1977 fj45 resto project

[canadian marty]

hey my name is marty. I'm a total newb. i've been in love with cruisers since my teens and im only 22 now, so not that long. anyways some of you may have noticed my last thread about picking a 45 up from vancouver and driving it home to calgary. trip went great. so its been in my garage for a couple weeks now and im making progress on it. i am not doing a frame off resto this time around, i dont have the space or money. I am however trying to stall the overall deterioration of it so that a full resto will be easier if i decide to do one later down the road. i do have to pass an out of province inspection hopefully next spring, so this thing will be in top running condition if not in perfect condition.

sorry but this pic uploader is being stupid again. try again in a minute.

 

[canadian marty]

there we go. so you can see i emptied the cab of its seat and gas tank. as well as door panels that were falling apart. i'll be cleaning it all up and redoing the floor with some kind of sealer/paint. any idea's what i should use???

i also have the hub and ball joint apart to grease up the bearings, dont worry i added more to it than that. that pic was taken just before my daily canadian tire run. i got that side back together today, but i ordered a warn hub gasket kit from SOR that i will have to put on when it comes.

 

[canadian marty]

here's some pics of the rust. this is most of it except a couple spots on the body that i can leave alone for now. the hole in the cab is the same on both sides, kind of an awkward welding bit i think, but i'll work that out.

the bed... sucks. but i have good options. awl-teq says he might have another center piece for me for a decent price. but i really like the idea of putting a wooden deck inside the box. i know its not original, but if i ever do a full restoration, i'll probably buy a new box, since the sides are showing the usual rust. otherwise i can always order new box pieces then instead of now. i think i nice fir deck would look good no?

 

[yotawheeler]

i dunno how much experience u have with wood but.....a fir deck will be thrashed within a month if you actually use the truck as a truck, not only that but nice fir (even not so nice fir) is $$$. if you want a flat deck there are a few things i would cinsider...treated 2x4 or 2x6, there are some plastic boards that wont rot on u (dont remember the name, i dont work with it) or if you want to do a nice deck get some T&G oak (tongue and groove). oak will be alot harder and take a beating for a long long time. stain it with deck oil or something along those lines or...just use ATF fluid....just my take on it, havnt done a wooden flat deck myself but iv been around wood for a long time....fir is just too soft IMHO

 

[DanS HJ-45]

I'm a bit confused with that knuckle...

Did you just repack your wheel bearings and then smear some more grease into the knuckle? Why not just finish the job entirely and do the knuckles with new seals and new moly?

That cab is in great shape, and that bed isn't half bad. I wish my bed floor looked that good!

Dan

 

[canadian marty]

im not much of a mechanic, im not entirely sure what you mean either lol. I took the axles out to be sure, and i checked the axle seals to make sure they weren't cracked but then i packed the knuckle full of axle grease. i asked a few mechanics about the molybdenum disulphide lithium based grease the fsm talks about and they all said to just use general purpose axle grease. I also greased up the hubs/bearings as well as the lockers. i think it will suffice.