Mars FJ40 1966

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@Mars - great job on this truck. Many challenges and you're working through them effectively. Given some of the PO's finery, in some areas you literally can do no wrong.
 
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Engine pulled. Cleaned and painted the block.

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And swung into the new frame. It was exciting to say the least. Quite the puzzle with everything mashed in the garage. If I did it over again I would roll the frame outside so I didnā€™t have to fight for room.

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rainingagain said:
This gave me a chuckle. Gotta knock out the important stuff first! Looking forward to seeing your progress!
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He was checking to see who was paying attention. You get the gold star.šŸ˜‰
 
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Stuff is happening. Welded up my exhaust. Mounted the Holley Sniper and ran the fuel system. Plumbed in the in-tank fuel pump, filters and return. Also a fuel pressure gauge that I hopefully wonā€™t need for troubleshooting.
 
And the big news. Got the body and panels back from the blaster. Full epoxy primer. Glad to see no real surprises and 100% rust free. Iā€™ll have a bit more metal work to do to prep some of the captured nuts and getting the firewall set for the new brake system. Been a long time coming.

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I have some signs of the frame starting to separate and crack someday at the rear spring hanger. Stealing this idea to reinforce while Iā€™m here.

forum.ih8mud.com

Recommendations for a reputable shop to do frame repair - East Valley?

-Good to hear that. Any idea how this happened? That's some scary looking damage!- *Que up the Waylan Jennings - "Justa good ol' boys....never meanin' no harm...beat all you eva saw, been in trouble with-a-law...." * It prolly happent that thar one time ol' Rosco was chasen em' down ol'...
forum.ih8mud.com forum.ih8mud.com

Iā€™m no pro fabricator but took a stab at this repair. Hopefully it beefs up the front hanger on the rear springs. 4ā€ tube fits really well. Excuse the ugly welds!

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With the truck in full epoxy primer, and it holding well I decided to coat the underside of the tub, firewall and the interior with Raptor. I like the look and it hides a lot of imperfections that I just don't have the motivation to fix. I used a it with of 8 bottles, came with the gun. Including spraying the underside of the fenders. I ordered two more bottles that I wish I had, mostly for touch up and eventually the inside of the rear gate.

I ran it pretty thick - happy with the product overall. I bought it tinted it to Dove Gray - which looks very similar to the epoxy primer color, but a little less 'blue'. It took me way more time just cleaning/degreasing the body than the actual spraying. Also a tip to share if anyone's looking, I used foam earplugs to seal up the holes/threaded nuts to keep the gunk out of it which worked really well.
 
I probably should make a separate thread to document the fuel tank install. I moved the filler location to the passenger side to the rear fender to work with the after market tank. I'm happy with how it turned out. I cut the filler opening out of the body sheetmetal, then patched in a new panel behind the passenger door. It's a little rough around the edges, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. I'll be able to snake a filler hose over from the tank over the frame rail and up to the filler location.
 
I'm still planning on painting the truck Fashion Green, with the contrasting grey inside. The Dove Grey is a pretty close match to the other grey accessories on the truck (like the headlights).

Game plan from here is to get it running. Re-work the pedals to work with the sniper and make sure it all runs well.

Then tie in the brake system, driveline, parking brake, etc.

And hopefully by this summer I'll be thinking about final paint. I probably need to update this more than once a year if I'm going to get there by summer! Getting the body sprayed was a huge hurdle to get over though and I just didn't have 4 days to block out to get it all done.
 
Other notes - I ordered the body mount set from Energy Suspension. Not surprising....but the body isn't a direct matchup for the frame. I like the kit, it's high quality stuff. Currently the body is sitting on the front mount location at the firewall, and the rear bumper - all others need a 3/4" to 1" shim to make contact with the body mount, like the whole tub is arched up a little bit in the middle. I've ordered bigger poly shims to infill. I'm wondering if the whole body has just sagged down on the ends due to how I had it resting on the lift table in the center for the last 12 months causing this.

I've ordered some bigger spacers to fill the gaps, and am going to give it some time to settle before I tighten anything down.
 
Mars said:
Other notes - I ordered the body mount set from Energy Suspension. Not surprising....but the body isn't a direct matchup for the frame. I like the kit, it's high quality stuff. Currently the body is sitting on the front mount location at the firewall, and the rear bumper - all others need a 3/4" to 1" shim to make contact with the body mount, like the whole tub is arched up a little bit in the middle. I've ordered bigger poly shims to infill. I'm wondering if the whole body has just sagged down on the ends due to how I had it resting on the lift table in the center for the last 12 months causing this.

I've ordered some bigger spacers to fill the gaps, and am going to give it some time to settle before I tighten anything down.
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Are the A and B pillars still parallel for the front doors?
 
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