Two 62s Become One - Build Thread (2 Viewers)

[diesellibrarian]

Got a good chunk of the bodywork done over the weekend. There isn't a ton of filler required - just a few spots here and there on the quarters and rockers. I'm no expert at this stuff - this is my first time doing any kind of blocking, but I think it turned out ok. After a couple of coats of sealer and a couple of topcoats (with sanding in between) any minor imperfections should pretty much disappear.

Glazing putty ready for sanding:

And all sanded out to 180 grit:

And after a couple of coats of etching primer:

Finally, let us take a moment to remember what this part of the truck looked like before. A definite improvement!

 

[diesellibrarian]

I believe that I have completed all of the body work and paint prep. The entire truck has been sanded to 220 grit, and mostly masked.

Just waiting for weather that's a bit warmer so that I can set up a temporary spray booth in the garage. Looks like that might be a week or two out with this winter that just won't quit.

In the meantime, I'm picking away at little items. Greased up the u-joints the other day, and replaced this broken cold start injector time switch:

This is what one of these things looks like inside, in case you were wondering. One of the leads was broken, so you can also see my attempted repair, which actually worked but wasn't likely to last very long:

Shiny new switch installed:

A few of the final details arrived from City Racer as well, including some new front side markers to replace the ones that had completed disintegrated.

Hope to be spraying soon! More updates to come.

 

[diesellibrarian]

The 62 is finally painted! It was a fun but challenging process, and a ton of work! The results are perfectly satisfactory for a garage paint job done by a total noob.

The first step was laying down the sealer/filler. I'm using a 2K high-solids acrylic sealer. I laid down two coats and let it dry, and then spent the whole next day removing the many runs and sags in the paint. I then wet-sanded the whole thing with 320. I realized later that I forgot to insert the little filter thingy in my spray gun, which is why I think I ended up laying the sealer on too thick, causing many sags in the paint.

Anyway, according to youtube, the way to remove runs in paint is to wait for it to dry, then scrape it away with a razor blade. So that's what I tried, and it worked like a hot damn.

The sealer went on nice and thick, leaving lots of room for sanding out imperfections.

Yesterday I took the afternoon off work to get the topcoat done. This is a single stage acrylic enamel in 4E9 beige. Overall it turned out very well, though I may end up respraying the hood, as it went on a little dry in that area. We'll see how it looks after sanding and buffing.

Now starting to install lights and trim. It's starting to look like an FJ62 again!

Here's a youtube short of me walking around the truck just after spraying.



Will spend the rest of the week getting the windows reinstalled and whatnot, then it's off to the shop for a safety inspection!

 

[diesellibrarian]

First pics out in the wild. Can finally stand back and check out the stance and see the true colour as it appears under natural light.

Of course my eye is drawn to the imperfections that I know are there, but overall I'm very happy.

Drove it to the glass shop today, making two stops along the way, and at both stops I had a random dude come up to me and talk to me about the truck. Made me late for work! haha.

 

[diesellibrarian]

Sadly I've noticed a good-sized oil leak at both ends of the engine. The front leak looks like it's coming from the oil pan gasket, and the rear is either the pan gasket or rear main seal. Any chance that the rear main will come back after a few miles? The engine had been sitting for years - wondering if it will soften up a little after a few heat cycles. Probably wishful thinking...

 

[diesellibrarian]

Well, I bit the bullet and ordered up a new oil pan gasket from the dealer. Remember the good ole days when gaskets didn't cost $100+?

I knew that replacing the gasket would be a big job...but is was even more of a challenge than I expected. Probably put like 8 hours into this project. The first big hurdle was getting the oil pan off. Part of me was hoping that it would just fall off when I removed the last bolt. Fat chance! I beat on the thing with a dead blow hammer, tried using a variety of chisels and putty knives to break the seal, nothing worked. The old cork had basically turned to cement.

Finally I resorted to the "sideways jack" trick, and even that didn't work the first time! I ended up moving the jack to a lower part of the pan, to increase my mechanical advantage. Finally I was able to release the driver's side, and then had to do the same on the passenger side. I was amazed at how much force it took to free the pan.

Once the pan was out, I spent hours cleaning the mating surfaces. I also made sure to clean the inside of the pan really well. I was surprised to see that quite a bit of oil/sludge remains in the bottom of the pan, even after draining. I was glad to be able to clean out all that old crap and start fresh. Reinstalling the pan wasn't too difficult. I put a *very* thin layer of FIPG on the top of the gasket to help it stick to the block while I hoisted the pan in place. That method worked well. Also placed FIPG at the corners and on the #1 and #4 bearing caps, per the FSM's very vague instructions. After many rounds of bolt-tightening, I got all the hardware torqued to spec (69 in-lbs). I'll put fresh oil and a new filter in it tonight, and hope to hell it fixes the leak.

In other news, I got my power antenna installed, and it works!

Still have a few more things to check off the list before it goes in for a safety inspection, but it's looking pretty good!

 

[kirvesmies]

very nice mister, keep after it
i know mine's not gonna compare but i won't be askeerd to beat on it

 

[diesellibrarian]

I've been debating what to do about a front bumper. The one that came with the truck was a massive, ugly homebuilt thing made from heavy steel plate and angle iron. It originally held an old Warn Belleview winch (which I am planning to put on my '72 FJ40, since it's period-correct). The thing kind of looked like one of those JDM "picnic table" bumpers that come on some 60s with the factory PTO winch. Not the look I'm going for.

Since I want to get this thing safetied and on the road, and since I don't feel like dropping $1500 on a new bumper, I decided to get out the ol' angle grinder and modify the old bumper to lower its profile and make it look less janky. The results are half decent! I was able to move the bumper in at least 4", improving the approach angle quite dramatically. I also trimmed the "wings" to follow the shape of the front panel.

Update on the pan gasket: I've brought the truck up to temperature a couple of times since installing the gasket, and there is not a single drop of oil anywhere on the undercarriage or on the floor. I'm pretty happy about that! Maybe I won't need to do the rear main seal after all. We'll see what happens after I've put a few miles on it.

 

[kirvesmies]

"picnic table"? those are the whole freakin' front deck! the bumper you've got on there actually looks right on it, i like it.

 

[diesellibrarian]

Big day today! The Cruiser passed an out-of-province safety inspection (a $200 bull**** requirement when registering a vehicle from another jurisdiction), so it is now officially on the road! This has been a hell of a journey, but so much fun! I still have a few things to do on this rig (valve adjustment, wheel alignment EDIT: and Fluid Film the crap out of it) but otherwise it going into service as my DD and the Suzuki will be for sale.

Thanks for following along with me on this project. I'll probably post updates occasionally, but if you're interested in more rust repair high jinx, I'll be over in the 40/55 Series section, documenting the slow rebuild of the '72 FJ40 I bought last year.

 

[georgebj60]

Congrats! Quite the journey you've been on with this one. Enjoy it.

 

[BittersweetInfamy]

Amazing project dude!
Congrats on getting it to a DD stage!

 

[diesellibrarian]

I've been driving the 62 around town a bit, and it's been running well. There's a little puff of blue at startup, but I don't think that's unusual for a truck of this age/mileage (290,000km) so I'm not going to worry/do anything about it. This past weekend I put the truck on the highway for the first time, taking it on a 400km (250mi) round trip through the front range of the Rockies to visit my brother in Fernie, BC. It ran great, and stayed cool despite the 30c temps. Made it there and back on a single tank of fuel, with a bit to spare. By rough calculation I made 17-18mpg, which I'm pretty pleased with. The unknown A440f shifted smoothly and at appropriate times, so I was pretty relieved about that as well.

While in Fernie we took a little spin up a logging road, just to see how it behaved off pavement. That's when I discovered that it was not going into 4L (4H seems to work ok). So there's a bit of troubleshooting to do there. Otherwise, I'm happy with this first run, and am looking forward to some longer trips in this thing.

I tried to find a spot in the pass that was in one of the scenes from the movie "Interstellar," but the road access was blocked off, so this is as close as I could get:

Made it to Fernie in one piece. You can tell that I am highly stoked:

Hanging out in downtown Fernie with my brother's '71 Westy (my family has always been into aircooled VWs. I still love them, too, but have largely defected to the Land Cruiser camp):

That's all for now! Cheers!

 

[diesellibrarian]

Put the truck through its paces this past weekend with a 1300km (800mi) road trip through the Kootenay region of BC. I was playing beer wagon for a couple of pals that were on bikes. Unfortunately, the ignition coil on my buddy's Triumph packed it in about three hours into the trip, so we ditched his bike at the home of a distant relative of one of the other guys, and he jumped in the Cruiser for the rest of the trip.

All in all, I'm super impressed with how this truck is shaking down. Only two minor mechanical issues cropped up over 5 days of mountain driving: the "window lock" switch broke off (meaning that had to jam a paper clip into the slot whenever anyone wanted to raise or lower a window), and the filler neck sprung a couple of pin hole leaks. Luckily I was within range of my family cabin on Kootenay Lake where my brother was staying, so we popped in for a beer. Parked the Cruiser nose-down so that I could pull the filler neck and get it sealed up with some tank-sealing epoxy. I didn't leak again for the rest of the trip. So glad I sold my spare filler neck to @kirvesmies

Stopped by my buddy's uncle's place in the Slocan Valley. He has some pretty cool old stuff in his front yard, including an old Honda 500 that we managed to get running (the CT-90 looked like too much of a project). The jeep is a '52 Willys.

Really loving this rig so far. I've gotta say that it feels great to have taken this thing from parts rig to reliable adventure machine. Sure have appreciated the collective wisdom on this forum - seriously couldn't have done it without y'all!

 

[cruiserinsanity]

Put the truck through its paces this past weekend with a 1300km (800mi) road trip through the Kootenay region of BC. I was playing beer wagon for a couple of pals that were on bikes. Unfortunately, the ignition coil on my buddy's Triumph packed it in about three hours into the trip, so we ditched his bike at the home of a distant relative of one of the other guys, and he jumped in the Cruiser for the rest of the trip.

View attachment 3410145

All in all, I'm super impressed with how this truck is shaking down. Only two minor mechanical issues cropped up over 5 days of mountain driving: the "window lock" switch broke off (meaning that had to jam a paper clip into the slot whenever anyone wanted to raise or lower a window), and the filler neck sprung a couple of pin hole leaks. Luckily I was within range of my family cabin on Kootenay Lake where my brother was staying, so we popped in for a beer. Parked the Cruiser nose-down so that I could pull the filler neck and get it sealed up with some tank-sealing epoxy. I didn't leak again for the rest of the trip. So glad I sold my spare filler neck to @kirvesmies

View attachment 3410146

Stopped by my buddy's uncle's place in the Slocan Valley. He has some pretty cool old stuff in his front yard, including an old Honda 500 that we managed to get running (the CT-90 looked like too much of a project). The jeep is a '52 Willys.

View attachment 3410147

Really loving this rig so far. I've gotta say that it feels great to have taken this thing from parts rig to reliable adventure machine. Sure have appreciated the collective wisdom on this forum - seriously couldn't have done it without y'all!

View attachment 3410150

Those Honda Trails are great and a ton of fun in the woods.

 

[kirvesmies]

evening @diesellibrarian , was it you who put the corolla brake flex lines on the front knuckles of their 60. i recall reading it but can't recall who it was. it was a pronto part number i believe

 

[kirvesmies]

good to hear your beast is working out for you

 

[diesellibrarian]

evening @diesellibrarian , was it you who put the corolla brake flex lines on the front knuckles of their 60. i recall reading it but can't recall who it was. it was a pronto part number i believe

It was not me! But it sounds like something I'd be tempted to try, haha.

 

[diesellibrarian]

Siege Overland had a sale on these decal sets, so I couldn't resist. They're the perfect icing on the cake for this rig:

Pretty impressed with the Togue Nation decals. Easy to install and high quality materials! Definitely recommend.

 

[kirvesmies]

It was not me! But it sounds like something I'd be tempted to try, haha.

no worries man. i went diggin' n found it, it was in @FJACS saved from a part out thread. stripes look good by the way