Vae Victus
Posting more than I know
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- #1,761
Ok - good to know.Great work, I used the same body mounts on mine, Energy Suspension, some were a challange
Builds 1st FJ40, '76 - SMOKEY - Puttin’ her Back Together (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Vae Victus
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No worries. I’m not in the shop on weekends much any more. Usually better things to do. Luckily my lower back eased up on Friday. I’m back on the home bathroom remodel today.
Vae Victus
Posting more than I know
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- #1,763
The last photo I thought I'd ever have in my thread: Mark's bathroom!
Looking forward to receiving the NTM (new to me) tranny hump.
Vae Victus
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- #1,764
Received the very solid tranny cover from @65swb45 - thanks again Mark.
Now I have 3 partial covers that I'll Frankenstein together. Fortunately I can use this new one and my old one, or new metal on this new one to fix the holes that were cut.
Were these holes for a Chevy engine?
Now I have 3 partial covers that I'll Frankenstein together. Fortunately I can use this new one and my old one, or new metal on this new one to fix the holes that were cut.
Were these holes for a Chevy engine?
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I strongly suspect this was cut up for a Chevy V8 conversion. The V8, while wider, is actually 2 cylinders SHORTER so you wind up pulling everything forward for optimum placement in the engine bay. As a result, with most conversions you wind up with the shift levers forward of the stock holes. You cut new holes and dog leg the shifters out from under your heater box. At least those holes are clean. My V8, when I bought it, was actually mounted too far forward, so the hole in the transmission tunnel was far more extreme, but it illustrates the case nicely.
Here is an example of what my V8 conversion looked like when I got it. Note the gusseted dogleg under the heater box and the huge welded dogleg on the transfercase shifter running way forward (they did this instead of cutting a similar hole for the transfercase).
Out of the truck:
Patched with 20-gauge sheet:
Smoothed, sanded, rattle-canned with Ford Wimbeldon White touch-up paint (I'll re-do this later):
Back in the truck:
It's far from perfect but it beats having a gaping hole puking hot engine air on your shins.
You'll notice that, despite my Chevy 350 up front - I managed to make the stock hole locations work. This can be done by taking the 4-speed manual transmission top-cover from a FJ60 and putting it on my FJ40 H42 - it moves the shift tower back about 3 inches. I still needed to put a dog-leg in the transfercase shifter. If not, I'd have a hole not dissimilar to the transfercase shifter hole in your hump.
Probably more than you ever wanted to know about V8 conversions but it hopefully illustrates where the holes come from!
Here is an example of what my V8 conversion looked like when I got it. Note the gusseted dogleg under the heater box and the huge welded dogleg on the transfercase shifter running way forward (they did this instead of cutting a similar hole for the transfercase).
Out of the truck:
Patched with 20-gauge sheet:
Smoothed, sanded, rattle-canned with Ford Wimbeldon White touch-up paint (I'll re-do this later):
Back in the truck:
It's far from perfect but it beats having a gaping hole puking hot engine air on your shins.
You'll notice that, despite my Chevy 350 up front - I managed to make the stock hole locations work. This can be done by taking the 4-speed manual transmission top-cover from a FJ60 and putting it on my FJ40 H42 - it moves the shift tower back about 3 inches. I still needed to put a dog-leg in the transfercase shifter. If not, I'd have a hole not dissimilar to the transfercase shifter hole in your hump.
Probably more than you ever wanted to know about V8 conversions but it hopefully illustrates where the holes come from!
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Vae Victus
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- #1,766
@RWBeringer4x4 awesome work man! Thx for the explanation.
Vae Victus
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Got started cutting out the patch from the original hump to go on my new green hump. Also welded about 15 holes in the new one.
Used an air hammer to quickly remove the sound dampening material from both humps. Where can you get more of that stuff?
You can see the cutout just lying in place, ready to be fitted and welded, plus several small plug welds.
Used an air hammer to quickly remove the sound dampening material from both humps. Where can you get more of that stuff?
You can see the cutout just lying in place, ready to be fitted and welded, plus several small plug welds.
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Vae Victus
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- #1,768
I ordered the 4spd retainer ring from SOR ($49. Really SOR? Goodness greed has no limits. ).
Which way does the thing go on the tranny hump: lip up or down?
I need to use it to help locate the piece to weld in.
Lesson learned. Don’t cut out one half of a piece that has to have holes lined up with the mating piece. That’s an extra complication I don’t need.
Which way does the thing go on the tranny hump: lip up or down?
I need to use it to help locate the piece to weld in.
Lesson learned. Don’t cut out one half of a piece that has to have holes lined up with the mating piece. That’s an extra complication I don’t need.
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Your dealer has that same piece w/o the shipping for about 25% less. CityRacer too, or Cruiser outfitters...
The lip goes down. Once you get the boot in there, it won’t hit the tunnel.
Yep got mine from CityRacer if I recall. Lip goes down, the ridge/lip goes over the rubber shift boot and hold it in place.
Vae Victus
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- #1,771
Dang. Shoulda checked elsewhere first.
Rainman
Wondering what my next vehicle will be...
...I was only a phone call away... Even a text...
Vae Victus
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- #1,773
What, you have one?
Vae Victus
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Time for a progress update. There has been some!
Finished the tranny hump repair. Whew. Prob spent 30 hours... maybe 20 hours... cutting, fitting, grinding, fitting, welding, grinding again.
But, it's done. Both holes. Looks good. Well, good-ish in it's current state of "painted to ward off more rust". Looks good from 5’ away.
More pics:
First two finish up the gear shift “round hole”. (Hint, it wan't round once I got it fitted properly. But, who's counting?)
"Finished" and painted.
Next ones begin the journey to the transfer case hole. I get smart on the second one and cut out the entire hole instead of trying to fix and match up half of it. You can see the dark lines where I was going to cut out just the outline of what I needed. But then decided in a flash of inspiration to cut out the entire thing.
How do you like that gap? That's about 3/8" in some places. Actually worked out ok, just had to go slow and put 2 spot welds - one on each side as I went along where the gap was too wide. Was a result of trying to get it to fit and suddenly realizing that I was taking material off the wrong side when it would have fit otherwise. Hard to explain. Such a complex shape to try to get to fit up exactly, especially when I tried to make the hold in the recipient smaller and the donor larger to ensure I didn't screw up. Had to take off a lot of material to get it to fit properly.
Finished the tranny hump repair. Whew. Prob spent 30 hours... maybe 20 hours... cutting, fitting, grinding, fitting, welding, grinding again.
But, it's done. Both holes. Looks good. Well, good-ish in it's current state of "painted to ward off more rust". Looks good from 5’ away.
More pics:
First two finish up the gear shift “round hole”. (Hint, it wan't round once I got it fitted properly. But, who's counting?)
"Finished" and painted.
Next ones begin the journey to the transfer case hole. I get smart on the second one and cut out the entire hole instead of trying to fix and match up half of it. You can see the dark lines where I was going to cut out just the outline of what I needed. But then decided in a flash of inspiration to cut out the entire thing.
How do you like that gap? That's about 3/8" in some places. Actually worked out ok, just had to go slow and put 2 spot welds - one on each side as I went along where the gap was too wide. Was a result of trying to get it to fit and suddenly realizing that I was taking material off the wrong side when it would have fit otherwise. Hard to explain. Such a complex shape to try to get to fit up exactly, especially when I tried to make the hold in the recipient smaller and the donor larger to ensure I didn't screw up. Had to take off a lot of material to get it to fit properly.
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Vae Victus
Posting more than I know
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- #1,775
More Photos of the transfer case hump repair.
Completely welded up here.
Post grinding. Rough lines in a lot of areas because I use those red Rolox 3m hard edged 2" wheels to aggressively take off the welds. I thought to try to TIG weld it, but getting the donor part to fit that exactly was, well, impossible. Clearly, I couldn't keep the gaps to a reasonable size!
I have learned to keep the back side a little more "rough" and leave some material instead of trying to get it looking "pretty" like the front side. On previous areas of the truck, I've tended to make the metal too thin by taking both the front and back side weld beads all the way down. If you zoom in on the photo, you can see I left some in places. As long as there are no "holes" that won't get painted or bondo'd, I think it is more than "good" - just don't want any rust. Any holes are tiny, if there are any. I normally fill anything larger than a pin head with a spot and grind it down.
Final product shots after some smoothing. This is clearly no show car and my metal work is good enough for a hack rebuilding his first vehicle. I'm proud of what I'm learning.
Completely welded up here.
Post grinding. Rough lines in a lot of areas because I use those red Rolox 3m hard edged 2" wheels to aggressively take off the welds. I thought to try to TIG weld it, but getting the donor part to fit that exactly was, well, impossible. Clearly, I couldn't keep the gaps to a reasonable size!
I have learned to keep the back side a little more "rough" and leave some material instead of trying to get it looking "pretty" like the front side. On previous areas of the truck, I've tended to make the metal too thin by taking both the front and back side weld beads all the way down. If you zoom in on the photo, you can see I left some in places. As long as there are no "holes" that won't get painted or bondo'd, I think it is more than "good" - just don't want any rust. Any holes are tiny, if there are any. I normally fill anything larger than a pin head with a spot and grind it down.
Final product shots after some smoothing. This is clearly no show car and my metal work is good enough for a hack rebuilding his first vehicle. I'm proud of what I'm learning.
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Vae Victus
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A few more of final product.
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Vae Victus
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In the past month or two I've also been working on the rear sill repairs. I've removed the rear sill plate, and the rear sill itself, and stared to clean up any rust around the rear end.
First I had to remove the old sill.
First I had to remove the old sill.
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middlecalf
SILVER Star
Good stuff, I’d be happy with that work. Nothing wrong with “sticky boogers” for a functional resto.
Vae Victus
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Removing it. Cut the spot welds. And the POs rivets?!
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Vae Victus
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Then set the new sill and looked at how it fits. Clearly gotta remove more old metal. Don’t want to remove the wrong thing.
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