the bottom line
Well, the truck sits at Radd Cruisers. Not much has happened to it over the past couple of days, except for getting the brake lines sorted out this afternoon. It seems I didn't do such a hot job trying to double-flare the poly-coated brake lines. In some cases I appear to have over-compressed the second flare, or I have ended up with a single flare instead of double in some cases. If there is a next time, I hope to do a better job. "Can't be perfect at everything first time", as someone remarked recently.
I took the roof off and folded the windshield down to re-attach the windshield sprayer line. Also changed out the seat belt anchors to work with my seat belts. Those are two areas that needed to be done to pass inspection.
The exhaust parts are sitting there on the floor ready to go in. I imagine that will happen tomorrow morning. I have discussed the pipe routing with both John and Rob. I'm trying to keep it tucked up and out of the way.
Then, this afternoon, i tackled the fateful pile of receipts
to see how much I had in fact spent on this rebuild since starting it in November of 2005. This may be of some interest to readers, especially those considering doing a rebuild themselves and trying to get a handle on how much it might cost.
:whoops:
Well, the damage seems to total about $30,000 in parts and materials alone. Buying the truck and getting it here from Oz was around $11,000. I figure there may be $2~3000 unaccounted for in my receipt pile, so the grand total is pretty close to
$45,000. Labor was of course 'free' (ha hah)
-About $7500 was in basic materials, like spray paint, blast media, oil, cleaners, machining services, welding gas, etc etc.
-5 tires, plus the mounting, de-mounting for changing rims, valve cores etc ran $1375. It was worth it to get good quality rubber, but I could have gone a cheaper route.
-As for the Toyota parts, SOR got some $2300, 4WheelAuto got $4500 (I wish it weren't so), Japan4x4 a bit over $2000, CCOT $2500 or so, Cruiserparts.net received a little over $400, and my local Toyota dealer another $825.
-I spent in the neighborhood of $750 buying the odd part here and there off of Ebay, like my speedo cluster recently.
-my costs at the post office for duties and taxes on packages received is around another $750 or so.
-$2000 was the cost of the replacement 2H from the wreckers.
Whew! I am a little shell-shocked, and wondering how I got so deranged to spend all this money. Has it been worth it?
..uh...
...too early to tell. I need to actually drive my truck for a while before I draw any conclusions. At the moment I'm feeling pretty destitute. Soon the drain on finances will end, won't it?
Please, I need to get off this ride now, I'm getting dizzy.
Who out there is surprised by how much this cost? Or is this no surprise at all?
If I had any idea that this project would last this long, require this much commitment of time, energy and financial resources, I'm sure I wouldn't have taken it on. But that's not what happened, as things went step-by-step and I feel i made mostly good decisions at each juncture along the way. The net effect of all those choices however wasn't in focus until I added up the costs.
I realize that had I more of an idea about what I was doing - you know, had experience at rebuilding a vehicle - I'm sure i could have saved a bit of money and time over what took place, however I don't imagine the savings would amount to more than about $5000 or so. Toyota parts cost what they do, and in the case of my truck I needed a
lot of parts. I feel fortunate to have obtained many of the items I did, as the twilight of availability is definitely there for a lot of the 45/47-specific parts. Be prepared to hear the word 'obsolete' when looking for many parts my friends. I could have spent less on aftermarket stuff, but almost all the aftermarket stuff i have seen, especially the non-Japan made stuff, is definitely poorer quality than OEM. I decided not to cut any corners and bought oem pretty much exclusively after the initial disappointments when the other stuff arrived.
Next time, i would have bought the SOR club membership from the get-go, as i think that would have saved me a several hundred dollars over the duration of this project. It would have been better as well to have done fewer large orders than so many little ones, as the s&h charges from SOR really add up after a while.
I realize it would have been worth the money to have flown to Australia to inspect the vehicle before committing to purchase. At the outset, that did not seem to be a reasonable option, and I am inclined to trust people, so I went along with a seller who later proved to be quite mendacious (isn't this the usual story?). The poor condition of the truck I received, combined with my drive to make it 'right' again led me down a particular path, and it was an expensive one. Lesson learned: start with the best, most complete possible truck you can afford.
Unless you can afford to lose your money, it is likely worth traveling, no matter how far, to look at the prospect before committing. A trusted friend who knows cruisers would also be an asset if you are new to the scene.
Tools and equipment were an area of expense where I had some good luck. Rebuilding to the extent i have gone to requires a fair amount of gear. Fortunately i was able to borrow a welder, an engine hoist, and a gravity-fed sandblaster for the duration. If i had to pony up $1500 or so for a welder, this project may have taken a lot longer to get off the ground, or might not have even happened. I naively thought i would have the welder for "only a few months" when i put the deposit down on the tank and went to a monthly rental. it would have been cheaper to lease right away, or even better to have bought the tank.
I was reluctant to spend the money on an HVLP sprayer, suit and full face mask, etc, so i went with rattle cans for a lot of the smaller parts. That was not cost-effective in the end, and again, i had no idea as i got into it how much would be involved and underestimated the money i would drop on rattle cans of paint, primer, etc. I would have gotten better results, and spent less money had I put the cash down on the spray equipment at the beginning. Then i could have bought much better quality primers, sandable primers, and the rest, than the sometimes marginal products out in some brands of spray paint. Brands I'd recommend: Duplicolor, SEM, and PPG of course if buying by the quart/gallon. A brand I now avoid: ProForm
Paint materials in general are
far more expensive than I ever imagined. The 13 cans of Wurth filler, half of which was surely sanded off, added up to nearly $300, just to give a sense of it. Good quality body paint, reducer, and hardener will run $600-900 for a typical vehicle easily. A rattle can of primer costs $8~12 and lasts up to 10 minutes when you're using it. I am sure my total costs for bodywork materials was over $2000.
I'm thinking now that it may have been more cost and time-effective to have bought other new body panels, like hood, roof, and the other fender, as the amount of time energy and materials involved in getting the old parts straight and rust-free was huge. and sure, i learned about body work by taking the approach i did. Do I plan now to move into a career as a bodyman? No.
The LHD conversion was one of the central pieces of this build. Some people have asked me about that. I have no issue with RHD vehicles, having driven both sides of the road in various places around the world. I was very lucky to have received the LHD cab as a gift from SeaPotato. If that hadn't come along, I really wonder what would have happened? Maybe I would have tried to repair the rusted out RHD cab valance. Maybe I would have sat on it for a while saved my pennies and bought a Heritage tub. One thing is certain: converting from RHD to LHD, or vice-versa, even on a relatively crude vehicle as a 40 series, is no simple matter. Don't listen to anyone who tells you that it can be knocked off for cheap in a few hours. There's a lot to it, not just in swapping the firewalls, but in all the other myriad pieces that have to be changed out. The latest discovery was today when I discovered that my windshield wipers from the old RHD set up are backwards for mounting on my LHD windshield frame, so I need to change those out as well.
Another main aspect to this build was the steering system, ranging from the beefy 4x4Labs knuckle arms and tie rods, etc (and all the hassles I had (and continue to have) with them - now it's looking like the relay rod might not be the right length...Christ, I am so done with this s-h-i-t.), to the Bandeirante power steering gearbox (so far working marvelously), to the 60 series tilt column and subsequent involved dash changes. The jury is still out on the column. I'm pleased with the way the dash came out, as it looks, to me at least, pretty 'factory'. I'm optimistic the wiper motor problem can be solved and made fully functional, though it might not happen immediately.
And finally, god help you if you have to pay someone to do this amount of work on your truck. I know if i had to pay shop rates, this sport would be way out of my league. I'm just trying to survive it now, licking my wounds so to speak and hopeful that it will seem worth it in the end. I have gained a lot of knowledge and some new skills over this project, and have met some great people in the Cruiser Community - that has been very worthwhile indeed. I hope others may benefit from my experience, and many mistakes along the way.
A final point in this post: get the correct factory manuals for your truck, as they are such a huge help.
And no, this is not my last post - there's still a few hurdles to jump with this project, and i plan to keep y'all up to date as things develop. And if i can jump these hurdles in the next week or so, guess what? Well, I'm planning to load the truck up with all my stuff and embark on a move across the continent and down into the belly of the beast known as the USA. Only a woman could persuade me of such a rash course of action, I might add.
I'm getting married in October in Massachusetts. My partner wisely decided to let me get the cruiser rebuild "out of my system" early so she could avoid the dreaded "cruiser-widow" syndrome. She's a clever girl. What she's doing with me is one of those mysteries in life
The drive should be an entertaining one in mid summer without a/c, as with diesel prices at an all-time high. I'm placing my hopes in the cruiser gods for a safe and seamless passage.
Over and out for now.
And the bit of stainless for the hood strut too.
, and there is some sort of oil leak emanating from the oil filter area. Hopefully it is just the filter needed screwing down a little tighter. There were lots of other bolts not done up tight too, so I'm doubly glad that yesterdays little ride had no mishaps or parts that fell off.
