Build Dick's '84 Saudi 45

[DickM]

With just a little time to work in the shop today and none next week, I didn't want to start any large projects , so I experimented with the patina process. I started under the hood because if I screwed up fewer people would know, and because it had a good range of finish conditions. First pic is CLR/scotch-brite on passenger side with nothing on driver's side.

After pic with Fluid film added to passenger side. Driver's side got CLR/scotchbrite followed by Meguiar's Ultimate Compound then 3 in 1 wax- all hand applied.

You can't see in the pics but I was too aggressive with the scotchbrite pad and scratched the paint pretty good, especially on the driver's side. Other than that, I am pretty happy and looking forward to getting the whole truck going with the program, but am going to wait a bit until the cold weather lets me get water working outside. There is plenty to do inside in the meantime.

 

[DickM]

More small projects, none of which are very picturesque.

Since I had cleaned out the driver's side frame rail when I remodeled the spring hanger, I needed to suck it up and get the passenger side done. Too cold here for water, so , chipping and scraping and vacuuming with the custom reduced hose attachment and compressed air blowout of the rest got it done. Still needed for both sides is a pressure wash when it is warmer and fluid film application.

Next was replacement of the 4 brake hoses, all of which were pretty sketchy. The front two were direct OEM replacements. The 2 from axle to frame need to be extended because of the lift, so It worked out to replace the front with the OEM that fit the rear as it was several inches longer than the front hose. The rear one was a braided line from @cruiseroutfit. Thanks to my strong legged wife for the assist in bleeding out all of the nasty old fluid and air in the system.

In order to get to the front hose from frame to axle, 2 splash shields needed to be removed. While they were out I decided it would be appropriate to tidy them up.

Next was axle vents with an ARB knockoff system. Nothing exciting to see here.

Since I noticed a huge chuck of mud/sand where the speedo cable connects to the TC, I chipped it away to see the pretty substantial oil leak. City Racer has an O-ring and seal kit for this, so after draining the 90 wt. and installing the parts and refilling all was good.

The clutch fork boot was missing, so I removed, cleaned up and painted the lower clutch housing cover. The multi-part segmented gasket was actually in decent shape and re-useable, which was a win as I could only find it one place overseas for about $70 shipped.
I now had access to be able to work the boot on the fork arm and housing from in and out at the same time. After removing the clutch slave cylinder and cleaning around the hole in the housing, I wrestled the boot on.

Finally, I spent several hours scraping, and cleaning the oil pan which was in about the same shape as the other two shields pictured above.

More anal, time consuming chores off of the list. Having a lift in the shop is awesome, but spending so much time underneath the truck leads to all these little jobs that bug me if I don't take care of them.

 

[DickM]

Finally, some progress that warrants a couple of pictures. Two before pics with the stock split rims and radial tires followed by 2 pics with the new FJ Co rims with 255 85 16 Yokohama Geolander M/T G003. This is the first cruiser for me without "inexpensive" steel wheels, but the FJ Co were on sale so I bought them.

 

[Terrax]

Finally, some progress that warrants a couple of pictures. Two before pics with the stock split rims and radial tires followed by 2 pics with the new FJ Co rims with 255 85 16 Yokohama Geolander M/T G003. This is the first cruiser for me without "inexpensive" steel wheels, but the FJ Co were on sale so I bought them.
View attachment 3848106View attachment 3848107View attachment 3848108View attachment 3848109

Looking good!!

 

[kunzma]

Have you had those Yokohama tires out on the road? Wondering how they ride? Noise?

 

[DickM]

Have you had those Yokohama tires out on the road? Wondering how they ride? Noise?

No miles on them yet. And won't be able to get any good noise info until all the window/door weatherstripping is replaced....... which is working it's way to the top of the list.

 

[DickM]

I finally quit procrastinating and started on the door rebuilds. Everything about them was in need of help.
Cosmetic to mechanical scope as follows-
New door cards with plastic door liner replacement and new OEM clips to replace the sheet metal screws holding the old plastic wrapped cards,
New door handles
New window operators
New vent window weather strip
New window runs, 2 short,1 long per side
New inner and outer door glass weather strip
New perimeter weather strip replaced after wire wheel and acetone for removal of the 3 coats of assorted glue slopped on, followed by masking and repaint of the perimeter for rust control and good glue surface,
New sound mat installation,
Removal of the dirt and sand (cement) packed in the door bottoms plugging the drain ports
Cleaning/lubing of reused lock hardware and door limiters encased in the famous sand/grease heat cured mixture
Lock keying
Removing and reinstalling the doors and all of this stuff.

Starting point (except I started on the passenger side)

 

[DickM]

Table with old and new parts and pieces

Stripped door shell with sound mat installed. You can see the partial prep to remove the 3 layers of adhesive at the perimeter

New vent window weather strip installed- the old stuff was hard like plastic and came out in small chips. The glass had to be removed and the new rubber wrestled in to the perimeter channels of the frame.

Some more parts to be cleaned and reused. Note the crap all around the door perimeter.

First layer of masking tape showing extent of repaint. Most of it will be covered with weather strip, so I hope this doesn't constitute a patina violation.

 

[Terrax]

Table with old and new parts and pieces
View attachment 3864170
Stripped door shell with sound mat installed. You can see the partial prep to remove the 3 layers of adhesive at the perimeter
View attachment 3864172

New vent window weather strip installed- the old stuff was hard like plastic and came out in small chips. The glass had to be removed and the new rubber wrestled in to the perimeter channels of the frame.
View attachment 3864182

Some more parts to be cleaned and reused. Note the crap all around the door perimeter.
View attachment 3864185
View attachment 3864187
First layer of masking tape showing extent of repaint. Most of it will be covered with weather strip, so I hope this doesn't constitute a patina violation.
View attachment 3864203

Hi Dick,

How is the wiring harness on your 45? Binmahmoodstores might have one for your 45. I just bought one of the last 2 for my 1980 45.

 

[wngrog]

You freeze to death out there? Awfully quiet.

 

[DickM]

You freeze to death out there? Awfully quiet.

Was away for a couple of weeks to sunny, warm, way south, Arizona desert.
Came back and it is Spring, which means that it only seems like winter half the time now instead of all the time.
No fear, the month of summer is just around the corner!

 

[wngrog]

Was away for a couple of weeks to sunny, warm, way south, Arizona desert.
Came back and it is Spring, which means that it only seems like winter half the time now instead of all the time.
No fear, the month of summer is just around the corner!

I just got back from a way south AZ trip. Pretty awesome country.

 

[DickM]

The door remodel list is complete and they are both installed. The driver side was worse than the passenger side in all ways.

New latch assembly and handle were added.

New OEM door cards

 

[DickM]

In order to re-install all of the new stuff, I went ahead and started the patina finish process so that no rust or ugliness was covered by the weather strip.
This is the passenger side done from the door forward.

I am sure all you keen eyed observers will note the huge difference on the fender top and apron. This is due to the removal of the darker. rougher textured spray paint applied to pass Saudi vehicle inspection some time before Meshal ever saw the truck. Goof off with scotchbrite followed by CLR and rinse,. Paint areas get Meguiar's ultimate compound and wax, Patina areas get Fluid film.

 

[DickM]

Here is the driver side.
A couple before (notice the dark color of the fender paint:

After:

If you look close, you will see that the hood is sprayed with the same darker, crappy paint. I am nervous about what I will find after I strip it off. While I love the passenger fender patina, the driver side is bordering on chaos for me. But I am committed at this point. They say God hates a coward............

 

[Greek Cruiserhead]

Moving right along, looks so good!

 

[DickM]

Another issue that came up during the door work was keying. I got one new looking and one old worn looking key with the truck, both of which worked the ignition and driver's door lock, and neither of which worked the passenger door. There was a Toyota key tag on the ring, code 2325.

I removed all 3 lock cylinders. Ignition had no key code on it, and stopped turning at all after removal.
Driver's door had a broken spring, which I robbed from an old 40 series cylinder in spare parts and replaced.
Passenger door lock cylinder was coded 1688, with no key.

After research and a DM back and forth with @ToyotaMatt over 10 days or so, I decided to take the path of least resistance and go to a local locksmith. He was able to get the ignition cylinder working, confirm that the code on the key tag was indeed correct for ignition and driver's door, cut 3 keys from the code, and cut 2 keys from the passenger door code 1688. He could not re-key the passenger lock because he did not have a cylinder cap to replace the one he would destroy to open the cylinder.

While not perfect, this works for me for now as I was able to move forward and install the doors and I have the option to unlock either door in case of a lock/latch failure on one.

 

[DickM]

Back to the patina adventure. I started the hood at the back corner with high hopes for a good amount of factory finish still on the hood. The start was encouraging.

I told Meshal from the beginning that I wanted a solid patina truck, not one with a pretty paint job. He delivered.

 

[DickM]

I was pretty shocked when I saw the amount of metal on the hood.

So, after seeking advice from the gurus on @wngrog Preserving Patina thread, I ordered Shine Juice Shine Juice - Patina Preserver - https://www.vicegripgarage.com/products/shine-juice-patina-preserver from Poppy's Patina website to try on the hood, fenders and cowl to see how I like the look before I use the good, more permanent stuff that Nolen recommended.

In the meantime , the patina work continues. The front bib, both sides of the outside of the bed and the tailgate all got done.

Of course, in keeping with the promise of surprise when ever something is removed, I found pretty nasty taillight fixtures when I removed the brand new beautiful OEM lenses in order to treat the finish. Partial gaskets, missing and incorrect fasteners, stripped out captive nuts, passenger side with the factory plug cobbled onto the replacement fixture with only electrical tape and so forth. I ordered replacement aftermarket ones from @cruiseroutfit as OEM are getting harder to find and are expensive.

Next was treatment of the roof, which turned out to be a much needed small victory.
Before:

After:

 

[DickM]

In the meantime, the passenger side inside door latch stopped working. I fiddled with it, and got it to work for a few tries, and it quit again, so I took the door apart again to see what was up. One of the latch pivots was egged out, and would bind up randomly. This was the latch pictured in post 48 above so I shouldn't have been too surprised. A new one was ordered and installed to match the new one I already put on the driver's side.

Also on the latch order were some small parts and pieces. New black bezels at the door latch/lock handles, a new steering column clamshell to replace the one that was partially held on by electrical tape and the small round escutcheons behind the window cranks.