Meet Betty White

[ARJMN]

I called in an extra set of hands, and in few hours on a Saturday, we had the powertrain in and picked up speed from there.

With the core support in place, the cooling package, horns, hood latch, tubing and all went in, and it started looking much more like a complete rig.

 

[ARJMN]

After assessing the bin of parts and placing a number of orders to bring in all the random bits needed for the plumbing, I shifted focus to loose ends that have been left dangling for a while. The passenger side mirror assembly was one of those. I outlined my fixes for the floppy and shaky conditions previously, but pushed off fixing the cracked covers until I had more time and patience available. I decided that fiberglass and epoxy were the best, and well proven solution, so that is what I used.

I used some blue painters tape to both hold the broken bits together, and act as a dam to keep the epoxy from running out.

Its been years since I worked with fiberglass, but it is pretty easy.

Here is the first layer of patches in place. I ended up laying in two layers of fiberglass, extending the second well past the first.

 

[ARJMN]

After getting the base layers set up, I could start laying in the support layers for the small screw tab that broke off as well. This came out so much better than I expected, if I am honest. After curing, I drilled the hole out and reassembled on the rig.

 

[ARJMN]

Many more updates that I need to post here, but that will have to wait. This is all I have time for now.

 

[Funner]

In case you didn’t know, these are direct drop in bolt on and good quality. Best thing is everything is new including new motors for the tilt adjust buttons in the car.

Amazon.com: Garage-Pro Mirror Compatible For 1990-1997 Toyota Land Cruiser Right Passenger Power Glass Paintable : Automotive

Buy Garage-Pro Mirror Compatible For 1990-1997 Toyota Land Cruiser Right Passenger Power Glass Paintable: Exterior Mirrors - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

 

[ARJMN]

In case you didn’t know, these are direct drop in bolt on and good quality. Best thing is everything is new including new motors for the tilt adjust buttons in the car.

Amazon.com: Garage-Pro Mirror Compatible For 1990-1997 Toyota Land Cruiser Right Passenger Power Glass Paintable : Automotive

Buy Garage-Pro Mirror Compatible For 1990-1997 Toyota Land Cruiser Right Passenger Power Glass Paintable: Exterior Mirrors - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Wow. I had no idea those exist. Thanks man!

 

[ARJMN]

With no shortage if stuff to do, I have kept the pedal down and driving forward. The list will shrink and then seemingly fill back up as I remember or discover something else that must be done. I enjoy clicking them off, but could really use some more big leaps in progress.

This is how I have been keeping myself in check. I post a countdown to when Betty goes on the trailer heading east. Sometimes I hate seeing it, but it does keep me pushing forward.

 

[ARJMN]

Plumbing has been the focus as of late. I learned the hard way to get all the hard points noted and make their space claims ASAP in these kind of efforts. If not, you will be redoing many things. Ask me how I know. So starting at the front, I needed to get the engine oil cooler lines measured, cut, terminated, routed, connected, and secured. Same as with my previous build, I am using -10AN PTFE steel braided lines. You can get these pretty cheap on Amazon as a kit, but the Chinesium kits are not the best on quality control. One of my biggest gripes is that they do no finish machine the flats on the hex portion. The factory leaves them the same dimensions as the bar stock comes. What this means for me is that my set of aluminum AN wrenches dont fit hex because they are ever slightly oversized. If you buy premium grade AN fittings, they are a machined finish and exactly to spec, but that is China for you. If you don't catch them on not meeting a spec, it is considered your fault. Seriously, read the book Poorly Made in China sometime. It is a head shaker.

Anyway, brackets were made a long time ago and the cooler was mounted. The hoses were made and installed.

You can see the extrusion marks still visible on the hexes like I was complaining about above.

Another part pulled from the Caterpillar parts catalogue. These are great for combining tow bodies onto the same vibration plane, or to just keep them apart.

I like to run the -10 lines through some 3/4" heater hose and fish them through the front crossmember. They are well protected and held up out of any real spray from the tires.

 

[ARJMN]

Here is a view from below showing them passing through the crossmember.

I fabbed a simple L-Bracket to capture them both and eliminate rubs on the motor mounts.

Oil cooler manifold in place and the lines torqued. You can see the transmission cooler line just there below. I used rubber hose for those due to the lower temps, smaller diameters, and easier installation. The braided AN line on the oil cooler gives me just that little bit more confidence nothing will happen, but I probably could get away with soft lines there as well...

The transmission cooler manifold for added detail.

 

[ARJMN]

Heater hoses were next. The LS series water pumps have a 5/8" outlet and a 3/4" inlet for the cabin heater. Toyota ended uses the metric equivalent of 5/8" hose for all of it. That means an adapter is needed inline to reduce the 3/4" to 5/8". Additionally, as I learned in my previous build, you have to provide a crossover path to loop the coolant back to the water pump when the Toyota heater valve is closed. I duplicated the setup from Lexi Jo, because why not?

New OEM heater valve. I cant remember where I found the crooked lower hose there, but my other build has it I believe. In the mindset of trying to think "bush proof" on these builds, I opt for hose clamps over spring clamps. They work just fine for decades it seems, but in a pinch you can always snug hose clamps down a bit more to stop a leak. Mostly.

I knocked up a quick bracket and ladder clip solution here to route the hoses and avoid rubs. The ladder clip is another Caterpillar part.

Final result is zero rubs, fouls, or contact anywhere, and they lay in out of the way.

 

[OlafProt]

I cant remember where I found the crooked lower hose there, but my other build has it I believe.

Pretty sure those came from LandCruiser Phil

 

[ARJMN]

Holy Cow Team, we have made so much progress on ole Betty White in the past few week. I will get it all uploaded when I have a chance to catch my breath. For now, we are so close to first fire and 23 days left before she is going on the trailer to head back east.

 

[ARJMN]

Been a flurry of activity on this since last check in. As of writing this, my house is empty, my possessions are on a moving truck somewhere in the US, and Betty White is on my car hauler staged for the return trip to her owner. Let's see if I can catch us up.

 

[OffRoadScott]

Safe travels and best of luck with the new position.

 

[ARJMN]

Final update and handoff coming soon.

 

[OlafProt]

OK, folks. Time for me to take over this thread.
The handoff has occurred, and Betty is back home in Central Arkansas.

 

[OlafProt]

First "to-do" was to see why the steering and brakes had no assist. I called PSC to order a new power steering pump, and being cool people they asked what was happening. They suspected my issue wasn't a bad pump (as there was zero brake assist), so I went on an explore. Turns out I put the PS pump flow control spring/valve/output back together in the wrong order. So now Betty has steering and mucho brakes.

 

[OlafProt]

This week's task has been to get the ARB front bumper and winch installed. Both have been clogging up the garage for far too long. The Superwinch Talon 12.5 doesn't really "fit".

Did a little measuring and it seemed the winch needed to be spaced out about 3/4 of an inch. Simple spacers were cut, drilled, and painted. 1 x 1.5 inch steel bar stock was found, so that is what was used.

The clutch end of the winch was rotated to suite the front-mounting orientation, and the contactor/remote box was removed. I'll have to remount that somewhere convenient after the bumper is mounted.

Got the winch and spacers mounted up and I'm really glad I went with 1 inch thick spacers. I think there's about 3/16 inch in front of the motor housing.

Next up is getting the engine hoist out and get this tankish assembly up and mounted to the frame!

 

[Funner]

This week's task has been to get the ARB front bumper and winch installed. Both have been clogging up the garage for far too long. The Superwinch Talon 12.5 doesn't really "fit".
View attachment 4137614
Did a little measuring and it seemed the winch needed to be spaced out about 3/4 of an inch. Simple spacers were cut, drilled, and painted. 1 x 1.5 inch steel bar stock was found, so that is what was used.
View attachment 4137616
The clutch end of the winch was rotated to suite the front-mounting orientation, and the contactor/remote box was removed. I'll have to remount that somewhere convenient after the bumper is mounted.
View attachment 4137617
Got the winch and spacers mounted up and I'm really glad I went with 1 inch thick spacers. I think there's about 3/16 inch in front of the motor housing.
View attachment 4137618
Next up is getting the engine hoist out and get this tankish assembly up and mounted to the frame!

Oh my, your two are cut from very similar cloth. Looking forward to the future posts.

 

[ARJMN]

OK, folks. Time for me to take over this thread.
The handoff has occurred, and Betty is back home in Central Arkansas.
View attachment 4137605

Well, I guess I had better wrap up my final posts on this thread.....

I am going to be making some pic dumps and will come back to add narration after.