78 FJ45 demo pics (1 Viewer)

[Rhinoliner]

I finally got all of the pieces of the lower cab section back from being blasted and got them all in primer. I've gotten started putting the puzzle pieces back together with sheet metal screws, but won't be able to work on it again until some night next week. Right now the dash section is just barely being held on to the rest of it with the 2 upper bolts (loosely). I haven't had a chance to even put the 2 lower bolts in yet.

I'll put the windshield, roof and doors on it before I start welding all of the pieces together.

 

[Rhinoliner]

The pics didn't post up for some reason. I'll try again.

 

[Rhinoliner]

Well, I finally got the tub back into one solid piece again. It pretty much feels like it has taken me forever to get to this point.

My transmission hump was in pretty bad shape around the edges so I robbed the one off of my 73 FJ40. It needed a little work too, but I felt like it would be easier to fix than the original. I had to swap out the sections around the shifter holes.

The last picture is the tub mounted on the frame. I wanted to make sure all of my sheet metal was going to fit properly before I do any more work on the tub.

 

[Rhinoliner]

Three more.

 

[Rhinoliner]

Last three.

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

Phenomenal. Just phenomenal.

 

[The Red Camel]

fj45

Nice work.................

 

[dr_claw]

I am catching up

Looks good!

 

[merbesfield]

Very nice work.

 

[Rhinoliner]

I had big plans to take advantage of the long weekend and finally get my cab section painted. I didn't quite make it but I made great progress anyway.

When I left here yesterday I was happy with the way everything was looking except for one spot on the top of the cowl panel. The black epoxy primer was too gummy for me to do anything about it yesterday. So, I came in early this morning and coated the area with some more 2k surfacer and got that all blocked out a while ago. I am going to recoat that area again with the black epoxy after work this evening.

If the stars all line up for me like I hope they will, I will be turning this sucker red tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Rhinoliner]

Last pic for now. I hope to have some red pics tomorrow.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Looks great!

Why the black primer for the red paint though, if you don't mind me asking?

Dan

 

[Rhinoliner]

Well, that's a not so funny story on the black primer. When I started this project way back when I could buy the PPG products from a local auto parts store. I went through almost a whole gallon of the gray epoxy when everything was sandblasted.

When I went back to get some more of the gray to finish up they told me they can't get PPG stuff anymore because their source went out of business over a year ago. Nobody else in this area sells PPG products.

Since I didn't want to mix brands halfway through the project I made a trip to San Antonio to a large autobody supply place. It just so happens that the day that I went they were out of everything except the black. That's about a 3 hour round trip for me so I went ahead and bought the black.

It's sort of a pain in the rear to paint the red over it, but it sure makes it easy to see any defects in my prep work.

 

[Rhinoliner]

Well, I can't hardly believe it. I finally got some red paint on the tub today. Man, that thing is a royal PITA to paint. I kind of wonder how the factory painted them originally.

I'll have to look it over in the sunlight tomorrow to see where I missed or where it is too thin and I should be able to get it completely finished this weekend. It's just too dark in my spray booth to do a good enough job the first go around. When I sprayed this this afternoon I had a light in one hand and the spray gun in the other but I know it will need some touch ups.

I'm just really glad that I got some paint on it today. I think I'll have a and try to forget/remember what it took to get to this point.

 

[Chamba]

Looks Great Rhino,

How did you get paint up under the dash? I wound up painting that first, then letting it dry and sanding all of the drips that would be visible once the rig was put back together. I sprayed upward, and through the instrument cluster hole, the bolt-in dash hole, etc. I made a helluva mess, but I mostly covered all teh metal underneath the dash. Then, I painted the rest of the tub a day later.

Cheers,

Josh

 

[Rhinoliner]

Looks Great Rhino,

I sprayed upward, and through the instrument cluster hole, the bolt-in dash hole, etc. I made a helluva mess, but I mostly covered all teh metal underneath the dash.

Josh

Hey Josh,

It was pretty much the same for me. I sprayed through all of the larger dash holes from pretty much every angle I could. I even climbed up through the transmission hole to get paint behind the A pillars. Adjusting the spray pattern to a round dot helped to get paint into a lot of the tougher spots.

I have a few runs that I'll have to sand down and spray over again. I also have a couple of spots where I bumped into some wet paint with either the spray gun, hose or extension cord when I was trying to cover everything up under the dash. These should sand down and disappear after I respray it this weekend. At least the hardest part of it is over.

 

[dr_claw]

Love the color. Can't wait to see the interior put together!

 

[oldfj40]

Your truck is looking awesome!

Great job so far.

 

[BeratE]

Isn't it nice to be able to say that you paid attention to every detail? I hope someday to have a project like this where I can truly trust the workmanship in and out. Really nice work!

 

[Rhinoliner]

I really appreciate the encouraging words guys! It definitely helps to keep me going.

When I put that first coat of paint on the other day I was in a real time crunch or else I was going to have to scuff and re-prime the thing. I wiped it down with a tack cloth and everything, but obviously not good enough. I ended up with quite a bit of dust in my first pass and a few runs.

So, I spent 7 hours at the shop on Saturday sanding out all of the defects with 320 grit. Then I went back to the shop on Sunday and re-sprayed the whole thing again. I didn't even think to take my camera with me this weekend so I don't have any pics until I pulled it out into the light this morning. It turned out really nice.

I looked it over really closely this morning and there were 3 small areas where you could just barely see the black primer through the paint so I masked off around those spots quickly and shot some more paint on them this morning.

After a couple of hours I checked the freshly painted spots and they were dry enough for masking tape to not damage them. We didn't have much going on at the shop today so I decided we should finish this little cab project. I laid out the first course of masking tape around the edges and let Tate (the kid that works for me) do what he does. He did a great job and I think it turned out really nice.

What a huge accomplishment. All of the work over the last couple of days have really paid off.

The lamp in the background that the red arrow is pointing at is what I used while I was painting so I could see what I was doing. That lamp was silver last week.