Errols FJ40 Build x4

[Feistl]

So the plan is to weld the bolt to a separate piece of steel, then weld the steel to the housing. This gives 2 advantages, firstly the bolt will come out “smooth” from the housing (as the welding will be on the inside) and secondly it gives a “recess” for the pop rivets to hold the LEDs in place, meaning I can cover the hole in silicon which wont be visible. It’ll make more sense in a second…


Cut out 2 plates with holes/recesses for the pop rivets.

Then drilled a hole in the center for the bolt to fit through. Yes it very much looks like a face lol…

Feed the bolt through the hole and drilled a corresponding hole in the housing.

You can see how it mounts together now

Welded the bolt to the plate

Then clamped the plate/bolt to the housing

And welded it on.

Ground it smooth

Test a did assembly…

Once I was happy with the main body, I got some round tube (50mm from memory?) and cut it on a 30 degree angle (which is approx. the angle of the front guard sloping down) and welded an end cap on.

Ground it smooth and drilled a hole in the middle.

Now ready for a trial fitting. (The LED looks bright, that’s only from the flash of the camera). You can see the guard which has been prepped for painting

Testing the indicator light

And the parkers/parking light

Overall I am pretty happy with how these turned out. Can’t wait to see what they look like painted/fitted.

 

[Feistl]

Tailgate:


Moving on, now it was time to do something about the rear tailgate. The standard tailgate (well the tailgate that came with this body) was a steel internal frame with a fiberglass covering. Unfortunately, the frame had cracked/rusted and had damaged the fiberglass beyond repair. (Well, easy repair).

Not that it mattered anyway, as I wanted to do something different.


The design requirement was to have somewhere to store the soft top, bikini top and top of the half doors as well as somewhere to store tools/spare parts when offroading.


The only real way to do this and have it easily accessible is to store the roof/half door tops on the floor in the rear with a compartment section on top. Again it’s hard to explain, but once I build it/take pictures it’ll make sense.


Reason this is important is it means the tailgates only function is to allow access to the floor of the tub to store the soft top etc. This means rather than hinging from the side (with external hinges) or the bottom (where the tailgate is then in the way when trying to load/unload the roof) I could actually hinge the tailgate from the top….


It’ll make sense shortly.


Anyway to start I needed to create a frame of the tailgate itself.

You can see the outside is “flat”, so I can stick a flat panel to the outside at the end. Originally I had designed this frame to suit a fiberglass panel I purchased on ebay, but decided I would prefer a “flat” panel out of steel instead.

So to hinge from the top, I needed a support frame to run across the top of the tub. Now I didn’t want to weld a frame directly to the body, in case we ever decide to convert back to a start tailgate.


To get around this, I made up some “clamps” which slide over the tub on each end (which will eventually be bolted into place).

Once the ends were welded up, I could position the “strut” and weld it all up. (There was a lot of measuring and design to get it exactly right).

Once I had the measurements, I purchased 3 stainless steel hinges and welded them to the tailgate frame.

I positioned the frame relative to the top strut and tacked the hinges into place from the outside.

Then took the frame out of the car and welded the hinges fully into position.

Refitted the frame and double checked the operation. The big advantage to this design is the tailgate can go up almost vertical, meaning it should be easy to load/upload the soft top.

There is still more to be done on the tailgate, but at this stage we decided to focus on getting the body ready so will come back to this later on.

 

[Feistl]

As you may have seen in some of the tailgate pics, we repaired the rear section of the tub. For the most part it was pretty good, but there were a few little sections of rust and dints so we fixed those up.

Also finished prepping the remaining areas of the tub, including sanding all the areas back with 60 grit sandpaper.

 

[Feistl]

At this point we decided to paint the tub and guards in 2 pac epoxy primer as the weather that weekend was perfect (26 degrees, 32% humidity). We also wanted to get some paint on to stop the bare metal areas flash rusting. Ideally it would have been better to get everything prepped and then spray primer all at once, but at least getting the guards/tub done is a good start. Plus it gives us a chance to practice painting and see how well it works before painting everything.


So to start with we purchased a bunch of plastic drop sheets to protect everything in the garage.

You also may have noticed in some earlier pictures we install some more lighting on the roof.

Also put some hooks in the roof so we could hang the guards, and used some coat hangers from the lights for smaller items.


We masked up the front firewall and gave the tub a once over with was a grease remover and some thinners on the bare metal.

These were the supplies we were using.


HB Body 989 4:1 Epoxy Primer.

Velocity VG3N Gravity Feed Spray Gun

Air regulator with dual oil/water traps.

3M Full Face Mask/Respirator.

4.5hp 240v 15A compressor with 150L tank

Attached the regular and set the air pressure

Once everything was setup, we mixed up the paint in the spray gun and started spraying….

(Basically only got this photo of the actual spray painting, as there was enough other stuff to focus on. The Pot life of the paint is only an hour, so we had to work pretty quickly).

This first batch went on ok, but was very slow. We worked out later on that when you change the tip size (It comes with 1.4, 1.8 and 2.5mm nozzles) you also need to change the Needle. We were using a 1.8mm nozzle with a 1.4mm needle. Essentially this meant we couldn’t apply the paint quickly enough.

On the second batch we switched to the 2.5mm nozzle and 2.5mm needle and it worked brilliantly. This was our first ever attempt at spray painting, so took a little bit of trial and error to work out the best method.


Having said that, the result was really really good (especially for a primer). The stuff dries quickly and really hard. You can see the painted tub and guards…

 

[Feistl]

Tailgate 2:

Once we had painted the body/guards in primer, we could switch back to preparing the remaining parts and finishing the tailgate.

Started by welding in some drop down pieces from the top strut.

Then added a “lip” which faces inboard. This has a couple of purposes… It will act as a frame for the tool compartment to bolt onto and it gives a mounting point for a door catch to mount to.

Also cut down the ends for greater clearance (you’ll see what shortly).

Did a quick test fit

Now to try and get as simple and clean looking rear end as possible, I didn’t want to install a traditional handle on the outside. Instead I decided to use an electrically operated door release which will be activated by a hidden switch somewhere.

As there would be no physical way to release the door I decided to use a pair of electric door actuators from the commodores we wrecked earlier for redundancy.

I also found a “slam lock” door latch which could be operated by a cable/lever.

It was now just a matter of creating a mounting system….

This isn’t the final assembly, I am going to swap one of the actuators over and rebend the wire lever but its fine for proof of concept. You’ll also notice there Is some adjustment in the actuator mounting screws and adjustment in the slam latch. Effectively I can adjust the locking nuts on the bolts to change the offset, which in turn change how much the tailgate sits in/out.

 

[Feistl]

Now I needed to make a striker plate for the slam lock to hold onto. Heres a tip for cutting holes in steel… Set the welder to 200amps and put the rod in roughly the right area and you end up with a nice hole.

Cleaned it up with a file then welded a stainless steel striker plate on.

I will weld these on shortly, firstly though I needed to mount up the gas struts.

I purchased a set of struts (410mm free length, 235mm compressed length with 150n of force).

You can now see why I have the extended brackets coming off the frame…

Then it was just a matter of welding the actuator/slam lock bracket on, and then welding the striker plate onto the tailgate.

The gas struts work perfectly as you can see in the video below…


http://vid1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee369/feistl/Tailgate_zps2bedoz47.mp4


You can now see the adjustment for the slam lock, and a video of how it works.

Now the only remaining problem was how to get the tailgate to open enough to get your fingers behind to physically open all the way.


I am looking at using a physical spring (or several) to “push” open the tailgate when the latch is released. Just trying to find something appropriate…

 

[Feistl]

Panel Prepping:


So now that the tailgate is sorted, it was back to preparing the body parts.


Starting with the bonnet….


Removed the hinges and clips to take it back to the basic bonnet.

It was in pretty good condition on the outside, but the inside had a bit of surface rust. Decided to hit it with the sandblaster (especially in the corners) to clean it up a bit. Then started sanding the inside back with a wire brush.

Once the inside was sanded back, gave it a coat of rust converter to ensure there is absolutely no rust anywhere.

Finished sanding/prepping the outside

Now it was just a matter of filling a few dints and the holes with bog/filler.

 

[Feistl]

Now for the really challenging part, the front panel (BIB).


We have a couple of square style front panels in perfect condition but I much prefer the earlier round style. Unfortunately, the only round style front panels I have have badly rusted out at the bottom.

It seems to be a poor design that causes the rust. Toyota put a second “brace” for extra strength at the bottom, but all this does is trap the dirt/mud/moisture against the steel causing it to rust out quickly.


Even here in Australia good condition replacements chase stupid money ($300-500), so I figured I’d give repairing this one a go.


I didn’t get a pic of the underside, but it was rusted through (holes that were 5*3cm).

Started by trying to clean out as much dirt as possible….

However the steel was beyond repair. So decided to cut out a large section removing all the bad rust (surface rust isn’t a big issue).

Here’s all the rust I cut out

I sand blasted most of the rust off the bottom. It wasn’t too bad in the corners which is good.

The plan is to replace the bottom section with a heavy duty piece of 50*50*3 90 degree steel as a replacement.

I marked out the areas which had been cut away, as I needed to weld in some replacement 1.5mm steel sheets to take up gap.

I cut out and welded some 1.5mm steel sheets into the gap areas.

 

[Feistl]

Then clamped the new piece onto the front panel.

Then, very carefully, started welding the two pieces together. Now you really need to use a MIG welder as it can weld at much lower amperage, but I only had a stick/MMA welder so I had to make do. To prevent the sheet steel burning through, I put a big copper block next to the steel I was welding to try and keep it cool. It’s a very slow process as the copper heats up quickly and you have to let it cool before more welding.

Now it looks much worse in the pictures, but it has actually welded together nicely. Most of the gap you are seeing is the gap between the old metal and the new 1.5mm sheets I welded in. But as I am welding the old steel to the backing piece the gap wasn’t important (and will be filled with bog later).

You can tell it’s been a strong weld as it has the heat markings on the other side. This usually indicated a deep penetrating weld.

So now that the new piece was welded in, it was time to sandblast the remaining original steel. Sandblasting is bloody hard work, especially in a make-shift “booth”.

 

[Feistl]

A few hours later it was back to bare metal. There are still a few small spots of rust to deal with but overall the rest of the panel is in good condition…

Took it outside and gave it a thick coating of rust converter.

After treating you can see its converted any areas of rust into black.

Apparently after wiping down with methylated spirits you can paint directly over this without fear of it rerusting.


Here is the treated panel

Now it was a matter of using the bog/filler to fill in and smooth out the gaps at the bottom. Pretty much followed the same process as the tub and gave it a sand to remove any residual chemicals from the rust converter.

 

[Feistl]

Next major panel to prepare was the windscreen surround. Started by stripping off the wipers, wiper motor surround, hinge brackets, sun visors, rear mirror and other misc clips and brackets.

Then removed the glass

It was in pretty good condition externally, but had a fair bit of surface rust on the interior. Sandblasted the vast majority of it out and hit the remaining sections with rust converter (from a long brush).


Also filled in the gaps around where the mounting screw thing was on the inside (to fold the windscreen down) as we are going with a fixed bracket rather than a hinge. More pics shortly…


Next up were the doors. Now we are doing 2 sets of doors for this FJ, a fiberglass “half doof” and a full steel door.


Starting with the steel doors…


We looked through all our sets of doors and classified them from best to worst. The 2 best sets are reserved for the best 2 FJs we will be building later, so we choose the 3rd best set for this one.


As you can see there is a little surface rust around and some minor dints but still very very good condition.

Started by stripping down the door to the bare frame.

Sandblasted any areas with rust (inside and outside) and sanded back the areas where the paint was still good.

Then bogged up any dints and the various holes for mirrors etc we wouldn’t be using.

Once the bog had dried, sanded it back smooth.


Now annoyingly I didn’t seem to grab any more pictures of the passenger door or half doors getting prepared, but you get the idea.

 

[Feistl]

Now that pretty much everything had been sanded back it was almost time to start painting.


We got the garage prepared (drop sheets, put the heaters on etc) then gave everything a rub down either wax and grease remover (over existing paint) or all-purpose thinners (for bare metal).


We then laid everything out (and hung some stuff up) in preparation for paining. You can see the rest of the prep work on the doors etc.


Initially we are going to paint the inside of everything then doing the outside the following day.

Now there was a few imperfections in the front guards after the first primer coat, so rubbed back the visible sections smooth and gave these another coat.

 

[Feistl]

Here is everything painted up. Note: We were having some issues with the needle in the paint gun sticking which was causing it to drip, so on some of the panels you can see drops of paint in the middle. Now this isn’t a big deal as we have to sand/roughen up the primer for the top coat to stick to so it will take care of these drips. Still annoying, as obviously went to a lot of effort only to be let down by a minor issue with the gun.

Once everything had dried overnight, we wiped down the outside of each panel and gave it a coat of primer.

You can clearly see the drip marks in this pic. Again they’ll get sanded back, mostly what I am focused on is getting a nice thick layer of paint to bond with the surface which its done nicely.

Pretty impressive result for the front bib considering how it started out as.

So this is where we are up to as of 09-06-2016 (Or i suppose 06-09-2016 for those of you in America).

Next stage will be painting the top coat of Upol Raptor bed liner. We have a long weekend coming up, so if the weather holds up we should get it done.

Cheers