the pickles everlasting build thread

[nuclearlemon]

i found a set of rotors in decent shape and roloced the surface and the pileup of future parts began. the 60 rear with rebuilt rear brake backing plates and shiny housing went under in place of the pig rear and an extra ball joint front axle for my 45 is holding up the front so the old pig rear and the front (which i'd already rebuilt and converted to disc thinking i'd be using it ) were sold to a mudder from up north. the 60 front end is sitting in the garage and the parts on the shelf...oh yeah, the 60 housing is for sale now if anyone needs a shiny shaved housing

 

[nuclearlemon]

oh yeah, i'd even lengthened/beefed up and replaced the bushings in my stock sway bar links thinking they'd be hooked to the piggie axles...i'm hoping to get that done this weekend, but five years ago, i still had to finish that engine mounting. so the engine came out, the mounts were finalized and it was time to look at the at pesky bolt.

i pulled the tranny off thinking that there would be a section of the bolt sticking out that i could grab with vice grips and spin right out. nope. being as difficult as possible is a cruiser thing. it had broken off creating a pocket that no left hand drill bit or eezi out would touch. i even tried welding to it, but it wouldn't stick. i could just skip it...what's one bolt. oh, yeah...it's the one bolt that holds the slave cylinder

the engine went back in for the time being, sans tranny and xfer. no point putting them on until i fixed the bolt. but without them, i couldn't set the rear axle. i also couldn't set the front axle. without the front axle set, i couldn't work on the power steering, nor could i button up the interior. all for one bolt.

a year or so later, i scored a downey aluminum bellhousing for $20! and it already had the mount for the slave! extra score! too bad it only uses six bolts instead of the nine that the old bellhousing used. i've also sold grandpa, along with the old chevy bellhousing and adapter, but i kept the fork setup for the new bellhousing. too bad it doesn't fit. i have a chevy fork, turned down nosecone and chevy bearing, i need a toyota fork and unturned nosecone and a toyota to bearing and hub (thanks trollhole). now, that broken bolt is again vital.

a couple years later, i decide to weld up the hole and drill and tap it. so i weld it, i grind everything flush. i dimple it for the weld and i snap three drill bits. yep...didn't know weld material is stronger than drill bits. take another multi long break.

ordered a special cobalt bit for $20+ to drill the weld material out, put it in the garage thinking soon, i will drill that pesky bolt out. lose drill bit. yeah, so now it's time for this thread to take a break. i promise, it won't be seven years, because i'm back at it.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Great old pictures. What's your final plans for body and drivetrain. I'm confused, on what front axle you have now. I'm glad you're posting the build up, enjoy all the reading and ideas.

 

[nuclearlemon]

it's just sitting on a ball joint axle while i get the 60 series axle under it. i have an fj60 axle, but have since acquired an fj62 axle (which has the gusset built on), so i'm selling the 60 housing.

final plans for the moment are the v8/toy 4spd, 60 series axles with 4.56, rear aussie locker/front arb, an orion when i have the money, move the front springs forward a couple of inches and outboarded for the wider axles.

someday, it would be totally kickass to put the 55 tub on my 80 chassis. also have a complete 80 series powertrain that may go in someday. lots of options/ideas. for now, just need to get this done

 

[PabloCruise]

Ige - awesome!

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[nuclearlemon]

so, where did we leave off...oh, yes, the evil little bolt. you can see it in the picture, right by the filter. this took a lot of wind from my sail. as i mentioned, everything was at a complete standstill all because of one 7/16 bolt. i gave up for a long time. now please don't go thinking that i don't love my pig, making it sit out in the elements untouched. i was still working on things. evan jenkins sold me his freshly recovered front bench seat. we even found someone to mudship it to cruise moab. evan had to disassemble it to make shipping easier, but i got it all assembled and the vinyl hog ringed back in place.

 

[nuclearlemon]

i still watched classifieds and craigslist for little things here and there. that's where i found the old school sor rollbar. i won a jeep rollbar padding kit at a 4wd meeting and decided to see if it would fit. i got some rollbar handles. i started fitting in some insulation in the rear panels. even picked up an arb pump on sale and mounted it on the inner fender. i never stopped loving my pickle.

 

[nuclearlemon]

a junkyard pig scored me a nicer rear bench than i had. and i somewhat cleaned and rattle canned the heater (here you can see my other frustration...the shifter location). i got a 68 steering wheel with the big center pad, i added 68 lights to the grill. i put a dashpad and visor covers on and a new glove box door pad to dress it up and keep it looking pretty. i never really stopped. i even began a new relationship that got it another friend to keep it company. our driveway was now a three pig circus again.

 

[nuclearlemon]

with pighead here, it was time to go to work again. he wants to drive a v8 pig, so he decided to get that damn bolt out. drilling didn't work for him either, so he got out the dremel and a stone. this unfortunately egg shaped the hole, which meant i would have to do welding again, or overdrill it for a helicoil. while figuring out where center would be and how to fix it, i realized the damage was only about 1/4" into the block. all i needed was a considerably longer bolt! but remember that snow picture? remember that it's been sitting in those kinds of elements for a long time? without a bellhousing on? remember those cowl seals that get rotten? remember where all the snow goes when it melts and those cowl seals don't redirect the flow? my clutch was fused to the flywheel. new clutch, turn flywheel, take shower.

 

[nuclearlemon]

so, now here we are seven (and a half years) after getting the carcass and over four years since i last pulled the transmission and transfer case, which i've been tripping over numerous times and wanted out of the garage so badly, and the powertrain is in! yup, engine/trans/xfer are in for the final time. i did have to slide the tranny back a bit to swap to an fj60 topcover so the shifter is no longer under the heater (thanks riderjgs), but it's bolted together. mounted. done.

sticking with the as cheap as possible, the rear shocks are a little long, but they were left over from a part and will hopefully work for now. the fronts, i don't know, we'll find out when i get to the front end in the spring. i've bought pieces a little here a little there for the extended breathers. i'm reusing most of the brake line, although the rear axle section won't fit, so i'll have to bend new. the ss lines to the axle were bought used at a swap meet. i have to rework the brake t at the axle because it won't clear the shocks and springs mounts.....ah, cruiser wrenching...nothing's easy

btw, notice all the rust on the rear perches...that's how long they sat exposed before i finally got to weld them in.

 

[RockDoc]

I love the look of this truck Ige A pig sprung over on 35s with the original style rims is just about my favorite looking cruiser.

Do you recall the details on the rattle can paint you used? The colors look great, did you get some mixed up to match Toyota colors, or was this off the shelf? I was hoping to salvage the aged paint on my project 55, but I've already lost some pulling off the tape the held plastic over a missing window.

 

[nuclearlemon]

all the paint was off the shelf. it was krylon brand (ih8rustoleum. it stays tacky waaaaayyyyy too long). the white was ivory satin (3510). the greens (there were actually two, the bright green seen in 2006 and a little more avocadoish green that it is now and i don't remember what they were, i just remember going to ace to look for more of the second green and having someone there tell me they never carried that color when i know dang well i bought it there

 

[nuclearlemon]

so, we're essentially caught up to today. a few months ago, when pighead and i joined fj and some others to help scorcher on project moviestar, jason had mentioned that the tranny tunnel was butchered by a p.o. and he needed a clean one, so i traded him a decent one for the old one from project ms. it wasn't cut quite deep enough, so i had to mod a bit more back, and while an fj60 shift boot could be made to cover the hole, it would be horribly off center from the shifter, so i decided to make a quick patch panel to allow the shift boot to be moved down some. this will affect the transfer case shifter, but that will be dealt with later.

for now, the patch panel is welded in place in multiple spots (not all the way around, i'll silicone the rest to keep any moisture from seeping between) and new nuts have been welded underneath for the shift boot. it's painted and as soon as a new reverse switch shows up, it will get bolted in place, more reflectix placed on the floor and the floormat will go down for the last time, allowing the heater to be reinstalled and hopefully i won't have to tear into the interior again until it's time to mount the e brake handle for the rear fj60 brakes (long ways down the road).

i cut out the first bracket for the oem rear sway bar...need to make sure it will work, then make three more...next weekends project if i don't get stuck spending all weekend finally trying to get the 80 through emissions (thank you jack a gov ritter for making standards tighter than when my rig was born before you left office )

 

[nuclearlemon]

now's probably a good time to thank folks that made this possible...first off ron korzen for giving me the pig and an awesome deal on the heads. treeroot for handling my welding before i had a welder (and for all his research on a good welder, which i used when i bought essentially the same welder ), magoo and his roommate kim for helping me for a couple of hard years of wrenching on rigs, including parting the 76 that got me the original 4spd conversion and roller rockers, and pighead for spending hours with the dremel that got me working on this again and helping with the stabbing and restabbing of the tranny after so many years of tripping on stuff. finally all the mudders who've helped me with free or cheap parts throughout this endeavor. you all rock!!

 

[scrapdaddy]

Great story! Look forward to the next chapter. It sounds like you have alot of good friends, as I'm sure they feel about you. A true labor of love.

 

[cruiserjunktion]

at the rally, i scored the next step. i pair of fj60 axles. they were not in the best of condition, but they were cheap. the cleanup began. wire wheels, plasma to take off all the brackets and finally flapper wheels for the final gloss shine, then primer and rattle can

Dang, that's a clean axle housing! Nice work. I love how use what you have, to build it up. Reminds me of an old staying, "use what you have, to get what you want". Words to live by.

 

[Bucky'sRig]

Great thread! Your persistence (stubbornness?) is a credit to you. Also amazed at what can be assembled by keeping an eye on the classifieds and having many great friends. Good on you.

 

[Boss Hog]

U guys working on the Pickle this weekend? The build looks great and if u wouldnt mind I'd love to get a closeup look for my own pig project.

 

[nuclearlemon]

i will be. don't know what pigheads plans are

 

[nuclearlemon]

. I love how use what you have, to build it up. Reminds me of an old staying, "use what you have, to get what you want". Words to live by.

in sticking with the use what you have theory, here is the sampling of the sway bar brackets fresh from the scrap metal pile.

all four are officially cut out as of tonight, tomorrow, i will clean off the other three on the grinding wheel and drill them so they'll be ready to weld on turkey day, along with an axle gusset i bought (almost a decade ago) used for $25

i'd love to be able to just go full force and build the crap out of something, but house payments don't allow it