Builds Bean! The Adventure Continues (1987 FJ60)

[Bullzi]

I'm particularly proud of the seams around the hinges and door checks...they came out really good. The corner areas inside the engine bay also look much nicer now. This was a ton of work and I'm hoping it pays off in the form of dry carpet!
It's obviously not necessary to base and clear the area under the fender, but I figured I would since I had the paint out for the door jamb.

More Pictures:

The blend is hardly noticeable in person and undetectable in the pictures.

I also took the time to clean prime and paint the bolts for the fenders and front clip:

In a future post - Some frame painting....yuck!

 

[ntdb]

Your attention to detail is incredible. It makes me happy that this particular truck is in your hands @Bullzi.

 

[Bullzi]

Your attention to detail is incredible. It makes me happy that this particular truck is in your hands @Bullzi.

Thanks! I’m trying my best to take my time and do a nice job. Mostly because I don’t want to have to do it again...there is a slight bit of pressure since this truck is the “Bean”!

 

[Beerfix]

Remind me not to park near you next time we see each other. I don't want our wagons to start talking. I do kinda feel bad that I'm over here flogging mine, while you are giving the spa treatment.... Shhhh! Nice work though, looks great
!

 

[Bullzi]

Remind me not to park near you next time we see each other. I don't want our wagons to start talking. I do kinda feel bad that I'm over here flogging mine, while you are giving the spa treatment.... Shhhh! Nice work though, looks great
!

As I recall, your wagon just got some new shoes! That’s no flogging if you ask me .

Thanks for the kind words! I’ll be excited when I get to drive it again!!

 

[Beerfix]

I’ll be excited when I get to drive it again!!

First step is, stop taking more stuff apart, and continue putting stuff back together

 

[Bullzi]

First step is, stop taking more stuff apart, and continue putting stuff back together

Easier said than done lol, but you are 100% correct!!

 

[Bullzi]

This is the last of the painting projects...for now...I think.

So while trying to clean some overspray off the frame, we discovered that there was some surface rust under the Chassis Saver on the outside of the frame. Most all of this was light surface rust with the exception of two spots that I will talk about at the end.
When I applied the Chassis Saver a few years ago (April 2019), I cleaned and scuffed the frame really well and removed most rust. Doing this work on my back, I probably missed a few small spots here and there, but I did a very thorough job. I'm not sure why this surface rust propagated under the Chassis Saver. I guess Chassis Saver is more of an encapsulator that prevents the rust from getting worse, but doesn't actually convert it like a rust converter would? I don't really know...I kind of thought it killed the rust by converting it and encapsulated the converted rust with a hard coating.
Anyways, for my peace of mind I decided to strip the Chassis Saver from the outside and bottom of the frame rails, sand and re-coat with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator Platinum. I then top-coated with some Rustolium Professional that I had leftover from the painting the sliders. I did not do the inner frame rails because they did not seem to be as affected.

Some of the overspray:

Surface rust found under the Chassis Saver after sanding overspray:

Here is a good example of the section of frame at the rear passenger wheel well:

Closer up - you can see that the Chassis Saver is still in good shape even after lightly sanding on it to get the overspray off:

Scraping the Chassis Saver off reveals the surface rust underneath:

Sanded down to clean metal and scuffed very well for the Encapsulator application:

The encapsulator - this can go over rust, old paint or bare metal...I have a little of each:

The encapsulator does not need top-coating, but I wanted the frame black. My original idea was to spray Eastwood's 2K Ceramic Chassis black on top of the encapsulator, but the weather got too cold outside and I did not want to spray this stuff inside because it contains Isocyanates which are really really bad for you to breath (even through a respirator)...so spraying this in a poorly ventilated garage would not be a good idea.
My next thought was to use VHT Roll Bar paint in an aerosol can. I tested this on a small section of the frame and it did not play well with the encapsulator for some reason. It was almost like it would bead up and not give full coverage...even after multiple coats. So Rustoleum Professional it is. I am kind of indifferent to this stuff at this point. It used to be awesome - I sandblasted and painted my dad's CJ-7 frame about 15 years ago and it still looks perfect. They have since redone the formulation and now it takes forever to dry and is not as durable....but its what I had on hand.

I think I'm going to spray Cosmoline over the frame rails (inner and outer) to help give just a little more protection. I would also like to spray the inner frame rails with Eastwood's Internal Frame Coating and then Fluid Film over that. This would hopefully cover all the bases.


As I mentioned above, there were two areas where the rust was a little more than surface rust and this was under one of the bump-stop areas (where my airbag brackets now bolt) and where the rear bumper bolts.
Here is a picture of where the rear bumper bolts:

I think the Chassis Saver must have been scraped off when I installed the rear bumper and allowed water to sit and fester in this area. It cleaned up fine and there is still plenty of good metal in the area, but it was a little concerning. I remember it looking similar to this when I took the bumper off a few years ago for the Chassis Saver application. I'm hoping if I spray Cosmoline in this spot before installing the bumper, it will help prevent this from happening again.

I really hope I don't have to do this ever again!

 

[Bullzi]

Here are some pictures I took with my borescope of the patch panels in front of the rear wheel wells. This is the channel that runs under the doors from the front of the truck all the way to the dog-legs. I accessed this area from the grommet holes under the truck.

Here is the channel - It was full of dirt and sand blasting debris:

I also found a few old grommets and clips that held the snake blinders on. For reference, the yellow at the top of the picture is light coming in from the clips that hold on the plastic trim pieces in the door sills.

Here is where Kelly used fiberglass to seal up one of the snake blinder holes (I had him delete these).

There was a lot of debris in here, so I used a small hose and the shop-vac to clean it up:

Here is the patch panel in front of the front wheel-well:

I used the Eastwood Internal Frame Coating with the multi-directional wand to coat the patch panel so it would not rust:

I coated the entire channel to keep the rust at bay. The internal frame coating is really runny and seeps into all the cracks. I used a thin feeler gauge to clean out the small drain slots under the truck. These allows any water that might get into this area to drain out. The slots were clogged with years of dirt and dried internal frame coating.
Afterwards, I sprayed the entire area with a good coating of Fluid Film.


I was also able to get my camera into the area below - this is part of the dogleg:

There was just a little surface rust on the horizontal section as seen below:

I sprayed this with the internal frame coating and then gave it a thick coating of Fluid Film.


Here is a picture of what the inside of the frame looks like. Its a mixture of scaly rust and dirt. Doesn't look terrible, but makes me want to do the internal frame coating and Fluid Film.

This borescope is seriously handy...I use it all the time for all sorts of random things. It was relatively cheap on Amazon and is Bluetooth to my phone. The other day I used it to fish out a grommet that I had dropped between the intake manifold and the top of the engine (where the knock sensors live). I couldn't even see it, but able to find it with the borescope and used a wire to grab it!

 

[Bullzi]

I was a little disappointed this week to discover that my FZJ80 steering box (the one I just rebuilt) will not fit in my truck. The box is a bit thicker in a few spots and will not clear the power steering pulley.

The box still has a ways to go!

The 60 series steering box clearance for reference:

There are a few ways to get around this:
1. Make a spacer for the box to space it out from the frame - The issue with this is that my spacer would need to be about 3/4" to get 1/4" clearance between the box and the pulley. I think a 3/4" spacer would create problems of its own.

Here is the clearance with a 1/2" spacer - I had some 1/2" plastic I was able to create one out of.

2. The other option is getting a smaller pulley, but this would require a smaller serpentine belt and maybe getting a pressure reducing valve because the pump would be spinning faster. One thing I really like about this engine is that I can easily find off the shelf parts for it and I don't really want to complicate that.

All that to say, I probably will take the simple way out and just keep using the FJ60 box... So now its time to move the FJ60 box rebuild to the top of the list because its leaking like a sieve

 

[Bullzi]

I've been getting some stuff done on the Bean, but it's been super hard to stay motivated in this damp cold PNW weather right now. The shop is typically 35-40 degrees...the wood stove is a saving grace, but does take some time to get the uninsulated shop to about 50 degrees.

Last night I pulled the FJ60 box and put it on the bench for the reseal.

It was pretty messy from the years of leaking. The sector shaft to power piston gear interface feels pretty tight...maybe too tight. The adjuster bolt on the top was screwed pretty far down. I actually had a bit of a struggle turning the input shaft by hand. I've heard if this is too tight, the box can leak from the input seal...maybe that's whats going on?

I broke the box down, but it was hard to tell exactly where it was leaking - you can tell from the faded red top that it was rebuilt by redhead. From what I've been told, the box started leaking soon after the rebuild and they couldn't or wouldn't fix it. I think this has been a common issue with their FJ60 steering box rebuilds.

I noticed that the seals redhead used are not OEM. Also, the input and sector shaft seals seem to have a 1mm larger diameter than the OEM seals...this is probably due to the seal being stretched over their respective shafts, but it made me stop and wonder if they weren't tight enough to give a leak-proof seal.

Lastly and most troublesome is the fact that there were only 40 ball bearings in the power piston when there should have been 44! I was super careful taking these out and removed them over a large metal pan as not to lose any. Maybe this has something to do with why the steering box feels a little sloppy even though the gear interfaces seem tight? I really don't know, but I'm in the process of trying to source 4 more balls. I ordered some through Toyota Parts Deal, but they emailed me this morning and told me they have been discontinued. I am now trying Megazip, but I'm sure I'll get the same response. Time to find out the size and try to source some on the interwebs somewhere!

1987 FJ60 Reseal part numbers:
Reseal kit: 04445-60030
Extra Teflon ring for the power piston (just in case): 90562-67002
Teflon Ring for the steering worm (I have heard reports that the full kit does not come with these, but have not checked): 90562-48001 (2 needed)
Power Piston Balls (these are discontinued but there should be 44 total): 90360-06021

 

[Bullzi]

I bought a new pitman arm puller after having so much trouble with the 80 box. This is a knock-off of the Snapon puller, but it worked really well at a fraction of the price. To test it, I tried the parts store puller and hammer trick (same tool and method as in post 118 & 119 with the 80 series box) and it was not budging. I threw the new puller on and tightened it super tight with the impact and *POP* - the pitman arm came right off. Well worth it to have the right tool. No heat needed. The splines of the sector shaft were really rusty, but not twisted at all.

Pitman arm puller: OTC 8150 - $38 on Amazon but I was able to find it for about $25 at a discount parts store a few months back.

 

[Bullzi]

I took on the infamous task of replacing the rear C-Channels in the Bean last week...well actually this has been a couple month long process, but I completed the project yesterday. What a pain!! Removing those rivets is no joke!

I had to remove 11 or 12 rivets for each side. The method that I used involved a relatively inexpensive Ingersoll-Rand Air Chisel that my brother bought off Amazon a while back. I tried a few without the air chisel, but I found it to be much harder.

I should also mention that my rear C-Channels appeared to be in pretty good shape with some material deformation around the edges...I had no idea how much rust there really was!

Here was my process for removing the rivets:

1 - Drill out the center of the rivet about 1/2" deep. Using a center punch helps with this.

2 - Use the Air chisel to remove the head of the rivet. If you had a strong enough chisel, you could probably remove the head without drilling it first, but my chisel was not strong enough.

3 - After the head is removed, drill out the rivet body another 1/2" to help relieve the pressure.

4 - use the air chisel with the punch attachment to punch out the rest of the rivet.

This method is pretty simple on the bottom rivets and a few others that have good access, but once you move to the upper rivets and rivets that penetrate the body mounts and leaf spring mounts things get exponentially harder!
With the body on the frame there is very little access to drill the rivets or fit the air chisel... I think a plasma cutter would have worked great!
I ended up using a cheap right angle attachment for the drill to get in the hard-to-reach areas, but it was time consuming. I think I spent about 3 hours on each side removing the rivets.

The aftermath:

I was incredibly surprised how much rust was hiding under there!
My c-channels seemed to be in pretty good shape, but I am so glad I did this before they got any worse!

 

[Bullzi]

To replace the FJ60 C-Channels I went with the Trail Tailor Kit. I originally wanted the steel kit but it was out of stock, so I went with the stainless steel kit.

Before installing the new c-channels, there was a lot of prep work!

First I sandblasted the area to get all (most) of the rust out.

Next I painted the area with 2 coats of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator

I top coated the rust encapsulator with some black spray paint - I think I used the Rustolium professional stuff I had laying around.
After the spray paint, I hit the area with 2 coats of Cosmoline Black. This is a waxy product that protects metal from rust and will not wash out (only comes off with a solvent-based thinner).

Now it was time for the new channels!

So as I stated before, the channels I bought were stainless - which is great, but there are precautions you have to take to stave off the dreaded galvanic corrosion between mild steel and stainless steel. One thing that trail tailor did to make this easier was to include PTFE liners to go between the frame and c-channel. There was a separate sheet for each side and I marked and cut the holes with a punch.

Installed (round 1):

The c-channels came with 7/16"-14, 8-18 SS hardware. This was great for everywhere but the leaf spring brackets. I had two issues with the bolts that hold on the leaf spring brackets.
1. They were too short - the bolt did not protrude through the nut.
2. I did not want to use stainless in this application, I wanted to use a hardened steel (grade 8) for strength. After a quick message to Trail Tailor, I decided that the right thing to do would be to use Grade 8 bolts for the leaf spring brackets.

Picture of the SS bolt in the leaf spring bracket - slightly too short!

The issue with grade 8 bolts is introducing the potential for galvanic corrosion between the steel bolts and SS c-channels.
A quick chemistry lesson!
When stainless steel and regular steel are in contact, galvanic corrosion will occur if there is an electrolytic fluid present (water or even worse salt-water). This is essentially the battery effect and the stainless steel will take an ion from the regular steel which in turn corrodes the regular steel. If its a stainless bolt in a large sheet of steel, its not too big of a problem under most circumstances (at least for automotive applications) because the larger steel plate has a lot of ions to give the small SS bolt, but if the steel bolt is in a large SS plate, then the bolt can corrode fast due to the larger SS plate taking more ions from the smaller bolt. Or at least that how I remember it from chemistry class 15ish years ago!

So - with the steel grade 8 bolts touching the SS c-channels, I wanted to find a way to prevent the galvanic corrosion...maybe I'm being overkill? not really sure.
Here is what i did: First I washed and painted the grade 8 bolts. Next I put a coating of Cosmoline on them. I was able to find a very thin Mylar washer to go under the bolt's washer to reduce contact with the c-channel.

Mylar washer on the lower-right. This is the grade 8 hardware (unpainted).

When I put the bolt through, I smothered it in a thick waterproof grease - my hope is that this will prevent any water from finding its way to the space where the c-channel and bolt touch.

I snugged everything down to the proper torque and sprayed the c-channel with Cosmoline black.
Side Note - I am pretty impressed with the Cosmoline product. The black "paints" the area well. I wonder if it stains? Seems like it's thick enough to last a good while!

Finished product - this is with one coat of Cosmoline black on the bare stainless steel.

Overall, the c-channels from Trail Tailor seem to be quality. Other than the SS bolts being too short for the leaf spring brackets, there were only two other small issues I had.
1 - There was one hole on each c-channel that didn't line up right - not too hard to fix, but required more drilling. If the hole was shifted up 1/4" it would have lined up perfect like all the other holes...not sure why this one hole is off.
2 - This is a small complaint and mostly my fault...but I did not know that the holes on the frame needed to be drilled out with a step bit (provided) to fit the hardware that was included. I found this out after I had painted the frame. So...I had to drill out all the holes and then paint the inside of all the holes. Would have been much better and cleaner if I had known this before I did my initial painting. Again, not really Trail Tailor's fault, but it was annoying.

Rear C-Channels Complete!

 

[Bullzi]

I performed a quick rehab on the rear pillar vents the other day. Really simple and hopefully effective!
I actually didn't even know the rear vents had a one-way flapper until I saw another MUD member that had done a similar thing. From what I've gathered, the vents help relieve pressure when the doors are shut. The flapper allows the pressure to escape but prevents moisture and bugs from entering the vehicle. My flappers were non-existent.

Before I created new flapper pieces, I made a new gasket for the rear vent. I have been getting a lot of water in the quarter panels and it may have been coming from under the old crusty vent seal. I had some old Siless sound deadening closed cell foam from a project a few years ago and it worked really well to create a new foam gasket.

For the flappers, I used a combination of thin ABS plastic and sheet rubber.
The key was layering them so the ABS plastic kept the rubber shut until there was sufficient pressure to open the flap.

Picture overload for such a small thing, but maybe it will be helpful if someone is looking to do something similar!
I hope this keeps the water out!!

 

[red66toy]

I performed a quick rehab on the rear pillar vents the other day. Really simple and hopefully effective!
I actually didn't even know the rear vents had a one-way flapper until I saw another MUD member that had done a similar thing. From what I've gathered, the vents help relieve pressure when the doors are shut. The flapper allows the pressure to escape but prevents moisture and bugs from entering the vehicle. My flappers were non-existent.

Before I created new flapper pieces, I made a new gasket for the rear vent. I have been getting a lot of water in the quarter panels and it may have been coming from under the old crusty vent seal. I had some old Siless sound deadening closed cell foam from a project a few years ago and it worked really well to create a new foam gasket.

View attachment 2845067View attachment 2845068
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For the flappers, I used a combination of thin ABS plastic and sheet rubber.
The key was layering them so the ABS plastic kept the rubber shut until there was sufficient pressure to open the flap.

View attachment 2845072

View attachment 2845073

View attachment 2845074

View attachment 2845075

View attachment 2845076


Picture overload for such a small thing, but maybe it will be helpful if someone is looking to do something similar!
I hope this keeps the water out!!

Need to do this. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Bullzi]

Installed my re-greased windshield wiper linkage last week. I re-greased it back in Post 125. It had been out of the truck since September and I was waiting to put it back in until I found a creative solution to adding a filter to the HVAC intake. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything other than what had already been done with the k&n pre-filter element. I decided to just leave it for now and keep thinking. Getting the motor and linkage out was relatively easy, so I’ll leave this for a future project. I need to get this truck back on the road!

Anyways, I found that the little rubber caps located under the wipers were cracked and the bolts that hold the wipers on were rusty. I was able to find these parts online.

Part Numbers:
Caps - 85178-90A00
Nuts - 90179-08026

 

[Bullzi]

This idea has been rattling around in my brain for a while now...I wanted to fabricate a better and more accessible fuel pump hanger for the in-tank fuel pump.
This was a multi-step project and will take up a few posts so I can fit all the pictures .

So, the problem was that I wanted to be able to access my fuel pump without dropping the tank. I have a 38gal LR tank and it really sucks to drop...especially when it has fuel in it. A few years ago when my wife and I were in the middle of nowhere Canada (no cell reception), my fuel pump started acting up and I though I would have to change it. We had a spare pump with us, but we also had 3/4 tank of fuel! Luckily, we let the truck sit for an hour and our problem mostly resolved itself... But ever since this day, I knew I wanted to cut an access hatch into the cargo area of the rig to service the fuel pump.
I had mixed feelings about doing this because I had seen some hack-jobs on the interwebs, and I wanted to make sure I did this tastefully.

Along with this, we were using a modified FJ62 fuel pump hanger. It served its purpose well, but it always had a slight seep where the hard-line connected to the AN line and I figured I could make my hatch in the cargo area smaller if I created my own fuel pump hanger without the hard-lines.

So that was the plan -
Step 1: Design a new fuel pump hanger.
Step 2: Cut a hole in the cargo area for servicing.

The design of the new hanger took place while the Bean was in AZ for the re-paint. There were a few iterations, but I settled on a stainless steel hanger with AN bulkhead fittings that were welded in. Since I didn't have the tank with me, I used a gasket to template the hanger. It actually worked remarkably well! I designed the parts in AutoCAD and had them cut. I bent them and took them to my neighbor who TIG welded them for me...I really want a TIG welder!


Here are some images:

The (old) modified FJ62 hanger. It was lengthened to allow the pump to sit at the bottom of the tank.

The new design:

The bulkhead fittings are stainless (the most expensive part of this project) and I was able to find a cool electrical bulkhead fitting online. It uses 4 O-rings to seal out the fuel while keeping the positive wire isolated from grounding out against the tank. I hope it actauly seals well!

Nice and low profile!

Here is a shot with the pump sitting at the bottom of the tank - I took this with the boroscope!

I made the vertical piece the the fuel pump is strapped to extra long so I could cut it to fit the depth of the tank. The fuel pump sock should be at the bottom of the tank without actually resting on the bottom of the tank.

I ended up painting the top of the fuel tank with a few coats of Lizard skin since I had just enough left and wasn't going to be using it for anything. I added a sheet of Dynomat to help with the vibration. I am hoping this will keep the noise down just a bit, but I kind of doubt it will do anything! .

 

[Bullzi]

Next step was cutting a hatch in the rear cargo area.
As I stated in the previous post, I had seen a few hack jobs out there and wanted to do something a little cleaner.
My idea was to cut the hatch out and create a flange for the cut piece to bolt back onto...this will become clearer with the pictures.

Making the cut was super scary...I hate cutting into my truck! I measured about 80 times and used tape for the cut line. I ended up cutting with a Dremel cutoff wheel to keep the material taken out of the cut to a minimum.

To create the flange, I used a vice-break to bend strips of metal into the contour of the cargo area. This took some time, but was satisfying.

After all three sides were bent, I welded them together:

I cleaned up the underside of the truck and welded it in:

Continued in next post ------>

 

[Bullzi]

To finish off the underside, I painted the area with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator and sealed it with 3M seam sealer. This should prevent any moisture intrusion.

I drilled holes into the flange and used nut-certs to bolt the cover on.

The cover got a few pieces of weather-strip. I also raptor-lined the bottom when I was doing the tailgate and painted the top when I was painting the inner fenders.

The completed hatch cover:

I just installed the fuel tank and am happy to report that the pump hanger lines up perfectly and can easily be removed (I tested it).

I ended up shooting some Fluid Film on the underside of the cargo area before I installed the fuel tank...there was a small amount of surface rust at the ribbing seams.

This is a strange way to end this post, but have you ever wondered what the difference is between Fluid Film and Fluid Film Black? Here is the comparison: