Builds POTM - March, 2014 - Javelina By Pablo Cruise (3 Viewers)

[scrapdaddy]

Pablo,

I like that lock gasket. I'm going to order one. Innovative thinking, something you need to do, owning a 55.

 

[PabloCruise]

License plate lights next:

 

[PabloCruise]

Pablo,

I like that lock gasket. I'm going to order one. Innovative thinking, something you need to do, owning a 55.

Ige, aka @nuclearlemon has a famous quote, something along the lines of, It's a Pig, we have to make our own solutions, or solve our own problems.

Very true...

 

[PabloCruise]

I knew the rest of the tailgate was going to be a challenge, so I switched to the front for some low-hanging fruit. I needed some easy wins, so I put headlight rings and grille on. I had these powder coated for durability, but I was not crazy about the color. It turns out I would change this down the road...

 

[PabloCruise]

Next up is the linkage that connects the exterior tailgate handle to the internal latches at each side of the tailgate.

 

[PabloCruise]

In the last of the above images, you can see the linkage connected to the handle, and then out to the 2 latches. The last connection will connect to the window motor assembly so the tailgate cannot be opened until the window is lowered. It is hard to see the linkage on the upper right side of the motor assembly here. Getting this mechanism in and out of the tailgate is always a puzzle!

Then it is time to join up the wires from the dash switch and the tailgate switch to the electric motor. One step closer...

 

[PabloCruise]

Next up is getting ready for glass. Every step on the tailgate got a little trickier...
I ordered a lot of rubber from John at SloCruisers, including the tailgate window runs and the lower tailgate outer window wipe which is a combined piece with the tailgate weather strip.

First I glued in the window runs. These would have to come back out, as I got some of the early pieces which did not have the felt lining for the glass to ride on. Nothing like doing things twice - you do it much quicker the second time!

The outer tailgate window whisker strip requires two metal strips that fasten in place via push through clips. I did not have these metal strips, but Ige was cool enough to get me some she had in surplus - thank you Ige! I ordered some plastic push-in fasteners that are used on a 4-Runner tailgate window strip and it worked well, but they are difficult to push in when you are in that narrow opening.

For the inner whisker strip I got some generic flat stock from Restoration Specialties. I am not going to bother looking up the part #, because if I need this in the future I would rely on BD Specialties in Denver. I have some surplus of this material, as I bought enough to do the inside and outside of all four door windows, and then changed to a nicer outer whisker strip design that has a wiper/squeegee built in. Let me know if you want what is left of the flat whisker stock and I can see what I have left.

I cut the inner strip to length. Then I drilled holes through so I could affix it using the little metal push-through clips that Toyota used. Lining these up was tedious at best. If I did it again I was use an adhesive and forget drilling for clips. I hope this helps someone else! Sorry the amera had a hard time focusing on the clips in these images.

 

[PabloCruise]

Here is the p/n for the push-in clips from 4-Runner. I would get these started in their hole through the metal strip, rubber, and then finally the hole in the tailgate and then push them home with a screwdriver.

The last item was gluing the tailgate weatherstrip to the lower tailgate. These pieces are one with the outer window whisker strip, so it is a cumbersome piece to manage.

Getting the tailgate ready for glass took some patience and coordination, I hope this detail can help someone!

 

[PabloCruise]

Next up was putting on a few peripherals: mirrors, marker lights, front turn signals, etc.

Someone was selling some new, repro 55 front signals, later style ('76 and up) in our classifieds after they got them by accident. It was either get some nice '74 front turn signals, or get these. I opted for these...

 

[PabloCruise]

I went for the front bumper next. I had the bumper and the frame extensions powder coated. The frame extensions are the longer ones for the PTO winch (more on that winch later). The bumper stickers I made from the Pig in Moab pictures finished off the front bumper install.

 

[PabloCruise]

Right about this time - May of 2012, there was a gathering of mighty Pigs in northern Colorado.

Jason/Scorcher1967 had been restoring a Pig for a client from Los Angeles, CA https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/project-moviestar.285185/page-11. If memory serves me right, it was her Dad's Pig. She works in the film industry and wanted to come out and film some Pigs, as well as the people who keep these Iron Pigs on the road for a film project she is doing. https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/iron-pig-resto-documentary-steel-soul-shooting-this-weekend.594825/ and

Ige and Pighead brought 2 Pigs up, Paul and Julie brought their nice V8 Pig, and I got mine out on the road (still with no windows, handles, etc.). It was a great time! Afterwards we helped Jason put Elyse's Pig body on the frame and line up body mounts.

 

[PabloCruise]

While we were hanging out at Jason's, Ige and Pighead were talking about the '69 Pig grilles, and how they had provisions for the equally rare grille-mounted marker lights. Pighead showed me the example mounted on his Pig. I thought that was pretty cool but thought I would never find a '69 Pig grille.

A short time later I heard Ige and Greg found a '69 Pig grille in a Denver junkyard and Pighead would sell me his grill, complete with marker lights! That sounded pretty darn cool! One of the lenses was cracked, so as I was thinking of get the cracked lens looking better, I remembered someone at Jason's asking if an amber side marker light would fit the grille. I pulled one of the Pig side marker lights from the front (amber) and found out that sure enough - they fit!

I straightened the grille out from a few minor creases and then got it blasted for powder coat.

 

[PabloCruise]

As I comb through my pictures in chronological order, it seems like I was getting hung up on lighting and lenses at about this time...

As I was working on the front grille and marker light lenses for the front grille, I found a compound for polishing lenses, so I went back the rear marker reflectors and tried to clean them up so I could use them. Unfortunately, they just did not come back, But I did find another reflector I like better, as it was a little darker. I found them at NAPA and opted to go with these for my rear reflectors.

 

[PabloCruise]

After all the time spent on reflectors, I needed to get back down to some basics. Things like door hardware and glass were past time to put in. I got the door handle gaskets from John at SLO-Cruisers.

I got the rear door fixed glass from SLO-Cruisers as well, and felt that after tackling the tailgate, I should move on to the rear doors, and finish with the front doors. In my mind the front doors would be less complex than the rear doors as the fronts did not have any fixed glass to mess with. My plan was to install the fixed glass, and then start mounting the whisker strips for the glass that rolls up and down.

This sounded like a good plan, until I got into it and realized that installing that fixed glass is probably a worse PITA than putting a tailgate together. You basically need 8 arms to do everything simultaneously. Once the fixed glass is in its rubber and slid all the way in place, you then need the divider bar in place, whisker strips in, window run installed and the retractable glass ready to go into the window run once the divider bar is screwed into place with those tiny little screws the factory used.

I got started and realized I either installed the rubber backwards, or on the wrong side and got concerned I was going to tear the fixed glass rubber installing these. In case you have not priced them, they are not cheap. I then realized I had somehow gotten 2 of the same side, so I put a stop to things and emailed John. He is outstanding to deal with and promptly arranged to exchange the fixed glass rubber so I had one of each side.

 

[PabloCruise]

I was trying to come up with a new plan for installing window glass. I was not sure if I had the skills to pull off getting the glass in the rear doors. I also needed some new rubber for the glass to sit in for the regulator trays. The rubber i had taken off when dis-assembling was really dry. Several times before the restoration I had someone roll down the back window and it separated from the regulator. Then you could no longer roll the window back up until you pulled the door panel and put the glass back in the regulator. PITA...

A friend of mine owns a repair shop and gave me some great advice - if there is something I am not good at, and I do not enjoy it, hire it out. He gave me a number for a glass guy that does lots of old restorations - street rods, hot rods, etc. I called him up and we got together so he could look at the Pig glass. He had several great ideas. He said he had strips of "glass tape" - thin strips of rubber that is tacky on both sides. This would fix the glass to the regulator. He recommended ditching the little Toyota clips for the window whisker strips and just using an adhesive. His last bit of wisdom was to use an outer window wiper that had felt and a squeegee to keep more moisture and debris out of the inner door.

Right about this time, Ige was posting about a store in Denver called BD Specialties. I looked through their catalog and found that they had some really cool supplies! I found the outer window wiper squeegee along with a few other things. I went down to Denver one weekday (took my Birthday off and went to buy myself some presents).

I posted about the pieces I sourced here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/door-window-felts.592098/page-3#post-8102599
If that link does not work, look at post 51 in this thread: https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/door-window-felts.592098/

Alright, I took the day off (since my Birthday was this week) and drove down to Denver and bought the Pig some presents...

Heather at B-D was very cool, very helpful. These guys rock!

For the outer window felt, I went with the WEA/75001371: http://www.b-dco.com/ecom/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1822
It had felt on the side that wipes the window, so I hope it fits well.

I went with a very similar bulb seal to what Ige listed, but there was a p/n 1364 that was similar size, lower price. STA/75001364
http://www.b-dco.com/ecom/shop/item.aspx?itemid=30
$52.25 for a 24' coil. She sold me a 12' coil, and I only need about 4' for the vertical around the tailgate opening. I'll trim and install and then if someone else can use some, let me know!

For the weatherstrip that goes under the bottom of the tailgate opening, we spec'd out AUV/4742: http://www.b-dco.com/ecom/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1214 Looked like a good match to what was on there

I did not go with the dense tee rubber for the cowl seal. The area that would adhere is so narrow, I think it would fold over and fail. She gave me a sample of D-seal WEA/CS104: http://www.b-dco.com/ecom/shop/item.aspx?itemid=304 that I will try for size when I get a minute.

Hope that helps!

Here is the product I chose - Glass Felt Strip: http://www.b-dco.com/ecom/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1822

I think it worked well. Now to see what images I have on file of this installed...

 

[PabloCruise]

Amazingly, I do not have any pics of the outer window whisker strip/squeegee once it was installed. It is virtually invisible, so that is nice.

I did go back and take a picture of the outer window felt/wiper/squeegee.

Some pics of the bulb seal I got for the sides of the lower tailgate opening and the weatherstrip used at the bottom of the tailgate opening. Tailgate is now sealed up!

 

[PabloCruise]

I found a set of open fender bib grilles and got those and the '69 grille powder coated in a brighter silver than the previous grille. I like the color! I found some side marker lights and some repro amber lenses, looks good! You can buy new rear side marker lights from Toyota, but they will have the red lenses. Front side marker lights w/ amber lens NLA from Toyota.

 

[PabloCruise]

Next up is the back seat: hinges, trim ring around the upper back seat, latch mechanism.

The PO did something weird with the cable that releases the bottom to fold forward, I am not going to lose sleep over it.

 

[tucker74]

Looks like the pull is just oriented wrong, flip the arm where you push the tab towards the outside and it pulls the cable.

Tucker

 

[PabloCruise]

Looks like the pull is just oriented wrong, flip the arm where you push the tab towards the outside and it pulls the cable.

Tucker

Hmm... Then it would not be pulling in a straight line from the able? I'll go back and take a look at how I mounted the pull handle.

Not sure how the PO put such a kink in the cable?