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JD Cruiser's 1981 BJ42 Body Repair & Restoration (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter JDCruiser
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Nice progress JD. Let me when your ready to lift the body off and I'll stop by and give you a hand. I can bring 1 or 2 of my boys with me if need be.
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- #264
Rosey,
That is awesome, thanks, will definitely take you up on that offer. Was thinking an 3rd or 4th guy to help would be ideal to ensure we don't twist anything (either the truck nor our oldselves... lol). Will let you know and have your beverage of choice well stocked and on hand
At the same time, wanna get your take on the best way to pull engine / tran and what you think needs done to it.... That will will make for good conversation as we enjoy a couple pops from the heavy lifting!!!! LOL.
Sounds good J.
Jeez, I just wrote you a long winded reply hit send and It disappeared. Anyway it's looking great, PM me if you have questions about engine lifting techniques, the long and short of it is once the tub is off lift the engine and transmission as a unit. Cheers
- Thread starter
- #267
Back at It.... Bracing FR Doors
Hello again... Well the summer has been a great one, lots of time at my new trailer (33 foot 3 slide Spree) where I put all my cruiser money... lol... was awesome with the family, but not much progress on the truck, in fact up until last weekend the cruiser looked more like a storage platform for summer stuff... but now it is time to get back at her... My next step was to brace the front door openings in prep for the body to be taken off the frame, a big milestone in my repair venture. Below are some pics, a couple of my youngest daughter, Lyla now 6 years old... she kinda represents my project duration / timeline as I started the repair when my was about 25 weeks pregnant with her... She has never seen the truck run, so sad!
The 2nd picture is Lyla doing what she does best after she gets tired of helping me on the truck... she grabs a marker and blackens my tires... So cute... she is a little fashion girl and very keen on clean black tires... LOL, too cute!!! She claims I am going to have the blackest tires on the trail!!!
Hello again... Well the summer has been a great one, lots of time at my new trailer (33 foot 3 slide Spree) where I put all my cruiser money... lol... was awesome with the family, but not much progress on the truck, in fact up until last weekend the cruiser looked more like a storage platform for summer stuff... but now it is time to get back at her... My next step was to brace the front door openings in prep for the body to be taken off the frame, a big milestone in my repair venture. Below are some pics, a couple of my youngest daughter, Lyla now 6 years old... she kinda represents my project duration / timeline as I started the repair when my was about 25 weeks pregnant with her... She has never seen the truck run, so sad!
The 2nd picture is Lyla doing what she does best after she gets tired of helping me on the truck... she grabs a marker and blackens my tires... So cute... she is a little fashion girl and very keen on clean black tires... LOL, too cute!!! She claims I am going to have the blackest tires on the trail!!!
In hindsight I wonder if this would have been the way to go, in the end my stainless tub will be a show pony but it was a big chunk of cash. It's looking very good JD, keep the pics coming.
Loving the build. Keep it going you have a real gem there.
- Thread starter
- #270
Body Mount Cutting
Well last weekend, I took a long awaited step in my rebuild, I cut the Mid and Front Body mounts out. This now separates the body from the frame. Here are some of the pics from the body mount removal.
Well last weekend, I took a long awaited step in my rebuild, I cut the Mid and Front Body mounts out. This now separates the body from the frame. Here are some of the pics from the body mount removal.
- Thread starter
- #271
Leaf Spring Removal from Rear Axle
I need to make room in the 2nd half of the garage in order to fabricate the stand and store the tub so I can continue working on the frame and getting preped for blasting and galvanizing. So wish I had a 4 car garage. My game plan is to take the leaf springs off the rear axle (has to be done at some point as I will be going with a OME Dakar 2.5" lift set of springs) and then tuck the wheels and rear axle back under the frame to make more room. After the tub is off, I will then move it into final position along with FR axle and take the wheels off. I tried everything to get the nuts on the U bolts to free up... Let them soak for a week in PB blaster, torched them, cranked up my impact wrench to 120psi, no go, they wouldn't budge.... so out with the cutoff disks to cut the U bolts. Worked pretty good, was extremely careful to not nick into the rear axle housing. The tension in the U bolts helped with that on the first cut, they really popped when I was down to about an 1/8" in the U bolt left cross section while cutting. Here are some pics of the cutting.
I need to make room in the 2nd half of the garage in order to fabricate the stand and store the tub so I can continue working on the frame and getting preped for blasting and galvanizing. So wish I had a 4 car garage. My game plan is to take the leaf springs off the rear axle (has to be done at some point as I will be going with a OME Dakar 2.5" lift set of springs) and then tuck the wheels and rear axle back under the frame to make more room. After the tub is off, I will then move it into final position along with FR axle and take the wheels off. I tried everything to get the nuts on the U bolts to free up... Let them soak for a week in PB blaster, torched them, cranked up my impact wrench to 120psi, no go, they wouldn't budge.... so out with the cutoff disks to cut the U bolts. Worked pretty good, was extremely careful to not nick into the rear axle housing. The tension in the U bolts helped with that on the first cut, they really popped when I was down to about an 1/8" in the U bolt left cross section while cutting. Here are some pics of the cutting.
- Thread starter
- #272
Here is the result - axle with the springs off... mount points and lower clamp plate look good, rust didn't get at them too too bad.
Looking good, I had to use a gas axe to remove my spring ubolt and hangers. Nothing like black smoke and the smell of burning rubber to earn the wrath of the little woman. They scare so easily....anyway what I found best was to make a large pile of items to want blasted and have them go over everything, it's worth it in the long run and it makes painting the Por15 or powder coating of your choice that much easier. Starting with clean steel is really the only way to stop the rust and it will last the longer too. Enjoying watching your build, keep it up.
Anymore info are you still working on it.
- Thread starter
- #275
Stand Complete:
Hello Again. It has been a long time since I have been on here or at the truck. Summer was crazy busy with life, enjoying our trailer, and vacations. Disappointed at what I got done last fall and winter so looking to make it a focus this year and I think I have wifey on board. Last weekend I put the last few hours needed into the dolly / stand that I need for the tub. I created a stand on caster wheels which makes it easy to push around my garage and move the tub without needing to lift / rig it around to minimize risk of distortion. I also built it so that it only has 3 sides / walls, that way the one long side is fully open so I can easily get underneath it to work on the underbody / mounts. I though of making a rotisserie, that would be ideal but couldn't come up with a proper gameplan or setup that wouldn't flex the body a great deal and as you can see from the pics, there is not much left of the rear end, just a skeleton with bracing. Worried it would deflect. Here are some pics. Next up is removal of the tub.
Hello Again. It has been a long time since I have been on here or at the truck. Summer was crazy busy with life, enjoying our trailer, and vacations. Disappointed at what I got done last fall and winter so looking to make it a focus this year and I think I have wifey on board. Last weekend I put the last few hours needed into the dolly / stand that I need for the tub. I created a stand on caster wheels which makes it easy to push around my garage and move the tub without needing to lift / rig it around to minimize risk of distortion. I also built it so that it only has 3 sides / walls, that way the one long side is fully open so I can easily get underneath it to work on the underbody / mounts. I though of making a rotisserie, that would be ideal but couldn't come up with a proper gameplan or setup that wouldn't flex the body a great deal and as you can see from the pics, there is not much left of the rear end, just a skeleton with bracing. Worried it would deflect. Here are some pics. Next up is removal of the tub.
- Thread starter
- #276
Tub Removal - It is now Officially a Frame Off Resto!
Today I spent the better part of it in the garage cleaning it up to make room for the tub off lift and positioning on the stand I made. Other than me being off pretty bad on the center of gravity point with the hoist hook and needing to put my wife to work to balance the rear end out, it went quite well. Last week I bought a 2 Ton Hydraulic boom crane from Princess auto, was $350... figured it would come in very handy for not just removing the tub (that could be man handled easy enough with a couple of buddies) but for the transmission, engine removal as well as manipulating the axles around. Also, never a bad thing to have around the shop for loading stuff in and out of the truck.
The stand worked relatively well... I like the 3 side concept, but the middle support even though I doubled up the square tubing and put gussets in deflects alot, so much that it allowed the tub to rock on it so I had to play with the blocking it more on that end. Is pretty stable sitting on it and I like the caster wheels so I can move it around the shop as needed. With both the tube off and the frame / engine sections separate now space is getting limited in the garage, so nice to have the tub movable.
Here are some pics. Very nice to see the tub off and hit the milestone. With the engine and guts exposed (as my youngest daughter said), it seems to feel a lot closer to the start of rebuilding rather than just taring apart. This week and weekend, will remove a few of the engine components to get ready for the transmission / engine removal. I also have to do some research on the best approach, eng / transmission in one shot or separately... If anyone has any suggestions please don't hesitate to share.
Today I spent the better part of it in the garage cleaning it up to make room for the tub off lift and positioning on the stand I made. Other than me being off pretty bad on the center of gravity point with the hoist hook and needing to put my wife to work to balance the rear end out, it went quite well. Last week I bought a 2 Ton Hydraulic boom crane from Princess auto, was $350... figured it would come in very handy for not just removing the tub (that could be man handled easy enough with a couple of buddies) but for the transmission, engine removal as well as manipulating the axles around. Also, never a bad thing to have around the shop for loading stuff in and out of the truck.
The stand worked relatively well... I like the 3 side concept, but the middle support even though I doubled up the square tubing and put gussets in deflects alot, so much that it allowed the tub to rock on it so I had to play with the blocking it more on that end. Is pretty stable sitting on it and I like the caster wheels so I can move it around the shop as needed. With both the tube off and the frame / engine sections separate now space is getting limited in the garage, so nice to have the tub movable.
Here are some pics. Very nice to see the tub off and hit the milestone. With the engine and guts exposed (as my youngest daughter said), it seems to feel a lot closer to the start of rebuilding rather than just taring apart. This week and weekend, will remove a few of the engine components to get ready for the transmission / engine removal. I also have to do some research on the best approach, eng / transmission in one shot or separately... If anyone has any suggestions please don't hesitate to share.
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- #277
Here are some pics of the engine / frame right after the tub was removed.
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- #278
Radiator Removal
This weekend I worked closer towards getting the truck ready to pull the engine out. I removed the radiator, was stubborn as the drain plug was seized solid int he down spout, so I had to drain it by pulling off the lower drain hose, what a mess but it worked. The nuts on the lower support studs were rusted on pretty good but nothing a little lube and muscle couldn't handle. After that it popped right off. Rad isn't in too bad of shape. Here are some pics from the removal. There was also an inline pump that the previous owner fitted it with, has 120V plug on it so figured he used it to keep the coolant from freezing as he lived in Northern Ontario.
This weekend I worked closer towards getting the truck ready to pull the engine out. I removed the radiator, was stubborn as the drain plug was seized solid int he down spout, so I had to drain it by pulling off the lower drain hose, what a mess but it worked. The nuts on the lower support studs were rusted on pretty good but nothing a little lube and muscle couldn't handle. After that it popped right off. Rad isn't in too bad of shape. Here are some pics from the removal. There was also an inline pump that the previous owner fitted it with, has 120V plug on it so figured he used it to keep the coolant from freezing as he lived in Northern Ontario.
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- #279
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- #280
Next up was removing the engine fan, speed cable from the transfer case, and the rear universal joint from the rear of the transfer case. here are some pics...
