Build 1st FJ40, '76 - SMOKEY - Puttin’ her Back Together

[Vae Victus]

And I've worked on the fender (again). This was the first metal repair I did a couple years ago, and I just needed to cut it out and start over. Made the rookie mistake of replacing too little in small patches. Even after I replaced that big panel I still have some thin places to cut out and patch again.

Curves were subtle and difficult. Area is very non-flat after working too long on it.

 

[Vae Victus]

If you think it looks good, you are mistaken. More work needed here. Plus I've misplaced the bracket that attaches to the bottom that the blinker attaches to

 

[Michael B]

(y'all bored with seeing every friggin body patch yet?)

NOPE! Carry on sir!!

 

[KY Longhunter]

Updates?

 

[65swb45]

Updates?

He’s looking for a transmission tunnel.

 

[Vae Victus]

He’s looking for a transmission tunnel.

Well, yea, but you didn't have one d@mnit.

Yes, I'm alive. Project is very much alive. My wife went down back in Feb with a major back surgery, and so I basically took about 5 months off.

I've been doing the hard stuff - the detailed replacement of rusty metal parts for many months, but I will state that in the past 2 weeks I have filled probably 100 holes, replaced 25 broken bolts (mostly ground off the retained nut on the bottom of the body - ha, take that d@mn bolts!).

It looks like absolute hell, but the body is getting more and more solid. Everything from the firewall to the back of the front seat area is done. The floor of the rear is done. Now I'm ready to mount it to the body again (off the rotisserie) and replace the rear sill and the rear quarter panels. There's some rot along the rear of the floor area where the doors close against the vehicle, so I'm sure once I remove all the bondo, there will be more metal replaced on top of the sill that I just cannot see right now.

Then, I guess since there's no good or partly good tranny tunnels out there, I'll cut and weld the two that I have into one. I really just need a solid left rim where it mounts to the floor, as my main one is good except that side.

Oh I also spent two days removing all the tar undercoating from the bottom. "All" is a stretch, but I got the majority of it. Was about 3 lbs of tar once I swept it all up.

Nothing exciting here - matter of fact most of the photos look very much like photos from a year ago. But, let me assure you, much prep, welding, grinding, cussing, spitting, and preventative spray painting has been done.

So this part....

...needs to go on this part.

Before tar removal (right) and after (left).

Even replaced a couple of the wire retention fixtures (the one on the left is done, right was just welded and not ground down yet).

Only had to grind and weld two of the captive nuserts in the engine area. (I know those are not nutserts, but that's what I call 'em). This one is not welded on yet in the photo.

 

[Rainman]

For a thru and thru business man, Scott really does some fine work. Self taught on this very Cruiser too.

Hats off to you!

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Glad to see you’re still kickin! I’ve veen wheeling mine - adding lots of new dents. When you’re done with your tub I’ll swap you mine

 

[Vae Victus]

I also had some captive nuts that were stripped out in the area just behind where the seats mount on the rear bed - I think the seat frames or seat belts bolt in there. The PO had just "tapped" two holes in the bed beside the captive nuts, which clearly had to be fixed, plus the nuts had to be replaced.

I had no choice but to cut a 14" piece out of the big frame channel on the bottom of the frame, fix the nuts and the extra holes, and reweld the channel back in place. A year ago I would not have dared, but now, being a bit more comfortable, I just did it. Turned out pretty well, and allowed me to fix some thin spots in that channel. I also was able to sand blast and really coat that cut out piece with some rustoleum as well as in the hole where I opened it up.

Didn't get any photos of the open channel for some reason, but finished product:

Before the repair:

Topside - its the pair of holes in the gray paint to the left.

Underside. Good as new. I just toss paint on the new metal to keep it from rusting until it goes to paint. It's going to be the paint man's job to make it all smooth and pretty. This got coated with some brown rustoleum once I got done.

 

[Vae Victus]

Glad to see you’re still kickin! I’ve veen wheeling mine - adding lots of new dents. When you’re done with your tub I’ll swap you mine

Thanks Man, glad to see you are running yours.

 

[Vae Victus]

For a thru and thru business man, Scott really does some fine work. Self taught on this very Cruiser too.

Hats off to you!

Yo, thanks Rainey. I've had 6+ years to learn. Might as well enjoy the journey.

 

[Vae Victus]

Looking back through my photos, I did a lot while my wife was recovering. Just didn't realize it.

Here I repaired the support for the rear seats.

 

[Vae Victus]

Created the patch panel. A bit tricky. I didn't cut it very smart.

At some point I attached the reinforcement plate from the previous post to the bottom of the patch panel but I didn't capture that.

First fitup. Damn ribs.

Ready to weld.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

@Vae Victus - remind me, what are you using as a brake to make the metal pieces you need? They look great. The swag off-road press attachment?

 

[Vae Victus]

Welding it. Love the clamps that hold the panels. If I can get to the back of a panel, you can be dang sure I'm using these.

Tried some cooling clay/paste stuff (the blue stuff). Hate it. Too crumbly/sticky. You can see the crossing straight lines I drew to locate the center of the captured nut that goes on the bottom support that will get replaced.

This is hard welding when the metal around is still pretty thin in places. I learned to weld a first spot away from the edge, then build 1/2 way on top of that weld and move to the edge of the new/old union. Still get burn through but then you just chase that burn by welding on top of old welds over and over (on the edge, not on top silly) to slowly move to closing in the burned area.

Finished the patch panel and smoothed it pretty well. My reconstruction of the edge of the rib went ok, not great. Glad the seat and roll bar will cover this area! Hole located for the nut via the lines drawn previously. Glad I thought of that.

Threw some protective weld-thru paint since the reinforcing panel would be welded on later.

Patched the two extra holes and moved onto the next side where I had to do the same repair almost.

 

[Vae Victus]

@Vae Victus - remind me, what are you using as a brake to make the metal pieces you need? They look great. The swag off-road press attachment?

Yessir. I used the Swag press brake and also bought the finger brake later to do some more curvy stuff. Still it is hard to do - especially small parts with inner diameters of less than 2" because they fold in on themselves in the press. You need the offset finger brakes to do much more detailed stuff. Oh, and a press that is a bit more accurate than the crappy harbor freight one that I have (that is off about 1/4" from one end to the other, making straight bends hard!!).

 

[Vae Victus]

Here I finished up the floor pan repair. Had a gap area of about 2" that I had to fill. It is the edge of the transmission hump area so the panel had a bit of a curve and a formed edge.

 

[Vae Victus]

Roughing it in.

Oh, and I once again love the little magnetic copper backer. That saves a ton of time because you don't burn through as much. Takes time to weld and move, weld and move, but it is worth it. Reduces the amount of weld on the back side as well, reducing your grinding time (Yes, I grind the bottom too, don't you?).

I ended up welding 3-4 spots at once on top of the backer, then moving, instead of one at a time without the backer. This made things move a lot faster and didn't see to cause much warping (though I did get a bit that I had to hammer back in line once done). I think I also tried to weld then hammer the welds with a dolly on the back of the weld. I did this somewhere, just don't remember where. I have heard/seen/read/watched (?) that you need to relieve the stress of the weld but have not done it consistently throughout.

I

 

[Vae Victus]

.... and finished up the grinding, smoothing, and some paint to keep the rust off. Looks pretty good for a rank amateur.

And for you concourse car body work purists out there - it's a dang truck. Relax. It'll look good (at 10 feet).

 

[Vae Victus]

Repaired the passenger side front roll bar mount - another rust through spot on top of the brace. Hoped I could just patch it but once I opened it up, it was clear I had to remove the actual brace, media blast it, paint it, and replace it. It was pretty rusty and I feared it would rot through again at some point in the near future. Preventative maintenance.

Cut out all the spot welds...

Spot welds from the bottom view