Builds My 1965 FJ45 LWB (1 Viewer)

[kunzma]

More taillight pics. I bought a cheap 70's taillight set for the gaskets and screws. I thought I could get the light sockets also but that didn't workout.

 

[kunzma]

Winter of 2014-15 I took the doors apart and took them to a body guy. The rust wasn't bad and I didn't want it to get worse. Picked a blue color that looked like it was close to some of the FJ45s I've seen. Installed the rubber kits in the living room because it was bitter cold in the garage. A bonus was that I found the glass bumper in the bottom of the doors is the same as the seat back bumpers on the cab wall. Still was missing one so I bought one from a chevy supplier that was close and used it in one of the doors. Found out the doors are a later style wing window instead of bug catcher style. Will keep an eye out for those.

 

[kunzma]

Spring 2015 I dropped the truck off at LCR4WD to have Poser put a new set of springs on that resulted in a two inch lift. Found the front drive shaft was frozen so I had a new one made instead of running with 2 wheel drive.

 

[kunzma]

Summer of 2015 I drove the truck a lot. Found it to be under powered for the freeway. Still running the original F motor and the three speed with column shift so it does the best it can. Took it back out to LCR4WD for a front and rear axle change out. Wanted the fronts to be disk brakes and the rear was changed out so that it could be more serviceable. New brake lines installed from front to back. Poser was able to get the E-brake to work with a new cable. He also made new battery cables. Running like new only better.

 

[cppilot]

Kunzma, the stance looks perfect to me.

 

[kunzma]

Thanks cppilot. Yeah I'm happy with the way she sits.

 

[kunzma]

Fall 2015 I finally found some original style 33" running boards. Miker had them up for sale for a good price. Most of the nuts and bolts holding on the trim rings were frozen solid, even using a torch I wasn't able to save them. Somewhere on this board someone found the original style white pyramidal vinyl supplied by Canal Rubber. Bought some and kinda like the way it looks.
Pyramid Vinyl Matting | Canal Rubber

 

[kunzma]

Fall 2015 I was feeling good about how far I had gotten. I set an appointment with a new body guy to get in line for the winter. Went well, he didn't see anything to difficult. I have a driver's side floor pan from Real Steel that needs installing. Gave my deposit and headed home. Engine went on the way and barely made it home. Talked it over with Poser and decided to install a 2F with an H55. With this change of plans I will just have the body guy work on the roof this winter.

I have been saving my pennies and working on little things. The blower for the heater has worked since the beginning but had a warbling sound. Took the whole system out to refurbish it and see what was wrong. Seems at some point the gasket between the housing and the electric motor was crushed on one side causing the fan to rub. Made a gasket from some cork and that fixed the warble. Had everything blasted and powder coated.

Also started replacing nuts and bolts holding body parts. I bought a kit of cad plated JIS bolts from a mudder. Overland Metric
Proved to be easier than I thought it would be, but did find about a dozen standard bolts and a bunch of regular metric holding things together. Nice to work on things now with just a couple sizes of wrenches.

 

[cppilot]

Keep up the good work. It's all worth it!! Here is a picture of my 65, very similar to yours. It sure seems like most were White in color back then.

Mark

 

[kunzma]

cppilot you have a good looking truck. My truck was originally white also. I removed the data plate from the firewall and there is pristine white paint underneath. I really like the PTO winch on your truck, I've got one lined up and I am hoping after the H55 install we can still get it installed.

 

[cppilot]

Thanks kunzma, you are putting a lot of energy to your truck but as you know it's all worth it. It looks great.

I would prefer no winch. The winch and all the required bits are in the way of many things and replacement parts are tough to find. The stock routing of the exhaust is above the skid plate and very tight. You can also forget about using the hand crank.

With all that being said, the winch is very cool and original to my truck.

 

[kunzma]

Did some work on the heater. Had the fan housing powder coated black and the heater core box powder coated in a silver that looks pretty close to the original.

 

[cppilot]

Me too! Keep up the good work kunzma

 

[kunzma]

Spring 2016. Been putzing along on several fronts over the winter. Gathering small items and pulling things off to be powder coated and plated. One of the fun things over the winter was making a tool roll strap. Nothing to difficult once I saw whitey45's post on an original he discovered. Still need to bend some metal to make the triangle pieces that keep the roll from sliding around. The originals have been cut off.

 

[kunzma]

Update on the running boards. Found that M5 x 12mm truss head s/s bolts for the trim ring that look pretty good as a replacement. Just about every original jis button head bolt stripped or snapped.

 

[kunzma]

Ventured out to LA to Mark's Off Road to meet Mark and pick up a pair of original doors he had stashed away. Whirlwind of a day! Excited that Kurt has made significant progress on the rubber kits for the bug catchers. Just need some new glass and scavenge a patch from one of my rotten doors to fill the speaker hole.

 

[JackA]

sweet neon

 

[kunzma]

Crawling around under the running boards I was having a hard time making everything line up. Finally noticed that the left front cab mount had no cushion and a bolt that had a large nut acting as a spacer. The right had a couple of the original woven cushions/spacers throwing everything out of whack.

 

[65swb45]

When I got my swb, the cab was just resting on the frame. I took my best shot at mounting it using some FJ55 mounts I had laying around

FWIW, I made up some pucks when I did the body lift on the cab of the lwb. I can send you a couple for free with your next order.

 

[kunzma]

SOR coral vinyl installed. Got one of the first sets of matching sun visor covers.

View attachment 1279160

View attachment 1279180