Builds POTM - March, 2014 - Javelina By Pablo Cruise (2 Viewers)

[PabloCruise]

Pablo,


Great pictures and nothing boring about them. In your next installment, let us know what you did to the rod and it's cradle, to stop future rust. I'm thinking about powder coating the rod, then covering it in light coat of Super lube. Just thinking at this point.


Keep it coming, I'm enjoying every bit.

Okay, thanks Ron for letting me know I am not boring you all. I am home sick from work yesterday and today, but today had things I had to get done, so I'll see if I an bang out a few more updates.

For the lift mehanism, all we did was sand off all the surface rust and paint everything, inside and out. The Super Lube would have been a good idea! Although I have no desire to take that over back off. That was a pain.

I did find my scans from the FSM on the lift mechanism. Note the part where they use the block of wood to get things in place, this is a good idea...

 

[PabloCruise]

Very well documented build and it's an enjoyable read.
Please keep the updates coming!

Thanks! Good to know that my writing isn't driving people nuts.

I'll keep 'em coming!

 

[PabloCruise]

As the doors came off, I looked for cracks by the hinges:

 

[PabloCruise]

I took note of the window whisker strips and the associated fasteners.
The sun had really dried these out to the point that the felt had disintegrated in areas. I was wondering what to do about these pieces, so I ordered some strips from Restoration Specialties. By the time I finished, I would modify this plan somewhat. More on that later...

 

[PabloCruise]

The rear door fixed windows... What can I say about these?
They are a pain!
Be careful of the 2 little screws that secure the divider bar to the top of the door frame. They are pretty small, and the heads look like they could round out easily.
In the course of taking the passenger door apart to get the glass out, the fixed window glass just shattered. WTF?!? Luckily Ige - @nuclearlemon - had a spare and hooked a brother up. Thanks Ige!

My rubber was dry and cracked, so there was no saving it. I ended up getting the Slo Cruisers rubber for these. I appreciate all that John has done to provide these to us, but if my factory rubber were salvageable, I would have been better off reconditioning it.

 

[PabloCruise]

A few pics of the tailgate pieces to make sure I could put everything back together correctly.

The wire junction in the tailgate was disintegrating badly when I took the tailgate apart. Toyota still had these available when I put things back together!

 

[PabloCruise]

Plus, bonus material found in the tailgate!

 

[PabloCruise]

A few images of how the rear door mechanisms looked before dis-assembly:

 

[PabloCruise]

And then a few shots of the front door mechanisms...

If I can emphasize anything, buy a lot of little zip-loc baggies and label EVERYTHING! I was putting door mechanisms back together and the baggies were labeled 2010...

 

[PabloCruise]

At this point, everything was off the Pig, and we took her to bare metal.

I began to feel apprehension. Would I ever be able to get her back together???

 

[PabloCruise]

Pretty soon we would be ready for primer.

I don't know much about paint, but I tried to document everything we used...

 

[PabloCruise]

Now that she was in primer, guess what? More sanding! Oh Mylanta...

 

[PabloCruise]

About this time James, Rescue Wagon, let me know he was selling off some Cruiser parts, including the 2F hood from Ben's Pig. He asked me if I wanted it? Heck yeah!

So I let the painter know that we would have an extra hood to paint. How to get it down from Cheyenne to CO Springs? On the top of my mighty Civic of course!

The hood was not perfect. Remember, Ben's Pig flopped over hard. We had some more work to do...

 

[PabloCruise]

Not bad, eh?

 

[PabloCruise]

After untold hours of sanding, sanding and more sanding, the time came to buy paint! Of course I thought long and hard about painting the Pig with Chrysler's High Impact Panther Pink. I talked to the painter about this and he has heard enough goofy ideas in his time that he did not render his opinion one way or the other.

In the end, I went with Nebula Green and Cygnus White.

 

[PabloCruise]

After degreasing, wiping down and masking, into the booth she goes!

I watched, amazed, as color shot out of the gun onto my Pig. I could finally see some tangible results of all the sweat I had poured into the project. First came the base coat of color, then the clear coat.

Wow!

 

[PabloCruise]

Well that is about it for now.

Next posts will look a little at the interior, sound deadening, and an extra dome light for the rear of the Pig.

Thanks for reading!

 

[bobm]

Pablo, don't stop PLEASE tell us more. This is awesome.

Thanks Bob.

 

[Fitzgerald]

Finally got my TT today. Wonderful write up, well done!

 

[riderjgs]

TJ...great write up. You've inspired me. Always intended to do this on my project but once it was done, got too busy enjoying the Frankencruiser to get started. I've owned five to make one...just passed off the last of the other rigs to Pugslybell.
We have what are pretty much twins as far as external appearances go. We should get them together sometime...perhaps Cruise Moab?
Fair warning, as you've already experienced. They're never "done."