Build Putting the rust demon at bay

[archie73]

You might consider aluminium nutserts with stainless bolts. If you can weld aluminium, tack the nutserts to the floor that way they won’t spin when the bolts get stuck.

Must be cosmic intervention- Amazon sent me empty envelope instead of my nutcerts...

 

[archie73]

Picked a color and I wanted to record it here. It’s the Pollux Orange on the CCOT website.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s to much orange, but it was a lot of beige originally. If it’s to much in the future, we’re thinking of getting some vinyl stripes made.

 

[archie73]

Now that the color is chosen, I need to get my butt in gear. The metal work is just about done from my ability, now I need to get the bib ready for paint. I’m not going to use the original bib, it would cost me to much time and I need to finish the engine swap. I had this gizzard bib from another project. So out comes the drill toget all those holes they don’t do. The slots on top for the hood pads are going to send me to the hardware store tomorrow.
I know bib lights aren’t correct for my year, but not much of it is correct anymore. So here I am trying to figure out the exact placement of said lights.
1)Low-toward center

2)centered/centered

3)centered/inward

4)low/centered

5)outward/centered

I know this is subjective, just trying to get an idea of the different looks. Feel free to way or not.

 

[White Stripe]

I would definitely do some stripes in my opinion with that color. Maybe Cygnus white stripes? Stripes are easy to do in paint if they are basic stripes. Are you going to do a clear coat? It would make that orange pop a bit more I would imagine. Thats a very rare color.

 

[archie73]

I would definitely do some stripes in my opinion with that color. Maybe Cygnus white stripes? Stripes are easy to do in paint if they are basic stripes. Are you going to do a clear coat? It would make that orange pop a bit more I would imagine. Thats a very rare color.

Plan is to stay single stage for easier touch up. I’m not great about maintaining paint in any of our rigs, so the thought of watching clear peel off again is not really fun.

 

[waiting for time]

My vote is for 5 but just a tad more inward.

 

[Buttons]

I vote 3!

 

[archie73]

Started in on the cowl seam tonight. It gave me more of a fight than I bargained for. I thought I’d simply run the razor blade along the seam and it’d pop out. Turns out it need more persuasion, but I prevailed. Not surprisingly, scraping the seam clean also brought out some orange dust. I treated it with some POR15 and will lay some seam sealer when it’s cured.

I screwed up on the hinges, I thought this was a different type of seam sealer. It looked kinda lumpy like a seam sealer. Turns out it was a rubber gasket. I was having trouble removing it, so I took drastic measures: Out came the braided wire wheel on the grinder. It didn’t stand a chance. I know kind of a caveman reaction. Then I look on Mud only to learn this was a gasket. Further reading suggested that seam sealer can be used in its place. Most of the gasket is still in place, luckily, I only had access to the frontside of the hinge.

I didn’t get any pics, but I also cleaned up the bib hinge. I had forgotten to send it to the soda blaster with all the other small parts. So I started cleaning it up and after trying to get various tools into the awkward areas for 1/2 hour, I realized that the hinge easily comes apart. Another caveman moment. This got a POR15 coat and will get primer soon.
I have a question though- is the hinge meant to be metal on metal or should there be a plastic “bushing” in there too? Seems it would be a source of yet another rattle without one. There wasn’t any sign of a bushing present in the hinge- just lots of scale.


[Edit- Removed duplicate pics]

 

[05CTD]

So I wish I could say I've gotten more done but life is getting in the way. Fortunately, I continue to spend money, lots of little stuff. Recent purchase though got my son excited and the seal of approval from the wife- just need to do something about the color:

View attachment 1265376

View attachment 1265377

What are these seats out of?

 

[archie73]

What are these seats out of?

Not 100%, but I think they’re out of a shuttle bus. The guy I bought them from owned a tour company for the handicapped. He had a pile of different styles, I think he’d tear them out to make room for wheelchair lifts.
Side note, I used the vinyl spray paint from the parts store and three years later they look the same as the day I painted them.

 

[archie73]

Seam sealer in, that took longer than it should have. The prep(por15 application/curing & masking) made this a multi day adventure, but the application was quick. Much like welding I guess, it’s mostly prep. Only thig I would do differently is pull the tape as soon as the seam is done. I laid the main seam down and then the hinges before pulling the tape this resulted in a couple strings pulling the tape on the cowl seam.

So the seam sealer is a double tube type, requiring a special caulking gun. No problem we have one at work, except I left it at work. This worked, but my hand was sore by the end. Couple bolts, some 16 gauge scrap metal And duck tape.

I was giving everything a once over before shipping it to paint and found one of my windshields brackets was loose. Oh yeah, I had an unfortunate incident with a garage door a couple years ago. The bracket was barely hanging on- I removed it without any tools. Out came the metal glue stick and its rock solid again, after I remembered to turn the gas on...

So off to paint it goes. Amazing what’ll fit in a 6’ bed. Time to finish the engine swap. Maybe polish some knobs...

 

[archie73]

After fixing the windshield bracket, I test fitted the dash pad to make sure the solution didn’t interfere. This got me looking at the pad itself- it’s in pretty good shape with a few dings:

Obviously, it’s in need of a through cleaning and the dent doesn’t really bother me. The cracking on the passenger side though, I’d like to address. I had posted questions in another thread and one person had suggested a JB Weld plastic product. My thrifty side says I have more of the seam sealer and it’d likely fill in the cracks just fine. Any thoughts on this approach? I’d also like to paint afterward, I’ve seen at least one person say they used a light coat of bedliner in an aerosol can?

 

[archie73]

With the body out for paint, my mind is lighter without worrying about body work. Took the the family down to St George for a week of mtn biking and had a blast, but would of loved to gone to Sand Hollow again- c‘est la vie. I think I’d like to retire there, but the wife’s not sold on the area.

So now I’m home and trying to be ready for the body to come home. The punch list:

• Get exhaust routed- probably important
• Touch up dash pad damage- I’d really like to do this before it gets worse
• Polish dash knobs- if times allows
• Fix hacks and mouse damage in wiring- gotta be done before putting it back

This leads me to the wiring harness and a bit of confusion. For clarity- it‘s a 73 and I’m trying to repair some old hacks in the tailights area (likely mine- I‘ve had this since I was 20yrs old). Below is the 73 diagram according to the @Trollhole thread:

Unfortunately, the only red wires in my rear are the reverse lights. So I moved on to the 1974 diagram, makes sense right? Only praoblem is I have more wires than the diagram shows- Green/Black,Green/Blue, Green/Orange, Green/White and Green.

This leaves me to my hopeful question- what goes where?

Green is running lights​

Green/Yellow is turn passenger​

Green/Blue is turn driver (GRN/BLK in the diagram)​

Green/White is brake​

Green/Orange is a mystery?????​

Anyone know what that one goes to? Are my interpretations of the diagram on point? This is not my strong point- do I have one?

​

 

[archie73]

Continuing to work on the rear section of harness. The harness had been spliced for trailer plug, but I won’t be using those, so I used solder for any through connections and heat shrink on individual connections. Next I heat shrank all these in an easy bundle, should I decide I need it in the future. Not pretty, but it should keep things protected.

I’ve identified all the wires in this section, except these Blue/Yellow connections. They are ~2’ down stream from where the rear harness plugs in to the main harness.

Anyone got an idea on these?

 

[archie73]

Wiring fun continues. I stepped away from the rear harness and made a sub harness for the center console/switches/compressor. That’s 4 harnesses for anybody counting- stock front and rear, center console and LS. Ok maybe it’s three, but whatever.
Center console has a four bank of switches(currently ARB and front aux light, chargers and seat heater switches. Air compressor sits behind the driver on the fender, so it was easy to tie it in as well. In the past I had a rats nest for all this stuff, but this was an effort to do it right- soldered and heat shrink. Ran three extra wires back toward the engine bay for future add-ons. (As I write this, I realized I forgot power to the seat motor, but that’ll be easy to run off the switch power.)
With the cocky feeling I looked at my front harness. Mice had gotten to the heater wires front and rear.

I wasn’t able to repair the front heater plug connector, so I replaced it with some bullet connections I had on hand. Once again solder and heat shrink. The single wire that connects to the rear heater sub harness was fragged as well. This I chased back into the harness and repaired. Same for the sub harnesses single wire. Not positive I’m going to reinstall the rear heater, but it’ll be ready if I change my mind.
Last thing tonight was the bib lights. I followed @treerootCO lead and added another wire, so now they are turn signals as well. Really nice of Toyota to spec the socket with a dual filament bulb and an easy mod to the housing. Now I just need to get my turn signals to blink...

 

[archie73]

It’s official- it’s Pollux orange. I dig it, I liked the biege, but this is starting to talk to me..

Notice how it matches my Harbor Frieght my harbor freight jack and stands. My brother gave me those when I first bought the rig 25 years ago, still hanging in there. He said I’d need them, he was right.

We’ve also decided on a seat color(right). Bluebird Brown by SEM ( side note- who names a brown “Bluebird”). I was really impressed with the durability of the Duplicolor on the back seat, sadly they didn’t have a vinyl paint color we liked. Hopefully, the SEM will hold up as well.

With all this fresh paint I should probably start putting it back together. After I finish the exhaust, reinforce the rear bumper....

 

[archie73]

Life keeps getting in the way of putting it back together, but I’m plugging away anyway. Seats rips are repaired to trail truck standards and started painting the color princess chose- SEM bluebird brown. Ran out of paint, so waiting on a delivery of more. It’s nice not living in the city, but you got wait on supplies sometimes. Could of sworn I took pictures...
In between coats, I started in on the dash. It’ll never be this accessible again. Hope I got everything right. Pedal bucket was the biggest struggle, but today I got it and the steering column in place.

So I get to this point and notice I have matching cracks in the bottom corners of the dash

I don’t remember seeing them before the assembly stage. I suppose they may have been there all along, not sure. There’s no other evidence of abuse by the blaster or painter, so I suppose they are old.

I’ll have to stew on this matter. Probably drill a hole to stop the crack/tear and weld it up. Problem is the fresh paint is not encouraging to fix it.

 

[Kerby J]

hard to tell from the picture due to orientation but does it look like it happened after you painted it?

 

[archie73]

hard to tell from the picture due to orientation but does it look like it happened after you painted it?

I’m pretty sure it was before paint. Truth be told, I’m not terrible worried about it. If it continues I’ll weld it up, but for the moment I have more pressing issues-

 

[White Stripe]

I’m pretty sure it was before paint. Truth be told, I’m not terrible worried about it. If it continues I’ll weld it up, but for the moment I have more pressing issues-
View attachment 2672604

Don't forget the boot that goes on top of the shift tower of the sm465. It really helps keep out dust and water. Novak sells it.