Good progress. Really putting the new welder to work. How are you painting at the moment, the temps here in Charleston just are too
Low for painting
Build Salted Pork fj55 family wagon build
- Thread starter Roastchestnuts
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Low for painting
Yea....68-77 lenses are all the same in North America
ROW got the red/orange ones, but are the same shape as the North American ones
ROW got the red/orange ones, but are the same shape as the North American ones
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- #483
Thanks! That welder is a game changer over what I had before. A huge quality of tool difference too. everything about it works better and has better results. It will do most everything I need it to for sure. Hell messing around with it I butt welded 20 gage together with .030 wire without burn through using the auto set. I dont think I would try that on the land cruiser but it was still cool that it worked. I use the 11lb spools .025 wire from harbor freight mostly on the body panels. its whats loaded in the mig machine most of the time. I might try some better quality solid core wire in the future though.
It was not too cold yesterday here in the afternoon. I dont think the cold had reached us quite yet. yesterday was about 50. I did paint with the tent/carport sides on and a heater going in there though. takes like 10 minutes to throw those sides up. I think it was probably still a little cold but the paint did dry. EIther way I needed to paint because we are going to get some bad weather here for sure. This is where even a crapy garage would be nice. I have thought getting one of those cheeper metal ones. I just dont know how they hold up down here.
I get your point about having to get it painted because of the bad weather. I try to avoid painting when the temps drop much below 60 degrees.
Best of luck with the snow, wind, and coastal flooding. Looking forward to some epic pictures of the salt shaker on the beach in the snow. We are at the tail end of the storm and will get a couple of inches of snow to make it look pretty.
Can you build a detached carport? Some 4x4 posts in concrete and a metal roof is pretty easy and cheap. Or is it hard to get approval for that sort of thing? Could you build it 'off the books'?
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- #486
Yeah I am with you on the painting. The fall and spring seem to be the best times. Kinda planning on buying a gallon of paint and this spring and Respraying the roof and rockers. The roof has some spots that just need to be sanded down and resprayed. I can get by doing the patina thing and fluid filming but I think this one I am going to just respray it. If I was smart I would just buy a couple of gallons of a new color..... But I keep coming back to how I like the hot chocolate color... and why do more work when I could enjoy it this summer.
I know I am hoping the flooding is at a minimum. The weather is very nice right now. we are going to try and do a walk later. But I think the weather starts turning tomorow morning.
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- #487
I could. Not really hard for approval for that sort of thing I dont think I would need it if I made it removable. I think I have to have an 8 foot setback for a permanent structure but for a non permanent thing like a shed it does not matter how close to the property line it is. But at that point I probably should sink some pillings and build a platform that I could eventually put a garage on. (my plan for the near future) We are on a list to get our house raised by fema and I think a structure there would hinder the construction crew. The house lifting thing is why I have not built something more permanent. I am at the point where I might say F it and just start sinking pilings to build a plat form and a ramp. Then save up for the Structure portion. Fema keeps pushing back our time line. But its Free. What really sucks is some of our house renovation stuff has been paused till its lifted. Things like our septic, Bathroom work, Plumbing. all these things that I would like to crank on.
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- #488
Nothing too crazy in terms of snow yet. here is an early glimps of snow on the Outer banks! No working on the land cruiser today.
Margot's first snow.
Margot's first snow.
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- #489
I have not been able to work on the land cruiser much because of snow! normally we only get 1 snow a year. funny enough the snow this year was very close to the snow from last year! Last year my photos were dated 22nd of January! I wish I had it where I could have done some exploring in the fj55. I used the Samurai Instead. Hopfully next year Ill have the fj55 ready for the snow if we get it!
It was a pretty big storm though. 50mph winds and snow this year.
These are shots from last year. It snowed much more. about a foot where this year was only about 6 inches.
This year zipping the samurai around!
some updates on the 55 though - I am going to do some work this week for sure. I am hoping to get some parts in where I can finish off a few things. I am waiting on some non essential stuff like the license plate lamp and an Antenna for the am radio. But I also bought some brake cylinder rebuild kits for the front. I know the passenger side is leaking. I have a set of shoes already. I decided to just rebuild the cylinders for now and search for a disc axle for the time being. I may start on the passenger side rockers this week if the snow melts more.
I may know sombody that owns a junk 1982 toyota truck that might be willing to sell me the axle. I just gotta talk to the guy. The truck is no longer savable. its currently sitting with the frame broken in half. the bed and cab are bent like a V right now. Amazing what can rust up in a year of sitting . I am not sure the axle is still any good either. the parts on it might be too crusty.
It was a pretty big storm though. 50mph winds and snow this year.
These are shots from last year. It snowed much more. about a foot where this year was only about 6 inches.
This year zipping the samurai around!
some updates on the 55 though - I am going to do some work this week for sure. I am hoping to get some parts in where I can finish off a few things. I am waiting on some non essential stuff like the license plate lamp and an Antenna for the am radio. But I also bought some brake cylinder rebuild kits for the front. I know the passenger side is leaking. I have a set of shoes already. I decided to just rebuild the cylinders for now and search for a disc axle for the time being. I may start on the passenger side rockers this week if the snow melts more.
I may know sombody that owns a junk 1982 toyota truck that might be willing to sell me the axle. I just gotta talk to the guy. The truck is no longer savable. its currently sitting with the frame broken in half. the bed and cab are bent like a V right now. Amazing what can rust up in a year of sitting . I am not sure the axle is still any good either. the parts on it might be too crusty.
- Thread starter
- #490
So out of boredom I took the nose cone off the spare tcase this morning. I wanted to see what I am looking into in terms of replacing the output needle bearing. I think @Skreddy was telling me that was a common cause of Tcase noise when in 4x4.
Visually the inside of this spare case does not look to bad. I am not seeing any broken teeth and the bearings visually look good. I think the reason its so crusty is because somebody didn't put gaskets back in when they had it apart. they just used red RTV. Worse case scenerio I put some new paper gaskets back in this case, clean it up and use it instead of the Tcase thats in the fj40.
I am planning on inspecting this bearing too.
I also rebuilt 4 of my 8 wheel cylinders I had laying around. I dont think they will work on my fj55 because they are from my old fj40 but stored them safley for whenever I have another early fj40 project I guess. I already had the rebuild kits so it was a might as well moment. funney enough I think all 8 of my cylinders that I had in my 1964 fj40 were the same and the internal cup size were the same. I had replaced all 8 cylinders back when I owned it to avoid rebuilding them. I remember buying the cylinders from city racer.
The other 4 like the one below, Ill have to soak in somthing to get it apart.
lastly I started looking around my parts and if anybody needs these let me know! I am probibly going to post them up in the classifieds soon.
This is for a jerry can to put your license plate on the jerry can mount. I never got around to doing this on the fj40.
I have also 2 of these caps that I cannot use because I have the smaller dizzy cap. One cap is new and one is slightly used. Whats the part number for that BTW? I have the Dizzy with the little adjuster for the timing. I dont have a picture but I also have a new rotor.
Visually the inside of this spare case does not look to bad. I am not seeing any broken teeth and the bearings visually look good. I think the reason its so crusty is because somebody didn't put gaskets back in when they had it apart. they just used red RTV. Worse case scenerio I put some new paper gaskets back in this case, clean it up and use it instead of the Tcase thats in the fj40.
I am planning on inspecting this bearing too.
I also rebuilt 4 of my 8 wheel cylinders I had laying around. I dont think they will work on my fj55 because they are from my old fj40 but stored them safley for whenever I have another early fj40 project I guess. I already had the rebuild kits so it was a might as well moment. funney enough I think all 8 of my cylinders that I had in my 1964 fj40 were the same and the internal cup size were the same. I had replaced all 8 cylinders back when I owned it to avoid rebuilding them. I remember buying the cylinders from city racer.
The other 4 like the one below, Ill have to soak in somthing to get it apart.
lastly I started looking around my parts and if anybody needs these let me know! I am probibly going to post them up in the classifieds soon.
This is for a jerry can to put your license plate on the jerry can mount. I never got around to doing this on the fj40.
I have also 2 of these caps that I cannot use because I have the smaller dizzy cap. One cap is new and one is slightly used. Whats the part number for that BTW? I have the Dizzy with the little adjuster for the timing. I dont have a picture but I also have a new rotor.
RevISK
SILVER Star
Yay to the pictures!
BOO to the dead truck, that's sad.
- Thread starter
- #492
yeah that truck was due to the fact of neglect! 5 years ago it looked presentable and it was running and driving. now its rusted in half. The thing that really pisses me off about this guy that owns it is he has had the windows down since its been parked. and there is a 1984 or 85 1st gen 4runner with the windows down in his lot too. hoping to salvage that front axle in the truck though. Crossing my fingers there.
Skreddy
SILVER Star
That is the bearing I was mentioning and yours looks good from the pics. The bad ones I’ve seen are disintegrated.
- Thread starter
- #494
I am going to pull off the cone on the TCase in the land cruiser and see what what that bearing looks like. If its not toast Ill know I am working with something else that has broken or worn out I guess. Plan is if it is toast Ill replace the bearing. if its not toast Ill probably rebuild the tcase that I already have outside the vehicle and swap them.
Skreddy
SILVER Star
I misread and thought that was the case in your cruiser. Good luck!
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- #496
No worries. I have not gotten to the case in the 55 yet. I am thinking thats a tomorrow project. I dove deep into another thing today.
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- #497
Found this in the glove box. an interesting find for sure. its like a rubber sticker. not sure what it is. if you know let me know.
I was not sure what I was going to do with a tiny little hole I found in the wheel well right below the corner of the rear door. i started picking at the bondo and found a slightly bigger hole. But the hole looked to have good metal all around it after I sanded it all down. SO i bust out the welder and start trying to plug it up..... Well not what I would have guessed seeing how much a previous owner liked bondo. instead of bondo a previous owner did some leading and tinning work here. I guess thats a step up from bondo. So my little repair turned into an all afternoon project of shapeing and cutting metal to weld in. I am not a fan of leading and tinning and I have tried it before but is an art and I am not good at it. plus not worth playing with lead having a newborn. I think the cruiser may have had a dent filled here at some point professionally with the led? IDK but its annoying to cut it out all because a little hole.
I had always planned on doing a patch here. (the spot where my pinkie is) but of course its a bigger patch than expected.
In the picture below you can see more bondo by my pinkie filling a hole. but where my other fingers are the wholes were filled with lead. But I ended up cutting this whole section out. and a little more on top of below. Ill get some more pictures tomorrow. but I ground down the welds and it seems it will be ok.
So I also need to find somplace to get a new drain plug for the drivers side. it fell out at some point with the rust. this is the passenger side.
I was not sure what I was going to do with a tiny little hole I found in the wheel well right below the corner of the rear door. i started picking at the bondo and found a slightly bigger hole. But the hole looked to have good metal all around it after I sanded it all down. SO i bust out the welder and start trying to plug it up..... Well not what I would have guessed seeing how much a previous owner liked bondo. instead of bondo a previous owner did some leading and tinning work here. I guess thats a step up from bondo. So my little repair turned into an all afternoon project of shapeing and cutting metal to weld in. I am not a fan of leading and tinning and I have tried it before but is an art and I am not good at it. plus not worth playing with lead having a newborn. I think the cruiser may have had a dent filled here at some point professionally with the led? IDK but its annoying to cut it out all because a little hole.
I had always planned on doing a patch here. (the spot where my pinkie is) but of course its a bigger patch than expected.
In the picture below you can see more bondo by my pinkie filling a hole. but where my other fingers are the wholes were filled with lead. But I ended up cutting this whole section out. and a little more on top of below. Ill get some more pictures tomorrow. but I ground down the welds and it seems it will be ok.
So I also need to find somplace to get a new drain plug for the drivers side. it fell out at some point with the rust. this is the passenger side.
Correct, the key scratch guards were a thing in the 80s/90s. You could get them at the auto parts store for all makes
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- #500
I am putting that new millermatic to work! I patched the lower door, passenger fender today. and a small little plug on the tailgate. I still need to grind down all the welds though.
Been thinking real hard on the paint lately. I feel like I have patched 25% of the cruiser at this point and it might be fun to just throw a different color on the fj55. I love the mulata red and the darker teal green on these. Chewing on the idea of finding some paint to do a respray a different color on the color portion of the fj55. Not sure yet but I am going to make up my mind by the time I get the patches and the passenger rocker done. If I do a respray I will need to work on the rear part of the tub some more. The fj55 already was resprayed in the past and it was not a great job anyway.
The door makes sense you get rust here. it just traps water and dirt here I sprayed rust converter paint in here and some fluid film. Cleaned it out real good before I welded this patch in.
Started on the passenger side. This side seems a hair less rusty interms of the A pillar. I decided to start on the front finder before the rocker.
Look how much bondo was used to fill the rust!
Like the front door corner this spot seems like its tight enough to trap dirt and water.
Been thinking real hard on the paint lately. I feel like I have patched 25% of the cruiser at this point and it might be fun to just throw a different color on the fj55. I love the mulata red and the darker teal green on these. Chewing on the idea of finding some paint to do a respray a different color on the color portion of the fj55. Not sure yet but I am going to make up my mind by the time I get the patches and the passenger rocker done. If I do a respray I will need to work on the rear part of the tub some more. The fj55 already was resprayed in the past and it was not a great job anyway.
The door makes sense you get rust here. it just traps water and dirt here I sprayed rust converter paint in here and some fluid film. Cleaned it out real good before I welded this patch in.
Started on the passenger side. This side seems a hair less rusty interms of the A pillar. I decided to start on the front finder before the rocker.
Look how much bondo was used to fill the rust!
Like the front door corner this spot seems like its tight enough to trap dirt and water.
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