Builds Moonshine - A Build Thread (5 Viewers)

[GLTHFJ60]

Buddy of mine @SFROMAN and I set Sunday the 14th as our painting day. He's doing a lot of body work on his mini truck, and we often wheel together. Go check his build out.

With that date in mind, it's been balls-out on Moonshine.

Elected to remove the rear seat bottom brackets on the inside, and stiffeners on the outside, as they hide rust and I wont' ever have rear seats in this truck again.

Junk.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

PS rear wheel well needed much the same treatment as the DS in terms of rot repair, but it wasn't quite as bad.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

 

[GLTHFJ60]

PS raingutter needed more rot correction than the DS. Apologies for the crappy pics, this is the dark side of the shop.

Took the raingutter off, repaired that rot, treated the surface rust, then welded it back on.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

With the raingutter done, that was the end of the rot repair. Man am I happy to have that behind me.

All that was left was to strip the body and fix some dents, so that's what I did.

The bedliner was a ginormous pain in the balls to remove. It comes off with a heavy coating of chemical stripper, but comes off in sheets big enough that the stripper doesn't always get the paint underneath, requiring two applications. The bedliner and paint come off pretty easily with paint eater discs, but they disintegrate really quickly, and can't do inside contours pretty much at all. All of this learning meant a multi-step approach was used for removing the bedliner and underlying paint layers:

1. Wire wheel the contour areas
2. Paint eat the large flat areas
3. Apply chemical paint stripper to clean up what's left
4. Scrape off the stripper and pulled paint
5. Wire wheel the whole truck once more to clean up the stubborn remains

Just elbow grease from there on out.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

After all of those stripping steps, this is the result.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Finally, I spent some time straightening out the caved in PS rear quarter. It's wavy, but it's pretty straight now. Really hard to see in this dark corner, but I'm happy with how this came out.

With that, I'm ready for final prep, masking, and epoxy primer. Hot DAMN does that feel good to say.

More to come.

 

[A10Driver]

Moving along nicely, you definitely are not messing around.

 

[FJ Noob]

Primer day...

 

[FJ Noob]

Done already....what time did you guys start!?!

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Between Thursday when I finished stripping the body, and Saturday, the body developed surface rust all over the place. I went back and sanded the whole body again, while cleaning, and touched up a few spots I missed. Also shaved the rear quarter badges, and the windshield squirter holes in the firewall.

Finally, I coated every square inch of the truck in ospho to prevent further rust.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

The next morning, my buddy @SFROMAN and I rolled the truck out of the garage into the sunlight so we could do final prep. This included sanding every square inch of the truck for a final time, masking, thorough cleaning, and finally spraying. Started about 10am, truck was painted by 4:30pm.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

We did a bit more bodywork, popping out dents and whatnot, then sprayed. Spraying outside, so we got some trash in the paint on the roof, but iiwii. I'll come up with a better solution for that when we get to the color.

Next up: electrical and interior planning. After that: sliders and a rear bumper.

 

[pistonpete]

Coming along !

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Saving these decals here:

Best 60 series side decal sets...

Is it just me or are 60series with side decals the absolute tits. Trying to come up with some ideas for my Freeborn Red other than faux wood grain. Any ideas or decal sets you all really like? I'll start with a few of my favorites.

forum.ih8mud.com

Funky Body Stripes

Does anyone know if the funky body stripes were a factory, port, or dealer instal. I have seen many variations. I will try to post a picture of the ones that came on my 60 tonight. Dynosoar

forum.ih8mud.com

Land Cruiser Turbo - Vinyl Transfer Decal

Land Cruiser Turbo Logo Available as just the "Land Cruiser" or just the "Turbo" or both "Land Cruiser Turbo" Approximately 8" for the Turbo, 9" for the Land Cruiser.

reefmonkey.com

Toyota Land Cruiser Retro Style Side Stripes Graphics - FITS 1982-1991 FJ60 FJ62 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Toyota Land Cruiser Retro Style Side Stripes Graphics - FITS 1982-1991 FJ60 FJ62 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[pistonpete]

Decals eh ?? She painted yet ??

 

[GLTHFJ60]

No. Long story short, had to to take a break for a week and a half to do family stuff. Going to knock out a number things before i get to paint:

Harness thinning/rewire
Front inner fender repair
Air conditioning
Refinish floor w/sound deadening
Sliders
Rear Bumper
Half Doors
A bunch of little things, like windshield washer bottle/jets and a new fuel pickup
IF I have time/patience for it, compound turbos

After all that, I'll swing back and get to final bodywork and paint. Don't want to do all of that around fresh paint, for fear of damaging it.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Finally started with the wiring. Realized that to get done what I wanted, I had to take the dash all the way apart, so apart it came.

Unloomed the whole thing to start trimming out wires. Pulled out the rear glass defog, rear heater, rear windscreen wiper, cig lighter, rheostat, emissions computer and associated wiring, OEM engine sensors and harnesses, and finally pulled out the OEM radio wiring. Repinned one connector at the gauge cluster to reduce the number of connectors for the cluster from 5 down to three, which cleans up that whole area quite a bit.

After a quick function test, verifying the stuff I kept was still working, I started adding circuits. Winch contactor and solenoid control, fan controller control and motor wiring, overhead console and light bar wiring. Moved the fusible link to the center to come out towards my new battery location, and moved some of the engine related wires to their new home. So far I'm here, which looks a bit of a mess, but it's getting there.

Huge thanks to @J Mack for talking me though my battery plan, and for getting me on the lithium bandwagon. I've got some CNC work to do over the next week for new switch locations and mounts for the batteries/water tank, then when all the gear I ordered shows up, it's time for more wiring!

 

[GLTHFJ60]

For reference, this is what i've pulled out of the harness so far.

Also for reference, reading up on 12v auto lithium systems:

Adding an alternator to your lithium-ion battery setup requires a bit of planning....

Design Your Own LiFePO4 Solar Power System

This is a complete system solution complete with: BMS Protection Features (over/under voltage/over-current/balancing) Low Temperature Cut-off Programmable Charge/Discharge Bandwidth Settings Matched...

www.mobile-solarpower.com

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Planning out some new switch panels as part of my rewiring project. Any suggestions on this layout, or what to add/plan for?

Top one goes to the left of the steering wheel, bottom one is a modified HVAC bezel setup.