HJ47 welcome here?

[Henry James the 47th]

this seems to be coming together. The bolts are a little shorter this time. The factory painted the pedal box as a separate piece, in the same color as the vehicle, and that's what I'm planning to so, though with a white interior in my mind at the moment, the epoxy primer might be fine, since it is available in white. Still thinking on that one...

 

[Henry James the 47th]

A view of the end section of the column tube.

Then, taking the modified column tube out now and fitting the tilt head with the other, non-modded column. I think the view from the engine side of the firewall shows, pretty clearly, the difference in length of the column tube when the 60 column is mounted, and why it needs to be shortened a little. In the bottom photo you can see a dotted line marked on the firewall where the steering column goes through - While I'm glad i didn't go for that option, it still remains a possibility to put the 60 one in, instead of the modified 40 one I'm working on. I doubt I'll do that...

 

[DanS HJ-45]

That is some very clean looking work there sir.

That 60 column just about looks like it's supposed to be there. I don't know if I'd worry about covering the area behind the column cover, it's a Land Cruiser--i'ts not supposed to be all done up inside. Unless the tilt mechanism is exposed or something, I'd probably just leave it--two wrapped wire bundles isn't that big of a deal, especially when tucked up nice and tight to the column.

You're positively ripping through this! What are you using to cut the 1/8" plate?

Dan

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Cutting the 0.125" plate required the good old zip wheel and a few minute's time. I wish I had more sheet metal forming gear though, like a press, shear, and brake.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Got a little more done today on the lower mounting flange for the column, and then I took a picture of the three switches that I no longer need on my dash - or anywhere.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

After a bit more work, which involved cutting off the mounting unit at the end of the column tube, setting it all back up, marking for length, cutting the column tube, and then putting the mounting flange in to primer, here's the near-finished result.

I have two steering shafts out of 60 series trucks - interestingly they are very different in length. One happens to be pretty much the right length to fit into the shortened column tube. Al I need to do now is cut off the yoke fitting on the end of the shaft and weld in the end of a 40 column shaft with the coupling on the end. I will wait until my power steering gearbox gets here (in transit now) before messing around with that.

I have thought a lot about the steering system to use. While the 60 series set up is definitely a simpler and more robust arrangement, I just would rather not cut into the shock tower and fender to fit it in, or, alternatively, cut off the rivets and remove the shock tower and put on a #ord shock tower.

Problem was, I want power steering, and 40 series power steering gearboxes are very spendy indeed. I tried to get one on ebay a couple of times, but there was always someone wiling to spend more than me. I was just about at the point of giving up on the power steering and settling on manual (if only for the interim), or accepting the compromises and putting the 60 series stuff in, when something new showed up on Ebay: a 2000 Bandierante (Brazillian version of a 40 series) power steering box and pedestal, with only 10,000 or so on it. TLC in California was selling it, and said that it would bolt right into position - well, we'll see when we get it I suppose. I managed to win the item for a pretty reasonable price, and it should show up in the next 6~7 days.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

So, next I decided to weld in the lower passenger door patch panels

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another three

 

[Henry James the 47th]

3 more

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another set

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I seem to be getting more consistent at the welding, though a lot of that has been learning to be more patient and not let the metal get too hot from repeated welds, as that's when the problems start.

However, once one thing seems in control, other things start to become more noticeable. I feel like I got a good fit between the patch pieces and the door, at least 95% of the butt was decently close, but there were things i needed to pay close attention to that I didn't. When I removed the old door bottom, i found that the remaining door panel on the front was bowed inwards. I did some work to push it out straighter, and should have done more in that regard. i found that by using one hand from inside the door and pushing upwards at the right spots, i good get the alignment of the butt joints, er, 'spot on', but I didn't consider the slight preloading this was putting into the panel. The behavior of sheet metal around weld zones is something i am a complete neophyte about, though I am getting my lessons on a daily frickin' basis. I also should have spent more time looking/thinking and less time welding...

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I kept going back and front, welding along bit-by-bit, and things were looking good...

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Unfortunately, the result was not so good after I was more than halfway through the welding. As you can see, I have managed to weld in the lower section of the door with a pronounced kink. Discovering this quickly popped the bubble of good feelings I was having about the repair. Now I'm trying to figure out how/if I can make it right again. You can also see in the first two pictures another little repair that the door needs.

I'm planning, at this point, to make a complete slice along the inside of the door, at about the same height as the weld seam on the front of the door, and try and bend it downwards to straighten it out, hopefully. If it doesn't work, I'm hooped i guess. A good lesson in sheet metal work for me. Any suggestions?

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Whew! Worked on Mr. James from 4:00 until 9:00, with a dinner break.

I feel like I've made a breakthrough in my welding, and have recovered from yesterday's crummy sheet metal kink. I made the additional slice across the backside of the door and used a woodworking clamp to pull the edge inwards, closing the 1/16" gap from the zip wheel cut in the process. This seemed to remove most of the kink.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Another set - it's a little tricky getting the camera angle right to show the recovery of straightness.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

3 more -in the first, there's an aluminum straightedge to show the surface better

 

[Henry James the 47th]

And another 3

 

[Henry James the 47th]

The gray Canadian Tire brand rattle can primer on the backside was thrown down at the close of my day, and obviously the surface needs some more flap wheel attention. Tomorrow is another day.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

A final show of the nearly-complete door rework.

Then a couple of shots showing the strange dissimilarity of length between the two different BJ60 steering column shafts I have - I have no idea why, but it's a nice coincidence that the shorter one, about 16", can be used in my conversion with only minor modification. If I had to use the longer one from the 1981 BJ60 (19" long), then I would have to section a piece out of the shaft to reduce it to length prior to machining the end down to prep it for mounting the 40 series rag joint (picture at the bottom of the group of steering shafts). That's my plan: get a machine shop to cut the yoke off and turn a rebate on the end of the shaft to accept some section of the 40 shaft lower end. I need the steering box first though to measure it against. Still, I wonder why there were two distinct lengths of steering column used in the 60 trucks? Maybe the steering box was rearranged somehow and this needed a shorter/longer upper steering shaft?

All in all a satisfying spell of work on the 47, much better than yesterday's ending at least!

 

[Henry James the 47th]

a little more refining and repair work on the door tonight. First though, I had to finish off something on the rear axle: putting a hose fitting mount over by the driver's side, so provide a connection point for the stainless braided hose I plan to run to the caliper.
I ground the weld out of there with the flap wheel (and forgot to take pictures) and then got it into primer and then paint. It's now sitting on my rear springs again, and I am ready to tighten the U-bolts down real soon.