58/59 FJ25 Restoration (1 Viewer)

[Living in the Past]

I was going to try some 1/8" or 3/16" plexiglass, heat it with a heat gun and try to shape my own light lens for the 25. ( and my LWB 45 license plate light as well)

Here is the best picture I could find of the only good one I have. Seems Eastman or something like that sells a kit to make a mold and then make repos out of plastic. I planning on going that route. There is also a rubber gasket that fits under it. The grey one had a lens cracked in pieces but no sign of damage to the housing. Guessing with a bulb replacement the cover was over tightened. In any case I would be afraid to run it with the glass lens. On my FJ45 LWB I was thinking of trying to cut down the lens from a 61 to early 74 FJ40 license
plate light. Heated it with a heat gun to form it. Then use the a cut down gasket from the same light to hold it in place.

 

[tahoe40/45]

I got one small part of this project done. I went through the wiring harness to clean it up and replace some wires that had fried. There was some kind of short involving the turn signal flasher switch. I was able to reuse the terminals and color coded heat shrink on the new flasher wires.

I went through the other electrical related stuff like switches and relays. Doing this i discovered that my voltage regulator was upside-down at some point and had collected water. The thin metal contacts inside were mostly rusted away. Does any one have a regulator laying around collecting dust??

 

[tahoe40/45]

Here is the best picture I could find of the only good one I have. Seems Eastman or something like that sells a kit to make a mold and then make repos out of plastic. I planning on going that route. There is also a rubber gasket that fits under it. The grey one had a lens cracked in pieces but no sign of damage to the housing. Guessing with a bulb replacement the cover was over tightened. In any case I would be afraid to run it with the glass lens. On my FJ45 LWB I was thinking of trying to cut down the lens from a 61 to early 74 FJ40 license
plate light. Heated it with a heat gun to form it. Then use the a cut down gasket from the same light to hold it in place.

The mold making kit sounds better than trying to go the plexiglass route. Hopefully that will work.

I was stripping off old seat covers off of a early FJ45 and found these. The seats were recovered at some point but these (minus one) survived. They were between the cushion and the metal frame.
Its hard to see but the top line of the first card but it says FJ25. Next line looks like its a size reference, 37.7? Last line i assume is the part number.
The middle one you can't see the FJ25, next line looks like 8?.3, and last line looks like 002955??.
Last one you can only see J25, next one looks like ?8.2, last line looks like 002985?? Let me know if i should post a picture in the FJ25 and early 40 parts thread.

 

[tahoe40/45]

Frame and body separated for the first time in 55 years.
Found a nice patch of the original color on the frame. I can't wait to have a pile of red parts like just like JohnP #3s pile of Spring Green parts he has right now.

 

[The Jade Bean]

Going good!

-Daniel Kent

 

[pardion]

Looking good, I knew you picked out a winner. This is kinda cool that one of the oldest FJ25's and the newest one we know of are being reborn at the same time.

 

[hdjtachtig]

This is kinda cool that one of the oldest FJ25's and the newest one we know of are being reborn at the same time.

x2, and both in good hands!

 

[tahoe40/45]

Going good!

-Daniel Kent

x2, and both in good hands!

Thanks Daniel and hdjtachtig.


Started on the rear sill. It was in pretty good shape compared to most Cruiser rear sills. With a little heat I got all the lower hinge bolts out, cut away all the welds and drilled out the spot welds that hold the sill and outer body panel. They both came out very easy.

Before I started the rear sill I had a new one in my cart from CCOT, but decided to see if i could get the stock one out in one piece and reuse it instead.

The last photo shows the rear sill body panel. It looks like it was pre drilled for the rear swing out spare tire carrier body hook. I didn't think that was around back then, was there something else that would have bolted on in that same area?

 

[Living in the Past]

That spare tire carrier was around that early. Hard top models had it. Were the holes for the lower hinge there?

 

[tahoe40/45]

That spare tire carrier was around that early. Hard top models had it. Were the holes for the lower hinge there?

Oh yeh, I didn't even think about the Hardtop model. Looking at my FJ25 book it did show some kind of spare tire support on the STD type soft top.(the one without any tailgate or barn doors).
Those holes were the only extra ones that i found. They must have been pre drilled, then filled in when used on the FST models.

 

[tahoe40/45]

I think i OD'ed on Land Cruisers, I had no interest in working on any of my projects for a couple of months. But then my LBP got sick, both master cylinders went bad at the same time, engine compression was about 60 to 75 psi, front axel need to be rebuilt. That forced me back into working on Cruisers again. I just finished fixing my LBP, so now I'm ready to get back on my FJ25.

I was working on the rear sill and bed the last time it saw any attention. I was able to get the sill out without destroying it. It survived sand blasting, so cut out a couple of the bad parts and rebuilt it.

 

[tahoe40/45]

I also had to replace some of the rear quarter panel behind where the sill was. While the rear was apart I took out the rear bed support beam and banged the bed back to shape the best i could.

 

[tahoe40/45]

Repaired the rocker/ rear quarter connection. All these repairs were done a couple months ago, this is just catching up info.

Went to the Land Cruiser museum in Utah in May of last year.

 

[tahoe40/45]

SAVE THAT BLOCK!!!

I have read where they can now save some of these old cracked blocks and heads. I forget where I read it, but I know that they were starting to do this more and more since a lot of the antique parts are just getting too hard, if not impossible to find.

I don't remember if it is "metal stitching" or "furnace welding" or "pinning" or some kind of brazing, but I do remember having to drill the ends of the cracks to keep it from spreading, making a V groove, and stuff. I have read it not that long ago actually...wish I can remember where I read it...I'll have to look through some stuff when I have a minute.

Anyone else know what I am talking about?????

Anyways...there is only one matching number block for your rig, and it is worth (at least in my opinion) to look into this to see if it can be saved

So this the current report. Thanks MWSNFJ, I did save the block and had it repaired.

The place that repaired it was in California, and they are one of the only ones in the world that can fix cracks in cast iron with there special screws. They are a crew of about 20 people that work all over the world. When I sent my block in the person that i was dealing with said that it could be awhile because part of his crew was on a island off the coast of Russia, and another crew was in Italy doing repairs.

I sent my block down in Dec, and just got it back 2 weeks ago. It looks good, i hope it works.

 

[pardion]

Glad to see progress, lot's of work. John

 

[JohnnyC]

x2


block repair .... cool!

 

[fhawk5]

Is this the place where you got the block repaired ?

http://www.locknstitch.com/

 

[tahoe40/45]

Is this the place where you got the block repaired ?

http://www.locknstitch.com/

Yes, I totally forgot to mention there name. Really nice people.

 

[Splangy]

Here is the best picture I could find of the only good one I have. Seems Eastman or something like that sells a kit to make a mold and then make repos out of plastic. I planning on going that route. There is also a rubber gasket that fits under it. The grey one had a lens cracked in pieces but no sign of damage to the housing. Guessing with a bulb replacement the cover was over tightened. In any case I would be afraid to run it with the glass lens. On my FJ45 LWB I was thinking of trying to cut down the lens from a 61 to early 74 FJ40 license
plate light. Heated it with a heat gun to form it. Then use the a cut down gasket from the same light to hold it in place.

The gun guys use a product called Hydex for making holsters. It's cheap and easily moldable with a heat gun or oven. I bought some to make my license plate lens out of with a clear version made by another manufacturer.

 

[tahoe40/45]

I made a new lens out of plexiglass for my LBP this weekend. It turned out ok. Let us know how the Hydex works. It might be easier for the FJ25 lens since it has a half-dome shape.