Builds Barons white FJ62 log (2 Viewers)

[Baron]

So, been spending time building a paint-booth inside my shed. Did a bit of re-search, and in the end it worked out well. Here's what I did.

So you can see the basic idea. This is a 4 car standard sheet garage in Australia. It has several support beams going down the middle with a v shaped top. I built a basic Frame using PVC pipe. 15mm was enough, and its very cheap. Get it from an irrigation shop, best prices. And I got joiners, corners and t junctions to help. Each pieice is about 2M long, which is the width of the plastic I'm using. I simply used small hooks and fencing wire to hang the frame from the roof. I then used clear plastic sheet, took a while to find this cheap. comes in 2-4m wide, and 10-100m long. $90 got me 2m wide and 100m long, which will last. I simply ran the sheet from bottom of one side, up over and to the bottom of the other. I did have to put a PVC beam in the middle as the plastic hung down. remember each 2m is also a hanger from the roof. I also put a piece of pipe at the bottom of each side, which held it in place, and let me roll the sides up. So I went side to side, each 2m, and then front to back. The entire thing is about 4.5m x 3.9m, so I needed a single 0.5m for the length, which I simply use the 1M roll without unfurling it, and the sides gave me overlap.

You can also see I' used simple paper-clips. These are 40 for $11, so also cheap. I used this instead of tape, as I think tape would cause rips. You can see I can overlap it.

 

[Baron]

I also picked up a 1400CMF air filter. This was jsut a large box with a FAN, with a filter on one side. It pumps out a good bit of air. I used a air-con duct to pump the air into the TOP of the tent. This is pumping filtered air in (and the filter could be placed outside, to prevent any danger of fire), so it s a Positive presure environment. I'm not too concerned about small gaps, and when I properly double folded and clips all the edges (I used about 60clips), the air pushed the sides of the tent out quite well, and I made a small gap under the bottom towards the front of the garage and opened the door, so now I had an outlet. This all actually worked great.

 

[Baron]

So now I'm painting. and completely stuffed it up. I painted 3 doors. (used PA speaker stand to stand them up). I'm using PPG 625 solid paint (single stage, no clear). I'm using full PPE as well. I actually painted all the inside of the car in Shuberts solid. This was a lower cost paint, and I was going to do the whole car in it, but I then discovered 4L was not enough (actually 6L, when mixed), and I found a shop closer to home and PPG was only a little bit more, so the inside and out, are same 033 colour, but different paint vendors. I also did all the parts in two steps, weeks apart (inside and outside). In hindsight, while it let me get used to painting, and let me spread time out doing them, its far better to do the pieces front and back (saves masking etc).

I'm using a Devilbliss FLG 5. a good but low cost gun, with 3M PPS system. Mixed the paint with stirrer (I shook the can for the primer, which I since discovered your not meant to do). I thought I was doing ok, until I did the outside colour (show side). Very strong Orange-peel.

Some learnings on the way:
- I did not understand what 'full open' is. i thought it meant, all the screws fully out. BUT after watching some more videos a lot closer, this does not apply to the fluid control, which means you screw IN, whilst holding the trigger down. I had too little paint, so I was spending more time, and paint was going on thick.
- Learn how to tune pattern. I did not do this, and thought the gun was going ok. While you want the nice long-ovol pattern, you also want very fine edges/droplets.
- Stop and Look after first pass. I really should not have painted 3 doors, when the first one was bad.
- LIGHT and more light. Needed this.
- watch lots of vids. The Gunman and Paint Society were good.

In the end, each only has about 4-5 dust specs. Which I think is pretty good for the garage DIY paintbooth.

So now I need to fix it. I either need to (as many video's recommend), wet-sand a bit, and polish, will fix it. OR strip and start again. I'm thinking the later at the moment, as I really dont want 3 doors being differently to the rest of the car? I'll maybe try plan A, and see what it looks like.

 

[Baron]

Some more learnings. For some damn reason, Sydney has been Wet for the entire duration of this work. I can only work on the car in patches (I have a day job), and I have limited space, so I have the Cab, on dollies, and I was storing some of the panels inside, covered in blankets so they dont scratch, and the whole thing under a car-cover. While this was a great plan, it did not workout. I covered the car in a cheap repco 'outside' car cover. It turns out, this is not outside and let water in.

So inside the cab was damp, blankets damp. (and the primer on the car wet).

When I pulled the panels out, where water hit the panel I got small bubbles in the epoxy-primer. Its not completely covered, but enough. Also, I left the 'mask' tape on. (Orange stuff). Some of the primer pulled completely off when I remove it.

So lesson:
- Ideally dont store panels outside, and don't trust cheap car covers. in general don't get parts wet with primer on them.
- Remove Masking ASAP, don't leave it on.

The outside primer should be ok. (its high-build over the epoxy). but It needs sunlight to dryout before I touch it, and I'll likely put another coat on it.

This project is testing my patience at the moment.

 

[Baron]

So I powered through and completed all the painting. Redid the problem panels, and much better. Painting is improving all the time. Some things to focus on:
- Set gun up correctly before mixing paint. and Practice what you are about to paint.
- measure everything closely, and i always add reducer/thinner. And I now have extra hardener to match the temp (Hot=slow, Cold=Fast).
- I bought some black A$ sheets and clipped to lights. I practice on this to tune the gun each time. NOTE: every mix can be slightly different. Also you pick a PSI level ans distance from the target. Speed, gun-setup, distance etc ALL changes the way the paint goes on. You need to practice to get consistency, using both left/right hands.
- Dont cut corners, Honestly the paint wont care, if you stop, reposition and start again, but if you cut a corner and apply at a wrong angle or speed, it will show.
- Follow the times (I set an alarm) for flash-off.
- Check what you have painted, look for area's that need more the next coat around. See how its going in.

Also, the final colour coat wont hide any bad prep.

So now its all done. I have a few runs to fix, but I will wait till its forward a few steps. Otherwise, happy with it. The 033 is really more cream, then white.

Some pics:

 

[Baron]

So, just as a record to help people. How much paint/stuff did I use?

I'm painting the entire car, inside and out in dismantled pieces, doors, fenders, tailgates, also including the firewall and the radiator support bracket. 3 coats on everything, except inside the cab which was 2 coats. (inc under it, where I even put colour over rockprotection. (Gravanox from UPOL). I dont recommend doing it separated pieces, so lesson learned. (the thing I would change is to do it panel by panel (repair/rust on the way, primer etc), but the final solid colour, either do the insides panel by panel, but re-assemble everything and paint the externals in one go, as this would give a more uniform external appearance.

Its a bit tricky to figure out how much paint I used for Primer, as I made many mistakes on the way. Overall I used 2.5 x 4L tins of Epoxy Primer (one tine, Concept Paints 2K primer, 2 tins PPG G55 2K Epoxy primer) (with prob 1/3 tin left). And 3/4 of a 4L tin of high-build primer (Concept paints 2K). Thing I mainly learnt was that Epoxy Primer is a good sealer to put on as soon as you finish welding/body work, but before filler, as it prevents further rusting (dont even bother to machine sand or block as you will get back to metal on any corners, but scuffing with hand sand paper or scotchbrite is fine. Then use high-build primer on anything that needs work (filler etc)- (you need the depth to be able to work, and epoxy certainly does not give it). Te definition of 'needs work' is any panel that needs repairs or metal sanding/rust removal. The only panels I didn't use it on where doors, where I stripped the paint chemically, so the underlying metal was perfect.

But for the solid colour coat, I've used 1 and 1/4 Tins so far. (PPG 625, solid), with likely another 1/2 tin on the weekend, so 2 x 4L tins. Might be a bit less, as I get wastage with the 3M PPS system, as I do only enough for one cup. No clearcoat, not needed with 625. This gives a very thick covering that is glossy off the gun and very hard.

i'm using a DevilBliss FSG 5, with the PPS system, 650ml Cups. The FSG is a low/mid level gun, and its VERY good. With 1.4 (colour) and 1.8(Primer). As a tip, ONE CUP of paint does about 3-4 major pieces, single side (door/fender etc) with 3 coats. BUT only 1.3 coats of the outside body. (So buy an extra Measuring cup and load up 2-3 cups at once to save mixing in the middle of spraying). PPS, made mixing and using the gun easier I think. Used simple 50L/2.5HP garage compressor. YES, I had to pause spray-paining occasionally while it recharged with no issues, and NO its not enough for air-sanding tools (lasts about 1-3mins before its empty), but I was using Milwaukee M12/M18 anyway. Oh, also from bunnings used those Plastic pouring lids that fit on top of the 4L Can, these work great to minimise mess when pouring paints. Pity they dont have them for the thinner/hardener as that stuff went everywhere. For thinner, I put them into a clear tomato sauce bottle.

For sanding;
- Got a DuraBlock 7 piece kit, this was good, used every part.
- Used Milwaukee DA with a few batteries
- Went through a lot of 180-240 grit discs, and some 600-800.
- Used NORTON paper for the durablock, this was velcro-lines and the break points matched the blocks. It was a bit more money but worked well. Used 180-240-320 grit, one box of each, prob used 1/2 box.
- got these 3m, grippy hand-cloth, 800 and 1200 grit. These are fantastic to get into the fine corners of the door lines etc and easily do just before painting. USed about 5-8 sheets.
- Used Rage-Ultra filler mainly, and Dolphin glaze, as well as some cheaper repco stuff. I prob should have paid more attention to this. One bottle each.
- 3M self-leveling seam sealer for gutters, Terason for rest (one bottle each)
- crocodile skin masking plastic. (this is also very good, lots left over).
- 6 roles of Mask (orange stuff)

PS: I'm planning on doing more cars, so did some bulk buy.

 

[Baron]

seniors moment. fitting new thermostat gasket. tried every turn and holes were not lining up. had a second one, same problem. took this photo to complain to someone.... then I turn it over and it fit perfectly.

 

[Baron]

Bit of an update on Whitey. Its been a week of engine work. Much easier to do things with cab off.
- I snapped a bolt on upper thermostat, which stopped me replacing the thermostat. But then realised I can remove the lower side which gave me some room to move. The upper has no thread, so it was just a case of prying it free. I got a new lower easily, but the upper is rare, but thankfully it cleaned up well, and painted matt-black with the high-heat paint.
- Figure I would replace the water-pump. That involved buying one on sale, only to find that for the 3F their is about 3-5 different models. Finally got the right one. Had to remove belts, Fan, AC compressor and powersteering reservoir to get to the damn down pipe. Its got a fixed metal pipe bolted under power steer pump, with a short upper pipe and longer lower pipe. Cleaned them all up. Replacing the water pump was easy, but a bit weird as the gasket is NOT the same size as the plate. It just fits strangely.
- Ended up using RTV on all gaskets. I'm just using the included paper/felt type gasket. Some people said dont, other said use it. I looked at the engine after cleaning it up and decided it certainly was not flat, so I used it.
- Bought a Terrain-Taimer pipe-kit a while ago. This was great and has every pipe you need. Except I didn't close the bag and a few went missing, so I had to get an extra one. The engine-bypass pipe is still in the mail.
- Replaced AC Idle pulley, as it was squeaking. This was easy to do, as it was all off. Once you pull it apart you soon see how this pulley would be stuffed. The mechanism to adjust it, is only stabilised on one-side, and I guess uses the pressure of the belt. I really think this could be better. However when I put the belt on, it was too tight and I needed to release the pulley a bit and the big-long bolt has seized. I'm going to have to source another one. good news is I could get it in and out without removing the pump.
- Pulled the fuel-pump to check it. Cleaned up well. Got a new Gasket, and this is a strange gasket, as it is two felt gaskets either side of a plastic spacer. The new repco one wad it all, but I did'nt realise the space was their untill I started to clean it up and realised I was digging into plastic. NOTE> the forward bolt on the fuel pump has to be the most innacessable bolt on the entire engine. I can get a spanner in their, but only a 1/10 turn as a time, and was hard to get the bolt in the first place.
- I'm pulling a lot of parts and cleaning with wirewheel. This works great.... BUT I realise I'm stripping it down to metal, and hence will likely RUST. So for parts I treat with either brunox, and/or Clear (high-heat version). For bolts that I clean, I heat them up, then dip in oil. Also, I'm minimising use of anti-seize, and instead oil most of the bolts. This seems to be how they were originally.
- I pulled the rocker-cover. From some advice on this forum, I wanted to paint it. I wire-wheeled it all, this took a while. had to get a new wheel, which helped. I got some dupli-colour, metalcast, high-heat paint. It comes in many colours, but I wanted close to original, which seems a grey/tan. the 'BASE' colour (thats what its called) worked well, but its more grey. I also used adhesive promotor first (also dupli-colour). It went on very well. Not so the red bolts. I used red-caliper paint, but did'nt clean well enough, so I'll try again. I also ordered a new '3F' sticker a while ago from ebay I think. That will go on later.

Some Pics

 

[Baron]

 

[Baron]

Its time to prepare for bringing the cab and chassis together. TIP. if you pull apart the cab/chassis. Put each body bolt set into its own seperate bag and label where it came from. I put them all in one box, and then mixed some from other chassis. I did some research from Amaya, and they identify where the sets go, BUT they have different part numbers for the same part in different positions, so it looks like they have 4-6 different sets, but their seems to only be 2-3. The other problem is that the chassis circular holders, seem to only be in 3 sizes (one small at front, and two across the rest). And the size of these holders did not match the amaya map. I decided to go with the size of the holders as a guide. Their are also two bolts sizes, and no obvious reason why (the rubber pads maybe bigger by 15mm, but the bolts are 40mm bigger. the good news is that the bolts can be move around later (but the pads can not, as they will get sandwiched between the body and chassis). I guess I'll know how well I went soon enough.

 

[Baron]

Big Mile-stone. put the cab back on the chassis. Still used to engine hoist. Was a bit tricky and had help stabilising it. I did'nt quite line it up exactly, but got it on. Cant get the bolts in just yet. I was feeling quite happy with myself untill.......forgot to put the heatshields on (and a small pipe bolted to back of firewall. The heatshield ontop of the muffler does not seem to go on, so I'm going to have to lift it again. then figure out how to line up the bolt holes. But at least I got this far.

 

[Baron]

Its near impossible to align the body mounts with the engine hoist. The issue is that the engine hoist does not lift exactly vertical, and on my concrete, any horizontal move is combination of large jerks. so this is what I ended up doing.
I first placed all the hocky-puc mounts on the pads, and have the body sitting on them (well not exactly due to the mentioned issues. I used the stabiliser to move the weight forward, and hence lift the rear more. Lifting to about a 2" gap. The rear body holes are enclosed (meaning, you need to climb under to insert the bolts and you cant access them). With the Gap, this gave me some room to align the holes. You can physically shove the body around to align these bolts. I then lowered an inch, with the bolts going in (but not exactly straight). But this length let me puts on a large washer, and nut on the two rear bolts. This gave me a stable point.

I then. move the stabiliser to the rear, and lifted the from. I repeated, but this was much easier as bolts can be accessed from above. Once this was done, all the other bolts aligned up, so job done.

PS: dont forget that stupid heat cover over the muffler.

 

[Baron]

I moved whitey into the shed. Had about 2mm spare, meaning it wont fit when I put 33'' on it! but that was not the plan anyway. At least, its now weather proof, and wont rust from under me. Now starts the daughting task of putting it all back together. I will create a seperate update with advice on exactly the order to put it back. I'll need to edit it, as you dont know you stuff up, until you find you need to undo 100 bolts again. So this update is for the firewall insulation. I want to do some additional heat/noise insulation. I cant really afford to go all in, but I do want to put down some car-builders rubber matt stuff. Many parts of the firewall, already have some insulation, which was just too much work to remove (the Co2 trick). When you start to 'knock' arround, you quickly find where you need to apply the stuff. This is what I was doing.

I'll do more in the Cab, as this firewall part will also be done with Mass Noise Liner from Car-Builders (PS buy this whenever Repco is doing a 20% off sale, might take a while to come in but it helps). I'll do much more in the rest of the cab/roof.

You can see here I put the steering in (to help move the Cab in the Shed). But this was already a mistake as the steering needs to go through the insulation.

As a guide; one Roll of Mass Noise Liner did the entire firewall (its 950mm wide, which is exactly wide enough). The firewall liner consists of a top part, and a bottom part. I had the 'old' liner still around.

here is some of the cutting.

I laid the old over the new. I then used a marker and traced the outline and ALL the internal shapes. I also put a line where the 'hangers' were. For the bottom part, you need to trim the foam off the rubber on the top edge to give a overlap type effect. I cut with a box-cutter which was very easy. BUT I only cut the larger shape out, I did NOT do the internal shapes yet.

Putting it in the car was easy. I started with the Top part. i just cut a slit for the hangers (not the rectangle the old one had). I started at one edge and 'hung it'. The you can 'press' on the outside to find the other holes. It did not line up exactly where the trace was. Also the trace tended to have large cut-outs for small holes. Doing this method worked really well.

The area under the steering wheel is the hardest. I still have some work hear when I put the pedals in.

I dont think I needed adhesive! It seems to stick in pretty well. Its as thick as the original, but I guess I'll know more when I start to bolt more things in. This stuff is easy to work with. I got the odd slit in the wrong place, but that was easily fixed. Once you cut a hole, the foam is easily removed with fingers.

 

[Baron]

Ok. so a wasted 6 hours, redoing work. I'll title this update. Conversion from Automatic to Manual Drive.

the magic point where I discovered half my parts and body were from an Automatic (I got a body, with no engine/gearbox etc, do I did not know what it was). was exactly when I went to connect in the clutch pedal to the underside of the drivers side mounts. It had none! So that started a long and drawn out process, reverting most of the work the day before. The first thing I noticed a while ago (but it did not register), that my gearbox cover did not have a gear cover and I have to find the original one and repaint it.

Then I found that the small subframe that the steering mounts onto, as well as the pedals, was missing the section for the clutch medal.

Then I discovered I had no holes in the firewall for the clutch. This is what a clutch set of holes looks like. Its a large hole, with a trio of mounting screws. The top one, actually exists, but the bottom and side one dies not.

Also the small extension mount for the bolt hole does not exist.


Strangely, the firewall is double skin! The inside skin has the hole for the clutch, but the outer does not. It took 30 secs with the holesaw to cut it.

Sizing is easy, as the internal skin has a cutout.

I then installed the clutch to check for room, I bolted up the top hole (which exists) and pen'd where I had to drill on the bottom hole and put in a 10mm hole. Its meant to have a welded internal nut, but I just used a flange screw.

I them rebolted the clutch, including the 3rd mount, This then 'lined up where I had to weld it. grind'd back some of my fresh paint, and welded it in, while clutch was still bolted up(this meant it was in the correct place), I then removed the clutch and welded the remaining points on the mount.

I cut (drilled out the spot-welds) the original body to remove the bolt moun and then welded it into the new place.

A bit of grinding back welds, and some black paint (Did not want to mix up white, and my white paint can, is not where near the right shade) and it was done.

 

[Baron]

I wirewheeled the clutch mount, and painted it clear. came up nice. Did rest in black.

Reconnected pedals (do this before you bolt in the sub-mount). Screwed it all back up. redid the firewall material, and back to where I was yesterday but with a 3rd pedal.

 

[Baron]

Start putting the wiring loom back in. Not that hard but a few pointers. First, dont fit those vertical metal inserts, as the loom needs to go inside them. I put the loom in the easy to bend metal loops first, then ran the wires into the engine bay through the firewall holes. This let me stretch it to where it needs to go. The original loom has these plastic braces, that clip into these metal standouts on the firewall (after you cut holes in the insulation). These were originally very hard to remove without breaking them, and when I cleaned the loom up I removed them.

I purchases these new plug-in ziptie based loops. These worked really well. The white electrical tape shows where they had to go and i put them on loose to start with. You can't remove them without breaking them, but thats why I bought 25 of them.

The under-dash has these 10mm (M8 thread) bolts originally. I'm replacing them with screw bolts. Much easier to manipulate. You can see some of them here on the relays under passenger side. I wish they made them shorter, like the originals, but haven't had an issue yet. I grinded back the paint on the grounding nuts for better contact, and will prob give it a spray of clear to keep rust away.

 

[Baron]

After putting in the base loom, next is to install the heater/aircon boxes. I pulled them out and they are in a bit of a state. All of the internal ''foam' baffles are dead, rotted away. I have two of each and all are the same, so i dont think this is an environment thing, its just age. They get old. The impact would be. a) that stuff flakes off and gets stuck. b) no full seal's on anything. Looking at it closely, its pretty simple sticky backed foam ( please tell me otherwise). Do I'll disassemble each bit, clean dust, clean any rusted bits, and re-foam it. These are some pics of the steps so far.

The plates are either held on with some simple small screws. I'm using JIIS bits to undo them and still stuffed one. Once you do that, its not coming out, but thanks goodness I have another one that I worked on a bit slower/focused. I wire wheeled the stuff off easily, put some brunox to kill/protect rust (or soak in a rust solution), and a bit of paint where needed?

A quick trip to bunnings found lots of options for sticky backed foam stuff. Including the thin strips needed on the box joins (its for aluminium windows. Its possible to lines the 3 boxes up on a bench, so I will replace the join strips and see how it all goes together.

I'm also testing motors and stuff to make sure they work before they are 10hours into a build).

 

[Baron]

So I replaced all the foam, on the baffles, and on the edges.

 

[Baron]

From the above you can see the new foam on the baffles and edges. I used a different thinner felt on the air-intakes (Square filter thing), as the original foam was embedded into the squares and I wanted to try to get the same effect. Seemed to work. All the baffles now close with a nice 'thud'. Tool a while to get the levers etc. Every metal bit was pulled, cleaned and rust-proofed. Sent many metal clips across the shed. I had spares.

I attempted to tetris the bits together on the bench to understand the shapes in prep for going back in. I didn't really come up with a plan, but did this.

- Order, BLOWER, AC, Heater (passenger side to drivers side)
- place each part, and they each have a 'hanger' bolt at the top. hang on this then line up any pipes out the back and then the screw holes
- Put the screws in but dont tighten, move the next one.
- AC unit was hardest, Has two lower screws which are hard to reach and the rear pipes took some pushing to line up, but once they went in, it all seemed to work.
- Tighten all screws at the same time (go round all three units, push/move unit to see what give it has, then screw it up a bit, move on to next one).
- NOTE: Black Screws, go into plastic, Black Bolts, go into chassis. I had extra black screws (which have a much larger washer), so I replace some smaller ones with these larger ones.
- I had one broken screw-point, but had enough to get it to take.
- Dont forget the drain hole for the AC

 

[Baron]

Few tips at this stage.
- Get all the wires you need to go through the firewall. Once the blower is in, you dont have much room
- Ensure the firewall baffles are lined up correctly.
- Test-fit (or fit) the rubber rings on the AC and heater pipes. They are very tricky.

Next is to fit dash frame and start putting all the pipes in and finding a space for wires. I've done a lot of planning for the extra 12V I want to install. This will consist of:

1. Second Battery - AUX.
- With proper DC-DC charger. I had lots of problems with those voltage leveller things.
- Power to rear for future fridge
- Power to Aux-lights (Roof and internal), so when I camp, I'm not running on main battery.

2. Full ACCessory circuit for in-cab stuff
- UHF, USB, Dashcam

3. Front Spotlights (going to get Stedi-Quads),

4. Winch

5. Pre-Wire to Rear for future roof-lights.

I got 30m each of 6mm twin, and 3mm, 7 core trailer fire. I intend to run these where needed, instead of individual wires. Also going to use splitter boxes/Midi fuses for the main, and smaller blade fuse boxes. Tricky bit is finding a place for them, but there is no room in existing fuse box but should be enough for small boxes, around it. I'm still to figure this out.

The other thing is running wire's to the rear. I dont really want to use under-car, and the lower-sill routes are really tight. Strangely, with the Cab, totally bare, the roof path seems like it might work, so I'll see how this works.

I'll run these in first to see what it looks like. I picked up some sample boxes etc, to see what works. Took a while to find some bargains. Would love to use blue-ocean stuff, but they are like $100 for anything. Narva stuff is good and I found a few bargins. In the end when you look at how simple these things are, you figure our where you need quality and where you dont. PS. those 20-25% off Repco/Supercheap days are great.

One big question I'm struggling with is where to mount the DC-DC charger? This are not small units. I know Red-arc (those are not cheap) can be installed under-bonnet, but I'd prefer Cab. the only space inside the Cab is floor level, and I'd be worried I flood it! I think I will delay its purchase, and run in an extra wire run or two, and wait till everything is back in to figure out where it might go.