The cluster looks especially great. Is the steering center arm supposed to be pewter from the factory?
Builds 1978 US Market FJ40 Factory Restoration (12 Viewers)
- Thread starter dmaddox
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dmaddox
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #282
As far as my research on user manuals, advertisements, brochures and other stock photos including super low-mile (krumstick, etc) cruisers, no the steering components were not pewter or gray, but black.
A somewhat comprehensive list of pewter I'll list again: (my list for a 1978, as earlier doors had their components, etc...)
Front bumper
Rear bumperettes
Hood Hooks and windshield hold down hooks
Mirror Arms
Front seat backings
Fuel emissions/evaporation cover (two-piece)
Glove box door
Ash Tray
Gauge Cluster face
Rear Heater top and bottom
Rear door cover
Jump Seat frames
Center console
Kick cover (heater lines by passenger feet)
There may be additional small pieces that I purchased painted already, rear view mirror, sun visor mounts, license plate light covers, etc..
A somewhat comprehensive list of pewter I'll list again: (my list for a 1978, as earlier doors had their components, etc...)
Front bumper
Rear bumperettes
Hood Hooks and windshield hold down hooks
Mirror Arms
Front seat backings
Fuel emissions/evaporation cover (two-piece)
Glove box door
Ash Tray
Gauge Cluster face
Rear Heater top and bottom
Rear door cover
Center console
Kick cover (heater lines by passenger feet)
There may be additional small pieces that I purchased painted already, rear view mirror, sun visor mounts, license plate light covers, etc..
Last edited:
dmaddox
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #283
I have had a devil of a time spraying the pewter paint - a very difficult metallic. I finally found the sweet spot, YMMV.
I am spraying this Pewter from Cool Cruisers.
Ambient Temp, 78F, surface temp 88F. DeVillbiss HVLP with 1.3 tip @ 40psi, light coat/mist first, followed by rather quick medium coats (3).
If you use a bigger tip, or go too heavy, it will mull or whatever that metallic pooling is called. You also risk a fish-eye/swirly effect similar to the rattle can "hammered" which sprays a heavy metallic.
Anyway, the pewter has turned out beautifully (I think) and I love the cool cruisers pewter, it is a spot on match, especially when holding it up to an oem part. Highly recommended (with patience and control). Thank you Manny.
I purchased a gauge cluster along with my gauge cluster in hopes I can install it as is. However I ended up restoring both to my level of pickiness, which has been a great learning experience.
Something I noticed straight away was no matter the cluster, the glass is not perfectly cut with some corners a bit jagged. Here I am cleaning up the glass on one of the units:
Note the rough edges on the lower left piece. I polished with steel wool and cleaned best I could.
While this looks very silver-ish, almost slate gray, it is pewter and quite yellow-ish. Here, I have re-installed the glass into the bezel, along with cleaning the high-beam plastic piece:
With a close attention to detail, I also fitted the unit with LED lights, with no modification to the housing.
Two green, one blue and two natural (not bright white) to give it an OEM look:
Here is the finished product:
I am spraying this Pewter from Cool Cruisers.
Ambient Temp, 78F, surface temp 88F. DeVillbiss HVLP with 1.3 tip @ 40psi, light coat/mist first, followed by rather quick medium coats (3).
If you use a bigger tip, or go too heavy, it will mull or whatever that metallic pooling is called. You also risk a fish-eye/swirly effect similar to the rattle can "hammered" which sprays a heavy metallic.
Anyway, the pewter has turned out beautifully (I think) and I love the cool cruisers pewter, it is a spot on match, especially when holding it up to an oem part. Highly recommended (with patience and control). Thank you Manny.
I purchased a gauge cluster along with my gauge cluster in hopes I can install it as is. However I ended up restoring both to my level of pickiness, which has been a great learning experience.
Something I noticed straight away was no matter the cluster, the glass is not perfectly cut with some corners a bit jagged. Here I am cleaning up the glass on one of the units:
Note the rough edges on the lower left piece. I polished with steel wool and cleaned best I could.
While this looks very silver-ish, almost slate gray, it is pewter and quite yellow-ish. Here, I have re-installed the glass into the bezel, along with cleaning the high-beam plastic piece:
With a close attention to detail, I also fitted the unit with LED lights, with no modification to the housing.
Two green, one blue and two natural (not bright white) to give it an OEM look:
Here is the finished product:
dmaddox
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #285
It appears (again) I've made a mistake. For some reason I always thought jump seats were pewter. It's one of those details you don't really pay attention to, until you're doing it.
From all accounts I can see, they are supposed to be satin or semi-gloss black to 1978, changing to the dark gray in 1979. Never pewter. What was I thinking? Hey, you guys are to blame too, just going along with it! Ha ha ha.....
I'd post examples from LCNation, but w/o permission of @overton I'll just assume you all know what I'm talking about.
From all accounts I can see, they are supposed to be satin or semi-gloss black to 1978, changing to the dark gray in 1979. Never pewter. What was I thinking? Hey, you guys are to blame too, just going along with it! Ha ha ha.....
I'd post examples from LCNation, but w/o permission of @overton I'll just assume you all know what I'm talking about.
You seemed so confident, who was I to say otherwise.
777Gage
SILVER Star
In my CA model 78 the jump seat frames are black
My June '78 has black jumpseat frames. My 1/80 had gray (not pewter) jumpseat frames.
My ‘10/78 has black seat frames. Nice work sir. Is the pewter back in stock at Cruiser Corps in rattle can? You are right it IS a pretty perfect match.
Here in AZ without the carb cooling fan on my ‘10/78, hot starting is quite difficult. Now and then the small inline 5A fuse pops and makes for a not so fun outing. Have sent a PM to @Coolerman Mark to see if he has some, going to carry a few spares from now onDon't fret too much on one of these if you don't live in the desert. Mine rarely works and I've never really had a drivability issue.
The whole set-up can be touchy. I've had multiple senders/switches and multiple Cooling Fan Controllers and they've all worked intermittently at best. The lack of an exhaust manifold contributes to the sporadic behavior but, really, there are just so many convoluted parameters to get these things to function correctly:
First, the switch has to be hot enough with the engine running to send a signal to the controller which usually has bad traces, blown fuse, etc...
Then you have to turn off the ignition for the controller to begin the timer...
...which sends power to the fan which always seem to find a way to not be grounded thoroughly which...
Other people have obviously had better luck with these than I have.
Looks like a solid grey, that part should be pewter.
dmaddox
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #293
Now that I found the jump seats are to be black (Thank you all) I am working on the final pieces of pewter.
Rear door handle. Of the handles I had to restore this was the best to begin with. However, In all of them, there is a considerable amount of play in the main handle. I think this would be resolved by adding a brass "c-clip" in between the handle and pin. Does anyone have experience with this?
Lubed and assembled:
Rear door handle. Of the handles I had to restore this was the best to begin with. However, In all of them, there is a considerable amount of play in the main handle. I think this would be resolved by adding a brass "c-clip" in between the handle and pin. Does anyone have experience with this?
Lubed and assembled:
dmaddox
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #294
Rear heater work:
I'm not sure what this "6" is from. Appears to be stock.
Assembled:
Difficult, even with cleaning/sanding, etc.. to get a perfect paint job on the rear heater. I stripped and repainted a couple of times until I was happy with the results. The inside of the lid is a bear!
I'm not sure what this "6" is from. Appears to be stock.
Assembled:
Difficult, even with cleaning/sanding, etc.. to get a perfect paint job on the rear heater. I stripped and repainted a couple of times until I was happy with the results. The inside of the lid is a bear!
dmaddox
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #295
Oh, and the dash trio. I stripped and repainted these, too. Why? I used Cruiser Corps pewter rattle can, which is much more slate/gray than the stock pewter color. I'll mention again, that while incredibly difficult to spray, the pewter from CCOT is an exact match. A hassle to disassemble it all and repaint, but now all pewter is the correct OEM pewter color! There is a scratch in my "Pocket" through the "TR" of transmission on the top left. Ugh. I noticed this AFTER riveting two in. What a bummer.
bmoonhajjar
GOLD Star
You are making me want to up my game on my build. Paint work is incredible.
dmaddox
SILVER Star
Curtice
SILVER Star
Your work looks like brand new parts. I hope I can get all my restored accessories looking like that. Super nice job.
Outstanding work...... ‘Tis certain that if for some reason you become a PO of this rig, your name with be spoken with a rare reverence!
