Biodiesel Piggie #2 Buildup (was Sad Sad day...)

[dieselcruiserhead]

Wow! that is a great deal Andre! Damn, Cali is so freakin expensive! the guy I spoke with quoted me $900 to do just my frame sandblasted and the body blasted and primer epoxy coated. This only includes the bare body, no doors, etc and blasting the frame, no primer on the frame. Seems a little excessive to me? I am still on the fence what I am going to do with the sandblasting thing. I may just try to clean things up with a wire wheel here and there. the other place I called said they would do it but would not guarantee that they wouldn't blow through the metal or warp panels, great!

Anyhow, project looks great, I will post up a build thread here soon once I am not frustrated any longer.

Noah

Cool Noah look forward to it! We are both asking the same questions at the same time so it has been funny.. Again you literally read my mind when you posted the sandblasting question.. But so you know I have been getitng the same quotes, I think a good very professional sandblasting shop with a primer after would be about the same price I hate to say. This place was kind of hoaky. But again super cheap, so we'll see. Also I'm not sure I talked to the big boss or not.. And again I think this place is great for frames and such and I did see a pretty rotted old ford they did, and they were very confident about their ability with auto bodies but I am not 100% sure I trust them yet.. So I hope to try them out with the frame first and see how it goes..

on the wire wheel, Noah hate to say it but this is what I did with my last pig and it really does not work at least nearly on the level that a sand blaster and good prep does.. Again I think we are in the same boat, both as money and time allow and it is hard for me to do it but from the lessons of the last cruiser (which was great, but by no means perfect) I really want to do it right this time. So be patient if I can't afford it then and come up with the $$ as it allows.. Doh! Andre

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is where I am at, again not much to report except that I am finally done with the headgasket job on the FJ80 for trade for the FZJ80. So basically the FZJ80 is now "all paid off" and now I really only have a few more side projects (basically getting ready for Burning Man in a month an a half, mostly) before I am 100% devoted to the pig and pig only but I am whittling them down.. I also have to help my friend Damon (in most of these pics) turbo his BJ42 and tear down the bread truck and what is left on the 55 then I am ready to start trying to get the body all lined up on the 80 frame.. Also we are thinking we are probably going to take the breadvan to Burning Man now so it means I can't rip out the engine until after then (about two months). But the odds of actually having it ready for the engine before then are pretty slim so I don't mind for now.. So again this is taking a whole lot longer...


Anyway, here are photos of the frame and axles. For a while I was resisting taking it all apart.. But then with airtools and a breaker bar with highlift handles it took maybe 2-3 hours to complete seperate the axles from the frame. I also feel like I know 80 series much better now, it seems to all make much more sense coming from this leaf-sprung cruiser owner only... So I like that.. Pretty soon the frame will be chopped, I have come closer and closer to actually starting to make the chop to get the ~6" out of there to have the right wheelbase for the 55.... Really the biggest thing holding me back is the lack of jackstands (4 are being used to hold up the pig...). I wish at this point that I hadn't chosen to sell the leafs just yet so it would move around. During the day and especially lately is has been so damn hot that I haven't been able tear down the 55, and at night of course can't see. I think I really only have a couple more hours though until the 55 is completely torn down so I am close..

Sorry rambling away here. For anyone who has to do some frame chops, Berg / Ken Dahlberg, a local friend who is lurker extrodinair has been sending me a few neat links about cutting and/or modifying..
http://trailer-bodybuilders.com/mag/trucks_tapering_staggering_essential/index.html
http://ramchargercentral.com/boards/index.php?topic=63591.0

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Front axle (pretty clean right now). I think this will require no prep really other than light cleaning before paint..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is the rear axle that was in significantly worse shape.. The rear of the truck (probably from salt off the front tires) was in signicantly worse shape..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

And here is the frame.. You will notice the front is much more clean. I get pretty dirty on average doing car work (not sure what it is about it) so I decided to snap a picture of myself with the frame as well all nastied up.. You can best see if the photo I'm in the difference between the front of the frame and rear in terms of rust. Luckily it is all mostly surface rust..

 

[1973Guppie]

Cool Noah look forward to it! We are both asking the same questions at the same time so it has been funny.. Again you literally read my mind when you posted the sandblasting question.. But so you know I have been getitng the same quotes, I think a good very professional sandblasting shop with a primer after would be about the same price I hate to say. This place was kind of hoaky. But again super cheap, so we'll see. Also I'm not sure I talked to the big boss or not.. And again I think this place is great for frames and such and I did see a pretty rotted old ford they did, and they were very confident about their ability with auto bodies but I am not 100% sure I trust them yet.. So I hope to try them out with the frame first and see how it goes..

on the wire wheel, Noah hate to say it but this is what I did with my last pig and it really does not work at least nearly on the level that a sand blaster and good prep does.. Again I think we are in the same boat, both as money and time allow and it is hard for me to do it but from the lessons of the last cruiser (which was great, but by no means perfect) I really want to do it right this time. So be patient if I can't afford it then and come up with the $$ as it allows.. Doh! Andre

Hey Andre, build looks great, thanks for the comments. Actually I am fairly stoked about the project now as I dove into the fj55 body last week and with the use of a wire wheel and a sharp point punch I poked around the body, about every 2 inches and scrapped off some small divits where there was bondo to see what was underneath. Metal looks good and now I plan to just fill those divits back up with body putty. Actually, the rest of the bondo work was not too bad and I was amazed at the little amount of rust there actually is! I marked all the areas that need work with green paint. There is some work I will need to do in replacing some metal, etc. but overall it shouldn't bee too overwhelming and it is all in the bottom end of the truck and confined in small areas. In the end I have decided to do it all in house and take my time. A pic is attached, sorry to hijack. I will post up a build thread here soon, body will probably come off the frame this weekend if I can get enough peeps over here to help!

later,

Noah

 

[redcorn]

They lived in a trailer maybe 20-30 feet from the sand blasting chips and it was a family operation and the guy's mom was frying up some really nasty looking fish in a pile of oil.. And it showed that this was the kind of food she regularly ate..


nope......

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

How was the fish Andre?

I am a moron.. The fish, (at the sand blasters ) duh...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Paid for the topless pig today to scrounge parts off of it.. All $105 with paypal fees. New pig owner Scott from portal-tek is also going to take some parts off it so I lucked up, he is going to bring it down to Kaysville (just north of SLC, about an hour from here) instead of the 3 hours it is away. At some point, I will stop up there and get the following parts off of it:

Hood
Grill and light rings
Windshield and gasket
Possible dash parts but specifically Gauge cluster and glove box door pad
Rear lights
Air cleaner
Oil pressure and temp sensors
Possibly gas tank level sender
Mirrors

Also looks like SOR carries an aftermarket windshield gasket for $44 that is a halfway decent deal. I think I am also going to order some new bolts for the piggie as well.. Andre

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is a photo again of the topless pig

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Where is it at now? Bodrero's?

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

yup up in logan..

 

[lowtideride]

And here is the frame.. You will notice the front is much more clean. I get pretty dirty on average doing car work (not sure what it is about it) so I decided to snap a picture of myself with the frame as well all nastied up.. You can best see if the photo I'm in the difference between the front of the frame and rear in terms of rust. Luckily it is all mostly surface rust..

Holy crap man you look about as nuts as me.

Lookin good man, I dont know about you but i am so sick of dealing with rust my head hurts. I din't catch it(prob cause I am slow) but are you going to lift this pig?

 

[KliersLC]

FYI, and I don't know exactly what your plans are, but the steering stabilizer is OME and only about a year old<5k on it. Birfs were done at 120k by National city Toyota in Socal. I put a new pinion seal in about a year and a half ago... Wheel bearings repacked same time as the pinion seal.

I never touched the back axle except for messing with the e brake and changing brake pads.

Looks good,

Dan


PS. the end of my first 80...............

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

awesome thanks Dan much appreciated. I was wondering about that stuff.. Also yes I saw and dig the OME stablizer of course Thanks Dan much appreciated.. Andre

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Holy crap man you look about as nuts as me.

Lookin good man, I dont know about you but i am so sick of dealing with rust my head hurts. I din't catch it(prob cause I am slow) but are you going to lift this pig?

yup I herar you man. Again attacking preemtively yup plan to lift. Will have to run 35's again to get any decent highway speed but the 4.1s are just about perfect for that.. I have a top secret lead that I'll post when I get them. Probably J springs, pr possibly somthing a little bigger, but that is not slee

 

[PabloCruise]

Here is a photo again of the topless pig

Tailgate?

 

[MRibz]

my eyes are buggy from reading the thread. i look forward to seeing progress, keep it up

-Mike

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Been sorta doing thing here and there but as far as "real progress" goes not a whole lot to report, just lots of little things. Been finding that I have been too busy to put in the hours and hours of repeated nights that I was able to do with my last 55. Sometimes I remember I would work on the last piggie till 1 AM then sort of daze out for another hours or even two, usually exhausted from working all day before I even got to the shop. But lacrosse season is ending soon (I play two nights a week down in SLC) and other things slowing down here and there so hopefully some more time to put into it...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

this truck will not have ABS (and I sold all the ABS stuff to a mudder) so that is all gone. Problem is when you remove the sensors, leaves a bog old hole. So I made some plates for it. Not sure if these will be permanent or if I'll make or even buy the correct part... Siliconed in to protect...