Canman’s LX450 resurrection (1 Viewer)

[canman]

Painted ham antenna bracket.

 

[canman]

Finished fabbing up the second patch panel and started tacking into position. Took a bit of work to get the approximate shape as I hardly have any significant metal shaping tools. Used what I had on hand including pot blaster container, drill press table, and bits of scrap steel. Lol! I’m going to re-adjust the bottom patch panel as it moved slightly when I tacked it in. It is not quite flush with the factory fender section I left in place.

 

[canman]

Forgot to mention I also stopped by an automotive paint store today and picked up a can of colour matched paint, can of clear coat, black primer (apparently the emerald green factory colour is semi-transparent) and some body filler. Said I should blend it into the driver’s door. I’ll need to read up on this as I’ve never painted body panels on a car before.

 

[canman]

Picked up the fuel lines, hood insulation clips and antenna nut on Wed. Ordered the PS mudflap this time as I all ready had a DS one. D’oh!
Also picked up the antenna with the added coax cable. They charged my $100 and I haven’t looked into it, but it looks like they used a popsicle stick covered by electrical tape to help hold the two halves together. Damn.
Still working on the fender. Added the lip section this afternoon. It was too thin as well so it had to go. Looking not too bad.

With old lip.

With new metal lip.

 

[canman]

Nice big box that they shipped the fuel lines in.

 

[canman]

Had a bit of time early this evening to cut out more rust and make a tiny patch piece. Was still blowing thru a little bit where I had the extended cut lines but managed to close up the holes from welding on both sides. Hopefully, this is the end of welding in patch panels and I can finish tacking up all the weld seams and also complete the finish grinding/sanding flush the weld seams.

Rusty piece with welds attempting to close blow thru holes.

Opening after cutting out rusty piece.

Patch piece.

Patch piece in place.

 

[canman]

First complete pass of grinding/ sanding down all the tack welds. Still have a few holes to fill around the last patch and some spots that I want to fill in with more tack welds, but overall I am done with the metal work. Next is to add some holes for the flare, antenna mast, and then media blast the area.

 

[canman]

Dropped truck off this morning at the local garage to have the fuel lines replaced. Added a second coat of Rustoleum rust paint to the gas tank. Finally finished tacking, sanding, and media blasting the front fender. Now onto a skim coat of body filler. Also ordered all the various clips and seal for the front fender flare.

 

[canman]

First pass with the Ryobi mouse sander over the body filler. Looking good. A few high spots in the patched up area, but not too bad. Will add another skim coat.

 

[canman]

The garage said they couldn’t get to my Lexus to replace the fuel lines. Also said that I would probably require new tank straps. So, I’ll install the fuel lines myself as well as the LRA tank at the same time. Brutal.

 

[canman]

Still working on the fender. Added another skim coat of filler and had a bit of time yesterday to sand it down. Laid down a layer of hi-build primer as well. Looking good. Will be out of town for a couple days, so wil have to wait until I get back.

 

[canman]

Not much done. Had to reorder the RAM ball mount for the Yaesu for a third time from Amazon. Not sure what happened to the first two orders. Took screen shots, but no record of them any where. It came in a couple of days ago as well as the mic extension cable. I’m sure that I had read some where that the RAM ball with the 1/4” x 20 thread was the correct one for the Yaesu unit I have, but it turns out that it is actually a M5 thread. So, I cut up a piece of aluminum block that I had lying around that already had a tapped hole for the 1/4” x 20 thread. Not sure if the RAM arm will be long enough, but leave as is for now. Also ran the mic extension cable, and just need to reinstall the shifter and centre consoles.

 

[canman]

Got the shifter and centre consoles back in finally after getting all the Yaesu main unit wires run and tucked under both of them. Was a major pain to install the Yaesu. Bit the bullet and screwed the bracket for the ext mic speaker to the dash as both the Velcro and two-sided tape didn’t work.

 

[canman]

Forgot to post pics of the fender with the high build primer. Will work on it a bit today.

 

[canman]

Cut off the outdoor temp sensor from the new unit and soldered it to the leads for my old outdoor air temp sensor. Was reading correctly before soldering everything together (both were at same temp), but indoor temp started rising even though the vehicle isn’t running. Will see if it cools down to read the same as outdoor sensor. Also had a cig lighter power socket for back lighting. Plugged it in the factory cig lighter socket for now, but not sure if I’ll keep it or just cut off the leads.
Did a quick sanding job on the fender and there are a few spots that could use some spot putty, but tube had hardened up. Will see if I can salvage a bit, otherwise I’ll need to get another tube.

 

[canman]

Finished sanding second skim
Coat of filler on the inside of the fender. Will touch up a couple low spots with a bit more filler. See a few more small surface rust spots elsewhere which I’ll media blast. Taking a lot longer than anticipated for a fender that I thought I was just going to bolt on. Lol! Added a bit of filler to the low spots on the outside surface yesterday. Hoping that is it for the filler portion.

 

[canman]

Finished up with most of the prep work and added a coat of high-build primer to the entire outer surface. We’re having warmer weather for the next few days, so hoping to get the top coat on tomorrow.

 

[canman]

Did a few more touch ups to the fender and started work on locating the antenna. Had to mod the mounting bracket to clear the wheel well and had to make a relief in the wheel well to clear a protrusion on the antenna motor housing.

Hammered out a relief on the wheel well to clear the antenna motor housing.

Tight fit of antenna assembly.

Modded mounting bracket.

 

[canman]

 

[canman]

Noticed that the die cast upper portion of the Lexus antenna is sloped downwards from rear to front. I think it is reversed on the antenna I removed from the JDM rig which seems incorrect. In any event, I removed them, so I can interchange them if required. This is no simple swap.

Upper die cast pieces from the two antenna assemblies. The Lexus one is one the right and the JDM version on the left. Note the notches are 180 apart, and the one for the Lexus is not as deep.