HJ47 welcome here? (3 Viewers)

[Henry James the 47th]

Took care of the winch mounting on the bumper, using a 7/16" bit.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

The painter Mark wanted me to put all the panels back together with the cab before making decisions on using the plastic filler. I am finding I really like the matt finish of the primer, and in fact am leaning strongly to using a matte blue finish paint, along with matte white for the roof and bezel. It would hide a lot of imperfections, and for a working truck what do I need glossy paint, which I'd be worried about scratching, for? Low maintenance, no worry, less fussy body work - - it's adding up for me. I think I will definitely be going with a darker blue than the primer.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Yes, I know the brass hinge pieces are not stacked correctly, but my mild o.c.d. has to stop somewhere.

It's nice to get the pedal bucket and pedals back together.

The parking brake is also in place for the first time, recently, by some sort of miracle, to my surprise I located a LHD HJ47 parking brake cable in Japan, along with a host of other OEM goodies which will be on their way to me soon.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

As of this afternoon, all the body panels and other minor pieces requiring epoxy primer have been media blasted and/or scuff sanded.

Next I think I will focus a little more on the wiring.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

three more

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another set. At the end of the day I started in on drilling the holes for the steering column junction pins, 3/16" at the one end and 1/4" at the other.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Wow, that looks fantastic!

I'd go with glossy paint just because it's "smoother" and won't hold onto the dirt as much as a flat finish will. It's just easier to clean, is all.

Why the different sizes on each end? Just to make sure you can't mix it up? Or am I missing something (I have had a Young's Double Chocolate Stout recently, and I'm feeling it ).

Love it! Your truck is coming together nicely and looking excellent!

Dan

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Hi Dan,

it's not flat, it's matte. According to the painter, there will be no issue with increased tendency to pick up dirt in such a finish, and no difference to a glossy piant in ease of care. Frankly, that's the issue in a nutshell - I'm not wanting to fuss and care over the paint. I expect it will get scratched and dusty and I doubt I will spend oodles of time cleaning and waxing the truck. Not one of my habits or inclinations at present, nor has it ever been. I can see the need to pressure wash it frequently, but in that case my concern is more about what counts - the chassis and undercarriage. The sheet metal is like make-up. While I want it to look presentable, the real bones of the Landcruiser, and the source of its virtue, lay for me in the frame, axles, suspension, motor, etc, and not in the thin veneer of metal draped loosely on top. For that, the paint quality I'm most concerned about is toughness, not shine.

And hey, it looks like I'm keeping good company in the style department too, as the new $1.4 million Lamborghini Reventon has a flat metallic paint job. If matte is good enough for Lambo will be good enough for me, though they can keep the metallic (maybe...hmm, now I'm thinking about a matte blue metallic...)

I am using two pin sizes to fix the steering parts together as the machined collar is stepped inside: the upper steering shaft is larger, so I use the larger pin. If I used the 1/4" pin on the smaller lower end (the 40 series end) then the pin would take too much meat out, so I dropped the size down to .1875"

Here's a couple of pictures of that new Lambo paint job:

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Young's Double Chocolate Stout - that's one of my favorite beers. Another good one from the East Coast is Berkshire Brewing Drayman's Porter.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I've fallen out of the habit of taking pictures, and working pretty much full time on the truck the past 5 days. Here's a series of pictures showing how things are looking:

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I'm in the midst of lacing the rear wiring harness together

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another set

 

[Henry James the 47th]

For some reason lost to me the 80 series brake m/c has this additional outlet line, only about 14" long, on the rear brake end of the cylinder. The junctions that it originates from is three-way. I imagine if I remove the 3-way union altogether, and get rid of the short pipe everything will be fine - with a proportioning valve built into the system that is. Run the line directly? I'm not sure though, and I'm curious to know what the short pipe is supposed to connect to - - anybody with an 80 series out there who can tell me?

[EDIT] I realized that the extra pipe was connecting to a component in the ABS system, which needless to say I don't have. So, pulled off the pipe and mounting bracket altgether.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I'm waiting on the painter for lots of parts, both large and small, but mostly small. I'm nervous to see what the fit of the doors will be like. The cab/apron/fender connection, while not perfect, is pretty good, and goes together easily. There are issues with the two center bolt holes on the upper cab section, which don't quite line-up properly.

My 4x4Labs suspension parts are in the mail, as will shortly a bunch of minor parts from Japan. I scoured the shelves in Japan for a lot of the smaller rubber items, and trim pieces, etc., with some successes, but a lot of stuff obsolete. It would be pretty tough to today to return a factory 47 series to purist-level factory correct restoration quality, as many of the parts unique to this truck were not produced in large batches in the first place. Couple that to the smaller production numbers for the '79~'84 final version and end of the line 40 series tubs.

I've located the Bandeirante steering part in Brazil, but am having dreadful difficulties with the language barrier, so buying the part is proving difficult so far.

I've ended up with a factory fog lamp set up including mounting bars. The switch for the fog lamps is no longer available from Japan, though I've located one elsewhere I think.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I've made contact with a 4x4 shop in Brazil so things are moving in a positive direction. I decided to put my new tapered reamer (1/10 or 1.2"/12") to use on the center arm. This makes room for the 4x4Labs relay rod with fj80 TRE (same size as 60 series).

At first I planned to use the tap handle, but I found the results poor, so I tried the reamer in the drill press, which gave perfect results. You have to be careful to judge the depth on this and not overcut it.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I think it'll work

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I'd be nice if there were an aftermarket center arm available out there which would have more material around the hole for the TRE, but I think there is a decent amount of material left - time will tell.

 

[ColoCruiserJeff]

This restore is looking awesome!! Tremendous progress!

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I keep forgetting to bring the camera lately, or I get there and find the battery power is too low...

Anyway, managed to get my s*** together enough to bring the camera and take some photos of where the truck is at now.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

next set - the dash pad is not fully on there in the second and third pictures