Builds When your inner voice speaks, you need to listen. (1 Viewer)

[onemanarmy]

Thanks for attempting saving it.

All too often rare/cool/interesting stuff is left to decay, for a variety of selfish reasons.

 

[61twpw]

I thought my 1973 fj55 was bad. Giving inspiration to move forward. Keep up the good work.

 

[Simcoe]

Great work so far

 

[Ian Crawford]

You're making good progress!

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

Progress is slow at this stage as I'm having to rebuild the entire rear valance. The repair job done years ago just left all the inner panels wrinkled, so I have to repair them too. This means I have to cut a little at a time, repair and repeat to keep everything aligned. Here's some recent pics. The welds are ugly on the inner pieces, but they'll be hidden when it's all closed up

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Man this reminds me of my Blue Marley rig. Good on you for saving it, but I know the pain and frustration.

J

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Definitely a hardcore repair job. Kudos to you.

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

OK, another day spent at the shop is a good day, right? Today I spent cutting and fitting some of the final major valance patches. All the main pieces are in and initial welds done. I dry fitted the tailgate just to make sure it still fits as well. Next is to do some final welds and grinds to clean up the mess that's there now. Slow and steady, slow and steady...

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

So I've been sweating this filler piece since the beginning because of the curves in it. It's the transition piece from the side of the rear opening to the bottom, and it's got a few bends and compound curves in it. Finally I just said **** it and started hammering on a piece of new 18ga sheet metal I cut in 3"x3". I saved the old gnarly rusted piece as a template and used a Sharpy to mark the general lines. Then I went at it with a planish hammer and a metal dolly I secured in a vice. Really wasn't near as bad as I thought it was gonna be, the metal is a lot more malleable than I was thinking it would be. It ain't gonna win any awards, but a bit more pounding on it and it should come round a bit more.

Also, removed the dash today. Wanted to get it out to freshen up and protect for when I get to the windshield frame. Also, the metal parts of the dashboard will need a little paint too.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

That looks really good. I’m no metal or wood expert but I’m pretty crafty and that’s about what I would have done. Also you could cut wood templates for behind and hammer over that too. I bent up a piece of 1/8” meal awhile back in my vice w/ a hammer. It came out perfect but once I realized what it was I’d wasted time. Admitting my cluelessness here but I did a great job making it fit nice.

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

That looks good! Someone else here showed how they used a piece of wood to reproduce the bed beads. So I think I definitely need to get some wood and start incorporating that into my process.

 

[vipergrhd]

@SHIfTHEAD I would give you three thumbs up if I had an extra thumb, this is no longer a restoration it's a RESURECTION!

 

[EscapeWagon62]

You have reset the parts truck vs restoration line for everyone...
Am I the only one that feels inadequate now?
Great work.

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

@SHIfTHEAD I would give you three thumbs up if I had an extra thumb, this is no longer a restoration it's a RESURECTION!

Yeah, I have a bit of OCD with these things. One reason I resisted the urge to do this for so long.

You have reset the parts truck vs restoration line for everyone...
Am I the only one that feels inadequate now?
Great work.

Kind words, but there are others out there way more skilled than me. I'm learning as I go. This forum and YouTube are great resources.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

That looks good! Someone else here showed how they used a piece of wood to reproduce the bed beads. So I think I definitely need to get some wood and start incorporating that into my process.

That was me. I copied a guy off Facebook.

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

Still moving forward a month into the project. Need to take a few days off I think, lest I risk getting burned out too early on. Working on this almost everyday 6-8 hrs a day takes a toll. Luckily my actual job is a cake gig. Anyway, back to the FJ.

So if you've been following along you know I've spent all the time thus far addressing the rust in the rear valance. Well I was ready to dry fit the tail gate again to make sure all was well after it was all back together. I was thinking about the state of the tailgate and whether or not I can trust the fit in it's state or not. I thought not, so I decided now was the time to reconstruct the tailgate. As you can see the rust on the tailgate was quite bad:

So I got to cutting off the bad stuff at the bottom, which turned out to be all Bondo, fiberglass and rust. It looks like the tail gate was a replacement, probably replaced by the same sh1t body shop that did all the crap work, and it looks like it was likely rusty when they got it. The Bondo was used to recreate the lower edge of the tailgate, and sections had been cut out already (I'm guessing rust was there). Once they had the line right they then wrapped the lower edge in fiberglass and painted it. Probably charged them a ton for a "new" tailgate too.

Over time the rust came back, and this time with a vengeance. The PO used some truckliner to paint over it, as you see in the pic, which just added gas to the fire. Long story short, the tailgate was in bad shape. Because so much of the lower seam was gone the hinges were only being supported by the inner panel and this was causing some real warpage issues. Here's some pics after I went ahead and cut the whole thing open to sort out all the dents and rust:

This is the tailgate laying on a flat bench, there's an inch of space under the middle from the bow in the inner panel. The fix was pretty easy though, just lay it on the concrete floor in this same position and use my size 11's and 250lbs to push the panel back into shape. There was some other areas that needed a little more persuasion with a hammer and dolly, but all in all, not too bad. Now with it back in shape I started to sew it back up and got it looking like a tailgate again.

I had to fab the little bit on the end with the body line, but that wasn't too bad. I found a metal dolly with the right curve on it. Put it in the vice, cut out a 3"x5" piece of 18ga and started bending it by hand. Once it was real close to a good fit, I added the crease with the brake and I tacked it in. Now I was ready to start trimming up the edge to get the dimensions closer to finish and hang the door again.

A little more work with positioning the door correctly and now it opens and closes with ease. A little more finish welding and grinding and this section will be in the books!

BTW, got a good set of stock wheels from another Mudder here. They look better than the ones that came off and are basically rust free! I'll be going with some 31's and the OME suspension package down the road.

 

[61twpw]

Looking great! Hope you don’t burn out, it’s a big project.

 

[tmxmotorsports]

Keep it coming

 

[hj 60]

Set an objective:
1-pass road license test
2-bring kids to school
3-do it later

That way the 60 can be on its wheels very soon and not spend 3 years on blocks.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Set an objective:
1-pass road license test
2-bring kids to school
3-do it later

That way the 60 can be on its wheels very soon and not spend 3 years on blocks.

Nothing wrong w/ being on blocks unless the PO hadn’t chosen that objective. Mines been off the road more times than it’s been on since I bought in Feb ‘16. It’s on now but I plan on having it off again when the weather improves. For some of us, this is the journey we dig the most, turning wrenches and patting ourselves on the back.