HJ47 welcome here?

[Henry James the 47th]

working on the driver's side corner, which was trickier because the mounting pin was no longer attached. I decided to use the hole in the little piece of baffle inside the box-section as a locating point for a locating-pin...

 

[Henry James the 47th]

3 more

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another set of three; in the third picture I am drilling the holes for mounting one of the rubber corner strips that fit between the upper cab and the main cab section. They clip into place on the lower edge of the upper cab. I picked up a few metric drill bits today so as to be sure that i got the hole size right - which turns out to be 5.5mm.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

The upper cab section is now fitting just fine, and is 99.9% completed, as far as rust repairs are concerned. I've decide to take the plunge and buy a new set of OEM rubber strips, though they are a bit spendy.

I drilled and re-tapped a broken bolt in a hole that I discovered on the top edge of the upper cab.

A minor grinding session is all that remains (need a couple of fresh flap wheels) to tidy the weld-repair areas up a little more.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Whew! No more welding odysseys to come, just a few minor dealies here and there, and only a small amount of that will be sheet metal. Feels like a milestone has been passed.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

here's the box of rusty cut-outs from the last month or two.

..and a couple of views of my discard pile

 

[seapotato]

lookin good chris !

hmmmm....you going to chuck that rusty square bezel bib???

 

[Henry James the 47th]

lookin good chris !

hmmmm....you going to chuck that rusty square bezel bib???

Oh yeah - come and get anything you like out of the discard pile.

I have 3 other bibs as well, another late '79~'84 (in better condition), an earlier one, and the really early one with the marker lights. Might be time soon to throw a few items up for sale.

 

[seapotato]

cool, well I want to come check this thing out in person for sure ( and measure the rear window glass while I'm at it if I can....)

, I'm just thinking about putting a square bezel bib on my 45, as it's mostly bj42 anyways...

I have this week off, so I'll give you a shout

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Feels like a milestone has been passed.

Ummmm... because it has been. Looks great! I can't wait to see it in paint.

Dan

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Epoxy primer's coming pretty soon.

Today I was feeling a little under the weather, and headed down to the truck with no specific plan - maybe just work an hour or so. So I left the camera at home.

-got more involved that anticipated, and spent four hours, concentrating on the passenger side fender. I welded up a couple of minor metal tears, cut out the sheet metal to clear the steering box (on a RHD application), and welded into the same place a new double-bent panel to make the fender look more like a stock LHD one. Then I welded up the hole that the stock wiring takes as it heads out from the engine bay to the fender-mounted turn signal. With the 70 signals, I no longer require those holes. I'll do the same to the driver's side fender tomorrow.

I bolted the steering pedestal down with grade 8 7/16" bolts - fortunately the head size is very close to 17 mm so it will be on the same 10-12-14-17mm pattern as the rest of the JIS bolts on the truck.

I trial-fitted the clutch master and brake master/booster into place - there is just enough clearance between them on the firewall (whew!), and the air cleaner has about 1" of room ahead of the brake master. Looking good so far - the next worry involves the actuator rod for the brake master and whether it will work with the brake pedal arm.

Finally, re-drilled the lower mounting holes for the air cleaner on the fender, and bolted it down. With the hood closed, there is a bit more than 1cm above the air cleaner outlet to the underside of the hood. It just fits, which is just fine.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

some pictures of recent activity, starting with the plugging of the signal lamp cable hole on the driver's side fender

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another set. I pulled the cab off yet again, set it up in the vertical position, put a plank across to use as a seat so that I could weld the inside/underside of the dash

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I also took care of the welding-on of the a/c switch plate, along with the mounting tabs for the relay cluster panel. It was satisfying to take care of the inside of the dash, in the spots where the previous valance patches did not have full weld penetration, or I had been unable to fully complete the welds from the outside

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I'm thinking of putting another 2" hole in the dash, next to the hours meter to fit a pyrometer...

I took the plunge and ordered up a steering system from 4X4Labs, which make a nice heavy duty set up, with the tie rod located in a more protected position behind the axle. They can supply a set up that will work with hte stock Toyota center arm, though I need to get one end machined to accept the 8o series 23mm TRE

I'm also trying to locate the Bandeirante relay rod and rod ends, and it looks like I might have a line on those. I'd be curious to know what size the Bandy TRE's are, and whether they use a stock Toyota center arm or some later local modification. Anyone have pictures/specs. of these parts?

The fittings for the power steering pump outlet on the steering box are 14mm and 16 mm. I can get fittings to connect up 3/8" hose, and I'm looking into small rads suitable for use as a power steering fluid cooler. I was surprised to find that metric power steering hose fitting are pretty uncommon, at least in Canada.

Finally, I fitted the brake booster and m/c to the firewall, and while it did fit okay and clear the clutch m/c, the rod connecting to the brake pedal was over an inch too long. So, I'm going to undo a little of my previous work and refit the original booster with the 80 series master cylinder attached. This means re-welding the mounting holes and drilling the old ones back into existence, about 20 minutes work. I wish I could have the 80 series' shiny black booster, but I didn't want to get into cutting the rod and trying to cut new threads with a die, or taking the booster apart (how? - I don't have the SST for that job) and seeing if the earlier rod would fit in the later booster (unlikely). A further option would be to locate, or have machined, a 9/16" thick spacer to move the booster away from the firewall, but this has drawbacks as well.

Also, following a conversation this afternoon with John at E4 Auto, I'm thinking that the larger 80 series booster, coming off a vehicle that weighs at least 1000 lbs. more than my rig, might provide a bit too much power boost for my needs. That's already a small concern with the 4Runner calipers I put on the rear, though I'm confident that a proportioning valve should take care of that. We'll see when we get there at least.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Yesterday was none too productive, but I got 6 solid hours in today.

Wrestling with the center-arm rebuild took 2 hours yesterday, while the cleaning and painting of the brake booster was more straightforward. I used driveline bolts to secure the center arm pivot in place.

i'll be sending the center arm itself to 4X4Labs for re-tapering/enlarging, unless I can get it done locally.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

If you're looking to be surprised, go and check out SOR's prices on rebuilt brake boosters...

Based on that, I'm hoping the one I've painted will hang in there a while, though I have no real idea as to how my km's are on the thing.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another set - working to finish off the sheet metal on the lower edge of the dash around the bottom of the instrument cluster.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

The dash lip near-finished, leaving me with little else to do on the lower cab, and another shot of the brake booster/master cyl. temporarily bolted to the firewall.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I media blasted the new brake and clutch pedals along with the gas pedal. In the third pic you can see how the gas pedals from RHL/LHD cars are not quite the same.
In the primered RHD one, the main pivot is below the bend in the arm, whereas in the LHD component, the pivot post is located above the bend in the arm.