HJ47 welcome here?

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's how the front end sheet metal comes together - not perfect, and I think it was never perfect to begin with, like MoCoNative pointed out.

After that, I bolted the front seat into place to see if I had a good position for the new mounting in the floor pan - which it did - and then spent a good while sitting in the seat and imagining the day I drive this truck.

 

[MoCoNative]

Did you get aftermarket or OEM fenders. I found the aftermarket fenders can really fit like s***. I have one original fender on mine, and one aftermarket that has been replaced once already, and will need it again, I keep wrecking, but anyways. The stock one fits all the holes and bolts right up easily each time I have removed it. The aftermarket is a bitch to fit, usually have to pull and fight on all the holes. And it still sits kind of droopy. Your fit looks good, I wouldn't worry about that too much, when it is painted it may look a bit different, the primer hides some imperfections due to the dullness. But it looks good to me.

It's amazing how much those two little bolts to the cowl and fender do. They look like an afterthought, but they really bring the front end together.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Wow that looks good all together. I hate you SO MUCH right now.

Between this and buck's thread, every time I walk into the shop I have to restrain myself from taking the hood off of mine and starting the repairs.... (patience Dan, patience...)

If it were me, I'd run the SVO heater lines outside or the cab, just because otherwise you'd have to run lines into/out of the cab twice (assuming the possible SVO tank would be outside the cab). If I were going to do that, I'd also see if I couldn't install an electric heater in those lines as well just to help get the SVO tank warmed up quicker--diesel engines don't warm up too quickly at idle in the winter.

Dan

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Did you get aftermarket or OEM fenders. I found the aftermarket fenders can really fit like s***. I have one original fender on mine, and one aftermarket that has been replaced once already, and will need it again, I keep wrecking, but anyways. The stock one fits all the holes and bolts right up easily each time I have removed it. The aftermarket is a bitch to fit, usually have to pull and fight on all the holes. And it still sits kind of droopy. Your fit looks good, I wouldn't worry about that too much, when it is painted it may look a bit different, the primer hides some imperfections due to the dullness. But it looks good to me.

It's amazing how much those two little bolts to the cowl and fender do. They look like an afterthought, but they really bring the front end together.

The new fender is OEM Toyota, while the passenger side fender, is unknown as to origin. If it isn't OEM, then it's a very close reproduction, as it aligns very well with the bib and apron. I was wondering initially if the reason for the poor fit was something to do with it possibly being an aftermarket fender, but now that I got it together it will do the job and I'm going to go with what I have.

I now need to locate a driver's side sidestep, and I'll probably go with new OEM if the price is reasonable.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Wow that looks good all together. I hate you SO MUCH right now.

Between this and buck's thread, every time I walk into the shop I have to restrain myself from taking the hood off of mine and starting the repairs.... (patience Dan, patience...)

If it were me, I'd run the SVO heater lines outside or the cab, just because otherwise you'd have to run lines into/out of the cab twice (assuming the possible SVO tank would be outside the cab). If I were going to do that, I'd also see if I couldn't install an electric heater in those lines as well just to help get the SVO tank warmed up quicker--diesel engines don't warm up too quickly at idle in the winter.

Dan

Think very carefully my friend before taking that plunge, very carefully...

Thanks for your perspective (and MoCoNative) on the coolant line routing - I'm starting to consider routing them under the cab, instead of inside, as there are some good reasons to do so. The reasons for going inside related the the factory method of routing the rear heater lines that way, and the fact that the factory t-junction for the pipe is designed to fit on the inside of the firewall opening.

I'm thinking now that the way to do it would be to bundle the coolant lines with the fuel lines, so that the fuel lines themselves would be pre-heated along with the tank contents.

 

[fjwagon]

Looks like you will be painting in no time.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Managed to squeeze in just an hour or so tonight. I temporarily installed the new OEM hood hinges and the restored stay, and then I marked and drilled the hood for the stainless hold down latches. I will need to weld the catch plates onto the aprons yet.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

And then I put the glove box tether/cable (it's been 'lost' for a month) on the powder coated pocket door panel.

I'd like to get all the sheet metal into epoxy primer by the end of the month, and just want to make sure I have drilled all the holes I need before. There will be three coats of primer at least, so I will still have opportunities to modify stuff.

One small job that remains involves the ill-fitting passenger side fender, which needs repair to the running board mounting, and needs to be converted into a proper LHD fender, which means the bent sheet metal piece to allow for placement over a steering box (the fender is originally from a RHD truck after all) needs to be removed and replaced with an appropriate straight piece. I'm not really sure if I should bother actually, but probably will all the same.

A whole bunch of money remains to be spent:

-two more tires
-possible re-core of the radiator
-shock absorbers all around, and have no idea what to get at this point. I'm leaning towards OME, since I have the Dakar springs, but could change my mind.
-steering damper: what about that return-to-center type? Stock 40 series part? Stock 70 series and move the attachment bracket? O.M.E? H.F.S/B.D.S. from CCOT?
-tie rod needs to work with 60 series TREs; drag link needs to connect to 40 series pivot (small taper) at one end and to the 60 series TRE at the other.
-clutch and brake lines need to be made
-I need to sort out the pto drive shaft mountings, and look more into the rear pto drive possibilities, which would require another three-section pto driveshaft from a 60 series
-paint, bed liner, filler and othe autobody supplies will likely eat $750
-rear window glass is needed
-a correct length speedo cable and parking brake cable are needed.
-restore front driveshaft and install new u-joints
-the seats are abysmal -I need to get a better set or have mine re-done. it looks like I need a passenger side bucket seat at a minimum
-a tuffy box is needed along with a conventional md/cd compatible deck/amp.


I was thinking too of alternative paint schemes, and what do y'all think of this: 857 NORDIC BLUE exterior and interior with a SILVER roof and bezel, which happens to go along with the silver instrument cluster housing, tach housing, and pocket door lid. The truck would therefore be:

BLUE/SILVER/BLACK

The silver would probably realize the same beneficial cooling aspects as the white, as far as the roof panel is concerned, and silver and blue do look good together, and it would mean fewer colors, which is less 'busy'. Any thoughts? Hate it? Love it? Who cares - just throw some flat black on everything?

Ahhh Friday!

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I was hoping for a little more input than ZERO on the paint colors - don't feel like you need to hold back now!

got most of the afternoon in yesterday, and progress seemed a little slow. I started in on the upper cab section, chopping out the exterior lip of sheet metal to see what treats were underneath...

 

[Henry James the 47th]

..not the prettiest sight. The rear lower edge of the cab is in really poor condition, which seems a little surprising given it's position and distance from the ground.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I took the opportunity to zap it with some crushed glass, and in the typical manner, ran out of media late on Saturday afternoon, before I could do a through job.

Although the metal along the bottom edge is bad, the corners of the cab are more challenging to deal with repair-wise

 

[Henry James the 47th]

more pictures of the corner sections

 

[Henry James the 47th]

three more

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I located a couple of 0.25" pins to secure the steering collar connections, but I'm not sure if 0.25" is a little big and whether 01875" might be more ideal (of course they don't stock that size around here).

The third picture is taken through the instrument panel opening, and is the location I think might be best for mounting the relay/wiper control/hazard unit from the 60 series.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Another shot of the relay cluster mounting position.

Second and third pics show the relocated brake hose mounting tab on the front axle. I had a little help pulling the axle and rolled it out to the welding room on a low rolling cart.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I noticed the difference in position of the steering column in relation to the accelerator pedal between RHD (pic 1) and LHD vehicles (pic 2), so I thought I'd post these in case anyone was interested. I'm not exactly sure why there is a difference, but it amounts to a couple of inches.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I fabricated a bracket to hold the switch for the air compressor (culled from an HJ61) using on of the few pieces of sheet stock I had laying about.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

This was a fiddly job that occupied a fair amount of time. I chose the un-used hole in the dash, to the right of the cig. lighter hole, for mountign the a/c switch.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Then I turned my attention to the upper cab section lower lip, beginning with the center, and then a section to the right of it.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

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