HJ47 welcome here? (1 Viewer)

[Henry James the 47th]

I decided to remove the seat stop from the back of the upper cab. Note the rust behind the piece. This is everywhere that there are seams put together like that, and I've found, from pulling my own spot-welded pieces off, that pre-priming.back-priming the pieces does nothing to affect the rust that forms around the welds.

It might be better to epoxy and rivet rather than spot weld...

 

[Rhinoliner]

Are you going to reinstall that seat stop bracket? I've been thinking about removing mine just like you did. All of my seats have been raised up about 2 inches with spacers so I don't think that the seat would touch that bracket anymore anyway.

Nice rebuild thread.

PS. I love watching Barn Swallows fly. They are incredible. I'm sad that we didn't have any nest at our house this year.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I'm thinking that I need all the room rearward with the seat that i can get, so I'll see how it looks in place, and if the stop reduces the lean-back of the seat, I'll omit putting it back on.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Update time. I finished off my last day at the recent carpentry project I've been on for the past couple of months or so, which means that from now until the end of June or so I will be full time on the truck, so I'm hoping to push through to completion.

I've been concentrating my efforts on the cab, working at getting a good mate between the upper cab section and the lower cab section. After the replacement of much sheet metal along the upper cab's lower lip, along with re-doing the corner support area, the fit between the upper and lower cab sucked.

It was pretty obvious that if there was a poor fit between the two sections, that any water running down the back of the upper cab would wick into the gap and that would lead to rust-out given enough time, despite the fact that i have new rubber packing pieces for the junction.

I decided on a two step process - first I got a good straight section of aluminum, like a straightedge, and taped it with painter's release tape. Then I applied double-stick carpet tape to one side and stuck the straightedge on along the main cab section lip. Then I applied the polyester filler in a couple of rounds to build up a flat clean area. I forgot the camera during that stage, but here are some pictures of the lower cab lip after I had removed the straightedge.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Then I spent some time tidying up the surface and countersinking around the captive nuts. Although the countersinks are not "factory", of course, and they do give away the presence of filler in the area (only with the upper cab removed however), the countersinks do help out with feeding the bolts down from the upper cab, and they are a clean way to finish of above the holes. I noticed in another photo thread that the pre-1979 trucks HJ45/BJ45) used hold-down clamps to fix the upper cab, whereas mine uses 8 bolts or so.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's the last one showing the work on the lower cab lip.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I was going to follow the same process with the upper cab section as i had for the lower, but then I hit upon a better idea: I taped off the fresh filler on the lower cab lip, then applied filler to the upper cab lip and put the two sections together. This would enable me to get a *totally* precise fit between the two sections, or at least I hoped so.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Then i cracked the joint apart and pulled the upper cab section off to see what was what...

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I was not quite 'there' with the filler along the upper cab lip, so i decided to repeat the process. First I refreshed some of the tape.

Then, mix it up, spread it on, wait, grind it off...

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Then of course the camera ran out of battery juice, so I was only able to get one more picture. I've since removed the upper cab section again. With another hour of fussing and mudding, and it will be done. The bodywork on the main cab seems to be moving along at a good clip


It has come out pretty well and I am very confident that the seal between the two main cab sections will be really good, perhaps, dare I suggest, even better than "factory"

Tomorrow and the next day I will try to finish up the work on the cab. I'm concurrently helping the painter with prepping a paint room, and it looks like round 2, ding-ding!, of epoxy primer in a couple of days. If the sheet metal looks decent after that, then it will mean a scuff of #320 and into finish paint. Can you believe it?!

I'm going with a base/clear system, using PPG's top line of urethane paint. I don't want to bother with cheap paint - after all the hours of labor and costly body work materials, it would be unwise, IMO, to skimp on the paint.

in other news, my recent SOR order arrived today, and now i have my new wiper motor. I'm still working on locating a new wiper relay.

Further, there's my dealings with 4x4Labs... (!warning, whining ahead..)

First let me say that I love the products they make. Their business practices, well, so far anyhow, do not impress. To re-cap: I talked with the proprietor Luke Porter, about a set-up for my truck several months back, and he said he could supply a system for me. Done deal. $600 later, then $90 in duties, the package of knuckle arms, TRE's, tie rod and relay rod arrived. All looked well made and beefy, which I liked. The knuckle arms were configured wrongly however, as I detailed previously in this thread. I called them and after a week of phone tag, missed messages, w.h.y., Luke told me that "a mistake had been made" and that they would send me a different set of knuckle arms ASAP. Fine. Three weeks later and another $50 or so in duties, the replacement knuckle arms arrived. Trouble was, they were identical to the first set and therefore, again, NFG for my set up. I called them up again (well, it took 3 or 4 calls actually), this time to learn that there had been a "mistake in the shipping department", and that he would bend up the correct type of knuckle arms for my the following Monday morning, that he had a special jig made for just that, blah, blah, blah. Okey-dokey, not the end of the world after all. I could wait some more.

And so I waited for the third set of arms to arrive. After three weeks, nothing, and then I came home to a phone message a day or two ago, from Luke's wife, explaining that the new (and hopefully correct) knuckle arms had been "sitting there for the past three weeks", waiting I learned, for the return of the knuckle arms they had already sent to me previously. This was a precondition of shipment - no one there, however, had ever made any mention that I had to send the old ones back before they would ship the new ones. So, not only had the new knuckle arms been sitting there for three weeks, no one at the company thought to contact me about it, and to add to the fun they also wanted to charge me a further $275, on my credit card, so they could get them into the mail for me "right away".

While it is perfectly reasonable, as I'm sure most would agree, for a company to have such a practice with warranty issues and returns like this, it was less than stellar that they made no effort to inform me of the policy, all the while I am waiting for the product at the same time, with no knowledge of the new policy. After having received the second set of knuckle arms, with no comments from Luke about returning the old ones, I thought that they were simply trusting folks who were doing their best to satisfy the customer. In fact, I had asked Luke about returning the old arms in a previous conversation, and he said we would worry about that later, or something to that effect. I thought that was good of him (after all, it's nice to be shown trust), however I guess a few people have not returned the old parts to them, so they have been burned and thus the new policy - ahem, the new "secret" policy.

Of course, once I return the old knuckle arms to them, they will refund my $275, however at this point I have little to no confidence that they will even remember to do that, and I expect that I'll be calling them up again to bug them about it. For now I'm holding onto the old arms (2 sets) until the new set arrives, just in case there is another problem, and fingers are crossed that it will work out. Please pray for me.

Anyhow, 4x4Labs is, in my estimation, a company with nice products, and nice people, however this episode has given me a strong impression of sloppy and disorganized business practice. It's now over three months since i started this process with them, over $1000 later, and I sure would like to get the truck onto its front wheels at some point in the NEAR future. I'm really glad that HJ47 is not my daily driver after such a wait - can you imagine?!

I hope they get their act together and continue to grow their business as they are a real asset to the LC community - I definitely wish them all the best.

-rant over-

 

[MAD40er]

Great build thread!
One Question, while using filler, are you accounting for the rubber packing pieces mentiones in post #1024?
I was wondering, as i would have thought if your didnt, you would have a gap at the top of the windscreen and doors?
Or am i just being a noob?

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Hello Mad40er,

thanks for your excellent question. The problem with the fit between the upper and lower cab sections was that there was a substantial gap, about 0.25" at the midpoint. The lower cab lip was a little sagged down - not due to my sheet metal repair work, as far as I could determine, but came from the factory that way. My repairs to the upper cab lower meeting lip however exacerbated the problem, since with each piece being a little dipped in the middle, the meeting of the two doubled the gap. The two parts met pretty well around the door posts at each side, and the gap opened up at the middle, to be perfectly clear. When I had the upper cab bolted on just recently, with the windshield frame, supports, and roof in place, and the rubber packing pieces fitted, the gap remained. The fixing bolts would not have helped the matter any even by being torqued right down - the gap was too much to close. So, my strategy was to fill the gap. The upper cab will not end up any higher, or at a different angle from the lower cab (visible along the line formed at the door posts) than it ought to be. There is a fair amount of filler in the middle of the run, and at the door posts almost no filler, depth-wise. I hope that makes good sense to you.

 

[MAD40er]

Thanks HJ,
That makes perfect sense, look forward to seeing how that turns out!

*Sings song in head* "I can see clearly now the rain has gone....."

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I had a bunch of errands to do this morning, so I only got about 4 hours in on the truck. The work on the upper and lower cab seam is proceeding quite well.

I thought it might be more honest to post pictures of what the body work looks like in the intermediate stages, instead of simply the finished product, so folks can see how the process unfolds. Many out there are undoubtedly pros at the bodywork, and the stuff I'm doing might make a few roll their eyes.

I started out with an ideal of little to no filler whatsoever, and there may be a few people out there whose mastery of sheet metal manipulation and welding allows them to do that. I'm not there, skill-wise, nor will i ever be as fine carpentry is my main passion. So, in the case of the cab lip, i realize that it would be better, perhaps, to have sliced the lip with the zip wheel, adjusted it up and down to achieve a better fit, and then re-weld. Time is not on my side, and I'm actually liking the Wurth filler anyhow. It's very tough stuff and easy to sand, without clogging the paper. Trouble is, I suppose, the more you get into the bodywork, the more flaws you find as you work a surface, and deciding exactly *where* to stop is difficult.

In my woodworking, i pay nearly as much attention to the places that aren't seen as the ones that are in full view, but here on the truck I am making choices a little differently. I probably won't spend time putting the Wurth goop on the cab floor, for instance, as bed-liner will be going on, followed by sound deadener and floor mats. The back wall of the cab is concealed from view by the flatdeck wall, so I am not fussing the work quite as much as other areas. I hope it will come out well in the end, and despite the filler, I have an all-metal cab and panels without fiberglass patches, roofing tar, etc, so I feel like I'm miles ahead of where I started with the truck.

And having seen a 1982 BJ42 from Germany with mint original paint and low kms, I can see that the factory standard for sheet metal was hardly stellar, at least for these '79 and later trucks. Another choice i need to make is whether to leave the spot weld dimples alone or to fill them. In most spots, I'm leaving them - the more egregious areas, like the all at the rear of the cab below the lip, where the spot welds actually sink the surrounding sheet metal in 0.125" or more, I decide to fill. Adherence to what is "factory correct", while important to me, is less a factor than it might be for others out there.

So, here's some shots of today's progress, in all it's plastic rawness.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

And three more, including a couple of shots of my wiring harness (awaiting a little more troubleshooting and final wrap), and the shiny new wiper motor.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

IN body work it is frowned uppon to put bondo into such a area, but if its hard stuff kinda like dura glass I do not see it being a problem.

Looking like you are getting close to spraying a high build spray putty and blocking party to commense.

Rob

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Hi Rob,

Yes, i am getting pretty close with the cab sections to the primer-surfacer application(s). I have been using the ProForm Primer Surfacer, which goes on well, for the most part. It is somewhat poor however as far as sanding goes, as it tends to clog the sandpaper instantly. And a $10 can of the stuff lasts me about 10 minutes when I'm putting it down, so it gets a bit spendy after a while. Unfortunately I haven't found anything else to use, and I'm too far in now to consider going and buying an HVLP unit, etc., and buying the paint by the gallon. That's what i should have done here, and would do the next time if there ever was a next time.

In other news...I decided to go for the newer type of 16" OEM one piece steel wheels, like my spare, and ordered another 4 yesterday from the local dealer. They should be in this morning, and I'll have the tires swapped over.

I've also tracked down a new 60 series steering 2-piece column cover, in Shadow Gray, and a new 12v wiper relay (85940-90A01). They will be added to the new inner door panels, also in gray, that I am getting from Japan4x4. Really, really, soon now I will be at the point where I won't be ordering parts any longer and that day will not come too soon for me. This re-build scene is an expensive form of entertainment.

I *sorta* organized my pile of receipts last night (not looking too closely), and it easily is some 500 slips of paper. I will be spead-sheeting the info later and tallying it up, and posting it here. That could get a little scary

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Hi Rob,

Yes, i am getting pretty close with the cab sections to the primer-surfacer application(s). I have been using the ProForm Primer Surfacer, which goes on well, for the most part. It is somewhat poor however as far as sanding goes, as it tends to clog the sandpaper instantly. And a $10 can of the stuff lasts me about 10 minutes when I'm putting it down, so it gets a bit spendy after a while. Unfortunately I haven't found anything else to use, and I'm too far in now to consider going and buying an HVLP unit, etc., and buying the paint by the gallon. That's what i should have done here, and would do the next time if there ever was a next time.

OK, quick expierence blog.

Poo Form is bad, it will shrink for over a year showing imperfections, sand most of it off and use good stuff by PPG, it hardens quicker and does its shrinking in a day or so.

High build prime and leave sit for at least 24 hours before sanding, even if it says sooner its much safer to leave it longer.

Remember to etch prime and metal prior to high build for good bonding, when you plan on shooting the paint fire down a coat of sealer, it does a couple things, seals bad stuff from effecting paint, makes for a great substrate too lay paint.


PPG rocks, the base clear will give a newby better control and a better overall product.

Rob

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Thanks for the advice!

Yeah, the Proform might be better called "poo form" LOL. I do end up sanding most of it off. And, after all the bodywork is done, I will be re-priming all the panels with PPG DP50 Epoxy primer again, which does form an impervious barrier seal, no?

I hadn't heard about the shrinkage of the pooform stuff - why are you keeping all these secrets from me? Perhaps you might like to come down here one day and help me a bit?

I'll take a look at the Canadian tire (maybe better called China Tire...) selection today to see if they have a primer-surfacer product I can use.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Picked up the 4 new wheels this morning and took them to the tire place. Adding the mounting and balancing, along with high pressure valve stems, brought the total to $400, and it wasn't even 10:00 am yet.

Managed to get a solid 5 hours of bodywork in on the cab sections. I picked up some Dupli-Color Primer-Filler, which seems to be better so far than the ProForm stuff.

the first order of business was repairing a small crack i discovered above the left side upper door hinge: