From Wreck to Uluru....Aussie adventure trailer

[Billyfj7312ht]

Had a bit of trouble removing the old leaf spring shackle bushes. I ended up drilling holes all the way around the rubber .

One of the Body mount tower dishes had corroded so I took one off the front ones.

re-enforced another dish with a washer.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Patched the hole in the chassis before re-enforcing the leaf spring hanger to make sure moisture doesn't pool there.

I cut some 5mm plate for Ian to weld in place as there was a plate there originally.

I finished cutting and fitting some cross beams etc so Ian could finish off all the structural welding, it took him around 21/2 hours.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Trimmed the front to make it merge a little better.

Cut some rust out of back of chassis then used an offcut from the front to strengthen it.

Drilled 4 holes for my Tregg style trailer hitch before it was welded on.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Decided against the galvanizing. I have ordered a Chassis saver style kit. It has an acid cleaner. A Rust converter primer and a special 2 coat top coat. I have also order the bushes and shackles. Getting closer!!

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

First I cleaned up the welds with a grinder then ran over everything with a 120gr flap disc. The kit was pretty straight forward and did the same procedure with the aqua clean and rust blast, applied it to the chassis internal through my body wax gun which has a 400mm hose on the end and a 360 deg brass nozzle followed by a high pressure hose. the outside I sprayed the products on using a standard plastic trigger bottle and scrubbed it with a stiff nylon brush, wash off and a light scuff after the rust blast had dried. Each step was dried with an airhose.

This was the only spot that required body filler.

The rust blaster at work.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Seeing the old fj gave its life for both my projects I decided to save the chassis number and attach it permanently.

The black rust seal was very hard to use in the body gun. It seemed to be too sticky, not too thick just too sticky. The gun would not pull the material through properly. It took about 15-20 minutes to empty 150ml. I just went back over it 3 - 4 times to build the product up for the internals.
I brushed the first coat on the outside to make sure I swamped the joints and hard to reach areas then sprayed the second coat, it was fine in my gravity gun ( with 2pac nozzle) for the outside although I had to run thinners through the gun twice during the process.

Its not a showroom finish but it seems a very robust hard paint and its sealed from the elements.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

I ended up pulling one leafs from the pack and gave them a quick wire wheel. I will put them back together in their raw state and paint the out side of the pack when they are back together.

All the bushes and shackles are here and will attempt to fit them up this week.
The missus is starting to ask questions now, things like why have I only organised a 3mtr skip bin for the scrap at the back of the shed when we used a 5mtr one for the building material at the side of the shed ?
Just need to get it rolling now and its all sweet....yeh.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Got the axle late this week. Electric 10 inch brakes,45mm square, 1.4 Tonne, same track as my car although my car will end up 1" each side wider by the end.

I welded the spring locator on each end.

I have some black satin 2pac in the shed so I used it for the axle and a light spray over the assembled springs.

Fitted the shackles and bushes

 

[chappohj47]

Looking good mate

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

I am using the same nitro gas shocks as on my truck by Iron Man, on my truck they are constant load 150KG (medium) with soft valving for comfort. For my trailer I think I'll just get soft valving (Light truck). I have had them on a shortwheel base before and they are a much better ride than factory.
Made my own bottom plate for the U bolts out of 10mm plate and welded a shock absorber mounting point to it like the ones on my FJ73.

19mm round bar with a M12 x 1.25 female thread for the shockie eye.

I welded the studs in place the same distances from the centre of the diff/axle and the leaf springs so the faces would line up for the shockies. I also noticed my truck had thick round washers so I welded 2 washers together then welded them to the plate and the stud which i think would also strengthen the whole thing.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

He's rollin today.

Major rubbish removed from behind shed, clean and tidy up now. I think the minister for finance is having an inspection this afternoon when she gets home from the airport so its going to be "show time", just gotta sit the body back on.

 

[chappohj47]

Looking good mate

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

I was just going to clean it up a bit, but as usual I kept doing a bit more and a bit more. Gotta turn back onto my car build now.

It had a rubberized coating on the bottom, also alot of rust in the sills and rear 1/4 panel. I cut out as much as I could so I could start controlling the rust until I turn back to it.

Never thought I would be doing a rear 1/4 chop to a trailer but here we are.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

I wire wheeled for a couple of hours and painted some rust converter on the affected areas.

Used a etch primer out of a rattle can as a sacrificial sealer, which I'll wire wheel or flap disc off when I have more time... after I get my car build further down the track.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Luckily I had no inspection yesterday as it gave me a few hours this morning to prep and seal the whole bottom. It needs alot more attention but I accomplished what I wanted. My wife says "your f&%kn crazy but I can see your vision" she's good like that.
What she's really saying is "carry on, I love it"
Yesterday afternoon I sprayed the inner chassis with a cavity wax, it's touch dry in a couple of hours, sorta like thin cold candle wax and over a week or so it gets harder and tack free.

Not bad for a heap of offcuts... I think my old leaf springs are 3" lift as ATM its 30mm higher than my car.

 

[28 tid]

Beautiful project!

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Been a while.......went back onto my truck project once the danger of losing my side project (trailer) was averted. Took another year and a half but finally got the truck to registration a couple of days ago.
As usual one thing instigates another and now I find myself moving house, so once again my trailer project has come to the forefront.
Before loading him up with some car and trailer parts for storage for a month or so at the inlaws I thought I had better take him for a road test and try out the trailer hitch I got a couple of months ago.
I was running short of time so I made up some body spacers out of a urethane plastic slug I have had for a while but never used. I matched the old rubber ones for height and used 2 originals because of the diameter needed.

Drilled some holes and used my router to put a pencil round around the edges.

This is the hitch I decided to go with. Aussie engineered.

Went for drive through the local area and tested a couple of tame angles on my property just to make sure I could get to the final destination without any problems and before loading up.

Couldn't help myself and did a bit of a mock up to see how he would look before loading.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

 

[cruiserpilot]

Have you got a close up pic of that complete hitch? Not seen anything quite like that. Nice long reach,
should pull really nicely.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Seems to pull really smooth. Didn't push it to its limits but tried some acute angles. Trailer still needs shockies but I would have had at least 400kg of car parts,gearbox old steel on the back.