the automotive and the household projects, my rough rule of thumb is that I allow myself to buy new tools / equipment that cost roughly 20% of what the job might have cost if I had hired it out to a professional - and if a new tool is not required, I save the ~20%, accumulating for larger / more expensive goodies.
And if you do this for 35+ years, you can wind up with a very good baseline - same process as saving for retirement - start early and be consistent.

There is always the next tool, and I still want to buy a bona fide tube bender, for example, but have generally found ways around needing it, and I simply don't have the space for anything else - unless I put up a pole barn

 

[psmbfuer]

@psmbfuer everytime I see your welding photos I want to drag out my welder and melt some metal.. these are such great fabrication talents. Fortunately my flap discs can make up what my fine detail welding can’t.

Here s a quick question…. My Millermatic 211 has .023, .030 and .035. What might you suggest is a happy medium for under 3/16 and then over 1/4 steel? The .023 seems to bunch up in the cabinet and not feed as easily into the hose. Being stiffer, the other go thru easily but, I think I’m am missing out using the .023 for finer gauge

Sorry that I missed this @knuckle47, and I'm with you and often use grinding as the finer side of certain welds.

Regarding wire size use, I have a chart on the inside of my machine, and also use the "Miller Weld Setting Calculator" Android App, if I'm unsure, but here are some general guidelines:

• Under 18, I would likely change to .023
• 18 to 3/16", .030.
• 1/4 and up, .035, but you can get away with .030 here as well.
• I'm also on the lazy side when it comes to changing wire, so I'm a bit flexible around the edge conditions when doing a quick / small job that I can make due with the loaded wire.

And you likely already know this, but if you are experiencing nesting problems with .023, you might be forgetting to lower the tension on the wire feed roller. There are several ways that people recommend to do this, but I like taking off the gloves and holding the wire exiting the gun between my index finger and thump, then pinch slowly as I feed the wire, until the wire stops. When the wire has stopped, it should be slipping back at the roller - if you have the tension too tight, the roller will force the wire to bend and start a the nest.

 

[jesus888]

We also decided that for a long drive it was worth the time to put in some carpet to help control the noise - not sure how impactful this will be, but none the less - easier to do now than before final seat install.

We also decided, with some amount of debate (most in my own head), to install rubber beneath the carpet in the rear to help with sound deadening and to protect the floor from heavy object edges. The reason for the self-debate is that once water gets under the rubber, it will keep the surface of the floor wet for a very long time, almost indefinitely it seems, and obviously promote the return of corrosion on the rear and passenger floors, which are still carbon steel. That said, we are going to be diligent with checking for moisture, and for now decided to go with the rubber underlay. We also considered adhesive backed sound deadening, and we might install it on the stainless wheel wells and front floor, but I'm not brave enough to install it on the carbon steel floors.

The rubber is from TSC, and is 1/4" thick and I believe was the 48 x 96" roll. The carpet is a Vevor Marine Carpet. We used a circular saw to cut the mat to size. We set the circular saw blade to ~1/8" depth to gouge a line across the rubber, so it will flex at the two bends on the rear floor. We cut several of these gouges on the rubber where it needs to form an acute bend so the rubber doesn't pinch itself, and bends more readily. And while I don't have a separate pic of it, there is a roughly 2" deep wooden shelf beneath the rubber that was positioned properly to allow us to cut the mat, while keeping the blade out of the stones. And don't worry, we kept Finn safe and well away while cutting - he loves to play ball.
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Below, there are two primary cuts that align to the bends in the rear floor. If you look closely, you will see multiple cuts on the bottom line, and just one on the top line.
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It is very difficult to see the bends in the next two pics, but after placing several additional gouges across the acute bend, the rubber does flow with the floor bends rather well.
View attachment 3872104View attachment 3872101
Now, the front driver's carpet.
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Below, the transmission cover is primed and painted. If you are paying close attention, you will see that we have not made any effort to finish the welds on the transmission cover at this point. Time will tell if we ever do get back to it, but in that the weld and lines are fairly clean, they don't bother me in a location like this - I actually kind of like them - a reminder of the story-line. The seat support below has two slices so the carpet can fit inside and around the foot portion, so it can be easily removed, at least prior to the battery and component re-installation (which again, were later removed anyway).
View attachment 3872100

So now that you're putting some miles on her... what are your thoughts on the TSC custom floor mats? Do you love them? Hate em? What would you do different? Do you think they help much with sound resonance etc? They certainly look great...

 

[psmbfuer]

The TSC rubber flooring base layer and the carpet have has been excellent. The carpet is easy to clean. The rubber base stays perfectly in place, so quite happy overall.

Regarding sound / noise, the 40 is my most frequently driven vehicle, but I take it out mostly for coffee, going out to eat, and other local runs - not so much on the highway, which would be the true test for noise.

Also, while we had the hard top on, it was fairly quiet for a 40, but we only drove it with the hard top for about a year, and for the last two years, it has been soft top only, year round, so road noise was quickly replaced by wind noise.

I also never made the custom flooring for the passenger side front or tunnel, the inside of my hard top is bare fiberglass, and I have nothing on the firewall, so I have a long way to go to fully address noise, but until we decide to go back to the hard top that won't happen. I would also need to cover the wheel wells and the inside of the quarter panels, and I would add real sound deadening material to the equation in some locations. But since we drive it as a convertible year round, we haven't pursued any of these upgrades.

If you are looking for more about sound deadening, @wimberosa gets into it fairly deep, starting here and again here.

Good luck.