Builds Sean's FJ40 Restomod? (2 Viewers)

[Salem747]

More clean parts.

Will need door skins.

Cancer.

Cancer therapy, made the mistake of assuming all the curves and bracing would prevent warpage, I was wrong, put too much heat into the panel! I think I will leave it pretty raw though, let her show her scars.

 

[Salem747]

Aqualu frame and newer, recommended pins (OME GGP1) did not play well together.

Needed:

Drill out hole to allow pins in and then collars to centre them. Found a guy in Prince George that whipped them up for me.

One note I learned the hard way on this, the way the pin perches are made in the rear, you must have the grease fitting side, or the flange side to the outside of the frame because when you thread on the flange, it runs into the frame, so you have to struggle to thread it in from the other side with your spring weight hanging off of it. Would have been way easier if I had had the flange on the outboard side, not the end of the world but something you would rather do the other way.

 

[Salem747]

Fuel tank looked OK from the top but rusty on bottom and pinhole or two. Would anyone want to fix this and use it?

Factory tunnel looks pretty good, with try this one and the new Aqualu and see which I like better.

 

[Salem747]

Wheels back from powder, they cost about $80 each (Rock Crawler Series 51, 15x8 with 6 on 5.5 Bolt Pattern 3.5" BS P/N PCW51-5883S3.5) Wife wanted them white though, so $88 each for powdercoating! Tires are BFG AT 33x10.5x15.

Might do a little pinstripe on them to break up the white.

This is with the longer part of the spring towards the shackle as advised. No Bueno!

The next morning post flip around! Way better.

Front OME GS1 shackle on the Aqualu frame, would not work right the way they are supposed to go, as you can see, the anti inversion is sitting on the frame, I also couldn't reach the front pin with it bound up like this.

With the shackle upside down I now have reasonable hyperextension room and the shackle can do it's thing with flexion.

So in the front I am upside down and backwards, in the back I am merely backwards! Sounds about right.

 

[amico]

Fuel tank looked OK from the top but rusty on bottom and pinhole or two. Would anyone want to fix this and use it?
View attachment 2069936View attachment 2069937View attachment 2069938

Factory tunnel looks pretty good, with try this one and the new Aqualu and see which I like better.

View attachment 2069939View attachment 2069940

I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, but be very careful welding or brazing that fuel tank. A 21 year kid here in Waco a few years back used a torch to cut into an old empty 55 gallon barrel to make a barbeque pit. He didn't fill with water before cutting and it blew up, killing him. Personally I would buy a new one if possible, saves headaches of constant trash in fuel.

Fuel tank looked OK from the top but rusty on bottom and pinhole or two. Would anyone want to fix this and use it?
View attachment 2069936View attachment 2069937View attachment 2069938

Factory tunnel looks pretty good, with try this one and the new Aqualu and see which I like better.

View attachment 2069939View attachment 2069940

I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, but be very careful welding or brazing that fuel tank. A 21 year kid here in Waco a few years back used a torch to cut into an old empty 55 gallon barrel to make a barbeque pit. He didn't fill with water before cutting and it blew up, killing him. Personally I would buy a new one if possible, saves headaches of constant trash in fuel.

 

[Salem747]

The boss, getting serious.

Most of the front hub put back together, put them on the wrong sides the first time, then realized I threw out the old races from the diffs (will be putting in ARBs) so I can't even safely put the axles back in right now.

Most of @Poser 's rear disc conversion installed. Used powerstop calipers from Rock auto. PN S4071 for a 79 Monte Carlo, pads Z36154 (Z36-154)

Kids playing in the box @Downey sent me one of his fuel tanks in!!!

@Downey does not charge extra for this opportunity.

 

[Salem747]

I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, but be very careful welding or brazing that fuel tank. A 21 year kid here in Waco a few years back used a torch to cut into an old empty 55 gallon barrel to make a barbeque pit. He didn't fill with water before cutting and it blew up, killing him. Personally I would buy a new one if possible, saves headaches of constant trash in fuel.

I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, but be very careful welding or brazing that fuel tank. A 21 year kid here in Waco a few years back used a torch to cut into an old empty 55 gallon barrel to make a barbeque pit. He didn't fill with water before cutting and it blew up, killing him. Personally I would buy a new one if possible, saves headaches of constant trash in fuel.

Personally, I will not be using it. I'm assuming anyone who wants to use it would take it to a pro to have it fixed. I bought one of @Downey 's 22 gallon plastic (nylon) rear mount tanks. Should get me around 400 miles of rang, I am good with that. Also the R2.8 has a fuel pump it comes with that pulls fuel to itself and returns on its own, so all I need is a sender.

 

[Salem747]

OK, update time. Lots has happened since last time.

Working on seat mounts/wiring.

Finally attached the new tub to the donor cowl/firewall. (Sikaflex came apart on one side after, peeled off the epoxy primer.

Not perfect, but good enough for the gals I go with (I know, because she was there and said it was good enough!)

 

[Salem747]

Valuable advice was only glue/drill final holes for connection with windshield and top on, so I had to cut the corners out of the rear to be able to slide it far enough forward, this one was pretty rough anyway. (sorry restoration gods)

Some boxes of traction.

 

[Salem747]

Had a little snafu with the 50mm bearings, one of the boxes contained an imposter.

Cooling package and headlights.

Gear shifty type stuff. 3.73 gears to keep the R2.8 at a decent RPM.

 

[Salem747]

One pinion gear was crush sleeve and one was shims. Figuring out the shims to get a decent preload required a spread sheet and SOOOO many attempts!

Rockauto, awesome pricing and great service but returns suck.

Holds 100psi for hours, front and back.

 

[Salem747]

Turns out I was wrong about flipping rear spring around. If I did that, the fuel tank wouldn't fit and the shock mounts would be totally wrong. What will have to happen is tub trimming. Aqualu will give me templates for cutting and filler plates if I want to fill in behind the tire. I will wait till it is mostly done for this planning.

CL of wheel is about 3" forward of CL of wheel opening.

Will need to position tank brackets to make sure they don't interact with the diff cover.

Weird top.

Certified Youtube technician. OTTRAM, great videos.

 

[Salem747]

Greta has a face.

And she is on her own 4 tires.

Bought Motor mounts from Level 10 Industries, holes were not to spec, had to carbide them out.

104x64mm I think, it's like in the actual manual.

Then he blew me off when I asked a few questions about how he did some stuff on Sarpinz's build. So that was great, I spent half a day fixing his screw up but he can't spend 15 minutes answering a few questions. But he is a one man shop and doesn't have time to provide DIY tech support.

 

[Salem747]

With Quickdraw bellhousing attached. @quickdraw

Had a real tough time finding a Cardone 27-6529, so if you want one you will have to shake the bushes. My local parts place had one in their warehouse.

Another problem I discovered with Level 10's frame side mounts was they were too short, I told the guy I had an aftermarket frame but he said they would work, so not REALLY his fault but I could have taken measurements for him if he asked. The Aqualu frame is about 2" wider than stock. So I had to make my own longer mount (Right). to make it work. I did cheat to the Driver's side to help with tcase clearance.

As previously reported by others, there is about 15" from the front of the engine to the bib. Should be lots of room for fan, shroud, rad, AC condenser, Intercooler.

 

[Salem747]

Measurements for RepowerToy's AC compressor bracket.

Should fit.

Bumper Fab, now that I have the steering gear I can finish the bumper/winch mount. It is a part of the bumper, which is bolted to the frame and then I put two nutserts on the crossmember, just to take any twisting that may happen.

Etch primed to be Raptored.

 

[Salem747]

Winch on bumper.

Clutch, Luk kit from Rockauto, comes with all you see here.

And a Koyo.

One thing I did not have, as I had no motor is the clutch hub.

This is from the quickdraw kit. The hub is a solid steel piece so if you have one you are good, they are available new. I got a used one from Steve at EBI.

 

[Salem747]

So, I have 2 styles of Hub cover, both Warn, however one of each was wrecked.

Decided to go with the solid style from the 79 and got a second one from Steve @ EBI.

Lights?

Now fighting with this thing. Seems like I have pushed too hard when pressing on the trans output bearing, so now my first synchro is stuck. To be continued.

Any bored housekeepers lurkin around?

 

[amico]

Greta has a face.
View attachment 2103940
And she is on her own 4 tires.
View attachment 2103941
Bought Motor mounts from Level 10 Industries, holes were not to spec, had to carbide them out.
View attachment 2103942

View attachment 2103943

104x64mm I think, it's like in the actual manual.

Then he blew me off when I asked a few questions about how he did some stuff on Sarpinz's build. So that was great, I spent half a day fixing his screw up but he can't spend 15 minutes answering a few questions. But he is a one man shop and doesn't have time to provide DIY tech support.

Wish I had known about those motor mounts, would have saved me hours. I'm now using the High AC Mega Bracket from Cummins because of my mounts, which forced me to have to use the Cummins AC Compressor about the same price as a Sandan but don't know what issues I will have with hose fittings. Talked to Vintage Air they said they will make things work for the Cummins compressor, they are just down the road from me anyways so I can go pester them.

 

[Salem747]

Wish I had known about those motor mounts, would have saved me hours. I'm now using the High AC Mega Bracket from Cummins because of my mounts, which forced me to have to use the Cummins AC Compressor about the same price as a Sandan but don't know what issues I will have with hose fittings. Talked to Vintage Air they said they will make things work for the Cummins compressor, they are just down the road from me anyways so I can go pester them.

Seem like great guys. I ordered my condenser already for mockup. Not to rub it in @amico but also got turbo outlet and bolted on. Only problem is the support bracket doesn't quite reach the bolt hole on the back of the outlet, will have to build a new one or massage the old one.

I also ordered my HDX gauges, I wanted metric so it's 6-8 week delivery. Wanted to get it going.

 

[amico]

Yeah let me know what you do, if anything for the support bracket because the Axis Turbo Outlet is the same. Mine doesn't reach the mounting hole as well. Looking at the Cummins site where you got yours looks like the same identical part. I'm not sure if the added support is necessary being that the gallon bucket sized catalytic converter (that weighted a ton) has been deleted. I plan on installing an exhaust flex attachment to the outlet and then hanger all my 2" or 2.5" exhaust piping. So I'm hoping outlet brace wont be needed.