ROTW ROTW - Gertrude - 1975 FJ40

[De Ranged]

I'm pretty certain the mate who I was bidding against, and asked for this thread to continue knows her.... I'll leave it up to him to make the call

I can't say how it runs on petrol as due to the crap in the tank I couldn't get it to much more than a rough idle that I used to start the LPG on As far as running it goes I've done little more than the test drive lol I don't have any mates who work at servo's who are willing to bend the rules and let me fill the LPG up (needs a current alternative fuels warrant to be allowed to be filled) ... almost finished the new tank

Best guess is the guy I bought it off was the second owner in this time.... and had done not much with it, so its spent its time in the shed or doing farm runs

The design is to have the tank drop through the floor and bolt up to the floor X member at the front and the seat X member at the back and I'll seal around it using some old car door trim seal
Did the math and to get out to around the 50L mark I needed just a little more floor space so

And done

I then shaped out the tank ends in 1.2 304 stainless sheet using an old technique... Hammer forming

Had a bit of an issue both the welding helmets I have in my shop proved to be too dark for tig welding this.... I got down to 35Amps, they were tripping and I could see the weld pool good enough to manipulate it catch was they were too dark to see the end of the tungsten and due to the low amps you have a very short arc with the tungsten close to the pool because I couldn't see it properly I kept dipping it into the weld pool.... I could go out and get another helmet but given I have a top of the range Miller at work I couldn't justify it so I just went and bought a roll of 0.9mm wire for the mig lol not as purdy but way simpler
Only catch was I had to transfer it to the larger 15kg rolls for my welder lol so I finished the floor and a couple of small jobs in the shed, transfered the wire and burned the top on
Here is the test fit

 

[cruiser182]

It's so cool that this rig has found a great new home after all this time. Nice one

 

[brisveganbj42]

Big fan of Andrew and his innovation with this rig. Thanks for keeping his dream/legacy alive and sharing this new chapter with us all!

 

[AndrewsSON]

You must mix the fuel with av gas. I used to drive with dad a lot. Learnt to drive in it. Keep running lpg and mix AV GAS she'll be good. I'd love to come out in my dad's truck again one day. So glad the thread is still running I regularly show my dads proud work. Keep the memories living It was really horrible chemotherapy is what took him. He suffered a lot but he's in a better place now.

 

[AndrewsSON]

Mix AV GAS and 98 octane. Less AV GAS you'll get a similar octane to the LPG. Hopefully you haven't already done mods to the engine it's not nessesary once you get the mix right. is roughly ten years since we lost him.

I was lucky. My brother was too scared to go out with dad he was a very skilled driver and I learnt a lot with from watching him drive. He ran the tyres at 8psi. 13max off road.

If you have any questions about the truck I may he able to provide you with some answers.

 

[White Stripe]

Tank looks great. Yea personally I think the rock sliders were stronger on the flat part of the frame vs the angled spring hanger part.

 

[AndrewsSON]

Also he used to put mudflaps zip tied to theI body out of rubber to get the wof

 

[De Ranged]

Thank you

Arghhh now I understand why the tank sealer lifted.... its the av gas, some of the hotrod boys have had similar issues (that and fuel treatments like carb and injector cleaner), so the stainless will sort that little issue ..... will PM soon

Yes you are right WS the angled mount isn't as strong, that said I can easily jack the side of the truck off this with little flex and it will gain more strength once I add the tank guard bolting from the slider to the chassis.... I did consider going further back but I would have had to go along way back as (past the leading edge of the rear tyre) as there is a mounts for the deck and winch and not enough gap to fit this was the best option I could see
By moving it I have been able to drop the sump of the tank down enough that the tank will still feed fuel to the pick up on alot steeper going..... one of the tracks I plan to do will involve winching down and back up a 10m high river bank. Also due to the placement of the roll cage pillar this is a pig to get in and out of dropping the tank down has allowed me to shorten the tank by about 100mm (I will shorten the tank cover and the seat rails to suit) this will hopefully make climbing out alot easier lol

Unfortunately due to the vager'ies of my work I've had to come back before I finished the tank (and just to sit on my ass and wait.....)
But here is where I got to

That is an access port so worst case that tank gets filled with crap you are able to reach in to every part of the tank, I've made a depression in baffles so my arm can fit
I've still to do the filler spout and the breather as well as machine the boss for the fuel tank sender (going to use the original)

You can see the extra depth I have, the fuel pickup is just above the floor ...... I've also added a fuel return just in case in the future there is the option for EFI
The soapstone on the end is a rough markout for the the relief to fit over the slider mount..... if I hadn't moved the slider mount back I would have lost all this volume and had the the tank exposed behind the slider
Argon is a funny gas to weld with I find it causes the welds to peak alot more for a given technique and amperage, with Mig welding tanks I've learned not to worry about the appearance of the welds lol the pin holes that leak are surprising so I focus on wicking the pool to seal both sides and then polish back. The polish back will also expose pin holes as well.... from experience even after all this I'll still have a couple of spots that on a pressure leak test will fail ....... now if I'd been able to TIG weld it lol all good

 

[De Ranged]

I wee update (a fair bit has happened since the last one)
Got the Fuel tank finished

you can see the tank guard on the ground, I had to make a new seat rail while I was at it, and yes that is the old tank cover I shortened it up.... now alot easier to get in and out lol
I also stripped out the fixed LPG tank and replaced it with a couple of forklift bottles (can't get the tank legal to be filled at a servo)

I've since added bars out to the guard bars and straightened up the alloy guards while I was doing this I've replaced the tail lights with LED units and added a couple of spotlights under the truck as reversing lights

Since then she's been on a few runs carted it all the way down to central Otago for one trip and a few up here last one was a farm run

Now for the not so good news when I parked it up after this run there was a fair bit of bearing noise from the alternator
Was planing on taking it out this weekend so thought I'd crank it over and see how bad the bearing was and got a nasty surprise.... bottom end is knocking and not just one but I think at least one at each end..... after a bit of head scratching we found the cause petrol in the oil.... the float valve in the carb has been too high and it been poring fuel into the motor, cut the filter open and had a look for any particulates it looked promising enough I tried a new filter and fresh oil lol its taken some of the noise out but theres at least one shell thats too worn
So no run.....
Thinking it may be time to toss the 2F, thinking lexus (which I have a spare sitting on the shop floor) or LS1

 

[De Ranged]

Lexus is going to take too much time...... custom bellhousing adapter and its going to sit too far back which means I'm up for fire wall work or drive shafts, X member etc......
So LS1 5.7L catch is its not cheap over here lol cheapest option is an Aussy import motor from an VX/VY HSV Holden but there is an adapter kit to fit it with minimal fuss (I work away so time is very valuable lol) so $7500 fitting the motor the way it comes

 

[De Ranged]

Finally got all the pieces to do the swop.............. so time to pull the old motor, had a few minor issues, the most annoying is the grub screw to hold the PTO cable housing down at the transfercase was so rusted in it stripped the allen key fitting so had to free it with a grinder
Got the gearbox and motor out and dropped the assembly on the legs of the engine crane and pulled the gearbox off..... this is where it got interesting..... the clutch and flywheel fell out of the bellhousing!

Not a flywheel bolt left with a head on it!

Been looking at this toy and I've made the call to get put this back on the road.... that means I've got to bring it up to the new LVVTA rules so I'm going to start with planing approval, as well as giving me pre-build approval for the mods, it also fixes the rules that are applied to now..... so no new changes like the steering rules that mean I'm going to have to carve up some new steering arms to get it back on the road
But I'm going do this slowly and try and keep it rolling as a club toy as much as possible

To this end I'm going to fix up a few other things, start with a new hand brake drum, oil seal, pads and speedo cable..... but I've been looking at this loom.... bulk of it is 4 colours, its a bit scary... if I ever have an issue I'm gona be lost

Thinking I might tidy up some of it

 

[De Ranged]

Finally allowed to travel down to my workshop (covid lock down )
After talking with a certifier over lockdown plan has changed a bit.... doing it bit by bit is out the window, its logistically better to cert everything in one hit
There are more than a few issues, the hardest one to overcome is going to be the choice of tyre size 37-38" there is a rule to do with Center of Gravity height changes that might limit me to 35" tyres, the discription on deciding values is a bit vague and I'm waiting on clarification.... but too this end I'm slowly designing as much as I can in Solidworks and gathering as much information as I can to help the process.
The other issues were the Rims, the current beadlocks are a 24 bolt ring.... we are required to have a minimum of 36 bolts, so I'll make some new ones and keep these ones for an offroad play set of rims
Steering needs re-certified so I've decided to improve it, got a set of "Six shooter" arms and swivel housings, this also raises the Tie Rod and Draglink. The higher Draglink is good as I've decided to 3 link the front on coilovers and the higher draglink is easier to match the Panhard bar too (and will raise the suspension rollcenter height slightly). I'm going to retain Andrews steering wheel pointer arrow but this is going to get some work to tidy it up and the pitman arm end is going to require a bit of bolt on action (not allowed to weld an eye for the cable to attach to)
The fiddle brakes have to change as well.... they have to have a manual safety (basicly I can't have the electric controls on them so they are getting converted over to a normal manual style with removeable handles and box cover (manual safety device) so they can't be activated onroad. There is a bit of a list of things I'm sorting or changing
At the moment its all about sorting the design and paperwork, got the motor in on the bellhousings so I can measure and sort clearances for steering, suspension engine mounts etc