Of course I duplicated pictures. My apologies.
Fj40 Stretch
- Thread starter fflood
- Start date
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This one will get a FJ45 bed from Aqualu. I set the frame length to use the slightly longer (right at 2 inches longer) earlier bed. Once I get the cage finished and installed and the new wiring harness fully installed I will move on to the bed mounts and bed. Hope to be at that point in the next month or so.
I think you need to start your own build thread. Oh, and include some info on the Unimog and G Wagon too!
Agreed. I certainly do not want to hijack this great build thread. I will throw in a few Unimog and Gwagen pics on my thread for anyone who might think those vehicles are interesting. Looking forward to watching this build though. Super cool.
- Thread starter
- #27
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- #28
It's been a while since I posted progress. I made a floor section for the area between the cab and tub. I'll have to post those pics once I get some reinforcement ribs pressed into the sheet section. The pic below was where I was at a few weeks ago. I pulled the chassis out of the shop to clean up and to be able to step back and take a look.
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- #29
I was looking for some donor hardtop parts so I could continue the mock-up of the body. I put a want add on here and ended up finding some sides that will be shipped once the shipper starts shipping again. I felt like I was staled out due to this. AND then the pics below pop up in my small town on Facebook marketplace. I end up getting all these parts for a song along with some jump seats and an extra passenger seat (that I don't really need). Yes, they looked a bit rough but they would work great for what I'm doing. And besides I won't feel so guilty cutting them up. The previous owner had coated these in Herculiner so I would have a lot of stripping to do before I could measure and cut these up.
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- #30
I don't know why, but getting these parts has me re-energized to get to work. It starts to look like something when you see a hardtop on the body. I got to work stripping hurculiner. There is damage in the top but I should be able to take care of it.
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- #31
I did some slicing and dicing after making some measurements. I bent up a 9 inch wide strip to put into the gap I created so I could visualize what this would look like. After standing back and looking at it, I felt like it was just too much blank sheetmetal in this area. It needed a window. I went and looked at my favorite FJ Company build and took some rough measurements to get an idea about how big the window was in their latest build. I thought they really nailed the look so I figured I would try something similar. I just had to figure out how to make a window as I really didn't want to have to make it from scratch.
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- #32
Luckily, the guy i bought the top and doors off of, ended up throwing in some ambulance doors. I already had a set from a previous build and the ones he gave me were completely rusted out on the bottoms and had some damage from someone sheetmetal screwing the license plate bracket on. Regardless, I felt like these could have been saved, but I figured I can use these to repair some lower barn doors that I need to repair for a friend, if I end up using the tops to make some small windows. I got to work slicing and dicing again.
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- #33
I figured out the measurements I need, cut the window section, sandblasted and then welded it up. i had to add a small section to compensate for my initial cut as I felt like I needed a bit more space between the corner window and the new small window. I'll be able to allow for this on the driver's side when I do my initial cutting now that I know what I'm doing and what measurements I'm going with. Note: this window it the rear ambulance doors turned 90 degrees to get the proper height of the window to match the corner and side windows. i tacked this in and stepped back to look. I also took some old window gasket to see how the spaces between windows would look and to see how big the window will look. I think I have things the way I would like them.
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- #34
Before calling it quits tonight, I decided to go ahead and strip the driver's side and then cut it to prep for the window on the other side. Of course I uncovered a huge hole and dent where an antenna most likely was. Oh well, there still rust to fix so whatever. I made my cuts and will need to do some corner window repair at the lower mount before i can move forward. The mounting strip came loose from the top section when I sliced things apart. That repair will come next and then i can start building tiny windows again. Making progress at least; one step at a time.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2008
- Threads
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- Location
- West MI near GVSU
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- www.mcdesignsoffroad.com
Awesome build! I’m joining those watching..:
- Thread starter
- #37
Awesome to read that you're following along. I can't thank you enough for the parts. They have propelled this project to a new level.
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- #38
I got around to making the driver’s side hardtop side window over the weekend. It came together nice and matches the other one. The width of the window opening is 6.5”. I think I’ll be able to a single ambulance door glass cut and modified to fit. I still need to do a ton of repair in the corners and finish weld but at least things are in place. I’m happy with how this turned out.
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- #40
I started looking at the top caps because I thought this would be good to get in place to kind of lock things in position. I know usually people save this until the end but for some reason I needed to see what this looked like. I started by throwing both tops up to see how much extra I had to work with. I decided one seam to deal with would be best. I could cut the rain gutter in multiple section and weld to help catch existing threaded fasteners that correspond with the side panel’s holes but one seam only on the fiberglass section. I started grinding rivers and quickly popped them out with a hammer and center punch as a drift. The rail separated easily after a ran a scraper between the metal edge and fiberglass edge to slice through the sealer. The donor roof rain gutter was toast though. I tried sandblasting pieces of it but I’m going to have to fabricate the sections I need. Luckily it’s all straight sections.
