No more living vicariously, I got one! (2 Viewers)

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This is making me nervous, I am starting to get that " go in search of the FJ45" feeling again.
Keep the information going.
 
Sweet!
 
My parts acquisition has begun!

I told myself to be patient and save money for the things that need to be done ( ie brakes, tyres, things to make it legal), and not necessarily the things that I want, or think I need.

But then this cropped up, and I think original is better than repro. The bonnet latches were cheap and in the next suburb.

Its not much, but you have to start somewhere.

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The radio delete plate! Nice one sneak!
 
I had the truck delivered to my house over the weekend and the fun began.

After a couple of hours of working on the street, I finally got the truck started and backed into my driveway. First thing to go was the aluminium bullbar and spotlight. The stock bar isn't perfect and the silver paint went on when it was a bit humid, but it wouldn't look right if it was perfect.

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I cleaned up the tray and put the jack and tools were they belong, and then my helper and I cracked a beer.
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Its bulldog approved!

Next will be a general clean and tidy up of things like the redundant air brakes and wiring, and a diagnosis of what exactly I have to begin with.
 
It lives! Hopefully it's got good oil pressure ;)
 
Hopefully it's got good oil pressure ;)

Me too! It took all of the batteries 660 CCA to get it going which I'm hoping is a sign of good compression, but I wasn't running it too long or hard until I've given the engine the once over.

you cracked a beer AFTER working on the tojo? unusual style you have ;)

Fridge was too far away!

I did most of the work on the street, five doors down, outside someone else's house, and they have kids, so I was behaving. But I did learn the guy there use to have a 45 and he helped me get it going, so that was pretty cool.
 
Pulled the spare tyre out from underneath and decided to pull it apart.
When that much rust falls out by itself, things aren't off to a good start. Most of that came off the rust band, so I guess it did its job.
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And when there's chunks stuck to the tyre, you know the wheel isn't going to be in the best shape. The split bead reduces down to half its thickness near the edge ( the part that goes onto the tyre bead) and with out cleaning the rust flakes off I've already found a hole, so I think this one is toast.

On the upside, I've learnt how to split rims, so maybe I'll have a go at mounting those 255/85r16's that the tyre shops tell me can't be mounted.

Thankfully split rims are easy to come by here, the big question is whether I go hub cap or not. Haven't seen too many Australian sales brochure pics of 45's with hubcaps, so not sure.
 
Is it that particular size tyre they won't fit or any tyre because of the rims?
I had no trouble getting a different size tyre fitted on my split rims.
 
Is it that particular size tyre they won't fit or any tyre because of the rims?

Its just that particular size. It works out at being close to 33' tyre, but the width of the tyre is wider than they are comfortable with.

I'm probably going to go with 235/85r16 anyway as its closer to the stock size and will fit between the frame rails
 
I've still got splitties for ya mate.
 
I've still got splitties for ya mate.

I think I'm going to need them sooner rather than later.

So, had a bit of a bad week.

Wife was told her role was redundant and that she may have to take a severance package. An hour later I was told that the client had changed their priorities and that I would be finishing up on my current project. Damnit! We work for separate companies and in completely different fields.

But the upside of that is I was told I needed to get the 45 back on the road. Winning!

One of the things I need to do is paint the floors. The previous owner painted them and its flaking and the wrong colour.
So began the first of many, "While your doing that", chain of events.

After reading of Dan's ( Cult45's) dramas with the fuel tank I pulled mine and gave it a good inspection. After seeing Dan's, and knowing my truck had been sitting for a while and had come off a farm I was expecting the worst. I opened it up and found the fuel level indicator looked fairly new and moved freely and the inside of the tank was clean and free of rust and debris. Not sure what the story is but I'm happy to not need to clean it.
I cleaned up the outside and gave it a coat of paint to tidy up the PO overspray.

Moved on to vacuuming the floors and started to remove the heater when it started to rain which halted proceedings.
 
Forgot photos of the floor.

And I resurrected the parts washer I pulled from a dumpster, I think its going to come in handy.

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Righto I'll be back mid next week and we'll make this happen. Shame about the job situation, but I'm a firm believer that something better will happen because of this 'bad' situation. Damn those floors are clean! Good news about the tank!
 
Big thanks to Dan (Cult45) for the set of split rims. Will be cleaned up over the next couple of weeks in anticipation of new boots.
 
Its been a busy last few weeks. I had the wheels Dan ( Cult45) gave me, sand blasted and I repainted them. New set 235/85r16 BFG All Terrains fitted with new tubes and bands and a matching spare.
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In a case of "while I'm in there" I pulled everything from the lower edge of the dashboard out and cleaned it and or painted it. So that was the steering column, pedals, heater, fuel tank. Also ran new fuel line and filters all the way from tank to carb.
This isn't a resto as I want to keep as much of the cars character as possible, but the PO had sprayed the floor with green paint and there was over spray on a lot of things. Next thing on the shopping list for the interior is new door and window seals/channels.
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With this all buttoned up I was beginning to wonder about the engine. It would only run with the choke knob all the way out and I was getting concerned that I had low compression. With the help of Peter ( 84 Troopy) we did a compression test and came up with the following numbers:
1-133
2-130
3-140
4-136
5-130
6-130
Which seem to be ok. We scratched our head (and drank more beer) for a bit trying to figure out the carb adjustments, and came to the conclusion that neither of us really knew what we were doing, and we should probably call it quits.

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Five minutes after Peter left, Dan turned up and helped me get it idling better and determine that the timing is out.

Now its running a bit better my next course of action is to flush the cooling and oil system, new oil, leads and plugs, maybe cap and rotor and try to get it running smoothly and determine what is going on with the alternator. Any one know what a noise suppressor is wired into the voltage regulator.

Big thanks to Peter and Dan for their help yesterday afternoon, its slowly getting there!
 
Well the only thing I helped with was a jump start. Glad you and Dan made some progress with that carby. The ute is looking good Sneak.
 
Apparently missed you by two minutes Pete!
 

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