Preserving Miss Kitty, circa 1964 (5 Viewers)

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My first and second attempts at fitting thermoplastic into the taillight mold were tragic. The two different plastic sheets I ordered were way to thick and wouldn't form in the cup. I think a vacuum casting with thin material might work best, but have never done it before.
In other news, I had a Con-Ferr like rack fabricated, in aluminium, and picked it up today. I do like Toyota's and I'll bet such a rack has never been on a Prius before, even just strapped on for transport
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Yup. I’m going ‘62. I think the very rare ‘61 would’ve had the small, round hole in driver side apron and connected to the air breather.

Love this ‘old red LC!
 
What’s green in the last photo? :hmm:
 
daniel.watters said:
What’s green in the last photo? :hmm:
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Thanks! That green corner belongs to Stella, a '68 FJ40. She has an album but no build tread. But I probably should start one. Interesting developments this very weekend.
The story of her purchase follows.
 
Since you asked, Stella's start:
craigslist - 68 FJ40 in Seattle, $8k

(Not early by this forum's standards)

Edit: Stella has a thread in the 40's tech section now. It moves as slow this one.
 
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Tried some thermoplastic beads and used the inside of my one existing early tail light cone for a mold, and voila. Think I'll paint it black and call it good. Washers should hold it in place.
The original seemed to function mainly as a trap for mud and water, as will this one. The metal parts in mine were a corroded mess. Not going to go into production on this, it's easy DIY. Cost in materials, maybe $5 each if you buy a minimal pouch of 10 oz. of pellets.
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You get an A for effort and ingenuity. I might have to something similar with my 45 tail light buckets.
 
For some reason this project reminds me of Madonna.
 
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My winch project is stalled, allowing me to rationalize getting an engine hand crank.
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But now I need one of these. Image by @treerootCO

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Nice!
 
The base of the early OEM telescoping mirror arm was longer than some presently available. As luck would have it,
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@pardion had just the longer base. New parts swapped over fine, with just a little grinding on a bead intended to keep the collar on. This will give me a passenger side mirror, an option this rig has never had. Smooth backed mirrors would sure be nice, if I could find them.
 
A little bondo and those mirrors could be “smooth backed!”

:p
 
By George you may be right. People think it's a four letter word, but I count five.
 
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New tail light cone. Looks distressed already. Is it real, or is it Memorex?

EDIT. While I later learn later from Arne in post #113 that these painted black would not tolerate full sun, I still believed they would be fine installed in the cool Pacific Northwest shade of a truck. Forgot to factor in Climate Change. Portland Oregon hit Death Valley like record 116 degrees Monday (6-30-'21). Scrap this experiment. This cone was inside a truck with a full truck cover on.
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Promised @oregon fj a pair of early taillight cones in a semi-raw format. He drilled the necessary holes and here they are. Proof of concept, and they look nice. He even has original and intact brackets.
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He also had two kinds of mirror arms where they attach to the mirror, strait and curved (both old and OEM I think). One of them was a match for my early driver's side mirror. Thanks Arne.
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HelloKitty65 said:
He also had two kinds of mirror arms where they attach to the mirror, strait and curved (both old and OEM I think). One of them was a match for my early driver's side mirror. Thanks Arne.
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Cool! I was hoping the formerly red one was the one you needed. Very fitting!
 
Thanks @fj40au . Am hoping they'll ship stateside.
My grandparents hosted ANZAC pilots in their home when they were trained in the US, before shipping out to Europe (GB)?
 
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