Project Mini Me (1 Viewer)

[audaciousduo]

I swapped over all the steering rods when I had an hour yesterday. One of the rod ends ends up tapered the wrong way when you flip them over. The bracket for the steering dampener to frame connection is also reversed but at least the threaded inserts are in there. Good thing I kept all the steering gear from the old 70. Its certainly good to have a doner vehicle if your going to attempt this.

 

[audaciousduo]

Brake Master

I measured out and drilled the holes for the brake master today. The placement of the holes are the same in relation to the embossing on both the left and right hand drives with the hole for the master being dead centre. The holes for the anchoring bolts are off set so some measuring and a construction paper template are required despite there being no hard lines to measure off. The patch for the right hand side is has a slight flanged edge on it and will get burned in tomorrow. Just the clutch master to go and then I have to tackle the dreaded wiper arm mounts and cold air intake.

 

[gifu]

How do you plan to sleeve the frame for the steering box?
Is it necessary to move the wiper arms? I mean, its a good idea for sure...
Can you take a couple more picts of the pedal box? And how it supports the dash? I'm gathering parts for a similar conversion and wondering how much of the missing parts can be fabricated or borrowed from another truck.

 

[audaciousduo]

How do you plan to sleeve the frame for the steering box?
Is it necessary to move the wiper arms? I mean, its a good idea for sure...
Can you take a couple more picts of the pedal box? And how it supports the dash? I'm gathering parts for a similar conversion and wondering how much of the missing parts can be fabricated or borrowed from another truck.

There doesn't appear to be a way to get the sleeves in the frame so I'm going to drill out one side to the outside diameter of the sleeving tube and slide them in. I'm going to insert two from each side on opposite corners, line them up and weld them in solid. I still have the entire LHD fire wall in one piece with the dash on it but I will take some detailed pictures of the peddle box for you when I disassemble it. I suppose it's not totally necessary to move the wiper arms if your OK with the rounded swath on the drivers side but I'm going to relocate them. The embossings for the heater box hole are both there under the cowl so I'll deal with that once I cut the RH side out and before I weld up the LH side. All the embossings for RHD and LHD are there it's a matter of careful measurements and drilling out spot welds. I still think this is easier than swapping the entire fire wall but time could prove me wrong.

 

[gifu]

Thanks!

So, I don't understand what spot welds you were drilling out in the beginning. I thought the pedal box and dash support were bolted in.

 

[audaciousduo]

They are but the brackets they bolt to are spot welded in place. The large one I removed covers part of the embossing for the cold air intake where the heater box would go on a LHD vehicle. There are some other brackets with studs on them that the heater box mounts to that I will likely have to move as well but I haven't got that far yet. I've got the clutch master moved and the old location welded up nicely, well almost. You always run out of gas for the welder on a Sunday! I'm hoping to have the wipers moved by the end of this weekend. The challenge is there are few hard corners to measure from so its a lot of scribing arcs from opposing points with a protractor to find the centre and working from there.

 

[audaciousduo]

Getting there.

I'm moving along from the RHD side to the LHD side. I moved the wiper motor yesterday and only have one captured nut in the centre of the fire wall to tack on before completing the LHD side. Next I will move the wiper arms and cold air vent. I hope to have all the modifications done by next weekend. I'm using Zero Rust as I go and am considering a top coat of Lizard Skin to keep the noise and heat down.

 

[audaciousduo]

Wiper relocation

Got the wiper posts relocated along with the motor. The posts were crazy simple. Cut a patch out of the old fire wall, lay it on top of the embossing and scribe around it. The embossings are the same and they fit exactly together when placing one on top of the other with no movement. Cut out the panel where you scribed the patch and weld in the new one. I used a dremel tool with a zip wheel and the patch fit perfect! I spotted it in ever half inch and welded between the spots in the same direction, cooling it down with an air hose every 4 or 5 beads. This keeps the panel from warping. Here are some pic's of the patch were the old RHD post was. I had to use a jewelers screw driver to pry it up and down to get it flush, the gap was that tight.

 

[audaciousduo]

Got the wiper posts relocated along with the motor. The posts were crazy simple. Cut a patch out of the old fire wall, lay it on top of the embossing and scribe around it. The embossings are the same and they fit exactly together when placing one on top of the other with no movement. Cut out the panel where you scribed the patch and weld in the new one. I used a dremel tool with a zip wheel and the patch fit perfect! I spotted it in ever half inch and welded between the spots in the same direction, cooling it down with an air hose every 4 or 5 beads. This keeps the panel from warping. Here are some pic's of the patch were the old RHD post was. I had to use a jewelers screw driver to pry it up and down to get it flush, the gap was that tight.

The black tint all over the white paint on the engine bay is over spray from painting the frame yearly in Japan. I guess they are not allowed to have any surface rust on the frame in Japan. The over spray is a pain!

 

[audaciousduo]

Wipers DONE!

I mocked it all up and it's all bang on! I dressed the welds, got down to 80 grit paper, hit the sheet metal with Picklex 20 and sprayed it with Zero rust. I didn't use any filler as its all under the cowl screen anyway. Most body shops wouldn't even dress the welds on a hidden panel let alone use filler. The reveal under the front window will need to be painted as there was some crazy roof rack on the truck before that was mounted under the original cowl screen that was cut? I'll be using the LHD one any way so the original one is scrap. The window reveal is just dent repair and a quick blend job if I decide to do it once its all back together.

The shiny patch on the right is where the old RHD wiper motor was. I need to drill some holes and weld on some captured nuts for the triangular mounting plate for the clutch master. Yes the cowl vents are also opposite, I know. I'm going to put in another baffle from the top so unless rain drops learn curve ball techniques it won't be a problem. The intake is far enough over there is still a good offset even without the extra baffle.

 

[audaciousduo]

Fresh air vent

Well, its don but what a crappy job to do. I'd rather go to the dentist. You have to cut a fair size patch out as there is a baffle inside that need to be there so water, leaves and mud don't drain into the cab. It's not as easy as cutting out the embossing. I suppose you could and then drill holes around the perimeter, weasel in the baffle and rosette weld it in. That was the original plan but I chose to just weld in the whole patch rather than mess around drilling out more spot welds just to weld them back up. I'm not sure if its possible to slide it in there through the cut out anyway. Welding in the patch was a pain. You have to be a bit of a contortionist and the hot sparks falling on your chest is no fun. I have a new third nipple as a result. You need to do three things when welding, get your head where you can see the weld, get your hands where you can control the weld and get comfortable. There is no getting comfortable welding upside down. I just ruff dressed the welds as they don't need to be show quality just sound. Shot it with Zero Rust for now. The bird poop weld in the corner is where the darn wheel burned a small hole on the sharp corner. I'll take the dermal to it later, I'm done for tonight. Besides, have to watch my team, The Calgary Flames loose.

OK I take it back The Flames won, 7 - 2 over the Black hawks. I patched up the old fresh air intake and has to cut the old baffle loose as it was in the way of the wiper linkage. I also wanted to paint the back of the patch where the old wiper motor was with zero rust. I had to crumple up the old baffle to get it out so I guess the large patch that includes the baffle is the best way. If a guy was very meticulous you could cut the patch a few mm shy of the baffle and use the baffle as a backing plate so you didn't have to butt weld it which is tough hanging upside down.

 

[audaciousduo]

Small Victories

Small Victories today. I've got the accelerator peddle mounted and drilled out what seemed like a few hundred spot welds in the brackets that don't carry over. There are twice as many brackets on the RHD than the LHD. I'll tackle the peddle boss tomorrow and should be ready to scratch both sides of the fire wall down and give them a coat of paint. Of course I'll have to disassemble everything before paint but I want to make sure it all lines up first.

 

[hoser]

Nice work. Just curious...do you still think it would've been harder to swap the entire firewall? Serious question.

 

[audaciousduo]

I still think this is much easier. I think there are far fewer spot welds to drill out this way and I have not even had to remove the fenders. Lining up an entire fire wall is tricky. The upper part of the fire wall that has the cowl venting and wipers is stamped into the window frame so you would have to cut it anyway. That would involve removing the windshield and part of the A-pillar. I picked all the seam sealer off the old fire wall hoping that I could swap the entire upper fire wall but no such luck. I would go this route against but I would cut the bubble for the brake master and cut a patch like I did for the wiper post mounts. Measuring out where it goes was a royal pain as there are no hard lines to measure off. I had to use a protractor and a three point triangulation method with intersecting arcs to find the centre. I think if I did it again I would consider going through the natural seam in the floor, cutting and sleeving the A-pillars but then you would still have to remove the rocker panels. My Dad and I replaced two entire roofs on cars cutting and sleeving the pillars, both were unibodies with no frame. One was an exceptionally rare 1970 Monte Carlo SS that some kids had used the roof as a landing pad while jumping off a garage. The other was a 1966 Barracuda S that I'll never understand why he liked it. They are the ugliest car in the world in my opinion. Anyway, if it can be done on a unibody it wouldn't be an issue on a cruiser with a ridged frame at all. Most of my time has been the disassembly of two trucks. It could be done with out a doner vehicle but a guy would have to be a competent sheet metal fabricator. The doner fire wall has made it fairly straight forward and its nice to swap the brackets over rather than fabricate them.

 

[hoser]

Cool... And thanks for documenting all of this.

 

[audaciousduo]

Cool... And thanks for documenting all of this.

No problem, I'm hoping it helps someone who decides to take this on. I'm there! I've got my peddle bosses welded on and it all lines up. You may have to be creative to get it all tight before tacking it in. Not that I doubted my math ...... much, but it all goes together. I bolted it all together to make sure the bosses were in the proper location and then tacked them in, took it all apart and welded them solid. Just paint and reassembly. I also have to paint the old grey dash brown to match the rest of the interior, if its worth doing, its worth doing right. I also learned that if you are ever stranded and need to start a fire the jute backing on the carpets works very well! I caught it right away but make sure your welding blanket covers all of it.

 

[audaciousduo]

Done for the day

I managed to get a fair amount done today the first time I could devote a good eight hours to the project. Usually I'm getting in a few hours here and there but I want to get the dash all back together while I remember how it all goes back together.

 

[audaciousduo]

All Going Well

It all seems to be going back together well. I missed a welded on clip for the heater blower motor and had to pull a few things apart to weld it on but it was a small set back. It took me well over an hour to clean off the old dash with 25 years of spilled coffee and greasy fingerprints all over it. I have to sand it and paint it now. I'm hoping to be done on the inside before the end of the weekend but the stereo will take some head scratching as I'm not too good with amps and what not. There was a ton of stereo equipment in the old 70 that I will have to sort out. I'll also have to fab up something so I can mount the new 71 seats on the old 70 suspension seat mounts. I got rid of the old seats as I assumed they would be the same .... they are not!:whoops:

 

[audaciousduo]

70

Tones of stuff to put together under the dash! I don't think I would attempt this with an 80 but its very doable with a 70. Bolted on the masters with everything under the dash together and I have 100% alignment. I would say with confidence this is the way to go other than swapping the entire fire wall ..... way less work! I had my my first mistake show up yesterday. I forgot to weld the nuts for the clutch master on inside the cowl before I welded it up! I put the backing plate on but forgot the fasteners. I just welded the mounting plate on solid as there is no way I'm getting in there now. No biggie but I should have been paying more attention. I'll be done inside soon and then cleaning, sanding and painting the engine bay. I'm dreading that as its a mess.

 

[Fatbob]

Yea, i've got to do the same thing with the seats in mine. The CDM seats are bagged out and JDM ones I bought are completely difference on the underside. Let me know what you come up with.