Npulver's 71 Fj55 Build "Sea Unicorn" (1 Viewer)

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The classic is great wheelin and great people. Lots of cruiser heads come year after year, come on up and visit us Pablo!
 
Sweet pig! I remember seeing it for sale years back. Nice work tackling all the rust. Can't wait to see it on the road again. I thought the pig might have sold out of state until I saw your build thread here last fall!

I'm in Rapid as well. The Dakota Territory Cruisers are having the annual dinner and club run on the 21st this month, it would be cool to have another cruiser around to offset all the dang mini trucks!

Pm me your email and I'll forward the info. If your interested.

I'm actually part of the email chain for DTC, went to a few meeting, seems most of you guys are mostly rock crawlers and that's not really my thing (tried it once....I like keeping my vehicles pretty lol) Unfortunately the current speed I'm running the pig will be down the rest of this year. :(

Sweet you guys are in Rapid City! I took my family to the BFCC in 2009 (I think I got the year correct). We had a great time! THe wife and I were talking about making it back out this summer if we can plan for it.

You should definitely come on up! Tons of things to see off the beaten path. Let us know if you come up, would love to have a beer or two with ya.
 
I hear ya! The rock crawling trails are a little tuff on equipment! The roads that access them are fun routes thru the Hills as well. My work truck gets down most of the trails and I can bypass most of the bad stuff.

I grew up in my dads photography business so I just like being out wheelin and taking photos.

Anyways high jack over, sweet build you have going, been following your thread for awhile now. Looking forward to your updates on the 55.
 
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BACK IN THE SADDLE!!!!

After talking to some buddies i found out that one of them recently just purchased a Miller 211 and said i could borrow it. (super cool!)



Well after getting some "decent" weather (30-40's) I hit the garage. Back to screw things up so you guys following in my foot steps dont do the same thing! First thing was first, try to get a front body mount back in so i can let it support its weight so i can start cutting out more braces.

Got the old one cut out the rest of the way



bolt was seized in, had to take a sledge to get her back through the mount.





and some of the extra earth that was in there AFTER vacuuming out the majority of it...jesus!



Here the mount is laid into place and im notching what needs to be notched. This is when i found out that my rocker is EVER so slightly tipped inwards when i welded it in. GREAT....:bang:



So i had to get a little more creative on how to solve the issue without cutting the rocker back out. Problem with the rocker being tipped ever so slight is the body mount doesnt sit flush with the rocker when its where it needs to be level for the floor. So i modified slightly.



simple pie cut to move the mounting portion in a little. (glad im learning what NOT to do on the driver side :doh:)



A little welding a some clean up grinding, and we have a somewhat normal again BobM piece...lol

Now the body mount is setup where it needs to be. did some test welding on some scrap pieces that were cut off from notching body mount and floor pan. Think i have that nailed down. Just need to do a little more cleaning up of rust where the floor meets the rocker and ill be on my way!
 
Well I'm stuck lol. After laying under the pig for a hour or so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The front body mount isn't quite lining up with the floor. If i make one side work the other side is to angled. Any thoughts guys?

(Don't mind my hack job...)







I can get everything to line up but the inside edge of the mount with the floor. At first I though it was from the angle modification I did to the rocker. But if I pull inside edge up the the front edge is too high?

I left the front "guide" piece on the firewall to give me a reference to where the mount needs to flush up with. Looking side to side at the factory mount it seems I'm positioned correctly angle wise (rocker to body to frame mount angle) if that makes sense. I can take pictures if you need more info.
 
Not a fancy fix, but if you can't change or fix the problem, then just cut off the weld flange and make a flange that fits up to the floor. In other words, make it fit. Weld it up and put your favorite coating on it.

Make sure nothing else is going on, that would effect that misalignment.

Good luck with it!
 
Well, after a few days of messing around with the pig i have thing somewhat figured out, and im moving along. it isnt the prettiest fixes in the world, but all said and done, with some grinding, you wont be able to tell (much) that it was ever touched. (once painted..)

After talking back and forth with Bobm, one of the main issues with my front body mount was i cut too much original body mount out. (Dont do that people following in my footstep!) So basically i had to put the floor board (new one) back into place and eyeball and adjust it to work (its not perfect but you wont be able to tell.) Only issue i now have is i have to create my own closed end piece.

As you can see in the picture i am not a welder, haha. Also if you look at the inside portion of the mount you can see its not attached to anything. That is where i will have to create a new closed in part.



And i cheated the floor support and cut it shorter than bob intended so i didnt have to cut out my seat mounts.



Pretty much where im at now. The inside kick panel needs to be cut out (above the front floor support) I should have cut it out before putting the floor support in but got antsy to weld it in once i got it figure out.
 
Goood job npulver. Post up some more pics of the front body mount if you can. I just ordered the two front ones from BobM.

Not sure if you've been watching. Took some extra pictures for you.



 
Yes, I've been watching. Those pics will help a ton.
 
Man that looks like fun! Not to change the subject, but that's an interesting route for your exhaust. Keep going, I think I have to address my kick panel some day too.
 
Man that looks like fun! Not to change the subject, but that's an interesting route for your exhaust. Keep going, I think I have to address my kick panel some day too.

I hate the routing of the exhaust, it was a previous owners doing. The exhaust will stay the same for now, however with the 5.3 chevy get stuck in there, The exhaust will be considerably different...since there will be a turbo attached.

On a more related note with the body work going on. 3 steps forward 5 steps back! Luckily since ive done this once before i know what not to do.

Last night i decided that since the rocker was mostly welded in, but not fully and before i go any farther with my body mounts ect. Figured now would be a good time to see if my body lines match up.

Well, i dont have the bad picture of it NOT lining up. When i did the patch panel to my rear wheel well corner it screwed up any factory hint of where the rocker needed to be placed in the back. When i cut the patch panel it looked to be correct and matched the body lines so i went off of that. Well it was a 1/2 inch to high! :bang:

Front door would close, rear door was hitting at the bottom door opening (my patch panel) The body line gap to the bottom of the door was a 1/2 inch too high as well.

So i took BobM's advice and completely cut my rocker out again! :doh:

After some measuring between the driver and passenger sides, and seeing how high i was on the rear part of the rocker, i cut the patch panel seam and lowered everything half an inch. I then went back and tack welded everything together and refitted the doors. Body lines are near perfect now. The rocker just needs to come outwards about a 1/4 inch and i'll be perfect with the rocker! Then im back where i was!

Some pictures of the doors bolted up after tacking the rocker back in place.







Spent about 45 mins just trying to get the rear door to align properly (dang sagging hinges!!!!) Midgainc will have a customer if hes still around when im ready. Bad news is when putting my front door on, i realized i have the common bottom hinge door split. :crybaby: So more work there later.

Sorry long winded, Have a good day guys!
 
BTW. Fully assembled doors are heavy and suck to put on by yourself...ugh.
 
Also have been collecting NOS stuff from the dealer while its still available. Anybody else have any cool body parts that they have NOS numbers for?

 
Wow. That is a lot of tedious work and I'm guessing you really did bang your head against a wall:confused:
Your rig is looking great though, and you're thread is definitely helping (at least me) those who are following.

She's gonna be a beaut!
 
Good Job! Spacing on the doors, does look perfect.

I bought FJ40 side marker lights for the 55 rear marker lights. If I remember correctly, can only buy the left side, so you have to cut new drain slots in the gasket and fill the top slots, on the right side. If you want them, I'll look for the number.

You show a lot of patience in taking that all apart and starting over. Something I lack in.
 
Talk to dealer just ordered it. Little cheaper on line but worth it to order from local dealer.
 
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