1994 HDJ81 - Call Her Bertha (1 Viewer)

[MonsterCruiser]

Ugh...definitely not the best start to my day. Came out to the truck this morning and apparently someone decided to break off my right side mirror last night.

The mirror isn't folded in either direction, so it's not like someone accidentally bumped into it.

 

[FedEx]

who makes that hood spoiler thing?

 

[bj70_guy]

Did you used to live in North Van? I think I recognize your truck.
Bummer about the mirror - people suck. Nice rig.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

who makes that hood spoiler thing?

Not sure. It's old enough that if there was any manufacturer's markings on it, they've worn off by now.

Did you used to live in North Van? I think I recognize your truck.
Bummer about the mirror - people suck. Nice rig.

No, but I was over there pretty regularly to do various hikes on the North Shore when I lived in Burnaby, and I was in Burnaby for about 12 years.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Mirror is all fixed. Took a while to deal with all the insurance stuff.

Got going on the project to make gauge holder for my 60mm gauges. This isn't something I've done before, so there will probably be some learning/mistakes along the way.

Fiberglass layers placed for the base. I plan to just use double sided tape on the bottom of this to hold it on the console.

Lots of fiddling to get the PVC sleeves lined up just right and at the angle that I want. The final gauges will be the black ones. The white one was just to temporarily fill the space.

PVC sleeves held in place using a hot glue gun.

How I just have to figure out how I'm going to wrap this to make it look better. Then apply the fiberglass resin to make the shell, Bondo to make it smooth, sand, prime and paint. I'll probably need to do some more trimming on the base as well depending on how I decide to make that fit.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

@bj70_guy this you? North Van Canadian Tire October 2012

 

[bj70_guy]

@bj70_guy this you? North Van Canadian Tire October 2012

LOL, thats me. Looks like I must have washed the 74 for it's big trip to CT

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Replaced a bad tie rod end on the left last night.

The hardest part was actually getting that clamp nut free. Really felt like I was going to end up snapping the bolt, but I just worked it back and forth and kept spraying it with penetrating oil. Getting the tie rod end loose wasn't too bad. As per a suggestion on another mud thread, I got the bar moving with the tie rod end still in place. I had a pipe wrench on it and had to push with my feet, but it worked

I just put a cheapo replacement in for now. I plan to get in there and replace all of them in the next year. If one is bad, I'm sure the others won't be far behind.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Slow progress on this gauge pod, but progress none the less. In one of the photos above, you can see a ridge at the middle of the PVC sleeve. This was stopping the gauges from fully seating in the sleeve. I thought this wasn't going to be an issue, but as I thought about it more, I wasn't sure how I was going to fill that gap and make it look good. Here is how the gauge sat with the ridge still in the sleeve.

Probably about a 5mm gap. Did some work with a dremmel to remove the ridge so it sits flush.

Much better, and it went way faster than I expected which was great! I also trimmed off some edges on the fiberglass and rounded off corners. I think I'm at the point now where I can do the fiberglass around the outside.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Switched gears a bit and decided to do a few other small things while the truck is in the garage. Started with the fender flare gaskets.

Front right pulled off:

Crusty old gasket:

And of course, something has to break:

Yup, part is NLA....of course. I guess I'll find some epoxy to stick the stud back in there. Hopefully I never have to take these flares off again. I scraped off the old gasket from the flare and that's as far as I got last night.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Flares are back on the front, but I didn't take a photo yet. I'm also waiting for the hardware to arrive for the two ends to reattach the whole thing. In the mean time, I figured at least the front left wheel bearing needed replacement. Last time I did the wheel bearings was about 40k km ago and I was short on time, so I picked up whatever wheel bearing grease the store had that was rated appropriately. Definitely won't do that again. Even though I had planned to replace the spindle and the bearing since the bearing did seem a bit questionable at last repack, this was deteriorated pretty bad. I figured from the sounds it was making it was done, but as soon as I opened it up I could see metal flakes. I also couldn't pull the hub off the spindle, so I had to get a puller to get it off.

When I flipped the hub over the bearing fell out....into a bunch of pieces.

Spindle scored a bunch at the outer bearing location.

Big puller I used to pull the hub off.

Shiny new hardware Gaskets too of course, but I didn't take a photo of those.

Left side done. I don't expect the same carnage on the right, but I'll find out when I take it apart.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Did the right side last night and it was pretty messy as I expected. I know the seal on this side is leaking. I'm waiting for the Wits' End seal over drive tool before I do a complete rebuild on the front end. The good news is that the bearings and other components haven't suffered the same fate as the stuff on the left side since the gear oil has been getting in there. Therefore I didn't bother replacing the spindle or bearings at this time. I don't really like doing things like this. I'm doing half assed band-aid fixes, but knowing I have to go back in soon to replace the seal I don't feel like throwing on a bunch of new parts unless it was necessary.

The bad news is that when I was putting the cap back on the freewheel hub I sheared a bolt....literally the last bolt to be fastened

No photos during the work since it was messy, but here's reassembled with a bit of goop in the pan below.

And the sheared bolt

 

[JM74]

Beautiful truck, went and looked at a HDJ81 the other day in the same green, my favourite colour option! love the work / you're build. Moving back to you're coast in 30 days, Stoked!

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Beautiful truck, went and looked at a HDJ81 the other day in the same green, my favourite colour option! love the work / you're build. Moving back to you're coast in 30 days, Stoked!

Thanks! Just in time I guess before the snow starts to fly back east. Mountain passes are supposed to get some snow over this way this weekend. Good for ski season

Made some good progress on the gauge pod in the last few days. I started by wrapping with this lighter fabric.

After looking at it and thinking about it, I was concerned the fabric would sag on the back side once it was loaded up with the resin. I went with this micro fibre cloth instead.

I used a hot glue gun to hold it down where it was trimmed and I kept it tight by having it pinched in the Work Mate. I have to say this little bench has come in handy many times since I picked it up about a year ago.

Loaded up with resin. I used a lot because I wanted to make sure it got saturated through and would bond to the base plate as well.

Cured the next morning.

Then I trimmed out at the gauge locations and did a quick test fit with two of the gauges.

After this I had to think about more about what I wanted the transition to look like between each gauge. My initial thought was to make it straight across parallel to the face of the gauge. After thinking about it more, I decided I would try and sort of contour it. I think trying to make it parallel to the face would make it so imperfections would show up more if things weren't perfectly straight or parallel. I also didn't want to just fill the void space with Bondo, so I cut some styrofoam, squeezed it into the voids and then shaved it down to approximately the shape I think I want.

Tonight I applied a single layer of fibreglass over the area between the gauges and did another coat of resin over the micro fibre to smooth it out a bit. I plan to do one or two layers of fibreglass over the microfibre to give the whole thing a bit more strength. Pretty happy with the way it's looking so far

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Applied bondo yesterday. I haven't worked with Bondo filler before, so I have no idea if what I did was ok or total garbage. I was a bit surprised on how fast it set up though and once it started there was no point in trying to spread it anymore. Seemed like it would just result in extra sanding.

Sanded last night as well. I started with either 120 or 150 then did 220 and finished with 400. It feels pretty smooth, so I think it's good enough...

Bit of a depression here that I might fill. I plan to clean off the dust and drop it on the center console today to see how it looks.

I roughened the area with the 120 grit again with the assumption that I'll be adding to it. If I choose not to I'll just have to smooth it out again before primer.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

"Test fit" yesterday

Not sure what I think about that right side. I'm wondering if I should have just taken it straight back in line with the pod rather than flaring out. Oh well. I'm not going that far backwards at this point.

I can see a bit of a dip in the profile at the back as I mentioned in my post yesterday, so I decided to fill that after looking at the pod placed in the truck. Just a bit more sanding and then it will be ready for primer and paint. Then I just have to decide how I want to do the wiring. I'm looking forward to finishing this little project just because it's something I've wanted to put in this truck for a while. It's also been nice to have a project where I'm not in a rush to get it done. Usually when I'm fixing something on the truck it often seems like I'm on a time crunch to get it done.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Dropped two coats of primer last night and, generally, I'm happy with how it's looking. Just applied second coat when I took the photos so it was still fresh.

I expected the imperfections in the tighter areas where the pod sleeves come together, but they get covered up by the gauges, so I don't care about those. One more spot showed up when I cleaned it for primer. I decided to apply primer anyway to see what would happen, but I'm going to have to go back and sand more. Hopefully, I don't have to apply filler and can just sand it down. At the top center of the photo below.

Also, I'm not going to go back and fix this, but if (when) I do this again, I'll have to make sure I don't sand too far down where resin was applied over the cloth. On a few edges the microfiber got exposed and it doesn't smooth out. I'm not going to go back and fix this but worth noting if anyone else does this.

 

[SteelHunterFJ80]

Dropped two coats of primer last night and, generally, I'm happy with how it's looking. Just applied second coat when I took the photos so it was still fresh.

I expected the imperfections in the tighter areas where the pod sleeves come together, but they get covered up by the gauges, so I don't care about those. One more spot showed up when I cleaned it for primer. I decided to apply primer anyway to see what would happen, but I'm going to have to go back and sand more. Hopefully, I don't have to apply filler and can just sand it down. At the top center of the photo below.

Also, I'm not going to go back and fix this, but if (when) I do this again, I'll have to make sure I don't sand too far down where resin was applied over the cloth. On a few edges the microfiber got exposed and it doesn't smooth out. I'm not going to go back and fix this but worth noting if anyone else does this.

Still looks great despite the fibers showing a bit. Nice work on this. I admire your patience and attention to detail.

Will those fibers be covered by the guages?

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Thanks!

Unfortunately, no they won't. I've been battling with that little imperfection. It turned out to be a bit of a soft spot, so I've been filling it. I also got some filler putty/glaze to fill a few other little spots that became more obvious after the primer dried. Maybe a few more coats of primer and then the final paint and the fiber won't be noticeable, but I doubt it.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Pod is done!

Approximate angle as will be seen from driver's seat.

From passenger seat.

And back side that will never be seen once it's installed in the truck.

Definitely happy with how this is turning out. Unfortunately, it will probably take me a while to get it wired up.