little orphan annie

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I don't think I post this often enough...

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Flippin' awesome thread. I'm way behind you, but referencing this for lots of info. Question: did you buy the bows & door frame, or have you fabricated those? I would pay (not kidding) for templates - I don't see any reason why a good fabricator can't bend the metal for me, etc. Those parts are really hard to find for the 62 FST, and when you do find them, they cost more than they're worth. You probably addressed this in earlier posts - I'll dig and see. Love this thread.
 
HuntFishHuntFish said:
Flippin' awesome thread. I'm way behind you, but referencing this for lots of info. Question: did you buy the bows & door frame, or have you fabricated those? I would pay (not kidding) for templates - I don't see any reason why a good fabricator can't bend the metal for me, etc. Those parts are really hard to find for the 62 FST, and when you do find them, they cost more than they're worth. You probably addressed this in earlier posts - I'll dig and see. Love this thread.
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i bought a used set of paki bows from zornff because he was very displeased with the quality and had a new sent bent up for his rig. i see why he was displeased. i loved my first gen paki top and bows on my 68...everything seemed to fit and the quality matched the low price. quality seems to have dropped greatly... the mid bow wasn't even wide enough to match the rear bow...an easy 1/2 to 3/4" off.

that said, i used the rear paki bow since it's the same. i lengthened the mid bow to the appropriate length since it also should be the same. not sure if the horizontals are supposed to be the same or not, they weren't..i had to lengthen them quite a bit. the front bow is unique and i had to bend that up. i don't have the dies to get the top bends correct and it's a slightly smaller od and thickness tube. someday, i hope to get one bent proper, but this is all i could do right now.

i'm down to working the pieces i had roughly fabbed for above and behind the doors, which is proving to be a bitch.
 
A lot of info on the early bows in this thread. https://forum.ih8mud.com/fj25-owners-group/45428-fj25-early-fj40-soft-top-project.html Like Ige said the part over the door and down the B pillar are a pain. Not sure it it was mentioned in the thread I linked but Cruiser_Nerd had some metal bend up years ago. If I remember correctly the shop that did it wasn't intersted in doing more. That should tell you something. I have a set of bows I can get any measurements off of. These were off a 61 FJ40. I also have of the pieces from the early metal project. Haven't seen them in a few years. If I remember all four pieces were the same and needed to be finished off. Another idea would be to get two sets of over the door bows from a later set and modify. These have a channel to hold the top and are bent to fit the door. Unlike the later door opening at the B pillar is straight. When the set of 61 bows came available last year I picked them just to save myself the pain of making another set.

I am interested in the canvas. We haven't seen that setting on the bows yet. Plus the cost. What is the cost of the top compared to the cost of the bows?
 
Forgot about those. Are the sides removeable with twists or are there zippers on the sides and back? If they are zippers that would explain a lot.
 
Living in the Past said:
Forgot about those. Are the sides removeable with twists or are there zippers on the sides and back? If they are zippers that would explain a lot.
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i did zippers. i really like the idea of removable sides, but i don't so much like the idea of all the twists.
 
one side is done-ish. no final welding, but after a lot of back and forth and pictures and making sure the door could still latch, etc, it's tacked. might be some sizing issues with the top. need to talk to jim to see how much his canvas will shrink/stretch. crap picture because it's in the garage and there's not much room. hope to have it out at the rally.

also, sexy pintle action

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nuclearlemon said:
one side is done-ish. no final welding, but after a lot of back and forth and pictures and making sure the door could still latch, etc, it's tacked. might be some sizing issues with the top. need to talk to jim to see how much his canvas will shrink/stretch. **** picture because it's in the garage and there's not much room. hope to have it out at the rally.

also, sexy pintle action
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OK - that soft top looks awesome. I should be ready for it here in about 10 yrs depending on how many steps I keep taking backward for each one forward .... Looks great NUC
 
ok, late nights of staring at it after spending 10 hours at work didn't do my brain any good. mere seconds after displaying and talking with treeroot and he pointed out that if i shim here and there and bend that forward a bit, it should eliminate all the issues! woohoooo!!!! here's to hoping.

and as promised, the obligatory outside shot! probably should've cleaned her up as she was still dirty from the 40s only run.

she did develop a funky stumble, maybe a left over symptom from tweaking the crap out of her for four wheeling a couple weeks ago, but we're wheeling her again tomorrow, so don't want to adjust too much quite yet. ;)

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Sometimes you really do need to take a step back, and take a deep breath! ;)

Looking really nice!!! :cheers:
 
thank you so much...we are both loving this rig!

i would get an occasional thumbs up in the pig and once, an old guy in an almost midwest rotted cj7 followed me into the bank atm to tell me the pig was awesome, but annie seems to attract everyones attention and that really makes me realize that all the evenings that i'd come home from work and go straight to the garage were worth it. heck, i was up til 11:30 halfassing the bows so the soft top could be on for the rally. worth it! (especially when it started drizzling)

today, it drizzled on us again and the top was kind of nice. a real rain would have made it more worth it (like the argentine run), but still, i was nice. today's foray into the off pavement world yielded a vacuum transfer case that is now not working (after working fine the other day), a fuel gauge not working (after working fine the other day) and a stuck needle valve (after being fine a couple weekends ago, but a little funky on the run yesterday to the rally).

we also still have an issue with the transmission popping from first into neutral when under load and a weird in sync with the rpms thunking when in first 4wd under torque load, but not just in low first. i'll have video of the sound soon.

wondering if the vacuum issue was a matter of altitude. i need to check that now that we're home.

wondering if the tranny has issues with forks/bearings for the popping out of gear and knocking sound, so planning on dropping the tranny this winter and inspecting. meantime, it's time to have fun in our dirty little girl ;)

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That is one sweet cruiser. Well done on every front. Your hard work pays big dividends when you see her out in that big open countryside doing what it was meant to do. Great pics. What year is your pig?
 
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