ih8mud inspired build

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JohnnyC said:
You should have just drove it lol
Click to expand...

You NAILED it JohnnyC - you nailed it.

Progress has been fast though. I have a skilled helper and it is just so much quicker when there are two sets of hands. Day before yesterday we put the engine and gearbox in and the tub/body on to the point in the above pics. Yesterday we did the rest with only the grille, one headlight, one window winder mech and the windscreen to go. I also managed to tidy up all the wiring - new sleeving etc and soldered in new connectors where PO had left messy work.

Oh, and the fuel tank must go in - you cannot bolt the tub's rear mounts down with the tank in place.

Target is to complete all body work, start it up and drive it outside today.

Then need to bleed the brakes and clutch - all refurbed but not bled yet, because I want to replace all axle seals and bearings.

Completion MUST be Friday afternoon.

Next week it is back to the Dagha Boy.

DSB345. Ja, you have no idea how fast especially when there is no rust. In the blink of an eye it's a "body off" project.

School fees...
 
As always it took just that little bit longer. Fired it up yesterday morning first thing. Purred like a kitten. Only a few odds and ends like emblems to go.

Not too bad for a quick "lick and a promise" for a daily driver.

20170221_083137.jpg


20170227_162725.jpg


I hate the bumper but it will have to do until I can find a good 2nd hand original.

Now to get the inspection and paper work done...
 
Dagha Boy said:
Not too bad for a quick "lick and a promise" for a daily driver.
Click to expand...

No kidding! I'd be thrilled to call that my daily driver... well, one of them.
 
Thanks guys.

The best laid plans of men and mice... are no match for their stupidity.

Started it up to get the police clearance and compulsory micro dotting done and it ran rough as hell. While I was messing around trying to get that sorted (stuck needle and seat) I smelt hot oil and found oil streaming out of the rear main seal. Disaster.

That meant taking out the gearbox which was not as easy and nice with the cab on as it had been with the cab off.

I pulled the seal out and it looked absolutely perfect. Mystery.

Got hold of Abie at Toyota and ordered a new seal. "Which one," he says? "what do you mean", I say. "Two different sizes for 3F motors," he says. Oh, Boy!

To cut a long story short, it emerged that despite having the engine number when ordering the parts for the rebuild, I somehow got the "other" seal. My "professional assistant" had fitted the seal, and admitted that it "looked a bit loose" so he shortened the spring and installed it. It actually worked fine for 5hrs at idle, but lasted only about 20mins on restart the next morning.

Toyota stepped up to the plate and gave me a correct replacement seal.

I won't bore you with the PITA reassembly of the gearbox etc, suffice to say it is not easy.

In between all this I spent some time at the local licencing department. I have no papers for this vehicle. PO said it was so long since he had used it on the road he had no idea of papers and the registration number. The system did not show the vehicle ever registered to him based on his ID number. The chassis/vin number (FJ75-005i273) came up negative. No such vehicle ever registered on the system. Then we got lucky on the engine number (3F0144401). Vehicle on the system, but registered to somebody else in Cape Town. Chassis/vin number for that vehicle GP005010. Which, it transpires, is the Toyota Job No. on the VIN plate on the firewall. Ah! Last licence expired in 1998.

Problem is that now, the Power of Attorney from the PO to get replacement papers in order to process transfer of ownership and registration is meaningless. It is not his technically vehicle... And the chassis number is incorrect.

Fortunately I had a nice official who suggested I take it for clearance without any papers. The police will find that there is no theft report for either the chassis number nor the engine. They will issue clearance for the vehicle as it stands - correct chassis/vin no and correct engine number "as built". That and the micro dot certificate then allows the registration dept to register the vehicle anew as a "rebuild" without any other paperwork but the roadworthy certificate.

Due to other commitments that can only be done on Wednesday. I'm getting panicky about the Dagha Boy.
 
Dagha Boy said:
The rear suspension was where the really big surprise came. Being a 1 ton pickup its suspension set up is quite a bit more robust than the short wheel base FJ40s. The spring hangers are the same, but the leaves and shackle hangers are an entirely different story.

The rear shackle hangers are really big cast iron units riveted to the frame by four rivets. Absolutely bomb proof. At least that's what I thought before I saw the condition
these are in.

NICE SOLID OLD SCHOOL BUILT TO LAST FOREVER.
View attachment 1143141

they must have been run for very very long without the benefit of any bushes and have great big grooves worn in them.

View attachment 1143142
At some stage a bush mechanic had lavished love on them by putting a bolt in the groove and "re-sleved" them with some tin and then added some bushes. Back to original...

INGENIOUS REPAIR. TRUE BUSH MECHANIC REMEDY.
View attachment 1143144
RE-SLEEVE DECONSTRUCTED.
View attachment 1143146

I ground off the rivet heads but have been unable to get them out with my equipment so I'll be taking it in to a shop in town to knock them out and replace the shackle hangers.

The centre pins on the rear springs were fine but the u bolts were home-made-welded-together affairs and were all loose and judging by the state of the axle spring pads on the axle had been so for a long long time. That explains the crabbing on the way home.

LEFT REAR SPRING PAD

View attachment 1143148

The fronts aren't much better and I will fabricate new ones when I get to doing the axles.
Click to expand...
Great thread, love the wildlife too!
This old girl didn't see much love, what a shame. I had wollered out mounts on a project truck, iron as well, I used nickel rod to fill then my local machinist bored true and we opted for bronze bushings with grease zerks , smooth as a safeway chicken. In my case, replacement parts were not available...
Dagha Boy said:
More likely the heat that got me. It's been over 100 in the "workshop" for weeks. I had the frame sitting on two roto moulded plastic 40gal oil drums outside in the sun. It got so hot, the drums buckled and the whole bangshoot fell down. That included the starter motor that had just been refurbished at great expense. The "ear" that the solenoid bolts onto is now badly cracked. I did not even look at it properly or photograph it. I'll look today. Damn! I put a meat thermometer inside the frame rails for a while and it registered 170F.

But, back to cherries in Illinois. You know what the old song, California Girls, says about the Mid-west farmers' daughters..? Well, I got me one of those and she loves living in the bush. Perfect match.

To be honest, I have struggled with the perfection thing all my life. Too much time and money spent on trying to achieve perfect without really good reason. Some of these ih8mud threads unfortunately reinforce the desire. For example, I looked at the thread 1964 FJ45 LB RB1 Project. (Miker) for tips on how he did bed floor repair. By the time I was 6 pages in, I was so embarrassed that I wanted to take the angle grinder and cut away everything I have done so far. Man, can that guy work!!! But on this build, I have to keep in mind that I cannot "let perfect get in the way of done." I'm three weeks into the tub, which I thought would take a week, so no time to go back on what's done well but not perfect.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with doing things right... quality is remembered long after price forgotten... Nice build, take your time. I love the scenery too!
 
From your vin FJ75-0051273 I got:

FJ75RP-MRN

5/87 GEN market South Africa

STD standard RHD pickup
5 speed manual tranny
4000cc 3F carbureted

Was this the rear main seal number? 90311-99005
 
@jbzee

Been there many times... even ordered once from them

I was interested when he said there were two different sizes of rear main seals for the 3F

Looking into it myself I can only find that one for the 3F for that year ... wondering what difference there would have been in the same market to have two difference rear main seals
 
JohnnyC said:
@jbzee

Been there many times... even ordered once from them

I was interested when he said there were two different sizes of rear main seals for the 3F

Looking into it myself I can only find that one for the 3F for that year ... wondering what difference there would have been in the same market to have two difference rear main seals
Click to expand...
Now, that I can't answer... best, Johnny
 
Hi "Johnnies"

@jbzee. Ja, it was badly abused but in the back of my mind I am quite thankful for that because if it was in similar condition to the FJ75 it would have been a few months' work and it would be just another game driver, and most of all I would probably not have caught the disease and moved onto other things.

I would have preferred going the route you did with the bushes. The next one (already sitting in a container, waiting) will get that treatment as I see its bushes are also slightly damaged.

I miss living in the bush and especially the wildlife but we will still go up regularly for a couple of weeks or so every so often. It gets in your blood.



@JohnnyC. Thanks for that info. I have not been able to determine build date or even first year of registration and the best I could do was a guess at between 1985 and 1989. Now I know, thanks.

Stupidly I did not make a note of the part number and the packaging got thrown out. I will call Abie tomorrow and get the two part numbers from him and post them for information.

Visible difference is that the larger ID seal is narrower by about 2 or 3mm. OD is identical and the difference in ID between the two seals is not visibly different at first glance.

I should have taken photos and measurements. Damn, I wasn't thinking.

The reason is another story. Makes no sense to me, but I found out the hard way. School fees to the LC apprenticeship school.
 
Dagha Boy said:
I'm beginning to regret my choice. I have slowly but surely become more married to the "purist" ideas. I should have stuck to original vinyl.
Click to expand...
Dagha,

Lifes a learning process, I always look for advice from those more experienced. Great hobby though and nothing like the pride in wheeling your finished product.. You should see the scrap iron I see down here in central america... arrrgh
 
Dagha Boy said:
I'm beginning to regret my choice. I have slowly but surely become more married to the "purist" ideas. I should have stuck to original vinyl.
Click to expand...
In the tropics the vinyl sweats like mad, I toss a sheepskin cover on and comfort level is 100% improved, cool in the day, comfy on cool nights... my 2 bits
 
It's been a while since I reported progress. There has actually been some, but only sporadic due to a HUGE amount of prep for upcoming litigation but on the upside that will pay for lots and lotsa Cruiser goodies!
jbzee said:
In the tropics the vinyl sweats like mad, I toss a sheepskin cover on and comfort level is 100% improved
Click to expand...
Sheep skin seat covers were very fashionable here in the 70's. I'm looking for one to put into the FJ75 over the vinyl. I agree they are great especially if you have no aircon.

I've had a hell of a time trying to get the 3F in the FJ75 to run properly and smoothly. I don't know how many times I reset the valve clearances trying to cure a sometimes serious intermittent miss. I replaced all the ignition stuff in the rebuild with new after market to avoid any problems in that area after the rebuild. So I "knew" there was no problem there...

Yeah right!

After literally weeks of digging around, I found that the el cheapo plug wires were affected by the normal vibration while driving and worked intermittently for no apparent reason. Then one of them shocked me... The light bulb went off in my head and I replaced them with Bougi Cords. That improved matters somewhat, but it would still go bad intermittently.

Found one of the brand new NGK plugs (as recommended by FSM) to be defective. Parts guys replaced that for me and it was much better for a day or so. Then it became really bad. I again for about the millionth time went through the normal routine checks and checked the plugs by pulling off the spark plug wires. On only one cylinder did the disconnect make a very noticeable difference.

I was getting really desperate by now and went and bought a set of expensive $15 a piece Bosch plugs. Fitted them and WOW! Smooth as can come. All but one of the NGKs proved defective. I spent 3 weeks struggling with exactly what I tried to avoid.

Now the manifold has started to leak. Not much but I can hear it with the pipe method. I will order a genuine Toyota gasket. No more buggering around.

I now have a nice daily driver but...gimme a diesel any day of the week!

On the Dagha Boy front.

I have installed the front clip. I am not happy with the gaps/alignment. It appears that a lot of the problems are caused by the new aftermarket fenders being not quite right. It has been a matter of on and off, on and off, etc etc. I just can't seem to get it perfect. It has been pointed out to me that I'm being excessively anal and that, being what it is - just a working truck - it probably wasn't meant to be a perfect fit. Seems like good-enough time is here.

I have installed the tank and plumbed up the fuel system.

Fitted the air cleaner, windscreen wiper bottle and piping etc.

The engine is ready to be started for the first time since the rebuild. Just needs bleeding etc.

Then bleed brakes, connect wiring and it should be driveable by Thursday. I need to move it to my home garage for the Easter weekend so I can keep working.

20170329_155529.jpg
 
No,no,no SPG. Not mine!

But it WAS very cool before it hit a tree. You just can't see it in the pic, but the lhd side is destroyed and the pan are wrecked. Very nice mechanicals and they are going to be built over onto another pan and body by the panel shop I'm hiring space from. Very nice as a summer runabout, wish it was mine.

But, I've got the FJ75 now and with the engine miss sorted I'm loving it as a daily driver.
IMG_4367.JPG
IMG_4368.JPG
IMG_4375.JPG


It still needs polishing and a few minor things like emblems and new hoses and "faucet" for the heater. New licence plate too, I'm still getting used to the long nose.

I've used a set of rims from the basket case HJ45 in the container and 7.50 x 16 C 6pr tubeless tyres for easy puncture repair. It drives like a dream.
 
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