BJ60 to HJ61 Body swap...the five year plan turned right now plan!

[cruiserpilot]

An idea, when you replace those inner frame pieces, maybe include drain holes along the bottom for future
cleaning. Primary weakness of the 60 frame is they are enclosed and hold all that crap in. I still have to flush
mine out again, Sure looking good though,

 

[PeeZed]

Thanks Jon! Yes, I do plan on making holes for flushing/drainage purposes. John at RADD suggested what he called "mouse holes" which resemble a half moon hole at the bottom edge of the vertical inner frame wall...if that makes sense to visualize? Doing so doesn't remove any structural integrity and allows more access to the inner frame than a hole in the bottom. Seems to make sense so I'll probably give it a shot and post pics for clarity.

Happy New Year to ALL and thank you everyone for the help/suggestions this fall on this project. My hope is to have something road legal by end of January...

 

[cruiserpilot]

Mouse hole, perfect description! John and I talked about that for sure. I should just cut mine with my plasma cutter,
Forgot I could do that, d'oh.
I have a 1 gal can of that wax-type undercoating I sprayed in my inner fenders and rockers, I borrowed John's shutz gun for that. To make it flow so you can spray it I put the 1 gal can in a 5 gal pail of really hot water for an hour to thin it up so as to not clog up the gun. Worked great!
Lordco had the undercoating on the shelf, there has been a change to this stuff in the last year. Do some research, cause they have a new formula out that really improves the old stuff.
Happy New Year to you too, have a good night! J

 

[PeeZed]

1. Cut out the new frame pieces and should weld in tomorrow...still holes for now.

2. Sandblasted, then wire wheeled the frame as best I could and then hit it with Rust Converter tonight.

 

[PeeZed]

Well, some stuff has happened over the past couple days.

Let's just say I'm still learning to weld! .035 on a mig...nuff said.

After rust coverting the frame, it got two coats of gloss black and then a couple coats of asphalt coating. I've left the rear two-feet untouched as I'm still needing to do some repairs there but I needed to get new body mount brackets before doing that...and I got those now so those will be going on in the next few days.

I'll just let the pics explain...but I think there's about one more day of demo with odds and ends and then it's time to start putting the lego pieces back together!!! I will say this though, swapping just a body or a frame after this might actually seem "easy."

Happy New Year folks and thanks again for your help on this project this past fall!

Cheers!

 

[franken60]

awesome work man, so impressed at how quickly you work!

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Very nice work Peezed. Really coming together. Must feel good.

 

[PeeZed]

Firewall day.
- Removed wiper parts
- Removed most of the parts on the firewall except master brake, master clutch, steering knuckle, throttle thingy...
- Found out she actually is a red head for reals! (Irony here is my dad once told me to stay away from redheads, so I married one, which is great, but now this truck being a redhead means he was somewhat right!)
- Cleaned it up with degreaser.
- Removed old crusty seam sealer.
- Rust coverter where necessary.
- New seam sealer on top portions.
- Painted a few parts nice glossy black...that way when they covered in 3B oil they'll just look more shiny!

Again, I'm convinced that doing any type of "frame off" job without having to switch firewalls would make things considerably easier. Glad I'm getting to experience it (kind of), and hopefully I can help someone else down the road with the little bit of experience I now have with it.

Cheers!

 

[PeeZed]

I found the last of the rust that I'm going to find on this project I think...mostly because there's no more hidden things underneath stuff! Wait, I haven't done the fuel tank yet...crap.

Oh well, painted a few of the firewall pieces with 2nd and 3rd coats. I figured heck, if I have them off I may as well paint them right? And I used one of my Cloverdale custom aerosol rattle cans to touch up under the dash just to see how those work. I just may have to buy a whole bunch more of those and toss out the HVLP for next time

Did some cutting of the floor board where the firewall floor joins the main body floor and where the front body mount tunnel is...pretty knarly. Blasted a bunch of Rust Converter inside where I didn't need to cut and letting it dry so that I can weld up the patches tomorrow.

 

[cruiserpilot]

I see you masked off the dash right at the windshield. Think about whether you want that to remain red, or paint it the same as the colour
outside. I didn't paint mine, really wish I had painted it the same as the exterior colour. Looks weird to me to see a different colour up there
on mine. I have to replace my windshield soon when I do it will get done, then I can match the rest of the interior dash.
I can't paint my dash until I do that part, then it will all get done.

 

[PeeZed]

Great point cruiserpilot! The red that you see along the outer windshield rail is primer, so that will get blasted with the new grey for sure. I had thought about that inner piece on the inside that's taped up (it's actually brown) and wondered what would look best. My dash is brown so then it would match the dash still, or I could paint it black and it would accent against the brown (but would also probably be glaring), or as you have suggested (and it didn't cross my mind until you've said it now) would be to paint it the new grey. I didn't consider the fluency between the outside of the glass and the inside of the glass for some reason! I suppose because the original outside colour was red and that metal part of the dash was brown I subconsciously assumed they should be two different colours, but what you say makes very good sense and will probably bug me to no end now that you've brought it to my attention! Thank you!

 

[PeeZed]

Got the floor pieces welded into the firewall tonight. Primed and ready to go. Perhaps I will seam seal those spots as well...maybe should've done that before primer...oh well.

Also, while in Rome...Cruiserpilot made the point about painting the top front part of the dash. I haven't done that yet, but I figured I should probably eliminated all things brown if the rest of the truck is going to, so I did. Using the rattle can (Cloverdale custom makes these if you bring in your own paint...cost $16/can though ) is really a time saver instead of setting up the HVLP gun for smaller jobs.

Question: Has anyone painted the actual dash cover before? If so, with what? Outside of the steering column and a few interior panels that I want to paint black, what can you all recommend?

 

[cruiserpilot]

Any of the auto paint supply places will have proper paint for the vinyl. Ask your painter friend, he
should have one he recommends. I'm happy with mine as the brown goes with the green on mine.
So you're going black and grey?

 

[PeeZed]

Thanks cruiserpilot. Yeah, black and grey seem to be what it's coming to. Simple, clean, good contrasting colors, often overdone and seemingly bland, but hey, that suits me just fine

 

[PeeZed]

Just a few things done tonight.
- Air filter housing prepped for sandblasting
- Battery trays prepped for sandblasting...gonna have to do a repair on at least one of them for being so thin
- Inner dash painted (grey)
- Steering column painted (Black)
- Glovebox door and fuse box door painted (grey)
- Did a minor weld job on the front lower bezel as a couple bolt holes were split (no pic)
- Seam sealed patches in firewall floor
- Doing small things like making sure all the screws around the steering column are tight
- Noticed I'll have to replace a bunch of foam around vent/fan connections

 

[PeeZed]

Worked today so only had a couple hours this evening to work on the truck.

I originally thought that the "hump" where the shifter mounts was going to need to be swapped between the two trucks because of right hand drive; like cut out the actual humps and swap/weld them. BUT, it looks like it's just the bolt in piece that needs to be swapped and then one hole/space needs to be filled on the RHD body/hump to seal it up. However, when I went to remove the shifter plate, four of the screws snapped off...sigh. A little MAP Gas heat made them surrender pretty quickly so I was happy to not have to wrestle with those too much. I degreased, wire brushed, scraped, sanded and then painted the plate a nice gloss black.

Then I noticed my steering column protective cover (2pcs) which mounts to the top of the frame...it was pretty rusty crusty. So I removed it...and the bottom piece essentially fell apart. The top needed a single new piece welded on so I did that and then painted it, but the bottom was done and I was a bit let down by it all.

So, I decided to just build a new one. Not sure why. Probably wont work for some reason in the end, but it looks like things clear on initial fitment, but I'm crossing my fingers. Attached are pics of the process.

 

[PeeZed]

Tonight I was able to get the mid section of body mount brackets completed.

Because the frame is boxed in there, I couldn't fit nuts onto the back of the bolts so I just threaded the holes and then welded the sides for extra strength. Added some seam sealer along the top to prevent dirt buildup and future rot (hopefully).

 

[PeeZed]

Just some more tinkering around attempting to make old things look new(ish) again tonight.
- Cut out inner (as in inside) rear frame supports for where the body mount bracket mounts through.
- Cut out inner box-in rear frame supports for added strength in the back end (after I weld them in of course!)
- Cut out new battery tray bottoms. I will drill them out so moisture doesn't collect there.
- Sandblasted, wire wheeled, and rust converted fuel tank straps, battery tray pieces, air intake
- Welded nuts onto steering arm cover and painted. Loose fitted and it looks like it should work out alright.

 

[PeeZed]

The rear portion of the frame has now been re-supported, which includes:

- Inner frame rail support drilled for body mounts and spring perches. This is 3/16" plate and the hardware for the body mount brackets and spring perches holds it in place.
- New body mount brackets bolted up with lock tight and tops welded to frame.
- Spring perches installed with new bolts/nuts/lock washers and lock tight.
- Inner frame rail boxed in with another piece of 3/16" plate, with access holes for hardware.
- Rear frame painted with gloss black and then asphalt rust proofing.

"Mouse holes" drilled into lower frame for flushing out the frame of debris and easier to add rust preventative products into the inner frame.

Drilled and fitted new bottom battery tray pieces.

Painted air intake, fan shroud, fuel tank straps, battery tray pieces, and a couple relays that live in the engine bay.

This now means the frame is essentially ready to have the body dropped onto it!

I now need to marry the old firewall into the new body and then it can be dropped onto the frame!

 

[PeeZed]

Another milestone evening...placed the firewall onto the new body. I need to remove it in order to make some fine tuning adjustments, but to see it sitting there seems a huge deal for me at this point!