Builds Guppie's FJ55 Build Thread (1 Viewer)

[1973Guppie]

well not much to report, got most of the undercoating off but that's it. For the past several months "life events" have been more important than cruisers but will get back at it soon. Dom, maybe you should come over and kick my ass back into gear?

here's a few pics from Italy trip, will copy you when I send out the pics, honestly haven't even had time to go through all the vids and pics from the trip.

Noah

 

[1973Guppie]

Back to Work!

Hi there, so it has been awhile since I have posted up on this project, there have been some exciting and wonderful changes in my life (see pic, and no that's not mine, just pilfered off the net) so I have decided to go BACK to the roots and plan for this project, stock, cheap, and stock. I don't have the coin to be messing around with custom engines, etc. So I plan to throw in the 2F I got with the project and just rebuild the head, hoping the pistons/rings are in good shape. At this point I just want to drive it eventually.

So, back to the project, not much to report yet, but I am going to start cracking away at it all this summer. I want to have the rust repaired, body work and paint done, as well as the engine / drivetrain in the frame by summers end (yeah right) , well that's what i am going to shoot for anyhow.

 

[1973Guppie]

undercoating

so, got alot of the undercoating off, a bit more to go, the rotisserie was a big help here, this is a serious PIA, next build I will send out the whole body for sandblasting, and frame, period. An air chisel and a air needle scaler have been my best friends.

 

[1973Guppie]

for a pig, the rust is minimal, still I have yet to see the extent of it. Next step is to strip the rest of that undercoating, wire wheel everything and clear off the bottom 1 foot all around the truck, most of the rust is all on the bottom portion, the top and rails are amazingly in perfect shape. So I got bored with the undercoating removal and started cutting into one corner where some rust is. Pulled some of the PO's crap ass rust repair apart, see pic, went down to harbor freight and picked up a saber saw cuz it was impossible to get into some of the small spots with an angle grinder. I was quite amazed at how clean the inside of the rockers are, good clean metal. Hopefully I can fix the patch areas fairly easy.

pic 1 - what I started with
pic 2 -spot welds cut out, pulled this brace
pic 3 -inside of brace, interior bracing completely gone, am going to try to recreate using some tubing and some 1/4 strip. I think I can patch this piece back together.

 

[1973Guppie]

pic 1 - peeled back some of the interior rocker paneling and was surprised to see the interior rocker fairly in good shape minus the front and rear of it.

pic 2 - interior, of pig, directly on other side, some PO's crap ass weld jobs, pryed that s*** off.

pic 3 - after this piece comes off pretty much what I am left with.

 

[1973Guppie]

Need Help!

so here is where I need some advice. This is the first type of rust repair that I have done to this extent. I have read a ton and think I can weld in patch panels no problem but when looking at this I got nervous about body flex.

The situation: what I would like to do is to pull the panel as I have outlined it in the 2nd pic. The red are the cuts I will make on the crossmembers and the yellow is the whole piece that will hopefully come out in one piece. Once I cut the cmembers and drill out the spot welds that piece should come off and I will be able to really get at that interior rocker to do rust repair and coat in some good paint.

The problem: I have read before about body flex. I am worried that if I take off this much metal that the body will flex and I will have problems realigning body panels, doors and such. Is this concern warranted? or should I not worry about it? Looking for opinion from the gurus here whom have some good body work/rust repair experience. I plan to first strip down the lower portion of the body so I know what I am working with and then go one section at a time around the vehicle, patch panel, paint etc., so there will probably be only this panel off on it's own, not both sides or other panels at the same time. I am thinking that if I go one section at a time it will help the body stay stable and not flex at all. Any opinions, comments on if I need to brace this area or not are appreciated and where I would brace it cuz I can't see a place to do it.

 

[DomSmith]

Noah-

Good to see you're back at it. And you already have Disney posters up in the garage! Soon enough the little one will be welding while you're "supervising" with a beer in hand...

 

[OregonCruzer]

Anything new to report?

 

[1973Guppie]

I will get some updates soon, the fj40 has been pissing me off, bad brake booster and master, bad clutch master, now fixing the TC leak it has.

On the 55, I have decided to do the metal rust repair work and undercoating and then plan to send the body out to a body shop to get bondo and paint. Just don't want to deal with it. I plan to put the body back on the frame with the drivetrain installed. Will probably hang the doors too so it is easy for them to paint.

For now it has been long hours of scraping off about 1/4 inch of undercoating everywhere. I will post up pics once I am done with some of the metal work to show the patches and how they were done.

Noah

 

[n2666s]

Noah, a newbie question; how many did it take to lift the body off the frame?.......any advice?........got to plan ahead and have enough

Lou

 

[RHINO]

noah you get a pass from me for both of the slow downs on your progress,,, i mean a trip to another country is worth a break from the rig,,, and not only owning but keeping a few cruisers from junkyard rot is another pass.
will be watching patiently for more.

 

[1973Guppie]

thanks Rhino, Lou from what I remember it took about 6 of us, but I am sure you could do it with 4 strong guys, the pig bodies are heavy but even more so awkward...

$ is tight for awhile, so alot of hands on stuff that doesn't cost anything for awhile.

going to have to have another spaghetti party to put the body back on the frame.

noah

 

[n2666s]

Noah..............thanks again on the number of lifting help, am thinking about a body transplant..hey, congrats on the yungun

Lou

 

[bbalbano]

Nice

Looking great, how long have you been welding for? Im about to buy a mig welder myself. It is a priceless skill to have if your going to be doing this stuff.... Cant wait to see the finished product.

 

[1973Guppie]

mig welding is super easy, just take some time to learn. I have only been doing it now for a couple years, learned on a 110 lincoln mig, I am no expert, I still have a hard time on vertical and upside down welds. It really only took me a few days of playing around with the welder to learn it. Buy a GOOD MACHINE. I am partial to my 210 millermattic, love it, makes welding very easy, also, get a gas machine, flux core is bull****, period. With gas you will be able to follow your bead and learn much quicker. Also, get an instant dimming helmet, worth every penny. I also reccomend to find your own style of welding. Penetration is really the most important thing. I have found that many people will tell you a certain fashion in which they weld, but everyone seems to have a different technique. Find your own and how you are comfortable welding. Stickout, wire speed, power all come into play. You will eventually learn to listen to what the welding should "sound" like. Anyhow, let me know if you have any questions and I will try to help.

s***, gotta get off mud and out into the garage now....

Noah

 

[1973Guppie]

I'm back, it's been awhile

Ok, so the last 6 months of my life have been busy, very busy.

1 - Evacuated for fires (took my box of oem piggy weatherstripping with me , my house is down in that valley in the pic, no harm done, we were one of the lucky ones.
2 - Spinal fusion back surgery in November, what a son of a bitch that was, thank god for my wonderful wife.
3 - New baby girl, she is the love of my life,
4 - Sudden career change, I guess my old company doesn't like people having surgeries and children, I am too good for them anyhow, now interviewing with new companies, but that so far is going well.

no more whining, feeling better, so back to the piggy work.

 

[1973Guppie]

so I managed to hobble out to the garage while high on drugs and paint some emblems, started feeling better, bought some new toys for the garage, harbor freight was having a sale on a bench sandblaster, seeing that I have limited space in my 2 car garage, I modded it by slapping on some cheap wheels so I can move it around the shop. The compressor I had was not keeping up, so I picked up an ingersoll rand unit on the web that I am very happy with.

 

[1973Guppie]

compressor......

started doing some metal work finally, underbody is all striped of the undercoating, that was a PIA!, also cleaned up the roofline and the old headliner material

basically for the metal work I made templates out of cardboard and traced to metal and then slowly tacked them in using .024 wire, my first time doing this so I think the end result although not perfect I am happy enough with, it is strong and will hold up well long term, this is not going to be a show piggy, I plan to seam the welds with por putty to fill in any small pinhole leaks. The interior of the rockers were sprayed down with phosphoric acid to kill all the rust and then I let it sit overnight. I then wiped it down with tri sodium phosphate (tsp) and sprayed with zerorust thickly. Rust should not be a problem there ever again.

 

[1973Guppie]

some pics of the area I cut out, made template and welded.....

 

[1973Guppie]

one other spot that I welded some new metal in....

that's about it for now, wife and baby are calling to watch lost, will update more soon! The rear corners should be interesting as well as recreating the bracing piece I pulled off where the body mounts to the frame. This is all new for me.

Noah