HJ47 welcome here?

[Henry James the 47th]

I got in about 5 rounds of sand-prime-fill on the two sections, and I was spent. It's tiring work, especially when using the sanding board in a vertical orientation, and with the heat today, I took frequent short breaks to hydrate.

I think they will be pretty close to done by the end of tomorrow's work. Tomorrow is also the start of the final primer and paint process

 

[Henry James the 47th]

A final set of three for today.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Looks good, what you are doing with the glazing putty or spot putty can quickly be done with spray on high build primer, much quicker and better results.


Rob

A final set of three for today.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

That is rattle can spray-on high build primer filler Rob, not spot putty. Do you think I'm totally nuts? (wait, don't answer that)

The Dupli-Color primer filler is the same color as many brands of spot putty out there, so perhaps that is what threw you off. If you look in the first picture on my last post above, you can see one of the rattle cans laying on the floor with it's reddish brown cap) Laying that much spot putty down would be demented, not to mention tedious and wasteful. I got enough of that going on in other areas....

I throw down a coat of the primer filler (that reddish brown stuff, yes, is sprayed on) as I get the panel close to done (around the 80% mark I guess), and that helps me spot irregularities and fill some of the sanding scratches in. I only spray it on the areas i am working on, hence the patchwork appearance. Then i put on some more Wurth polyester filler (the white stuff), sand down and repeat. It works well for me so far.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Good lord he's going to paint it!

Amazing how quick it will go back together once it's painted I'll bet.

Dan

 

[Henry James the 47th]

" Amazing how quick it will go back together once it's painted I'll bet."

-that's what I'm hoping too. I think I have all the parts at this point. The only semi-major job remaining, construction-wise, is the exhaust system. I was going to go mandrel bend stainless 2.5", but that idea is probably going to be shelved in the interests of my bank account and limited time frame.

Dan, what's happening with your HJ45 project?

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Dan, what's happening with your HJ45 project?

Oh, not enough.

I've finally got the rest of the stuff to put my FF rear end back together, and I'm ready to rebuild the front axle (later model axle, will swap it to disc brakes with the V6 IFS calipers) and get that stuff buttoned up.

My job took a turn for the worse, so they closed my base (which was an easy commute) and displaced me to another base about 1200 miles away, and made me go get retrained to fly the same airplane, but with a different paint job and it's seriously cut into my time to do anything useful for the past month or two.

But next saturday I'm largely done with training and should be back to a *normal schedule* that should get me back to working on the cruiser. We will see.... this change to a new base might cut into my time off so much that it very well may be time to search for a new job too, so I'm not sure if I want to rip into the cruiser too much until I've had time to see if I can stand the job I've got now.

Are you going to do the exhaust yourself, or take it to an exhaust shop? A custom exhaust here (done by an excellent shop in plain steel) only runs about $400, so it's much easier and quicker to have them do it.

Dan

 

[Henry James the 47th]

"Are you going to do the exhaust yourself, or take it to an exhaust shop? A custom exhaust here (done by an excellent shop in plain steel) only runs about $400, so it's much easier and quicker to have them do it.

Dan"

I was going to do the exhaust myself. Then I learned that for welding up a stainless exhaust a Tig welder would do a much better job. Thats about $4000 more than I can spare at the moment, though I would very much like to get a Tig welder one day.Around here, in the boondocks as it were, there is no one doing custom stainless exhaust systems - none on all of Vancouver Island either as far as I know. So, for now, stainless is out. Maybe I'll upgrade it later.

$400 seems like an excellent price. I'd love it if I could get someone to do it for that amount. While i like to do everything myself, it won't bother me too much to have someone else do the exhaust.

The issue now is time - I'm supposed to be making a transcontinental move, to the US, by the end of June or early July, and I am thinking that I might not be able to totally complete all of the work. So, i might take the truck over to Radd Cruisers and have them tiddle up any remaining bits, like the exhaust, brake lines, and so on. I should have the truck all together by the end of June, and running. That's the goal.

Then I have to get it through the Provincial inspection process and register it. My documentation for this truck isn't so great so at his point, and the VIN tag was mangled from the get-go (and later proved to be differnt than the chassis number anyhow). I'm unsure as to how much hassle that will be, and how much time it will absorb.

I return to B.C. late in the year to tack a new building project, so my plan is to make use of the truck then, complete to project (9~10 months I reckon) and then drive the truck back across the continent.

Whew! lots on the plate for June!

Looking forward to seeing your rebuild, when you get the chance to move it forward Dan.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

About 8 more hours on the truck today.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

next set

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another three

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I'm not just posting the same photos over and over again, though it might look like it at first glance...

I put some Kent 2-part seam sealer down on the inside of the cab, and along the lip joint at the back of the cab

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I guess I must be at the 85~90% mark now with the upper and lower cab. Paint did not happen today, but it will very soon. I can't friggin' wait - this stage of the project has been not among my favorites. i think I even prefer the brain melt accompanying the spaghetti nest of wiring to this. Does anyone out there actually enjoy body filler work?

 

[lostmarbles]

....... Does anyone out there actually enjoy body filler work?

I don't intend to find out whether I enjoy it or not HJ. (But I suspect I wouldn't.)

My policy is "no filler at all". (And I don't even use high-build primer/undercoats.)

My paint finish shows ripples, runs, orange peel, spot weld imperfections, incapsulated sand flies, paint brush hairs, thistle seeds, splotches where drips of condensation have fallen from my spray gun nozzle (or from my breathing mask/nose), etc. But I'm picking that provided I keep being careful how I take my photos, people shouldn't notice much!

But your finish should be outstanding and you won't need tricky camera work or photo-retouching (whatever it's called) to show it off.

There's a good spinoff from your work too. You're raising your properties soil level so your land should be less prone to flooding.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

"There's a good spinoff from your work too. You're raising your properties soil level so your land should be less prone to flooding."




Very funny! And how did you gather that the land is prone to flooding where i keep the truck? It really is prone to flooding actually, though some berms put in last year staved off the worst of it this past fall.

One of the things about the body work i scratch my head over: I sand off about half of the filler, primer, etc, that I have applied as I move along, layer by layer. I guess real pros at it (and there is one in the same building complex where i keep the truck) don't waste so much, but still a lot of dust falls to the floor as things get sanded down. Mind you, the fellow I mention, who is also painting my truck, told me he used 23 cans of Wurth on his Datsun 260Z, a 2 year project on the body alone. I'm way off that, though I did have to go and buy a final can of Wurth today (12 cans all together I think). I greatly appreciate, in light of the curvaceous nature of the 260Z and many other vehicles out there similar in form, just how much straight sheet metal there is on a 40 series LandCruiser. My job is a lot easier than on other vehicles.

I've pretty much ruled out Bodyman as a career option, though i am interested in acquiring the skills of shrinking and stretching metal with heat. It won't be on this project though - no time.

It's hard to tell from the photos I suppose, which I'm sure convey the impression that i am just coating the truck with slabs of filler, how the surface really looks. In 90% of the places, the filler is 1/16" thick or less - just the odd spot where it goes deeper. The worst spots are the middle of the doors, the hood, and the middle of the lower cab lip.

I am leaving the vast majority of the spot weld dimples, though my painter friend seems to have trouble accepting that I am doing that (he frowns when I tell him i want to leave the dimples as they are). He keeps reminding me to fill them in - it doesn't compute for him that i would do all this work and leave those dimples. I'm holding tough.

 

[seapotato]

mark just used all that wurth on his datsun so he could sniff the fumes...

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I'm willing to go with that theory, however near as I can tell the Wurth puts out very minimal fumes. Probably because it comes from Germany, where they seem to be more concerned about that sort of thing.

So seapotato, are you happy with the use to which i put your old firewall? It should live on for a few more years at least.

 

[seapotato]

sure. was gonna take it to the dump the next week anyways....


I think a person gets kindof sensitive to products containing styrene, wurth has it, like any bondo. I never liked the smell much... it is a decent product tho.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Well here we are - it's been a few days since I've updated, and I've been working on it every day pretty much full time.

I've bought the finish paint - after some consideration, I went with the PPG New Concept Acrylic Urethane single stage paint. This seemed to make the most sense for a variety of reasons.

And I am so close to painting now!! More than half the panels are back into another coat of epoxy primer, and the remaining pieces, like the cab, the roof, and the upper cab, are within a few scuffs of readiness.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I've started on the disassembly and removal of the transfer case, in preparation for re-building. I've also taken a box of parts down to Victoria Plating to get Cad plated - about $225. I chose the gold cad instead of the silver, as it is a little tougher, though the odd piece will be non-oem as a result (just the vac lines I believe).