Builds The Ram 45 -Tilda Bogue Service Station (3 Viewers)

[wngrog]

As you can see all the parts came in from Powder.

I’ll have more wiring to do with the Sniper but yesterdays wires all work.

 

[wngrog]

Last thing for the day….the TSM rear disc brake kit and 3.70s arrived today from @orangefj45

This one has front discs but I just took the whole front axle from Georg that I can use for a future project disc conversion. Shipping was going to be a full pallet anyway.

Taking Red to the beach this weekend. It’s been a great week on this thing. Very successful. 31 hours in.

 

[dogfishlake]

Looking awesome, as usual. On those Koito lights, we are de-pinning the wires out of the plugs and shoving the wires through, then reconnect. I think it is going to work that way. I stood there head scratching over that one.

Also, I had a talk with a guy at Canal Rubber today and they are out, potentially forever, of the white pyramid vinyl. I just picked some up on Ebay, listed as Chris Craft flooring. The vendor seemed to have quite a bit of it. Price is a lot more. Of course. I bought extra just in case.

I feel like I owe you a ton. I reference your builds constantly for direction. Thanks for sharing, hope to catch up soon.

 

[wngrog]

Looking awesome, as usual. On those Koito lights, we are de-pinning the wires out of the plugs and shoving the wires through, then reconnect. I think it is going to work that way. I stood there head scratching over that one.

Also, I had a talk with a guy at Canal Rubber today and they are out, potentially forever, of the white pyramid vinyl. I just picked some up on Ebay, listed as Chris Craft flooring. The vendor seemed to have quite a bit of it. Price is a lot more. Of course. I bought extra just in case.

I feel like I owe you a ton. I reference your builds constantly for direction. Thanks for sharing, hope to catch up soon.

My man.

 

[dogfishlake]

I'll bring the "Yankee Beer" again

 

[wngrog]

OG pics

Looks kinda like the Western Slope in the backdrop.

 

[splitshot]

Nice work Nolen
This coming from and old fart. Sam drug me out of the woodpile from my CSC retirement with a Clifford inquiry. guess I
should get out more often. Love the work.

 

[bhsdriller]

Was following this one on BAT both times it sold.

Liked it better before all of the rust was sanded down to bare metal but still cool

 

[wngrog]

Was following this one on BAT both times it sold.

Liked it better before all of the rust was sanded down to bare metal but still cool

They clearly did not read my preserving patina thread.

 

[RustyNailJustin]

Super cool to see this still in the family. I have some stories about this this truck when Goodknight and I moved it from CA to CO around 20 years ago. Plus it's history before that, ranch truck days in CA in the 60s and 70s. We also got it to run shortly after this trip. Story to come.

RustyNailRacing

 

[whitey45]

What happen to goodknight?? I know he has like 100 cruisers, but he left the mud community years ago? He bought a few 45’s from me back in the dsy!!

 

[wngrog]

What happen to goodknight?? I know he has like 100 cruisers, but he left the mud community years ago? He bought a few 45’s from me back in the dsy!!

More like 200 or 300…..

 

[RustyNailJustin]

What happen to goodknight?? I know he has like 100 cruisers, but he left the mud community years ago? He bought a few 45’s from me back in the dsy!!

He's alive and well. I was working at his shop yesterday. You should check out his area now, it's half a city block several large shops and warehouses, it's really something else, an empire really. I don't know how many LCs he has but I do know he has some crazy rare ones. He has excellent taste for sure. If I had to guess 250 LCs equally as many Toyota trucks And 4runners. But beyond that the number of loose parts is head spinning . Sorry for the hijack. I am looking to see what pics I can find from 20 years ago see what we got from going to pick these trucks up.

 

[RustyNailJustin]

This FJ45s history from my memory, What I can swear to is this trip and what I remember from it. In 2003/2004 I had a heavy hand in getting this truck brought back to life. Step one was getting it plus 2 other FJ45s moved from Napa Ca to Grand Junction CO.

Some of if not all of you know Mike Goodknight. Mike and I have been friends since the second grade and that's saying something considering we are almost 50 now! Mike and I have been doing Toyota stuff together well before we were even 16 both our Dads had Land Cruisers and that for sure influenced our opinions and actions for the last 35/40 years. Mike and I have had very different lives outside of the Toyota world but these vehicles and adventures seam to always bring us back together for the last several decades. Circa 2003 Mike called me and asked if I could go with him to Northern CA to help pick up a few FJ45s. It was winter, my seasonal job as a wildland firefighter was nil, I had been working in a couple shops locally including helping Goodknight when I could. Of course I said heck yea, lets do this! The first step involved lying to my Mom. My Mom and her husband had a 38' gooseneck and we needed it to haul 3 FJ45s 1000 miles. I am still not sure to this day why I lied, I would imaging my Mom would have said whatever no matter the destination. At this point even though I was only in my mid 20s she knew the drill, we find old things and rescue them. I had told her we only needed to go to Salt Lake City but the truth was Napa Valley CA. Mike and I gathered up the trailer in Delta CA and started our journey west. Mike had a stack of cash so big I am certain I had never seen so much in my 26 years, 11,000$. 11,000 dollars to buy 3 FJ45s. At the time it seemed crazy but Mike had an for this junk early and has proved to be correct for years. I remember we hit City Market on our way out of town to grab sandwich making things and snacks. One known thing was the weather was terrible and we were concerned with traveling I-80 in the midst of this storm. Only 150 miles out of Grand Junction we hit the SNOW and ice we all dread on a rod trip. You know that chunk of highway between Helper and Spanish Fork where the big coal seam is? We got stuck there in the middle of the highway with an empty trailer.

TBC onto discovering how amazing these FJ45s plus another 850 miles just to get there......

 

[wngrog]

Bring it …..

 

[wngrog]

Red and I went to the beach this weekend. I had a great time. Great break.

The Lodge at Gulf State Park is great this time of year.

 

[wngrog]

Today. Had to catch up with errands this morning but got home at noon and dug in.

The Wizard came out and was making the rubber plug for this valve cover WAY too complicated so I made him leave. I sent the fuel tank with him so he can weld in a return for the sniper.

I took the rubber cap and ground it down on the grinder. Fits snug. I added some FIGP on the inside just for a little assurance but it’s nice and tight.

Interior is super solid with the tank out. Pulled the hump to add a gasket and insulation.

Got a new emblem for the grill

Super stoked about this. Added two new OEM flasher relays and the blinkers fired back up! Also the OEM hazard switch works too as well as the dash flashers.

 

[wngrog]

 

[RustyNailJustin]

Continued from above...
Well part of getting stuck in the middle of the highway was mostly the fact that it was a sheet of ice, but it didn't help that this truck was one we rebuilt from salvage and it didn't have a front driveshaft. It also didn't help that every time you hit the brakes it killed the motor. I don't remember how we finally got up the hill (I think we chained up) but I do remember pulling into a Ford dealer near SLC and asking for a crank position sensor (the thing that was killing our motor when you hit the brakes). We got that swapped out in the parking lot and were back on our way across Nevada, dead of winter in a pretty bad storm. Thankfully this part of the trip was pretty smooth sailing, no one else was dumb enough to be on the highway. It was just Mike yelling at me for not making his sandwich right. We made it clear to Sacramento and the weather was much better at the low elevation. We worked our way through some super fancy property's in Petaluma where Paul Deckers shop was. This guys place was/is legit! We got to look around a bit before we started the process of how to get 3 FJ45s onto one trailer.
The second thing to contend with is how to get back up his driveway in the mud in 2WD.
I really hope I find a picture of our solution cause its pretty cool. It was abundantly clear 3 trucks nuts to butts were NOT fitting. So we took one apart! We put one cab in a bed and one bed on top of another bed then we strapped the chassis to the side. Simple minds simple solutions. The next challenge was the driveway! After 1 failed attempt it was clear we needed help. I don't remember if Paul had a tractor or we recruited help. But it took a pretty big machine and a full throttle assault to get back to dry ground. After a quick argument on the use of ratchet straps we were on our way. We opted to take the southern route this time, yea its a couple hours longer but we knew it wouldn't be an icy mess.
I remember a 3 FJ45s pretty well but this one I remember really well. It by far had the most character and it also had the coolest story. These 3 FJ45s came from the same ranch near Susanville CA. It was a Basque sheep ranch and that had a LOT of FJ45s back in the day. Rumor has it something like 30, Paul bought some and SOR bought the rest. This particular 45 was the Ranch Foreman's truck complete with a super faded sheep decal on the doors, it had and I hope it still has a key chain with a sheep as well. I also remember it still had the big sides in the bed for moving animals around. Now this is no joke and I am digging for picture proof in my archives. My day job is a wildland firefighter. In those days I was on a HotShot Crew that traveled everywhere. In 2007 we were on a fire outside of Susanville CA called the Moonlight fire. One of the known historic things in this area was the Basque tree carvings on the aspen. We saw a ton of them, some super old 1930s some as recent as the 1990s but I swear there was at least 1 with what appears to be an FJ45 carved into it! I know I have a picture, highly likely on film somewhere. But that really burned into my memory and I thought man I bet that's that white FJ45 Goodknight and I picked up at Pauls a few years ago!
Time marches on. Mike and I did a bunch of work to that truck, got it running and it was kinda the shop truck for a few years. I believe he sold it to a guy in GJ named Andy after that.

I just wanted to get that history out there on this thing, and I will keep digging to see if I can find pics. If Pirate wouldn't have crashed years ago and lost all those old threads I would for sure be able to find them. But for now its just this story to keep the legend alive.

 

[wngrog]

How awesome