OEM Build, Frame Off, Cart Wheeled, Rebuilding Again (1 Viewer)

[snivilous]

If you skipped all the painting you could definitely be done. With that cardboard sheet screwed to the wall it feels like an episode of monster garage.

Oh yea for sure, probably 90% of the remaining tasks are painting. There's really only 3 major things that aren't paint related, which is finishing the cowling mounts and welding them to the cage, installing the body corner, and making a new tire carrier. Kinda sucks it's mainly painting left since it takes so long, but at least the painting doesn't restrict my ability to drive it for the most part.

 

[snivilous]

Been having some issues with orange peel, not sure what's causing it.... There were two drips of paint on one of the doors, so I sanded it down and applied another final coat and that coat totally destroyed the paint job, and then same thing happened to the second coat on the passenger side of the body. I'm now trying some different techniques to see what the issue is, from now on I've been completely sealing the garage so there's no air flow at all during the actual painting, and going back to my technique at the beginning of doing lots of super thin passes and building it up. Today I applied another final coat to the messed up door, and a 3rd coat to the hood and followed that procedure and so far it looks fine (knock on wood). I guess the orange peel occurs when part of the paint dries faster than an adjacent spot, so I think I was getting carried away and going too heavy/slow on each pass before, where as with the thin fast strokes the paint is thin enough it all dries pretty evenly. Hopefully it helps...

I've also given all the previous coats at least 2 days since I've applied any fresh paint (up to today) so everything could fully cure which might of been an issue too. Assuming this coat on the door comes out fine, then both front doors are done, both fenders are done, windshield frame done, and the bib/bezel are done.

One of the body pieces that goes over the fender is mostly done, just need to paint the inside black, and the other one needs to be sanded and painted. Then the hood now has 3 coats of red, do at least one more, probably two with some sanding after the current one cures. The kick out air vents above have two coats of red so need one or two more. Cage needs to be primed and painted. Rear doors need to be sanded and painted on the outside. Body needs to be prepped and painted on the driver's side, and sanded a little and finished on the passenger side. Roof needs some more work and then painted, and the sides of the roof need to be prepped and painted.

Besides all the painting, I ordered steel yesterday and can pick that up once it's been cut and that will allow me to finalize the cage and yank it for paint, and then I can build the spare tire carrier off the rear bumper which should will be simple and fast.

I leave for a business trip later today and don't get back until late Saturday which kinda blows, once I'm back from that then it'll be crunch time since I leave for school a week from Sunday. I think if I time everything right I should be good to go and done. The main goals are to get the cage pulled once I get the steel in on Monday, and to paint the front of the body red so then the front body pieces can be mounted.

 

[sproggy]

Insanity!

 

[snivilous]

Got back from my business trip and went to town painting the body and hood yesterday! With so little time (6 days including today) to "finish" the truck, I decided to do a coat of paint every 2 hours, as per the instructions, so I did 4 coats of paint yesterday and effectively finished the body and hood.

Today I pulled all the tape off and will let the paint dry for awhile before I wet sand it.

The driver side hadn't been painted at all, so I prepped it, and then I sanded the passenger side down to get rid of the orange peel I had in a few spots.

The hood got sanded down in a few spots since I had previously put 3 coats on it, and then put another 3. Where the top of the hood folds under, I still need to paint those areas which I will do in a few days once it dries out, but the hood is done for all practical purposes!

We ordered an aluminum brazing kit last week called "Super Alloy 5" and tried it today. Today we tried it, and surprisingly it worked really well actually. I'll find someone in Utah, maybe one of my buddies, to go in with a TIG and fill everything in and then I'll sand it down, but for now the corner is fitted and essentially tacked into place. It's not pretty, but it's prettier than putting some cardboard there!

Rear doors, corner of the body, and the roof need to be painted. Picking up the steel to complete the last 1% of the cage and to build the tire carrier. Getting pretty close to finishing, which is good since I have 6 days to pull it off! Gonna try to have everything painted and dried by the end of the week, so on Friday/Saturday it'll just be reassembly and some test driving to make sure everything is good.

 

[snivilous]

Long story short I was in a rush to finish the truck, and everyone thought it would be better if I took a step back and didn't rush the truck to completion and then suddenly drive it 500 miles. I ended up driving to Utah with my girlfriend and my dad towed the FJ out on a flat bed a week later. Following that I didn't work on the 40 much between working and ramping up for school. Earlier in the year I went on a road trip with some guys to Dinosaur, CO but the trip flopped because most people couldn't keep up in the deep snow; a re-run of the trip got scheduled for this coming weekend so for the past two weeks or so I've been working through getting the FJ ready. Still LOTS to do to actually "finish" the truck, at least to a state matching the pre-rollover, but the truck is effectively now drivable as of yesterday.

The majority of remaining tasks I haven't completed, but the front end is now mostly bolted up (I will be painting the passenger side fender piece today which will finish the front end) and I painted most of the cage with the exception of the A-pillar areas that still need to be welded (aka the dash cage tie-ins and the grab handles, I don't have access to a good welder so they're not really painted). Yesterday I drove the truck around a bit and it's running totally fine so it should be ready to go on the trip to Dinosaur on Friday (about 600 miles round trip). I'll leave the roof off since I still don't have the driver's rear corner welded in and because of that the rear doors don't fit super well (plus the additional work of finding everything for the roof to bolt in and seal) and the roof is still black... Anyways, here are two pictures I snapped yesterday and one of a comparison from before the roll. Like I said, lots to do still, but at least the truck is drivable now!

 

[JBurt]

Haven't checked in in a while. Nice job with everything. I'm sure it feels good to have everything back together (or almost). Any updates lately?

Any chance you found the coolant leak on your 4runner?

 

[MOTOV8R]

That red looks great.

 

[snivilous]

Haven't checked in in a while. Nice job with everything. I'm sure it feels good to have everything back together (or almost). Any updates lately?

Any chance you found the coolant leak on your 4runner?

Thanks man! No updates really... I put the roof on and done a few hundred miles of trips. Still need to paint the roof and weld the corner in and get the rear doors to line up correctly, but otherwise the truck is running awesome. I have a picture thread here: Sniv's 77 FJ40 Picture Log I started awhile before I rolled it that I post in, but it's not really a build thread. I've thought about making a blog or something to condense all my trips into since I like writing about it, but not sure what to do since I plan on leaving the FJ stock and then working on the runner but it's annoying to have everything spread out. And as far as the runner is concerned, it's parked at my parent's house in CO since school started, so it won't get touched until the summer if even then, I'll probably wait until I graduate next fall and then probably do a 100% tear down of the entire truck and build it up once I have the money and no more school, don't worry, that will definitely get posted on T4R! Anyways, here's some pictures of the FJ from this weekend (taken from the above thread):