New Aussie FJ45 owner with pics & questions

[45Kevin]

That looks like a 76 or 77. My 78 has three holes on the bottom of each frame rail for the tranny/tc skid plate. There is no cross member under the tranny or t/c, the whole lot is held on by two engine mounts and two mounts on the bellhousing.

I have the disc front end from a 43 on mine. I think I need to do something to the master cylinder to make it work right though. It always needs a first pump on the pedal to get pressure built up before the brakes work.

Nice looking country. How deep do you find oil there and what kind of formations?

 

[beefcake]

That looks like a 76 or 77. My 78 has three holes on the bottom of each frame rail for the tranny/tc skid plate. There is no cross member under the tranny or t/c, the whole lot is held on by two engine mounts and two mounts on the bellhousing.

I have the disc front end from a 43 on mine. I think I need to do something to the master cylinder to make it work right though. It always needs a first pump on the pedal to get pressure built up before the brakes work.

Nice looking country. How deep do you find oil there and what kind of formations?

yeah you're right mate, it is a 10/77 model. Thanks for the info, I was pretty sure thats what I had discovered.
I have the disc brakes parts from grumpy above in those older posts, but I've not got around to fitting them yet. He also gave me a couple of different master cylinders from various other models that have different size pistons, so hopefully I'll be able to put it all together with a combo that works well.

Yeah it's not too bad out here, except for days like yesterday. It'll start getting hot soon, and the fly's will start to swarm in. Our rigs max depth is around 3250m, and I'd say we average holes between 2200-2800m looking for oil and gas, we are supposed to be starting a new program in the new year doing geo thermal wells, which will be up on the max depth apparently. Not sure on the formations, I'm the mechanic on the rig so I'm to busy fixing what the roughnecks are breaking. All I know is I start to cringe when the rigs starts torquing up, I start sleeping with one eye open waiting for the call up there.

 

[45Kevin]

Yea, we got a lot of rigs around here. It's oil and gas country for sure. There a few guys on mud in the oil and gas drilling business. Not me though, I just hang with a few geologists and geo-physicists. I know a few drillers as well.

What's with the geo-thermal. I thought those were shallow wells, or are you looking for pockets of hot water to take heat off of?

 

[uted]

Nice looking 45 mate. Looks to be almost same colour as mine

 

[beefcake]

Yea, we got a lot of rigs around here. It's oil and gas country for sure. There a few guys on mud in the oil and gas drilling business. Not me though, I just hang with a few geologists and geo-physicists. I know a few drillers as well.

What's with the geo-thermal. I thought those were shallow wells, or are you looking for pockets of hot water to take heat off of?

yeah pretty sure we're gonna be drilling for hot rocks, then water is pushed through and out another hole as steam. A town out here in the middle of the desert was about to go online with this setup as a trial, but they got about a week away from flicking the switch and the casing burst, had a blowout and had to kill the well..so it's back to the drawing board I think, after years of work to get it to that stage

 

[beefcake]

Nice looking 45 mate. Looks to be almost same colour as mine

Thanks Uted, I've seen yours around on the forums a bit and always thought they looked a similar colour. The colour of mine is called "Rocket Fuel"...haha I love it.

 

[beefcake]

Quite a while ago I cut down the monsterous bar that was on the front of this. I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not, so have never bothered finishing it. I think I will keep cutting and just leave the bottom section only, like a bumper and then mount lights either side of the winch. I don't like the profile of it as it is now. What are your thoughts?

before

after

 

[Clint79]

Damn mate that bar in its orig form lookd awsum and neat as, you dont see to many good looking std style bars on 4x series they are useually made out of train track or fully custom pipe work

 

[uted]

Thanks Uted, I've seen yours around on the forums a bit and always thought they looked a similar colour. The colour of mine is called "Rocket Fuel"...haha I love it.

Cool name for a colour.
mine is called plain, grey maverick effect. a ford Europe colour apparently.

 

[markymark]

Quite a while ago I cut down the monsterous bar that was on the front of this. I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not, so have never bothered finishing it. I think I will keep cutting and just leave the bottom section only, like a bumper and then mount lights either side of the winch. I don't like the profile of it as it is now. What are your thoughts?

before

after

Liked it better before, and now it is unroadworthy and illegal without a full width bumper at teh front. My thoughts are .

 

[beefcake]

nah the bar was stuffed, the bottom was rusted right through and the side hoops ran straight through the middle of the headlights, plus it weighed an absolute tonne, felt like I had power steering after I took it off, seriously made a HUGE difference. I'll just cut keep cutting it down until its like a bumper.