Builds ‘82 FJ45 build thread..... no name yet (3 Viewers)

[sloanstavern]

While I am waiting for my body to come back from the media blaster I added some outside work space. I think this will be the perfect spot to do some bodywork and hopefully keep the shop a little cleaner

 

[sloanstavern]

Today I got the forms stripped and the expansion joints cut, I can never get a groove and wet cement to look good so I just slept together a guide and set my old Skil saw with a Masonary blade about a half inch deep and made some lines.
Yesterday as I was looking at all that wet concrete all I kept thinking was now I’ll get the phone call from the media blaster and I need to come get my parts today, and no place to unload them! I know I can’t drive on it for a while but I could roll the body parts on the dollies over this new slab

 

[sloanstavern]

I thought I would try some mock up today and see how everything fits passenger side window together without too many issues, but I think the driver side will need some tweaking. Nothing major but her smile was a little crooked. The shock has a slight forward rake, which I think is ok, since as the leaf flexes the axel moves forward

 

[sloanstavern]

I found the problem with the fenders, the mounting slots and ovals needed to be enlarged as you can see at one of the photos once I did that on both sides they lined up very nicely. I couldn’t resist putting a little jewelry on

 

[sloanstavern]

I got my new metal break yesterday and want to get it into service. Taking a stab at some very visible fabrication. The lower face of the bib was all damaged and rusted and had to be cut out both the outer skin and inner brace. I saved the curved ends of the inner brace so that’ll be an easy fix just a long piece of 90° bent sheet steel. The facia is another story. I cut the template out of posterboard marking all the profile dimensions. Cut it out of some slightly thinner steel just to aid in the finish work. The 90 was easy and even the profile turned out better than I expected. The tricky part will be where it joins the center post I may need to take some liberty With that profile to make everything fit.
nothing like jumping into the deep end of the pool with some really weak fabrication skills

 

[sloanstavern]

It fit, now I need to make it look like it belongs.......

 

[sloanstavern]

Got the back support roughed together, I’ll save the finishing of both of them for another day

 

[sloanstavern]

I’m stepping away from the metal work on this one, it’s a good as I can get it. So here are my key learnings from my first dip in the fabrication pool:
1. Do not overwork the metal, either with hammers or spark.
2 do some test welding on scrap to get the heat and wire feed correct.
3 place some heat sink behind the thin steel to avoid burn through I had some scrap hunks of copper and even just old dollies did the trick
4 while the metalwork isn’t perfect at the junctions I’m real pleased with the body of the replacement panels and I think the junctions are good enough for skim coat of filler will do just fine.
5 I have a new favorite tool, my cart on wheels with the power strip serves as a perfect mobile grinding and cutting base I could move it to one corner of the shop and limit the debris and dust

 

[sloanstavern]

This project is giving me many opportunities to work on my fabrication skills, almost as good as my righteous nunchuck skills.

One apron had to be replaced with a donor, and one could be repaired it just had a patch surface welded over some rust. I cut out the repair and was able to hack a piece out of the damaged apron that lined up real nicely. I used original material from scrap body parts to save money and to keep original steel in-service as much as possible

 

[sloanstavern]

I’m looking ahead to when I have a tub to put back on the chassis. The factory mounting pads are not an option, not only are they unavailable but they’re all unique and ridiculously expensive if they were available. So my plan is to buy some universal urethane mounts and make that fit.

my question is this it looks like at most of the mounting points there is a cushion on the top a cushion underneath the chassis mount and then a spacer in long bolt, the cushions make a sandwich around the frame mounting point, is that correct

 

[sloanstavern]

After 60 days I got a phone call from the media blaster telling me the Troopy he was done. And he wanted me to pick it up today otherwise the cats might Pee on it........ never heard that one before I thought he just wanted to get paid

He did a good job and I was pleasantly surprised but how much good steel was left. I still have 20 or 30 little spots and both floor pans put on it and that everything looks good and she’s home safe!

 

[sloanstavern]

This just in...... found a real nice box on the stoop when I got home. All the way from the united Arab emirates, what a beauty! Best box I’ve opened in a long time

 

[sloanstavern]

Sometimes it’s hard to be an optimist. I’ve got a shop full of freshly media blasted body parts that have to stay 100% dry until I get some primer on them so they won’t flash rust. It has not rained in Arizona for 60 days, and here’s the weather forecast........

 

[sloanstavern]

The weather held off long enough to get some epoxy primer down on all of the small items, if it holds off most of tomorrow I’ll try and get a coat on the tub and roof as well.
This was my first job with my new spray set up so I’m still learning the ropes and I think I have the wrong orifice on the gun ( too small) but for epoxy primer it was OK I’ll play with some other sizes before I do the tub and roof. I’m not sure if a pure white primer was the best choice but since I’m going with the light factory color I thought it best. In hindsight I think a buff primer would’ve been better

I’m heading to the mountains in a week and was hoping to have everything shot before I go but this rainy weather might put the Kabash on that plan

 

[sloanstavern]

I don’t really have time to do any more priming right now but I did do a quick assessment of the metal work that lies ahead of me. I knew about the floorboards and some of the tub supports that will need repair but I hadn’t noticed the substantial bowl in the bed floor. My plan is to remove the brace by cutting the spot welds and either straightening the brace or Fabing a new one and then removing that half inch bowl on the rear floor pan.

 

[sloanstavern]

Slight change in plan, since I have limited energy and time rather than disassemble and straighten the rear floor pan I spend some quality time with a wooden brace and a really big hammer and got 80% of the sag pounded out of it. Plus freed up a lot of dirt and rust that’s fell out I think I’ll call this part done

 

[sloanstavern]

I thought I would try a little exploratory surgery today. Have you heard that all saying a known is better than an unknown?........
That might not be true all the time.
At least now I know what I’m dealing with on all of these tub supports. I’m heading out of town so I’ll order a pneumatic body saw, and Spot weld cutter to arrive when I return and make this go a little smoother I hope

 

[sloanstavern]

Well I think I found the least painful solution, I have eight of these braces in total seven of them are at various levels of rust damage. The eighth one is in good shape and thank goodness because that one is hidden behind the rear storage compartment and out of sight, it would’ve been a pain to get at.
Since I don’t need to match a factory brace I think I can make a slight improvement. The sheet metal on the inside is simply flat stock with a 90° band and none of those beads are present. The brace itself has one 90° bend with a wide radius and turned up edges. That radius introduces a bad spot for moisture and debris to collect. What I’ll do is put a true 90° bend on the brace illuminating that pocket.

I will make one up and see how I like it and if it works, then I simply need to cut out all the other ones with the uniform template make up eight replacements and weld them into place. A lot of monkey business but since they’re identical and the cut out will be quite simple I think it’s the best path forward

 

[sloanstavern]

I made the drive from Idaho down to Salt Lake City and couldn’t pass up a chance to see the Land Cruiser heritage museum such a cool place. In addition to all of the older units, there is a pristine 1983 troops from Australia that gave me some great encouragement. It’s a very rare power steering and factory air conditioning equipped model and an absolutely beautiful restoration

 

[sloanstavern]

Vacation is over time to get back to work. I took a more detailed look at the seat bracing and realized they’re all different and going to require custom cutting. So instead I started working on an efficient way to plug the countless little holes. They don’t seem to be rust holes it looks more like random drilling for who knows what. Since there’s good steel all around it what I did was take my step drill bit and even out the surface, then used my Milwaukee holesaw for the appropriate size plug and then burned it in. I also find out why I kept burning through any sheet metal I was trying to but weld.
I switched to 0.024” wire and getting much better results!