Greggo gets some love (1 Viewer)

[arnott1t]

as many of you know I bought an Fj45 a while back. Its in pretty rough shape but I hope it’s salvageable

One of greggos major defects is a weak frame. Rust has got the best of him

Despite all that I still wheeled him for to long until his frame was barely holding on. That takes us to this weekend

 

[arnott1t]

Since his frame was so bad I had all sorts of ideas on how to repair but the one that ended up being my best option was a half replacement frame. Half because that’s all I could find. Someone made a trailer out of a 45 frame and box and drug it to Calgary from Whitehorse.

@Behemoth60 and @shaker helped me out and drug it home. I then dumped all its contents of scrap metal into @Awl_TEQ work bin

I drug it home and started digging into this weekend. Pulled the box off on the hoist

It’s frame is pretty damn good especially compared to greggo’s
This is greggo’s

 

[arnott1t]

It does make for a flexy greggo though

It was time to make him a 22.5

Since the other 45 frame was hacked off near the front leaf spring mount I had lots of good frame. They made a tongue by squishing the frame horns together to and an A frame and welded a couple on. I cut the coupler off and started trying to straighten

On the super complex and accurate frame alignment 6000 I used a tape measure, highlift from the underlander, and some scrap to start getting it close....

Welded a few extra braces where it needed to bend back...

 

[arnott1t]

I should mention I managed to find an old frame drawing with dimensions. Should come in handy!

Where I sit right now at 6pm on Saturday is with it practically straight but needing some fish plate where I bent it back. That will be the next order of business. Seems to be within a mm or 2 of square and width it needs. Likely will take some finesse once it gets closer to being installed.

 

[RockDoc]

Stellar!

 

[arnott1t]

Plates welded in. Measure measure measure cut....

 

[arnott1t]

New frame was cut to fit. Well at least I hope it fits....

Mark the frame and commit!!

Pretty ugly inside the frame rails. That’s what led to all this work

The back half of the cab is blocked off the t case while we try and fit the new frame section

 

[arnott1t]

Cleaned out the frame rails and transferred the tubular cross member over to the loaner frame. Then I cut my temp crossmembers out of the way and we slid it into place.

It seemed to match pretty close first thing. Threw a few tacks on it

Rolled it forward some to get a better look. And dropped the box back on loosely.

We tied a rope around it to try and line up what we could got body lines.
If the box lines up with the hood the doors look crooked. Can’t seem to get everything to line up pefect.

Leaving it for the night and will pull tape on it in a few spots tomorrow and get it as close as these eyes, and @Ratpuke eyes, can get it.
Thanks a metric ton to @decoco and @Ratpuke for their help tonight. Muy apreciado

 

[RockDoc]

Does the frame draft-up give elevation measurements so you can measure up from the floor to double check that it's aligned? The 60 series drawings I have show reference elevations to the body mounts and spring pins.

 

[arnott1t]

Does the frame draft-up give elevation measurements so you can measure up from the floor to double check that it's aligned? The 60 series drawings I have show reference elevations to the body mounts and spring pins.

I’ll take a look today. Need to get the cab square to the ground and the rest should line up quickly

 

[decoco]

Does the frame draft-up give elevation measurements so you can measure up from the floor to double check that it's aligned? The 60 series drawings I have show reference elevations to the body mounts and spring pins.

Kaikaku in Toyota did away with pesky drawings and moved to the orange string, it's a new form of Kaizen.

 

[arnott1t]

Well still a little tweaked on the frame. The right rear is lower than the left. Need to get that sorted with some creative jacking and tacking.

 

[arnott1t]

After cutting one side apart and twisting the truck up with a highlift ever so slightly I managed to get it welded a bit
More solid. Frame seems as straight as I can get it.
Welded the outside web of each frame rail and promptly ran out of gas.

Thew the front drive shaft back in it to get it out of the garage.

Once The welding gets done I’ll need to swap the real axle back in off the old frame. And someday do something with the other box...

 

[decoco]

The body lines look good!

 

[arnott1t]

Truck is back on the hoist tonight. Have one side nearly welded in with plates. Otherside needs some more work and will be tough to finish weld with the t-case in the way. Here is hoping I can get st enough!

Managed to backweld most of the joints through the round cutout in the frame. Adding 3/8” plates should make this section stronger than the other areas.

 

[arnott1t]

Welding is done. Passenger side was tough to weld nicely but it’s glued together well enough now. I’m sure one day the trans and t case will be out of it and I’ll weld it up nicer then.

Can start working to move the axle over next!

 

[Deny]

Good job saving another beautiful old school land cruiser from the rust bin/ used parts department!

 

[decoco]

Can start working to move the axle over next!

This weekend is a bit busy for me, but let me know if you need help with that rear axle.

 

[ericbirk]

Awesome!!!
Looks really good!

 

[Behemoth60]

Splice looks good. I've seen some places recommend that the reinforcing plate has holes in it, then you can get some extra reinforcing weld in the center of the plate.