Builds My DreamCar & Worst nightmare - HJ45 RestoMod (1 Viewer)

[jacubillo]

Sooooo.... I just bought my dream car for years... a 1976 HJ45 pickup truck.

The plan>
- Restore all metalwork: Chassis, tub, fenders, pickup tray, etc...
- Install a "modern" 2uz engine + 5speed auto box. I have the impression a megasquirt will be used since I already have knowledge on these things and it will allow for a possible future turbo install
- Improve suspension with coils. This won't be a hardcore offroader. It will be a daily city driver with the ability to *once in a while* step out of paved roads...
- Add creature comforts:
- Hidraulic steering
- AC
- Electric Seats
- Electric windows
- yada yada yada
- Insulate the main cabin with dynamat, Linex, etc... I want to be able to travel quitely with music.
- Install a rollbar for security in case of an accident.

Current status>
- The truck is a Costa Rican farm truck and as such... it's been BEATEN to death.. and then some. I'm looking forward to all the "cuban fixes" I'll find in this thing...
- I have already done some work on this thing... But to give proper continuity to the thread.. I'll try to write the posts in order and "from the start".

Wishful upgrades>
- These are some things I'd looove to add to the truck but I'm not sure if I should:
- Extend the cab around 15 - 20cm (6 - 8"). This would give some more space for seats adjustment + internal storage of... stuff.
- Add "latch clamps" to the windshield, hardtop, and rear upper window section. The idea is that if I want to drive around without the top .. I can just unclamp them... disconnect a few connectors, and remove the roof and push down the windshield as easy as possible. Maybe also add some quick door disconnects to also switch to half-doors easily.

Anyways... Hope I can document everything in here and also to get some ideas from you guys since this is the first time I do something like this. I'm fairly confident I can pull this off given enough time, money, patience, money, and some more money (which I don't have...).

Let's get this going!

- Juan

 

[rustED71]

Sounds like an awesome project, can't wait to see some more pics!

 

[jacubillo]

Day #1>
I just picked up the car from the farm. Took it to a local mechanic just to have him take a quick look at the brakes. He did some minor adjustments and said "they're good enough for you to get home". Ok... I'll trust you...

The car has No lights at all...
The drive side door is stuck so you enter through the passenger side.
Smells like cow poop.
Windows are also stuck.
As soon as you start the car... a huge black smoke cloud covers everything in a fairly big radius...
Oh.. and the ignition is hanging:

Off I went... The highway part was... FUN... Steering sucks,... the side mirrors are floppy and always point down. 30km/h was my avg speed for about 1.5hrs... which by the way... the speedo doesn't work. I asked my dad to follow me in his SUV in the very likely case I had to pull over and get towed. He is the one who later told me my MAX speed was 60km/h .. downhill.

Brakes are either non-functional during the first "pump" of the pedal... or they completely lock the wheels when double pumped. Nice.

No light wiring at all meant I had to directly wire the headlights to the battery. No fuses or anything.. just a direct connection to the newly bought Batt.

After a while... the car is finally home!!!

It's fate is now to remain here while I fix some of the *minor* things it has so that maybe it can be kinda safely driven on the streets again.

- Juan

 

[jacubillo]

Once the car was home... it was time for the very first step when dealing with an old car: Wash it!
I bought some degreaser and just sprayed it all over the engine bay, engine block, axles, body panels, etc...
Then I used a pressure washer to rinse everything down and.... the paint started to come off!

I wasn't even pressure washing it *that* close! Oh well... I stepped back and washed it from farther away....

Right after washing the car, I decided to turn it on and well... nothing... The starter would try to crank the engine but nothing at all happened after that. I checked my pre-heat plugs and they all had a black carbon/oil coating on them that made me believe they were not working properly:

I then decided to "manually" heat each of them to check em individually:


You can see they only start to heat up after about 15seconds have passed... and then it also took them a good 30s to glow bright red.
Here's a before and after pic of the plugs:

Even after cleaning them ... I finally decided to buy a new set since they were cheap enough:

While replacing the plugs, I also took the "electric distribution strip" (No idea of its proper name) , straighten it out, and then masked the spots where the plugs connect to and gave all the piece about 4 coats of spray paint:

It's my first time dealing with this engine (and diesels as well), but it just seemed "wrong" to me how close this bare metal strip runs from certain parts of the engine block. In the above pic you can see it just over a bolt head clearing it with about 1 or 2mm space at most.
Is it common to have shorts on these engines?

 

[jacubillo]

After replacing the plugs, and connecting it to another car for a helping "bump"...it finally powered on again!



Something else... I found out the exhaust header throws sparks when the engine is revved. Hope they can be seen on video:


I have no idea how it hasn't caught on fire with all the crud and oil it had in the engine bay...

Well... job done.. for now...

 

[jacubillo]

Bought some stuff for the build>
- Wrangler sidemirrors with electric adjustment
- A LOT of dynamat for the future when the sheetmetal is worked on.
- Universal electric window kit
- Some switches that convert the original window handle into an electric switch. This way I can keep the stock look on the doorcard and not add button switches.
- Solenoids for central locking + a generic car alarm. The alarm can also raise the windows from the remotes.
- New LED headlights

Mockup of how the sidemirrors might look once a bracket is fabricated:

I also got myself a special tip for the pressure washer that converts it into a sandblaster or wetblaster by mixing sand media just before shooting it. I bought a small bag of silica sand thats supposedly used for pool filters to test it out. It works kinda ok but I think I need a better pressure washer.

Took off the bezel and started blasting it>

It does work ok.. I guess... but takes longer than I expected. This was the results after about 30 mins of blasting>

At least now I know I can media blast parts by my own if required. I decided to try blasting the headlight brackets next.

 

[jacubillo]

So.. Headlights are next during this "mockup stage" of the build:

I took the headlights bezels off and blasted them, gave them a quick sanding with ~300grit paper, prepped them and spray painted them. It's amazing how much better they look after a quick paint job. Keep in mind this is just a test as I'm learning along the way how to do all of this:

The front bezel received the same primer + black spraypaint treatment:

I still need to buy a metal pickup tray for the truck. I don't really like the wooden bed this one has + I want the truck to end up looking as normal as possible from the outside. With just a few changes like the side mirrors.. but otherwise look stock.

People in here tend to use 70series pickup beds but I want to get a stock 40series long bed for my truck. I know many farm owners took them apart and replaced them with wooden ones (like mine) because that way they could carry more stuff. The original beds ended up getting rusted or taken apart as scrap metal so the few ones left in the country in good enough shape are getting really expensive.

 

[whitey45]

Juan,

You have your Work cut out for you! It will be worth it in the end, they are fun trucks to own and enjoy. A tip on the sand blasting, You need at least 3000psi presure washer. I just blasted my whole 45 pickup in about 5 hours. I started with A 2 000 psi washer and it worked, but was slow. I then switched to my 3200 psi gas pressure washer. It was night and day difference. I can do a bezel in 1 or 2 minutes!!!!

 

[jacubillo]

The car came with 70series turn signals and I decided to keep them but replace them with new ones. It had them attached to the front fenders this way:

It's also common in Costa Rica for people to use them attached to the side panels:

The problem is that you will have to move back the hood latches to clear anough space for the lights:

Here's a car from a friend. He says he bought it this way but he always hits the fenders with the latches when unlocking them.

So... I decided to keep the 70series turn signals on the fenders. And this is how they might end up looking with the newly painted bezels + lights installed:

Next up.... wiring!

 

[jacubillo]

Juan,

You have your Work cut out for you! It will be worth it in the end, they are fun trucks to own and enjoy. A tip on the sand blasting, You need at least 3000psi presure washer. I just blasted my whole 45 pickup in about 5 hours. I started with A 2 000 psi washer and it worked, but was slow. I then switched to my 3200 psi gas pressure washer. It was night and day difference. I can do a bezel in 1 or 2 minutes!!!

Yeah I'm sure my home pressure washer is not fit for this purpose. I don't really mind spending time doing this since I do enjoy it... but I'll see if I end up buying a proper washer for the big parts. Thanks for the tip!

 

[47coeman]

Check out my build it sounds like you could use some of my ideas. In the hard core corner, Skips fj35 build good luck.

 

[4Cruisers]

Juan,

You have your Work cut out for you! It will be worth it in the end, they are fun trucks to own and enjoy. A tip on the sand blasting, You need at least 3000psi presure washer. I just blasted my whole 45 pickup in about 5 hours. I started with A 2 000 psi washer and it worked, but was slow. I then switched to my 3200 psi gas pressure washer. It was night and day difference. I can do a bezel in 1 or 2 minutes!!!! View attachment 2160373View attachment 2160374

Sorry for the minor thread hijack - so by using a pressure washer I could tackle my '71 FJ40 tub and body panels without the likelihood of warping panels? And it seems like it would be a lot cleaner than sandblasting. Pressure wash everything then immediately deliver to @kelly saad for paint?

 

[jacubillo]

Sorry for the minor thread hijack - so by using a pressure washer I could tackle my '71 FJ40 tub and body panels without the likelihood of warping panels? And it seems like it would be a lot cleaner than sandblasting. Pressure wash everything then immediately deliver to @kelly saad for paint?

Not just the pressure washer. There is a special tip/wand/attachment that adds an extra hose to the nozzle. This hose is then inserted in sand and the pressure washer creates a vacum that pulls the sand into the nozzle, mixes it with the water, and shoots it out to create an abrasive stream of water.

As whitey45 said above... you need a GOOD pressure washer to properly make this work. I'm using a standard Karcher washer intended for home stuff and it can barely move enough sand to clean up paint in metal.

It does prevent warping the panels since it keeps them cool with the water. It also helps it not create the big mess that dry sand blasters make. If you have a big pressure washer... go for it.

- Juan

 

[4Cruisers]

If you have a big pressure washer... go for it.

It's not too late for sending my wife another Christmas gift idea .

 

[jacubillo]

Wiring>
Status: It's a freaking mess:

The truck had wires all over it, but only the bare minimum of them connected to start up the car. I knew there was no point in trying to sort out the mess so it was time to grab the wire cutters and just remove every single piece of cabling I could find under the dash:

Just have a look at the current fusebox:

Not sure if it can be seen on the above pics... but some of the terminals have been welded together!! And I'm 99% sure a stick welder was used for this.

Starter + pre-heat relays/solenoids and this gem of a wiring job on the terminating ends:

Everything was ripped and now it's time to start fresh.
Once again... this won't be a final wiring job. But at least I want it to be clean, and properly connected to allow the car to have ignition, and all lights working properly.

- Juan

 

[jacubillo]

Check out my build it sounds like you could use some of my ideas. In the hard core corner, Skips fj35 build good luck.

Just read through it all and the build looks amazing. And you are right there are some pretty good ideas in there.
- The lip from the cab's upper section over the lower tub.
- The rollcage
- The frame reinforcing... MY GOD... it's all of what I have imagined + more.
- The steering wheel adaptation also looks mint.
- The rear bumper on the last (as of now) post on the thread. Love how clean, "simple", and strong it looks.

I'm hoping I can get to the stage you are at! ✌

 

[jacubillo]

First things first... New main wires from the batt to the Starter motor. V+ and Gnd.

Also a new fusebox for blade fuses. No more of that crusty fire hazard:

I did ended up using the same universal ignition keylock. This is just a temporary setup to be able to turn on the and go get me a metal long bed... sometime.

Starter motor and pre-heat plugs also received new solenoids for better conacts:

And THEN.... I unwrapped some electrical tape and found out about my alternator connections:

So now it's also something else I have to fix....
This truck makes me fix 1 thing and then find out about 3 more problems to take car of. It's like a never ending can of worms...

- Juan

 

[wimberosa]

Hey. You've got an alternator. +1

 

[samc2447]

What's the part number and/or source for that blade type fuse block?

 

[JohnnyC]

for the pressure washing .... if you can get your setup to gravity feed it will work better at a lower psi... pulling will take more pressure... but... gravity feed will perform better than having it pull

are the cruiser directionals just that hard to find there? or are the 70 series lights just that cheap? often wondered about that

good luck with ya build