Rear channel repair

[gwalt584]

my son and I are working on a 1984 FJ60. The rear channels were in bad shape.

Trail Taylor provides an excellent repair option.
Not an easy project, and I had the body off the frame.

 

[gwalt584]

Thanks Jason for a great product.
Gary

 

[brownbear]

My rear c channels were one of the hardest thing I changed. The rivets are extremely hard to get out.

 

[gwalt584]

Rivets, even with a plasma cutter the rivets were a bear. I can't imagine doing this job with the body on.
The frame was in good shape, but the inner channels were terrible.
Gary

 

[DickM]

When I did mine, I had the gas tank out, so at least a guy could sit up straight and swear at those ^&*%*$* rivets.
I couldn't imagine doing it with the gas tank in.

 

[brownbear]

I did mine with a tank of diesel overheard and on the ground. Cutting torch and all. Grinder, drill, crowbar.... In future I recommend Grinding the head on one side. Centre punch the rivet and drill it out progressively getting bigger until you are at the bolt size you are going to use on reassembly.

You can't hammer the rivets out, or anything! Sometimes after grinding them clean you can punch the rivet out. But it wasn't so simple.

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

Well, holy-hand-grenade, here I go on this one… I have the trail-tailor frame plates this should be a hoot!

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

Just for fun I’ll add a little bit more in case someone’s wondering how to do this in the future. This is on a 1985 HJ 60 that has been swapped to the 12 HT engine and H 55 transmission.

I’ll post more the deeper I get into this but so far grinding off the rivet heads has been reasonably feasible. Body is on the truck and the fuel tank is in place.. but these were the easy rivets. Let’s see how the crappy ones go tomorrow.

 

[Rabrownmkiv]

I used an air hammer with a chisel attachment. Cut the heads off like butter then swapped to a punch attachment and punched the rest out. Both sides done in 2 hours tops.

 

[kevin in okinawa]

First i ground the heads off of the rivets. Then I used COBALT drill bits, three different sizes. For the smaller pilot hole I cycled between three bits to minimize them being heated up. After the biggest hole was done i used a punch and the BFH to knock them out.

Took about 40 minutes per rivet. Very dirty job.

 

[Lucky1386]

I did the same as mentioned above where I sliced the heads off with the air chisel then punched thru with the air hammer punch. On the rivets that were thru more than 2 pieces of metal I had to use heat as well. They wouldn't budge no matter how hard I went in on them.

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

I did the same as mentioned above where I sliced the heads off with the air chisel then punched thru with the air hammer punch. On the rivets that were thru more than 2 pieces of metal I had to use heat as well. They wouldn't budge no matter how hard I went in on them. View attachment 4026371View attachment 4026372

I am jealous of how clean your frame is!

That being said, the air chisel I’ve got is not even coming close to cutting off rivet heads but I’m using an Astro tool one… I suppose I could go buy a bigger one, but I’m gonna try the drill and torch method next.

Picked up and oxy acetylene cutting torch yesterday. Now I’m just waiting for the rain to quit having a tropical storm/typhoon floating around out there is not helping.

Daniel

 

[Lucky1386]

I am jealous of how clean your frame is!

That being said, the air chisel I’ve got is not even coming close to cutting off rivet heads but I’m using an Astro tool one… I suppose I could go buy a bigger one, but I’m gonna try the drill and torch method next.

Picked up and oxy acetylene cutting torch yesterday. Now I’m just waiting for the rain to quit having a tropical storm/typhoon floating around out there is not helping.

Daniel

The key is not giving up. Lol

 

[kevin in okinawa]

I am jealous of how clean your frame is!

That being said, the air chisel I’ve got is not even coming close to cutting off rivet heads but I’m using an Astro tool one… I suppose I could go buy a bigger one, but I’m gonna try the drill and torch method next.

Picked up and oxy acetylene cutting torch yesterday. Now I’m just waiting for the rain to quit having a tropical storm/typhoon floating around out there is not helping.

Daniel

Okinawa, huh? I used an angle grinder with a 40-grit flap disk and that made short order of removing the rivet heads. It's the drilling that is the hardest part of this operation.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

A quality air hammer is a must. HF smoothie tools aren't going to get it done without a lot of extra elbow grease and consumables.

I have two air hammers with attachments I use for this job.

AIRCAT 5250
SNAP-ON PH3050B

Both are higher end chisels and if you hit the pawn shops you can usually find them for 1/2 price. Both make quick work of the rivets.

Jason

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

A quality air hammer is a must. HF smoothie tools aren't going to get it done without a lot of extra elbow grease and consumables.

I have two air hammers with attachments I use for this job.

AIRCAT 5250
SNAP-ON PH3050B

Both are higher end chisels and if you hit the pawn shops you can usually find them for 1/2 price. Both make quick work of the rivets.

Jason

Hey Jason, thank you very much!

Unfortunately, I live in Okinawa Japan and I really appreciate you shipping here. That was pretty awesome. But I’ll keep working at this little project and I’ll search online or maybe put my brothers looking for one of those air guns. My little Astro products which is the Japanese equivalent of harbor freight isn’t really cutting it.

I’ve got five of the rivets out so far’

Daniel

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

Okinawa, huh? I used an angle grinder with a 40-grit flap disk and that made short order of removing the rivet heads. It's the drilling that is the hardest part of this operation.

Kevin,

When are you coming back to Okinawa?

Daniel