Nice job!!!! I have another project that would benefit from that exact piece. I was hoping you had a source for radiused channel, but good on you for making it happen.
Builds Rescuing a Basket Case '72 FJ40 (7 Viewers)
- Thread starter diesellibrarian
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diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #122
Yeah, I've never seen one of those panels for sale in the aftermarket. Most of the repop stuff seems to be for the later 40s.
CondeCruiser
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CCOT is making them now. Yours looks better though. Nice job!
www.coolcruisers.com
Floor Pan Transmission Bridge
Floor Pan Transmission Bridge - HFSⓇ "Hell for Stout" Series 40 Galvannealed Steel front floor pan Bridge Fits FJ40 BJ40 1961 to 1972 Galvannealed Steel used on all CCOT tubs and body panels. Galvannealed (or galvanneal) Steel is a carbon steel sheet coated with zinc on both sides by the...
diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #124
CCOT is making them now. Yours looks better though. Nice job!
Floor Pan Transmission Bridge
Floor Pan Transmission Bridge - HFSⓇ "Hell for Stout" Series 40 Galvannealed Steel front floor pan Bridge Fits FJ40 BJ40 1961 to 1972 Galvannealed Steel used on all CCOT tubs and body panels. Galvannealed (or galvanneal) Steel is a carbon steel sheet coated with zinc on both sides by the...
Interesting! The CCOT bridge looks really strong, but on the other hand, mine cost me an evening's work and about $5 in steel.
RevISK
SILVER Star
I’m stoked you made yours.
Just stumbled upon this thread, and had to read it all.
Great job breathing life back into your 40! It's inspired me to consider taking on a similar approach to my 72 40 as well.
Keep up the pics and info you share along the way!
Great job breathing life back into your 40! It's inspired me to consider taking on a similar approach to my 72 40 as well.
Keep up the pics and info you share along the way!
diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #127
Thanks! Always nice to encounter a fellow Albertan on here!
diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #128
Still sneaking off to the garage here and there to work on the Cruiser.
The other night I seam sealed the driver's side floor pan and transmission bridge, then laid down a couple coats of red oxide primer. I like the red oxide for how it will look as the paint scratches or wears through. The factory primer on this truck is sort of an off-white, but I haven't been able to find a primer in that colour, so red it is!
I also moved the back-up light from the driver's side (where it is now hidden by the spare tire carrier) to the passenger side. Used the old "drill and file" method to cut the curved parts of the mounting hole. I feel that files are an underrated tool in metal working. It's amazing how quickly a sharp file will remove material.
Here the light looks crooked, but that's just because it's not fully mounted. I've been given to understand that replacement lenses are very hard to find, so I've got mine stashed away in a safe place until pretty much everything else is done.
The other night I seam sealed the driver's side floor pan and transmission bridge, then laid down a couple coats of red oxide primer. I like the red oxide for how it will look as the paint scratches or wears through. The factory primer on this truck is sort of an off-white, but I haven't been able to find a primer in that colour, so red it is!
I also moved the back-up light from the driver's side (where it is now hidden by the spare tire carrier) to the passenger side. Used the old "drill and file" method to cut the curved parts of the mounting hole. I feel that files are an underrated tool in metal working. It's amazing how quickly a sharp file will remove material.
Here the light looks crooked, but that's just because it's not fully mounted. I've been given to understand that replacement lenses are very hard to find, so I've got mine stashed away in a safe place until pretty much everything else is done.
diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #129
Got a few more progress updates from the past week or so!
First thing is I laid down some paint on the floor pans. I'm trying to use up the last of this custom-mixed spray bomb that is not quite the right colour. I figure the floor is as good a place to use it as any, as it'll mostly be covered by the seat (I'm putting in a bench seat) and floor mats. Even though it's not quite the right shade, having the floors painted is really making it feel like this truck is coming together, as long as you turn a blind eye to the gaping hole between the rear fenders.
I also took the opportunity to try out some more "fauxtina" effects. I'm trying to get the floors to blend in with the rest of the truck, i.e. look rusty. I'm practicing on areas that are less visible, to see if I can find a technique that will work if I need to do a bit of patina blending on the exterior body panels.
Here you can also see that I've welded in the raised bead panel behind the driver's seat that I made months ago. Turned out ok!
A little filler will smooth some of the weld joins where I wasn't able to grind the welds flat due to panel alignment issues.
I'm now moving on to the last of the rust repair on the passenger side. Got this patch tacked in before calling it a night. I'll leave this as it sits until I've made new panels for the entire area, then finish welding everything at the same time.
Bit by bit, we're getting there!
First thing is I laid down some paint on the floor pans. I'm trying to use up the last of this custom-mixed spray bomb that is not quite the right colour. I figure the floor is as good a place to use it as any, as it'll mostly be covered by the seat (I'm putting in a bench seat) and floor mats. Even though it's not quite the right shade, having the floors painted is really making it feel like this truck is coming together, as long as you turn a blind eye to the gaping hole between the rear fenders.
I also took the opportunity to try out some more "fauxtina" effects. I'm trying to get the floors to blend in with the rest of the truck, i.e. look rusty. I'm practicing on areas that are less visible, to see if I can find a technique that will work if I need to do a bit of patina blending on the exterior body panels.
Here you can also see that I've welded in the raised bead panel behind the driver's seat that I made months ago. Turned out ok!
A little filler will smooth some of the weld joins where I wasn't able to grind the welds flat due to panel alignment issues.
I'm now moving on to the last of the rust repair on the passenger side. Got this patch tacked in before calling it a night. I'll leave this as it sits until I've made new panels for the entire area, then finish welding everything at the same time.
Bit by bit, we're getting there!
diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #130
Also, a special thanks to @coinoperated40, who generously mailed me, at his own expense, a bunch of windscreen hinge screws! The Land Cruiser community is so awesome and supportive!
Chungas Revenge
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Check out @CondeCruiser for some of his “Patina Blending” work..
diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #132
Yeah I've been following @CondeCruiser's build. Such a cool truck, and definitely a source of inspiration for this project.
diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #133
Things got a little hectic last night at the shop. My plan was to patch a few holes at the lower front end of the passenger side inner fender, but of course things escalated, as always seems to happen. Next thing you know, you're cutting big chunks out of your Land Cruiser:
This is the piece I was planning to repair. I thought it would be a simple 90* bend and a quick butt weld, but once I saw how bad things were in that area, I knew I'd have to rebuild the whole thing.
The patch piece:
Here I'm clamping the patch into place to mark the cut lines. After cutting and drilling out four spot welds, I was able to remove the offending metal.
Clearly not much strength left in the original steel:
With the top layer cut away, I was presented with another nightmare of rust, so I had to cut that layer out as well:
...and of course, once I cut that layer away, I uncovered a bunch of rot in the floor, hidden inside the rocker panel. So in the end, that's the only part I was able to fix last night. Now that the floor section is solid, I can start rebuilding the rest of it from the inside out, finally welding in the first patch I'd made.
This is the piece I was planning to repair. I thought it would be a simple 90* bend and a quick butt weld, but once I saw how bad things were in that area, I knew I'd have to rebuild the whole thing.
The patch piece:
Here I'm clamping the patch into place to mark the cut lines. After cutting and drilling out four spot welds, I was able to remove the offending metal.
Clearly not much strength left in the original steel:
With the top layer cut away, I was presented with another nightmare of rust, so I had to cut that layer out as well:
...and of course, once I cut that layer away, I uncovered a bunch of rot in the floor, hidden inside the rocker panel. So in the end, that's the only part I was able to fix last night. Now that the floor section is solid, I can start rebuilding the rest of it from the inside out, finally welding in the first patch I'd made.
middlecalf
SILVER Star
Love it. Half the challenge is figuring out how to sequence the patch pieces back in, to include figuring out access to the numerous weld joints. Let alone welding new metal to old. Great job!
diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #135
Over the past few evenings I've been able to wrap up the rust repair on passenger side rocker/inner fender/wheel arch area. In the end I had to fabricate 5 separate panels to replace the rusted metal.
First thing, I replaced the lower corner of the rocker panel. Here it is, tacked in place:
With that panel installed, I welded in some fresh steel on the box section that sits behind the fuel tank. At this point it's still partially tacked in:
Then I fabbed up the lower front corner of the wheel arch. I made this out of two pieces, since I don't have the necessary tools to make it out of a single piece. I corner weld the outside corner first, and then weld the inside as well. That ensures that there's lots of steel there for grinding in a nice radius on the outside corner.
Then I welded it in place. This whole area had sustained considerable physical damage, so this process gave me a chance to straighten things out a little bit.
The last step was to weld in the inner fender section I'd made last week. It's an awkward place to work, but I got it all burned in in the end. All of the flanges were plug welded together, making this area stronger than it's been in decades, I'm sure.
With this section complete there's now just a few rusty spots left on this Cruiser!
First thing, I replaced the lower corner of the rocker panel. Here it is, tacked in place:
With that panel installed, I welded in some fresh steel on the box section that sits behind the fuel tank. At this point it's still partially tacked in:
Then I fabbed up the lower front corner of the wheel arch. I made this out of two pieces, since I don't have the necessary tools to make it out of a single piece. I corner weld the outside corner first, and then weld the inside as well. That ensures that there's lots of steel there for grinding in a nice radius on the outside corner.
Then I welded it in place. This whole area had sustained considerable physical damage, so this process gave me a chance to straighten things out a little bit.
The last step was to weld in the inner fender section I'd made last week. It's an awkward place to work, but I got it all burned in in the end. All of the flanges were plug welded together, making this area stronger than it's been in decades, I'm sure.
With this section complete there's now just a few rusty spots left on this Cruiser!
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diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #136
I also had a couple more spray bombs custom-mixed, and this time I think we got a pretty good match!
Here I've sprayed the rocker, door sill, and lower front wheel arch. It'll need some blending, but all in all the colour is spot on! [edited to show this same area at the start of this project]
Here I've sprayed the rocker, door sill, and lower front wheel arch. It'll need some blending, but all in all the colour is spot on! [edited to show this same area at the start of this project]
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diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #137
I don't have a hard top for this truck since as you can see from the previous post, it was chopped up and hacked together by a previous owner to make a very poorly-executed short cab. This will be mostly a summer rig, so I'm expecting the doors to be off most of the time, but I'm thinking that it would be nice to have some protection from the sun/rain, etc. So to that end I picked up a used Bestop soft top and bows. However, the kit was missing a couple of pieces, and plus I'm not a huge fan of the look. I don't really like the sloped back. I want something with vertical sides, such as one would see on a factory soft top.
To achieve this, I've spent some time playing with ways to reconfigure the Bestop bows to mimic an FST-style setup, and I think I'm almost there:
I think I'm going to fab up a bracket to mount the forward bow to the top of the stock b-pillars, and then extend the horizontal bar by a few inches so that the rear bow is more in line with the rear doors. I want to make the whole assembly easy to remove and store, so I'll use clevis pins for a lot of the tube joins, etc. I doubt the vinyl top itself will work with this new configuration, so I'll probably have a custom bikini top made up, for now, with maybe an option for adding a back and sides that attach with velcro. The truck already has the footman loops, so that will help to anchor the top as well. Still a ways to go but I do like the way this is looking already.
To achieve this, I've spent some time playing with ways to reconfigure the Bestop bows to mimic an FST-style setup, and I think I'm almost there:
I think I'm going to fab up a bracket to mount the forward bow to the top of the stock b-pillars, and then extend the horizontal bar by a few inches so that the rear bow is more in line with the rear doors. I want to make the whole assembly easy to remove and store, so I'll use clevis pins for a lot of the tube joins, etc. I doubt the vinyl top itself will work with this new configuration, so I'll probably have a custom bikini top made up, for now, with maybe an option for adding a back and sides that attach with velcro. The truck already has the footman loops, so that will help to anchor the top as well. Still a ways to go but I do like the way this is looking already.
diesellibrarian
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- Thread starter
- #139
Ooooh, that's good stuff! Thanks for the link!
CondeCruiser
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What are your plans for the B-pillar part? Fasten to the door B-pillar? Looks like it will work out. Good job on that. I like it when people work with what they've got.
