A Zimbos Guide to building an FJ45... TAKE 2!! (2 Viewers)

[Vossie]

alrighty then, back to the build.

for all the engine related stuff im going to post the link to this thread " the idiot's (and diesel boy's) guide to getting a 2f running " so that everyone can have a good laugh at how i know nothing about petrol engines

so after messing around for some time trying to get the 2F to start, my father, the big guy at the front in the video linked earlier, says to me
"you wont listen to me, but you should start again, from the frame up"

heres the thing, i know hes right. ive ben in such a hurry to just get to driving this ol girl that im missing out on the opportunity to do some stuff that otherwise will never get done.

so after we got the rear springs and back axle in...

which included a diff inspection (all good here)...

it was once again off with the tub

why go through all the effort i hear you ask? well, i kept telling myself that i would come back to doing the body work on the tub, but in reality, i know that once shes running and my DD, then when will i ever do the tub? answer, i probably wont. so never has there been a better time to fix this...

and most importantly, this...

this is the only rust on the entire vehicle. one of the reasons i bought this 45.

so now its time to see if my can do attitude will enable me to learn how to MIG weld

 

[Vossie]

in answer to that question, my can do attitude might have enabled me to learn to MIG weld, however, my wallet does not

so, enter graham, a local guy who mainly works on body repairs of trucks here in harare. btw, when we say truck, we mean 18 wheels + on the road. my father, when he was still employed, worked as the workshop manager of a trucking company and used graham for all his body repair work, and he really well priced too.

at most of the legit body shops here in town, to fix my floor pans and respray would have been in the region of $1800 or more. graham's price: $700. better yet, he has given me really good terms which means he will start the work and deliver and i can pay as and when i have money. i really do hate this time of year when it comes to money.

so, all the body pieces, minus the load tray, are currently with graham. should get them back in about a week. maybe a bit more if this rain continues

so in the mean time, ive been working on the carb for my 2F, using @Pin_Head 's you tube videos. great vids, makes stripping and reassembling a carb easy enough for even a diesel monkey like me to get it

Carb before

Carb After clean and reassembly

bear in mind that ive done all this with no carb rebuild kit. i will be ordering one pretty soon and a friend coming out from the US in January will bring it for me, but i need to raise some money for it first. so this was a disassembly, CLEAN, and then reassembly. not a complete carb rebuild. i still think it will make a massive difference however.

i was able to get the secondary pot vacuum actuator to work. it didnt before. i have also got the linkage all the right way round. before, the secondary wouldnt have even been able to open if it wanted to bc the linkage was back to front and the primary linkage was stopping it from moving when the taps were fully open. oh well, all fixed now

i also managed to get some new rubber hoses for all the vacuum lines and the fuel lines.

so now all i have to do is get the carb back on the engine and i firmly believe she fire right up... i hope

 

[Vossie]

so i finally got all the body (everything except the load tray, which is still 500km away) back from paint. really happy with how it came out, especially considering the price!

The tub

the welds where graham fixed the holes in the floor arent the prettiest, but all the rust is gone and all the holes filled in, and considering this will be my DD and bush car, and not a show car, im pretty happy.

The roof

he did an amazing job here... before there was a massive hole and quite a bit of rust here. you can see where the fix is, but only if you look hard. and again, considering i dont use a roof for 9 out of 12 months im really happy here

The hood and other stuff

again, happy here. he even managed to fill in the holes the PO had made for whatever plan he had for keeping the hood down.

 

[Vossie]

So after a pretty full day of working on the 45, heres what i managed to do...

The dash was pretty beat up. dont know why the PO drilled holes in the plastic cover on the right!!!

so i put some plastic steel over the hole and then sanded it down to flat.

happy with the result once i painted the dash too

i think functional is the word here well considering what it looked like before, im chuffed with it, especially seeing as i did it myself.

Also put the radiator in. and then ran the loom through the vehicle. all the switches are hooked up.

tomorrow i will work on the blower and the massive hole in the side of it!!!

and on another note, the 45 got a name today... "little Brother"... the little brother to my wifes car, which is this 1955 morris minor

nice to share your life with a fellow car enthusiast

 

[JohnnyC]

Nice Minor... you might not have too much electrical issues with it where you are... good thing its not in a wet area... Lucas electric would drive you nuts

 

[cult45]

tomorrow i will work on the blower and the massive hole in the side of it!!!

Can't wait to see a supercharged 2F burning across the veldt!

 

[Vossie]

right, been a while since i last updated this thread, life getting in the way and all. but work on the cruiser has continued through out!

so, at this point in the build i ran into some engine woes... well, not engine woes, more like not enough experience woes. This thread was started because i didnt know enough about petrol and carbs to get her running initially...

The Idiot's (and diesel Boy's) Guide to Getting a 2F running

That got her turning over, but she still wouldnt run well. and once again, i turned to the great members of mud to bail me out...

2f Aisin Carb questions.

After all of that, finally had the beast that is the 2F behaving and doing well. now i could turn my attention back towards getting her to look as well as she ran

the first time she moved under her own power in who knows how many years

 

[Vossie]

now it was time to get all that newly painted body work onto the 45...

hood on...

and the bezel!!! right way too

next the indicator boxes and some light test driving

and then the load tray. this had to be delivered to me only after i had everything painted, so unfortunately it never got a coat of 2k white :/

whats a 45 with out some barring on the tray? all it needs now is the hunting seat!

 

[Vossie]

and then on with the roof...

and then one or two decent shots of progress so far...

as can be seen, the tail gate of the load tray was looking really nasty... this would have to be fixed, as well as the lack of doors...

 

[chappohj47]

Nice work mate

 

[Dagha Boy]

Hey Vossie. Looking good!

 

[Vossie]

Danke @Dagha Boy

Cheers man! @chappohj47

More to come...

 

[Vossie]

so, doors... the 45 had half doors when i got her. i like them, but they not great for when you have the roof on and when it starts raining. so i began a search for a set of full doors.

found these...

great find. when i first found them, the guy behind the counter wanted $500 each. a month later when i went back, another guy sais $375, for both! DEAL!!!

but now comes another problem... when i got the 45 there were no door hinges or pins...
then i had to go to botswana to help my uncle on his farm. but guess what i found there...?

its almost sad to see a 45 left like this. but this dying old girl had a few parting gifts to bring another back to life!
using my uncles 79 to get at the old 45...

using the 79 as a platform to teach my wife how to shoot

and when i got home to harare, it was juts a case of having a machinist friend turn some new pins for me...
the pins just before having the heads rounded...

so now the 45 has a nice new set of doors. had em painted too

 

[Vossie]

next it was time to focus a little more on the interior...

Danielle, my amazing wife was all to happy to help on this area...

whilst she covered the roof lining, i worked on an over head console for the radio and other future extras. thanks to Mike @78fj40mg and his awesome Mike's Overhead Console Build thread which gave me the inspiration, desire and ideas for making my own.

all cut out and put together...

test fitting it conforms to the contours of the roof..

and then the final product covered, installed and with radio and speakers. really happy with it, came out great and awesome in ear sound!

also got my hands on some new wheels to go with my 265x75xr16 tyres

good looking wheels, they just missing something....

 

[Vossie]

figured out what the wheels needed... a bit of colour

a few posing pics after everything was together for the first time in who knows how long...

Danielle approved

 

[Vossie]

then it was time for the first real test... a trail ride up Ngomokurera, basically, a big massive granite rock. highest point near harare. not exactly extreme 4x4ing, but you have to know what your doing in a few places and be committed.

the 45 did an amazing job. she idled up while the other vehicles had to keep pace with her took the roof of just to enjoy the surrounds more

a few pics of the 45 at the top once we hit the summit

 

[Vossie]

one shot of the group in front of the 45. great time had by all and got to enjoy, not just the drive up or the cars, but the incredble scenery and beauty of Zimbabwe.

and a bit of a vid of the 45 crawling up one of the steep parts...

 

[Vossie]

and now we get to the most recent work on the 45... the power steering

so i decided long ago, when i first got the 45 in fact, that it WOULD have power steering and that preferably, it would be out of a hilux (mini truck to the guys in the US) so ive had my eyes out for a suitable hilux donor for a while. in fact, ive been driving my wife nuts because every time i see a hilux with a solid front axle drive by i say "there goes a toyota power steering box" in fact, in our family, the hilux with solid front axle will forever be known as the toyota power steering box

anyways, during my last trip to Botswana whilst driving through some tiny town a half hours drive away from the farm, i spied tucked away in behind a building and some other broken cars the roof of a hilux. stopped in, checked it had the box and made the deal. box and lines for 800 pula, or about $80. score!

now all i needed was a pump. said those exact lines to my wifes uncle wayne when we stayed with him on our way backup to Harare. hes a car nut, especially chevys and american cars. in fact, this is what he drives daily towing what he uses on the weekends... he came to pick it up and i helped him load it the one day....

this was actually the means of delivery for my load tray which can be seen in the back round.

but i digress...

so, Wayne says to me that he has about 5 pumps sitting in his garage and i can have one as an early anniversary present... SCORE!!

so thats box, pump lines and fittings for $80. suites my No budget down to the tee.

so now for some tech....

 

[Vossie]

so, the front of the engine where i HAVE to mount the pump...

and the manual steer box before we ripped it out...

so, in order to be able to make some sort of bracket to hold the pump, we needed a good base plate with adequate support to hold it. this involved drilling into the head and tapping to put in a stud...

this allowed us to have a solid base plate...

the reason for those big marked out holes will be apparent soon enough

also had to add a new journal to the crank pulley to run the pump...

this is the only pic i have which shows us turning a groove into the original pulley in order to seat the new journal properly...

 

[Vossie]

test mounting the pump on the bracket and lining up the belt...

and the final bracket...

and the bracket installed and pump mounted...

one thing that we had to do was adjust and re-braze the return outlet on the pump...

thats was the pump side of things. next up the box side of things