4 door Fj45 on 80 series chassis (10 Viewers)

[Blackknight1]

Looking at that pic, I think I cut that bracket off and moved the one on the floor so it would sit up in that notch in the dash and thru the floor a little further. I then welded the stock 40 strap onto the 40 column. Been so long, but I know I didnt cut the dash at all and the plastic cover for the 60 fit pretty well also w/out trimming. I wish I knew what happened to all of the pics I had.

I saw a write up on this here on Mud. The guy did cut that bracket and seems to have made some mods at the firewall also.
I cut my dash to allow the column to sit higher and also had to raise the column a bit so rhe collapsible intermediate shaft would clear the #3 header tube and the shock tower.
Looks like it's gonna work.

 

[Blackknight1]

We finished up the battery box and the tool box under the back seat. We can now close up the sides .
There is a lot of empty space under the seat and i i said before it will be put to good use . A few well placed hidden compartments are always a good thing.

 

[Blackknight1]

Today we continued on with the 60 series steering column conversion and the backseat mounting platform.
The way i did my column conversion is a bit different than the one isaw here.
The 60seriescolumn is collapsible. That came in quite handy for this build..... it was too long in its oem configuration to be able to fit in a somewhat acceptable fashion.
The mounting bracket sat too low under the dash board and left no space to allow my legs into the driver seat....
On the outside, it stuck out too far into the engine compartment.
My solution was to cut out a section of the dash panel , right under th imstrument cluster .
I completely collapsed the column and bolted it up under the cluster after i fabricated and welded a new mounting bracket for it. Looks simple and clean.
I had to cut the firewall a bit to be able to reuse the Fj60's firewall mount.
Since i am using a collapsible intermediate shaft from the 80 series, i still get the safety of the collapsible steering system and a tilt column. Perfect.

 

[Blackknight1]

We also started closing the spaces under the back seat. Nothing much to say about that. 16 gauge sheet metal hofully we'll have both sides closed up tomorrow.

 

[Blackknight1]

We were able to close the ends of the back seat platform. I also made that "special compartment" i mentioned a few posts earlier. The fj 60 stering column conversion is in. It was a good week.

 

[Blackknight1]

For now, i think we'll use the old fj45's steering wheel . The one instLled on the column now is the 60 series. We only have to finish the welds on the firewall , plug the unnecessary wholes shut, such as the clutch master cylinder, etc...
i am still waiting for my rear window seal to finally decide to show up and also for the oil transfer pump and oil cooler i am gonna use for the Black box.
Next week i hope to install my fuel tanks, repair and powder coat the Black Rhino wheels and intall the tires. My suspension is alreDy here but will only be installed after the chassis has been painted.
I will completely re plumb the brake, fuel and transmission cooling systems using stainless steel tubing.
Not sure how big a radiator i'll need for this thing . I want no overheat issues, so if anyone here has an LS installed on his rig, please tell me what radiator you're using and how wide and tall yours is..
i'll also work on designing and building my tuffy style center console
Shifter installation is still on hold since i still don't know what i'm gonna use to shift the transmission and where it will be placed.
All i want to do now is hear this monster roar.....

 

[Blackknight1]

As we completed the rear sitting area, i realized that because of the raised seat platform of the front seats, eventhe shorter legged passengers would be very uncomfortable and would have to sit sideways..... that brought up the traumatizing memory of trip 2 friends of mine and I took years ago to a motorcycle and UTV race to the neighboring country, the Dominican Republic....
We travelled there in a dual cab Land Rover Defender 140 .
I was the last to be picked up, so i only found a small space in the back to sit fpr what was going to be the longest and most dreadful and uncomfortable ride of my life.
Don't get me wrong , Defenders are great trucks but anyone who's ever sat in the back of one of those things once, will never accept to do it again.
See, for whatever reason, the engineers who designed thesr trucks did not think that back seat passengers had legs.... they provided for very little space between the front and back seatsand it is impossible for the back seat passengers to put their feet under the front seats because there was no space for that.
I spent more than 8 hours ,crammed between helmets, luggage, riding gear and everything else, only being able to sit in a weird , crouched sideway position. Our trailer kept having issues and my only comfort during this unfaithful trip was to jump out and go fix whatever was wrong with this trailer
Needless to say that when i realized that the accomodation was going to be the exact same in this truck, i said : HELL NO !!!! and came up with a solution that remedied that immediately..... i'll post pics of the way i did this tomorrow.

 

[Blackknight1]

So, this is how i solved that problem.

 

[Blackknight1]

More pics.

 

[Blackknight1]

We also welded holes in the firewall that will not be needed anymore

 

[Blackknight1]

Ok. The steering system is officially done . The steering shaft was about 3/4 of an inch too short .
That meant that i was gonna have to find another shaft..... have it resplined , which is quite expensive here.
I came up with an easy solution. Since the steering column is collapsible and can be made shorter or longer, we cut the firewall mount and added a piece of sheet metal of equal lenght to what was missing from the lenght of the shaft : 3/4 of an inch. The added lenght to the mount, pushed the end of the column that much deeper into the engine bay, making the intermediate shaft the exact lenght we nerded it to be to safely catch all u joint tightening bolts in their intended spots , and keeping the column mounted in the exact places and angle we had it mounted .
Perfect !
My only issue is now that the universal joint from the steering box touches the driver side coil spring pocket..... nothing major there. I'll make sure to do the correcting modification when the cab and everything else is taken off the chassis for paint and final assembly. Steering is a wrap !
Today, we'll tackle the build of a lockable center consoleand the Black box shifter placement and installation.

 

[Blackknight1]

I received what is , in my eyes at least, some of the most important parts of a project : the tires.
37 x 13.5x18 Radar Renegades.
I don't know how good they are . but i did not have to wait for days or weeks for them to get to me , and they were affordable.
All i have to do is to repair that one Black Rhino wheel, powder coat them black... and install.p
We also worked on the front fender support brackets. The ones that were originally on the fenders would not work since the 80 series chassis would not allow them to bolt up to the frame because the suspension components are in the way.
We will ad edges to the sides of those brackets to consolidate them and make them more rogid

 

[aztoyman]

Those tires have crossed connecting rods, pistons and a SKULL on the sidewalls so they must be Baddass. You're making good progress.

 

[Blackknight1]

Lol. They look good for sure . We'll findout soon enough how well they perform.

I received what is , in my eyes at least, some of the most important parts of a project : the tires.
37 x 13.5x18 Radar Renegades.
I don't know how good they are . but i did not have to wait for days or weeks for them to get to me , and they were affordable.
All i have to do is to repair that one Black Rhino wheel, powder coat them black... and install.p
We also worked on the front fender support brackets. The ones that were originally on the fenders would not work since the 80 series chassis would not allow them to bolt up to the frame because the suspension components are in the way.
We will ad edges to the sides of those brackets to consolidate them and make them more rogid

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By the way, those inner fenders were just thrown on to fabricate the support bracket. Today is a hollyday down here, so we'll finish off tthe brackets tomorrow and finalize the mods of the inner fenders.

 

[Blackknight1]

We continued working on those front fender support brackets. They're designed to bolt right on top of the upper coil mounts and use the existing bolts in that location to stay in place

 

[Blackknight1]

OUtside mirrors are from a Mercedes G-Wagen. Electrically controlled amd with turn signals incorporated. I like the look of those on this rig.
They are mounted on 3 bolts , just like the original but bolt placement is wider.
We simply made a template of the mounting surface on the mirrors,welded the original bolt holes shut and drilled new holes...... done.

 

[Blackknight1]

Edges were intalled on the fender suppert brackets and are very strong now

 

[Blackknight1]

We worked on quite a few things today. I had retrieved the thotle pedal from the donor Suburban and finally installed it.took a bit of fabrication and went in without a fuss.
We started working on the center console. Started making templates out of cardboard .
I'm thinking of a 1 piece unit that will fill the empty space between the front seats with an arm rest that would also be a lockable access door.
That same unit would go all the way under the dash board and must allow space for the transmission shifter , for the Black box shifter , and for the transfer case's high and low gear.
16 gauge sheetmetal construction.
We'll decide later whether we'll paint it orhave it upholstered..... we'll get to that later down the line.

 

[Blackknight1]

And a few more of the truck as it sits today.

 

[Blackknight1]

Yesterday, we fixed that wheel that had been damaged when the previous owner went curb surfing. They were given to meand things being as hard economically as they are these days, saving myself from spending a couple thousand dollars is always a good thing.
This one had some deep gouges and scratches on the wheel's face. We filled them in nicely with aluminium welds and little grinding.... We'll powder coat them matte black as they came from the factory a bit later. We 'll soon see this thing sitting on its own set of wheels and tires