4 door Fj45 on 80 series chassis (2 Viewers)

[Blackknight1]

And some more

 

[Blackknight1]

Continuing on with the fiberglass top. The rain gutters are unusable for the most part. Unless I can find some good used ones, I'll have to salvage whatever I can from this one . As far as I can see, that's only the rear section.
I looked on line in hopes of buying a new set.
$ CCOT has them for $ 350.00.
By the time they reach me, I'm looking at over $500.00 . Some people complain of a wait of more than 6 weeks to get them in the States. I'd be looking at over 3 months.
Not willing to pay that much or pay over 500 bucks . That leaves me with one option only : make my own....
Later on that. For now, we're addressing that fiberglass top. We cut a 3" strip of 16 gauge sheetmetal to serve as support on the inside of the top. We drilled small holes across teach other along the length of the metal and in the same spots on the top.
We tied them together with wire. We will later glue the seam , cut the wires and finish it off with fiberglass. Here are a few pictures.

 

[Blackknight1]

And some more

 

[Blackknight1]

I ordered some fiberglass to finish the top. It's gonna be a few days before it gets here. In the meantime, I am gonna give some attention to the tail gate. I want it to match the bed 's shape. It musts also be strong.

So we started out building the frame

 

[Blackknight1]

So after mesuriring a bunch of times we tackled welded the pieces , tried it in the back of the truck. Looks good, let's go !

 

[Blackknight1]

Have not had much time to post but here is the latest on this tail gate. The sheetmetal to cover it is already made . I'll post pics of it later.

 

[Blackknight1]

We're using door hinges for the tailgate for the sake of uniformity. As you see, we used 1/8" sheetmetal to build the frame and we shaped 16 gauge for the skin. I have yet to decide on what we'll use to latch this thing..... if anyone of you has ideas , I'm all for hearing them. If you can post links to where I can get them too it would be awesome !

 

[Blackknight1]

We tried it on the bed. Swings open and closes well. Next , we'll drill the bolt holes and install the skin.
Looks like we're pretty much done with the bed.
We'll address boxing in the B pillars next . The rear of the cab will need major surgery too but we're moving forward. Stay tuned.

 

[Blackknight1]

Been a while since I posted anything about this project. Been busy with work .
I got tired of looking at it just sitting idle and finished up the tailgate.
Took a quick picture of it on the bed.

 

[Blackknight1]

My rear doors or should I say , what was left of them had been a big issue for me. I had already gone thru thevprocess of cutting them to fit my needs but one of them was too damaged by rust to be trusted and the repairs to make it decent are far beyond what I feel like undertaking.
I received a tip that there was a dead fj45's carcass somewhere . I took a trip there and low and behold ! It was true ! And the doors are among the few salvageable parts of it..... now I'm in the process of buying the whole heap . Here are some pics.

 

[Blackknight1]

Continuing with the top. Again, the original gutters are unusable due to rust for the most part. I tried buying some new ones but the price of new gutters is a bit high. Moreover, I would have to cut and weld to get the right size. So..... as always, I'm having to build my own .
Here are some pics

 

[Blackknight1]

Worked some more on the gutters. Looking good !

 

[47coeman]

Great work, it looks factory!!!

 

[Blackknight1]

I have not completely stopped working on this thing. Been busy with work so it hasn't gotten as much attention as I'd like to give it. We still try to keep going with small bits.
That deal with the 45 fell thru, but I did find a better door around the shop. That rear passenger door was shifty. The one I found isn't perfect but it is MUCH better than what I was using. I'm happy.
So the top and gutters keep getting worked on and maybe next week we'll continue with the last sheetmetal replacements.
The wire harness and computer were sent out for mods and reflashing. They should be back soon.
Getting ready to order up some wheels and tires.... that will definitely revive my enthusiasm .thinking about 35's now as the sheer weight of those 37's is beginning to make me wonder.

 

[Blackknight1]

Some pics of what's being done

 

[Blackknight1]

We worked some more on the truck. Today, we addressed the windshield frame , The one I had was rusted to s#it, I had one from one of my fj 40 projects . This one has a bit of rust but really, no comparison with 1 the one that came with this thing.
Had to use the torch to get those bolts to agree to come loose.

 

[Blackknight1]

Continuing on with the fiberglass top. We worked on getting rid othat seam and making sure that there are no leaks. That would piss me off to have water coming in and ruining my custom interior.... so, this is how we did it.

 

[Blackknight1]

And some more

 

[Blackknight1]

As you can see in the last picture, we kept the 16 gauge sheetetal support and applied a thin coat of fiberglass all inside of it. Next week we'll work on the outside. It's coming along slowly but surely.
As fabrication and sheetmetal repairs are nearly done,, it becoming evident toe that I should have done this with a less rusted truck to start with.
2 whole years of pure madness. Trust that I'll never start another project with a decomposing body. My only satisfaction is that I learned a lot from it.

 

[Blackknight1]

Today we welded and treated the gutter within anti corrosion paint and tried it on the fiberglass top. Came out perfect.