1978 LPB Teardown and Rebuild

[Awl_TEQ]

Flywheel, clutch in and motor attached

ready for the chassis

teardown of the mine motor ready to begin

 

[Awl_TEQ]

The next few posts will be pics of the teardown - more for my own reference than anything else.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

 

[Awl_TEQ]

I used the powder masking tape cuz it was all I had. I bead blasted these and clear coated them.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

This is after the first coat. I put a few more on and it looks pretty good in person.

I could have dropped it in this way...

but decided on this way instead

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Ah, right - the tube cross member! Here's the skinny. The drum will not allow me to get the crossmember into position. So I took it off for now. Because the drum may need to come off for service at some point the tube will have to move several inches back. At this point I plan to fully remove the tube, patch the holes in the frame rails and hole saw new ones further back. I may have to change the obround frame hole behind the tube into a round hole to gain some real estate.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Tub

I've got the tub upside down on a couple of saw horses. The basic plan is to extend the doghouse cutout by 7" to match the 7" added by the Toybox. That means the hat channel cross member has to move as well. I started by drilling out the spot welds to get it out of the way.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

I also plan to copy miker's tube under the tub for the roll cage and tub mount so the two x-braces need to come off as well.

the two round holes are an earlier misguided attempt to deal with the roll cage. They will be filled.

here is the rust that we saw inside the cab earlier in the thread.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Apologies for the poor photography - the colors blend on the screen

So I want to maintain a stockish look to any alterations I do (ha,ha..) so I want to keep the three ribs directly in the path of the cut. So I will take out 7" in the middle of the ribs and keep the rib ends to weld back together - if that makes sense - and move the original end back that 7". Trouble is the one rib is right in the way of a straight line cut so I will cut wider on the right side in this view.



I'll let the pictures talk

 

[Awl_TEQ]

During the planning of the cut I did not notice the center rib changes in width. I'll just hammer the two edges closer and weld/ grind it.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

I made sure to leave enough material to let me hammer up (or down) a lip to match

All welded up - cept for the edge by the fuel tank well

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Time to fill in the gap. You can't see it but there is a 1/4 x 2" chunk of copper bar clamped underneath.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

cleaned up - left enough material to hammer up a flange

all done phase one

Here I have the cross member set in the stock location. It has to go back in but the fuel tank well is in the way. Since I am removing the tank from the cab I am going to ditch the well as well. I'll cut it out and fab up a panel that matches the other side of the floor. Then I'll move all three pieces of the cross member back 7". Once that is done I'll re-evaluate the stiffness of the floor and act accordingly.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

so this is where the cross member needs to be

 

[Awl_TEQ]

I'll patch this too while I'm at it.




More to come... in a few days

 

[Chamba]

I am so envious of your metal fab skills that I almost don't like you any more... but since you are so cool, I forgive you for making my metal fab skills look like a 4 year old playing with clay...

Why not get rid of the hand brake and go with 60 series axles to avoid having to alter the chassis? Then you get the better handbrake on the rear axle, plus a bit more width for stability. I know many of you guys in the rust belt don't like the rear axle hand brake because it can freeze up from the salt, but what are the chances you will use this as a daily driver in the winter?

That valve cover on the 60 series 3B looks pretty clean. Could you polish that one to put on your engine? Ugly Betty has one sexy example of a polished valve cover.

On a side note, someone at a petrol station today noticed my winch solenoid cover and asked about it. I gave them your info, but they seemed dubious about getting it here from Canada. Let me know if you get anyone contacting you from down here.

Cheers,

Josh

 

[crushers]

WOW!!

 

[Ironmanfj45]

Very nice work!

Cheers,

Jim

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Why not get rid of the hand brake and go with 60 series axles to avoid having to alter the chassis? Then you get the better handbrake on the rear axle, plus a bit more width for stability. I know many of you guys in the rust belt don't like the rear axle hand brake because it can freeze up from the salt, but what are the chances you will use this as a daily driver in the winter?

That valve cover on the 60 series 3B looks pretty clean. Could you polish that one to put on your engine? Ugly Betty has one sexy example of a polished valve cover.

On a side note, someone at a petrol station today noticed my winch solenoid cover and asked about it. I gave them your info, but they seemed dubious about getting it here from Canada. Let me know if you get anyone contacting you from down here.

Cheers,

Josh

Well... I like 40 series the most. This set up is all 40 series with the exception of the Toybox of course. I don't want too much of a frankenstein rig, though you wouldn't know it from all of my alterations thus far. There is nothing mechanically wrong with my axles. I prefer the dash mounted park brake handle. But mostly this was all a part of my original vision for this build. I have learned a great deal about other options over the last couple of years of surfing MUD and if I started planning today I may just have done things differently. But I will see it through. Other than the Toybox addition it is all going according to plan. This was nearly a 4 door build at one point but I stuck with the plan.

The 60 3B is destined to be a fully rebuilt spare and/or part of a BJ42 fully stock build if I can find a suitable donor. I'm not concerned with under hood looks other than to keep it appearing clean and well sorted.

No other inquiries from downunda right now with the possible exception of a guy who wants a price on a bed. Shipping would be more than the cost of the bed though.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Kevin: you are awesome. That is all.

Well, that and I am kind of ticked that I don't get any time to go finish up the 40 (let alone start on my 45) anytime soon...


Dan