Build Pete the Old Prospector

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Drove it to work and back today. My bootyfab rear hatch field repair has failed, so I need to get after that. And it's dirty. But other than that it's completely fine.

Have been doing a lot of other things lately, namely paint on the house and learning CW to hopefully get out and do some POTA work over the summer (maybe?). It all started with a little peeling at the bottom of one wall, which ASMRd its way into full-on scraping and learning how to float stucco for repairs. Holy crap what have I gotten myself into... probably months of weekends just doing paint.

But taking inspiration from Mark's @65swb45 adventures in painting his shop, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

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majdomo said:
Drove it to work and back today. My bootyfab rear hatch field repair has failed, so I need to get after that. And it's dirty. But other than that it's completely fine.

Have been doing a lot of other things lately, namely paint on the house and learning CW to hopefully get out and do some POTA work over the summer (maybe?). It all started with a little peeling at the bottom of one wall, which ASMRd its way into full-on scraping and learning how to float stucco for repairs. Holy crap what have I gotten myself into... probably months of weekends just doing paint.

But taking inspiration from Mark's @65swb45 adventures in painting his shop, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

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Houses are like businesses, marriages, children and trucks: they will all take as much attention as you can give them. As long as you make sure you are giving yourself the proper attention as well, all is good.😊
 
Still more paint work, still less driving the 40. I have been the household IT department, the gardener, the handyman, and the painter all in the same day today, but nothing on the rigs. The 60 is sitting for the next week or two, just to save a few pennies on gas taking it to and from work, and while I did mean to get out there in the 40 today, was not meant to be - trips to Home Depot, Dunn Edwards and the local hardware store all came at different times during the day, and the rig was blocked by my wife's car. I did see a janky 40 parked in front of the Dunn Edwards that was half Bondo and half ??, but the guy had a cool dog.

BUT - the neighbor's AC is humming (makes me happy to hear because that means its close to nice weather and long days), stucco repair is done on two of three sides of the house that need it, I am now running Debian 13 on one of these old MacBook Airs we've had kicking around the house, I replaced the battery in my wife's MacBook Pro (with a little help from ifixit.com), listed a bunch of our old Apple stuff on eBay, and my ham radio setup is going completely QRP in anticipation of getting out to the parks for POTA this summer. Which will give me a great excuse to get in the rigs and go do some stuff!
 
Find myself with some time on my own this weekend and decided to catch up on a couple of gearhead classics that the family would never watch, both from 1971 - Vanishing Point (with a small part for Dean Jagger, the original Gen. Waverly, credited as The Prospector!) and Two-Lane Blacktop starring none other than this guy:



...which led down a rabbit hole of how f*cked up his life was around this time. I always thought of him as the chill guy that sang folk songs, but apparently he had a really rough time in the mid-late '60s with heroin in particular.

Things that seem to present fully formed have a history that can be completely contrary to what you think they are. Been thinking a lot about that lately.
 
majdomo said:
Find myself with some time on my own this weekend and decided to catch up on a couple of gearhead classics that the family would never watch, both from 1971 - Vanishing Point (with a small part for Dean Jagger, the original Gen. Waverly, credited as The Prospector!) and Two-Lane Blacktop starring none other than this guy:



...which led down a rabbit hole of how f*cked up his life was around this time. I always thought of him as the chill guy that sang folk songs, but apparently he had a really rough time in the mid-late '60s with heroin in particular.

Things that seem to present fully formed have a history that can be completely contrary to what you think they are. Been thinking a lot about that lately.
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You might be interested to read James Hillman’s The Soul’s Code, which has to do with authenticity, and some of the ways we all participate in shaping perceptions of ourselves to some degree on our journeys of discovering who each of us authentically is.
 
65swb45 said:
You might be interested to read James Hillman’s The Soul’s Code, which has to do with authenticity, and some of the ways we all participate in shaping perceptions of ourselves to some degree on our journeys of discovering who each of us authentically is.
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Book requested from the other campus :)
 
More accidental 1971 that I've never seen before... I *might* have been lucky enough to hear a few of these around a campfire.

 
Decided that it's time to get some proper wheels and tires, and went with some new US Wheel 16x7 wagon wheels that will be here next week, along with some new 235/85s and a shackle lift thanks to @65swb45. It's not the most glamorous suspension setup but it should get me by. This will also allow me to move the current (good but 15") tires over to the T4R, which needs them as well.

The original plan was very complicated and involved multiple sets of wheels, tires, and trucks, but would have cost an arm and a leg in tire shop time and would have put 31x10.5s on the current 15" wheels. Lots of guys run those just fine, however I really like the pizza cutter look and I sort of cheaped out out of the tall and skinnies on my first 40, and thought this would be a better way to go based on my chat with Mark last week. That and I swore I wouldn't go on another offroad adventure without doing something about the suspension. It was the 27th solid boulder scrape on the diff housing that convinced me.

I'm also going to do the upholstery, but not until later in the summer. No reason to wait other than I don't have a ton of weekend time with the paint project, and want to spread out the spending pain :)
 
Wheels loaded up in the 60, tires in the T4R. Going to make 2 trips to the tire store tomorrow, and one trip home with new 235/85 R16s mounted on the wagon wheels. After that it's installing the shackle lift, swapping out the wheels, and taking photos for everyone to check out! Oh, and new bump stops to protect the body, of course.

I was also looking through the garage, doing an inventory of my camping gear as I worked through last weekend's garage cleanout, and saw my really nice Therm-A-Rest Mondoking just sitting there. And the thought crossed my mind... hmm.. that would be really nice on a platform in the 40. I should see about how to do that! Then the reality hits of needing to deal with the evap in the center section of the seat, which turned into low-key looking for some earlier bench seats, and some tech searching for how to do an evap delete. We'll see if it goes anywhere, probably not, but who knows.
 
Done! Looks great and drives awesome! Certainly has more "presence" with a bit more height. I couldn't tell you how much I picked up, but it was enough to have the roof kiss the garage door as I was pulling out. That was before I noticed the shop had put 45 psi into the tires, bringing it down to a more normal 35 made it clear.

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I put the new wheel on the spare, will have to do some tech searching to see how to get it to clear the hinge. It's rubbing just a little bit, put a couple of washers back there and that helped. May just need more washers.

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The shackles were take-offs from the Karma Cruiser from Mark @65swb45, wheels are 16x7 wagon wheels from @dvsko after he upgraded to 17s, and tires are Kumho Roadventure 235/85 R16s from Walmart on sale, 5 for about $635 shipped with CA tax. Spare is a US Wheel 16x7 from Summit.

Tech notes - I bought a set of rubber bushings from Cruiser Teq, but the ones they sent were for the later spring eyes at 35mm. These are 25mm, and the ID for the bolt is a tiny bit smaller than the 5/8" bolts (roughly 16mm) that these take. The old ones were in decent shape, so I just hogged them out with a drill. Not very classy but it works, I may see if I can find the proper bushings later. No, probably not.

The only other thing it needs is the driver's front U-bolts are kind of bent down at the bottom. Yes, you can get some fancy spring plates that protect the bolts..and I should probably do that... eventually.
 
Now for the freeway test!
 
65swb45 said:
Now for the freeway test!
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My bet is that my speedo is now correct. It has read about 10% too fast since I got the rig, and these are just about 10% bigger than the wheel/tire combo I had previous. Looks kind of rain-adjacent up the hill here so it may have to wait, but I have to go to the west side for a family get-together tomorrow and may take the 40 as a shakedown.
 
Confirmed speedo is now bang on correct and drivetrain calmed considerably on the freeway. But I now have all manner of new rattles coming from the spare tire carrier. I’ll get after that later.

For now, enjoy the FJ40 fish out of water shot from Santa Monica, where (insert political comment here)….

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majdomo said:
Confirmed speedo is now bang on correct and drivetrain calmed considerably on the freeway. But I now have all manner of new rattles coming from the spare tire carrier. I’ll get after that later.

For now, enjoy the FJ40 fish out of water shot from Santa Monica, where (insert political comment here)….

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…you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!
 
As far as the tire carrier, I have found the 72-76 factory plates to be sub-standard for anything larger than a stock spare. The 71 and older ones are much more robust, and the 77+ changed completely to the tubular design.

I have wondered from time to time if those intermediate plates would benefit from a diagonal brace welded on the backside of the plate, running from the outside corner by the lower hinge up to the rubber cushion, but no one has ever hired me to make one, and I don’t run one of those carriers myself.
 
65swb45 said:
As far as the tire carrier, I have found the 72-76 factory plates to be sub-standard for anything larger than a stock spare. The 71 and older ones are much more robust, and the 77+ changed completely to the tubular design.

I have wondered from time to time if those intermediate plates would benefit from a diagonal brace welded on the backside of the plate, running from the outside corner by the lower hinge up to the rubber cushion, but no one has ever hired me to make one, and I don’t run one of those carriers myself.
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We should look at metal gluing some angle iron to the back. It's very flexy and likely greatly contributes to the rattling. Plus maybe zapping a bead on the hook, which is well worn from years of use right where it latches in.

Or just buying a 71 and earlier plate, lol..
 
majdomo said:
We should look at metal gluing some angle iron to the back. It's very flexy and likely greatly contributes to the rattling. Plus maybe zapping a bead on the hook, which is well worn from years of use right where it latches in.

Or just buying a 71 and earlier plate, lol..
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If you want to play around with an earlier plate, I’ve got a dozen more than I can use lining the driveway. I’d be happy to donate one to the experiment.
 
Will have to come down and do a lunch visit soon.. I'll get something on the schedule!

EDIT - there is also a project in figuring out how to build storage behind that thing. I have one of those T-shaped lug wrenches but have no idea how you attached it to the back of the plate. Plus there's probably other stuff that can go back there for when you're hanging out in camp, or the trick safety siphon, etc.
 
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