Is it possible to do a $0 2F--3B swap in a 40? Follow along and see!

[seatosummit]

Wow! Thats quite the rig. Do you a truck down in Panama, also?

When I bought my 40 in Vancouver several years ago it only had a bikini top. I bought it in April and had a 1200 mile trip home. The fella a bought from wouldn't let me drive home without a hardtop, so he contacted the original owner's wife and managed to source the top, sides and doors, that had been removed some 15 years prior. Despite the mismatched colors, I was pretty stoked to have a semi-sealed cab, as we didn't make it past the border before we saw snow!

Looking forward to your progress.

 

[MrMoMo]

Wow! Thats quite the rig. Do you a truck down in Panama, also?

When I bought my 40 in Vancouver several years ago it only had a bikini top. I bought it in April and had a 1200 mile trip home. The fella a bought from wouldn't let me drive home without a hardtop, so he contacted the original owner's wife and managed to source the top, sides and doors, that had been removed some 15 years prior. Despite the mismatched colors, I was pretty stoked to have a semi-sealed cab, as we didn't make it past the border before we saw snow!

Looking forward to your progress.

I wish, one day I'll have a cruiser in Panama, along with a house. Hopefully will export them for people too. That's a few years out though. Crazy part is you can pick up a late 90's to early 2000's Prado cheaper than an early to mid 80's 40 or 70 series or '90's Hilux!

Nice score on the hard top! - I can imagine that a 1200 mile trip in the cold in a soft top would get old fast!

Home now, The 80 was faithfully waiting to drive us home from the airport, and seems to have magically improved it's horrible gas milage - maybe the warmer weather is helping. 40 is just as I left it, if the weather cooperates this weekend I should be rolling it out to do some spot blasting on parts of the tub to get a better picture of what needs to be cut out.

 

[MrMoMo]

Spring?

Well, enough snow has finally melted, and even though it was not exactly warm today, I rolled the 40 out of the shop and tested out my new sand blaster. Very happy with the results! I put 1 bag of sand in (actually crushed glass) and I was blown away with how long it lasted! I have a 60 gallon compressor, and it was probably working the hardest it has ever worked, but other than giving it a break once in a while, it was able to keep up.

Petty windy day today which I liked, as I just stayed on the upwind side and avoided most of the back spray. Of course I was wearing a respirator and a little hood that came with the blaster - worked great, no sand in my hair!

Primary goal here was to see how far, and how bad the spots were. Not to get it down to ready for paint - I wanted primarily to see how much more I had to cut out, and where. Majority of the floor is pretty good (except drivers heel area, which I knew about). And the back corners where the floor pan meets the rear "step" (meant to take the heater out while I had it out there, but totally forgot)

Also ran along the upper and lower wheel well seams - and the top of the rail around the tub. A few spots here and there but absolutely nothing that can't be fixed. The worst parts of the tub are the rear sill, the center beam and the drivers floor outer corner.

Clutch master had leaked out a while back and bubbled all the paint off, so I hit this area with the blaster too, just to see what the metal was like - seems decent.

I noticed in a few areas around the cowl, that the paint was blistering, so I went across the cowl seam, and a few other little spots. I don't want rust coming back!

Still hadn't run out of sand (!) so I hit some of the areas on the firewall that had rusted. I will be pulling everything off the firewall and blasting it all clean.

That was all the time I got this morning, after that I re-set a check engine light for a friend, and helped him pull the oil pan off his race car engine. Came home, and got my Miller Trailblazer running as I may have found a buyer for it (thing started like a champ, hasn't run in 3 years or so!) Next up was getting the Rototiller up and running - cleaned the carb and now it runs great and starts on the first pull again....

Hoping tomorrow morning to weld up a small press brake so I can make some small bends in the sheet metal for some of the areas I need to patch. Also hope to clean off the firewall for the next round of blasting...

 

[dr_dobro]

Haven't been here in a while, and quite some progress. Like your body work approach. Maybe I missed it, but what is your plan for undercarriage protection? When I went up there I realized how much chemicals they use to melt the ice on the roads that a cop pulled me over when I got to NY as my truck went from black to white.....

 

[MrMoMo]

So, got a decent start on the mini-brake. Not done, but hey - more than I had yesterday.

All built from scrap I've been hoarding - other than the 1/2x1/2 square bar... Left over bits, but not quite "scrap" ;cP

Just need to connect the two halves, weld a bigger base on the female side jaw, and a short section of pipe in the center of the top of the male side jaw to fit the stub on the hydraulic press. Should be able to get 16" or so bend width. I tried to keep the female side as narrow as possible so I can get tight return bends, and it looks like I should be able to bend things like the rear corner channels.

Far from machinists tolerances, but should get the job done for what I need to do!

FYI, there are several stitch welds down the back side (inside) of the two square bars, welded before welding them to the 5/8" flat bar.

 

[MrMoMo]

Haven't been here in a while, and quite some progress. Like your body work approach. Maybe I missed it, but what is your plan for undercarriage protection? When I went up there I realized how much chemicals they use to melt the ice on the roads that a cop pulled me over when I got to NY as my truck went from black to white.....

Haha, yeah, it gets pretty salty up here, my green 80 turns white too. I wash it weekly in the winter. Hard sometimes though, as the power wash just turns to a layer ice when it's really cold.

The entire bottom (and I'm starting to think the entire tub) is going to be coated in chassis saver. And, I'm really on the verge of painting the chassis saver over the galvanizing - to the point that I emailed Magnet Paints about it to see what (if any) prep work should be done... After that, it's pretty much standard up here to oil coat cars and trucks that are on the road for the winter. Sucks to work on them, but really works. My 80 has been up here 2 years now, and has been coated both years. No hint of rust, and honestly no chance for it to form since everything is coated in a waxy oily layer. When you pay for the good stuff, they actually drill holes into the cavities, and spray it inside as well. My 40 has it coating the insides of the door bottoms, amby doors, windshield frame etc (wish they had hit a few other areas like below the doors, but now I know where to tell them to spray!)

However, step one is to get it finished!

 

[MrMoMo]

Bend it like BJ

Two hours in the shop tonight - finally got re-focused (well sort of) and stitched the floor to the bottom of the door sill - boy does that make a difference in rigidity! Who knew - imperial sockets do actually have a use....

Spent the rest of the time finishing up my mini press brake so I can bend all the little patch panels that cross the ribs. Did a quick test bend on a 1" wide strip and so far so good. Looks like my guesstimate of the angles and spacing was pretty close! Obviously wider pieces will require more force but I was more testing the clearance around the dies for double bending - and I did this strip without the handle in the jack so I'm pretty sure it will be able to handle quite a bit wider.

Test strip against tub rib:

Finished(ish) mini press in the hydraulic press:

Still going to add a larger base to the bottom, a few gussets to keep things in place while in the press frame, but happy with it so far - especially since I've only got 2 slacking off hours and some scrap metal into it!

 

[Weber Sarge]

You may want to switch to using tubing guides on the ends of knife/frame so it stays in a tight plane coming down - I did something similar with my benchtop 12 ton brake and it's a pain trying to get that knife to land in the same spot twice . The simple sliding pipe guides most use based off Swag Offroad's design - http://www.swagoffroad.com/20-TON-Press-Brake-Heavy-Duty-DIY-Builder-Kit-_p_42.html . These work a lot better , only trick being finding the correct size tubing and pipe that fit together . I'm making a flat-top die for the small one right now to help with small parts and back to back bends . We still have to finish milling the knife edge for the 30 ton 24" model for the big press , hopefully this weekend ...
Sarge

 

[MrMoMo]

Yeah, that was a bit of an oversight on my "design on the fly" I measured the inside spacing of the press and started cutting to that.... Then realized that I had no place to put a proper guide. Thinking I'll actually use 4 pins, 2 at each end, one front and one back. That should minimize the intrusion into the useable with, and I won't have to cut it all shorter. What I used was a piece of 1" box tube cut in half to cap each end. Welded to the bottom and the top just slides up and down inside it - kind of just for proof of concept, it can bend stuff. Tolerance on the fit is decent, but far from what it probably should be. I was thinking of using some bolts and pipes - I can turn the bolts down a little on my lathe to get a good fit, if I can't find a good fit. That way I can also fit some springs in it to lift the top die up after each press.

I would think though that based on the shape, it should be somewhat self centering, but I suppose if it starts crooked, it will end crooked.

 

[Weber Sarge]

It doesn't take much play to screw up the centerline of the bend and where it lands on the part - this is what I ran into with mine . The big one will be built like Swag's design but using heavier 4130 for the knife (1/2") and machined to 55* - that angle is working great on the small one . From the looks of it , seems it wouldn't be hard to cut the boxes off and switch to a tube setup - if you have a lathe that makes it a lot easier .
Sarge

 

[MrMoMo]

Thursday double slam

Got almost 3 hours in the shop tonight with an extra set of hands (so 6 hours of work) - wow that makes things go faster!!!

I worked on hacking apart the rear end while Paul stripped the firewall and removed the heater (and supplied some refreshing brain power to solve a few head scratchers...

Both rear corner channels are out, working on the drivers side quarter panel. Managed to find all the spot welds on the lower flange, but busted my spot weld drill On the top lip - lesson learned - drill out the spot welds before making the cut...

Finding a line to cut (refreshing look!):

Almost clean firewall!

Short term goal - get the rear quarters both removed, grind down the spot weld remains, repair, blast and paint the flanges with weldable primer, and re-install the rear corner channels...

 

[MrMoMo]

Thought...

Since I have to do a bunch of work to the main beam (box frame between the floor pan and the rear bed) and the rear quarters are both coming off.... All I will really have left holding the front to the back will be the top frame where the sides mount....

1) get the quarters back on so everything is stiffened up and lined up then remove the main beam

Or

2) get the quarters on so everything is lined up (bolted to the door post), tack a bunch of cross braces across the box, cut the weld between the door post and the box top and separate the cab from the box to re-build the main beam. I kind of envision the two halves sitting on roller dollies, that can be rolled apart and together for checking alignment - somewhat like the magicians trick of sawing their assistant in half...


I think I know what the answer is, but I don't want to end up with a twisted mess that won't go back together...

Thoughts?

 

[MrMoMo]

Weld-un

I picked up another spot weld cutter today, a much cheaper one than my Eastwood one - to allow me to continue while I wait for the parts to repair my good one. At 1/2 the price, I'd say it gets the job done, but no where near as nice to use as it skips out of the hole a lot.

Got the rest of the drivers side spot welds drilled out and got the quarter panel off. Just need to drill out the spot welds holding the hinge bolt carrier, and the B-pillar bolt channel then the old quarter is just scrap.

Need to do a little repair/replace along the wheel well "flange" at the corner and grind the spot welds off.

Test fit #2! Need to get the spot welds off to really get everything to line up... Won't quite wrap the corner and tie into the corner channel yet, maybe by 1/16" - thickness of the spot welds. (No, this is not just the same picture as the post above!)

 

[MrMoMo]

Assless 40

Well, got a little bit of time today, though most of today was overseeing my sons 11th birthday party... Managed to get the tread plate off the passenger side (not so bad under that one!) and got the passenger side rear quarter off. Also got the fuel fill removed from the quarter.

Hopefully tomorrow morning (before my dad's birthday in the afternoon) I get a little time to grind down the spot welds and then sand blast the flanges. After that I can determine how much of the flanges need to be replaced - looks like most of it is pretty good, just the lower corners and some on the drivers side by the rear roll cage mount.

Sure is floppy back there now - glad I made some jigs to get it back in the right place (I hope!)

Also talked to magnet paints, seems that chassis saver won't stick to the galvanizing... . I'm not giving that idea up yet - just might not be as simple as slapping it on.

 

[MrMoMo]

Well today I got the blaster out again and got the upper and lower flanges blasted on both sides, along with more of the firewall and some "exploratory" blasting below the passenger door. Looks like that side is good, just two spots that need patching, the back end and in te middle where the gusset is on the backside. (Maybe a bit at the front as well, but didn't explore that too far)

Also won the battle against the final hood hinge screw... Couple of days of PB Blaster and a few more smacks with the impact driver it finally gave up.

Flanges blasted and rust free! (Need a few spots cut and replaced). Now I need to put the rear channels and quarters in place and get everything lined up. Really think I'll split the whole thing in half to fix the main beam but I'm not quite decided yet...

 

[broth9640]

Hey @joyRidaz, found a bunch of useful reference pics for the sill on page 4 of this rebuild thread by @broth9640 so glad people post pics!

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/operation-olive-my-1975-fj40-ground-up-restoration.482240/page-4

Glad my Pics have helped someone out. I have been avoiding this thread for some time now. The last thing I need is to add fuel to the fire for my desire to drop in a turbo 3b with a 5speed,split case, and late model axles.
Your build is coming along nicely. I wish I had your welding and fabrication skills. The body work is the worst part, but now that its warming up outside you should have it done in no time, right Subscribed!

 

[MrMoMo]

Glad my Pics have helped someone out. I have been avoiding this thread for some time now. The last thing I need is to add fuel to the fire for my desire to drop in a turbo 3b with a 5speed,split case, and late model axles.
Your build is coming along nicely. I wish I had your welding and fabrication skills. The body work is the worst part, but now that its warming up outside you should have it done in no time, right Subscribed!

Hahaha - yeah - it's a slippery slope once you enter a thread!

Welding and fabrication skills? You must have been reading a different thread

Started playing with my shrinker/stretcher - wow - cool stuff! Cut this flange off the floor pan I didn't end up using as a floor pan, (it was a straight line when I started) and stuck it in the shrinker to make a new rear corner.... Still needs some minor tweaking but getting pretty close!

(Actually I stuck it in the shrinker, then the stretcher because I over bent it, then back in the shrinker because it was too wide a bend, then the.... Well - you get the picture)

*Edit - finished fitting that corner (minus a minor trim across the top) - just need to tack it in place then pop the swing out bracket out of the way so I can get in to weld and grind the top of the seam...

 

[MrMoMo]

Started to tackle the back edges of the inner wheel wells - drivers side first. Figured out where the rot stopped and decided it's going to be fixed in a few stages - so I can get the rear channel in, and the fender on - before I cut out what is behind the wheel well support...

Here it is with the corner channel removed:

Where you see the vertical paint/rust line above there is actually a small (1/16" or so) double bend to make a flange for the corner channel to sit flush, so I started by making that bend in my handy dandy bender I made earlier....

Here is the part I made up against the corner channel. All done by eyeball... (Yes, time for new gloves)

Made the cut with my grinder and a skinny cutting wheel...

Tacked then welded the new piece in one tack at a time (forgot to take the pic until I had already started to sand it down!):

All sanded down with a 60 grit flap disc:

(Hit picture limit - 2nd post coming)

 

[MrMoMo]

And with the corner channel in place (not welded):

Also blasted the bottom end of the upper swing out mount, hit it with some weldable primer, then tacked on the new lip I made... Need to tweak some measurements before I weld it in...

That's all for tonight!

 

[MrMoMo]

Cut and welded the other side tonight, also had some help come by and we removed the roll cage. Looking at the cage, and the wheel wells under it - I decided that it wasn't really helping me keepin it in there. While I worked on chopping the passenger side rear edge inner wheel well (as above) and making the replacement patch, Paul drilled out the spot welds on the old quarter panels to save the amby door hinge nut retainers, and the small channel that bolts the front edge of the quarter panel to the B post.

Passenger side 1st patch in.

Roll cage out!

While I finished up welding Paul started making a cardboard template for the outer edges of the rear sill (the curved part). Lastly I blasted the amby door hinge nut retainers and hit the backsides with some Eastwood self etching weld through primer...

That's it for Friday!