"Vintaging" Elsie

[G-Cat]

My widened stock steelies are 7". I wish they were 8". I run 35x12.50s and went from a 10" to the 7". the truck drives much better on the 7"s than it did on the 10"s.

I'd say go with 8"s, if it were me...and if you are running no wider than 12.5" tires.

On another note, my 77 has a bored-over 2F, H55F and 4.56 gears. It is perfect (for me) for highway, around town and on the trail.

Cool project.

 

[hairy_apple]

Hum, see that first picture the tires just look very bulging to me. Looks great though, I can't wait to get some widened stock wheels, they just look so sweet. Why is it do you think it rides better on 7" then 10"? Seems like the extra width would help with handling corners and sidehills. Interesting. I am a few months away still from being able to afford to have them widened so I still have lots of time to think about it.

Wish I had not sold the set of 5 in almost perfect shape that came with the cruiser... but I had no idea such a thing was even possible when I was building it and probably wouldn't have done that anyway as I had my heart set for years on black rockcrawlers. Now that I have them, I want something else. haha. I'm not sure I'll ever be finished with my cruiser. There is just too much cool stuff I see on this site that I want.

Been sanding and priming all day. Discovered that the paint I put on the other day was very rough.. I sanded it down by hand and repainted it and it's good now. I think the primer just needed sanding and I didn't do that. Did it on everything I've done today and have no had the issue again so I think I figured out why it did it. CHunky primer. Never done anything like this before, so I'm learning.

Almost there. Got the hood done today. Going to wait until it cools off tonight and tape up the windshield and do the cowl and windshield fame.

Tomorrow I'll get the front clip and then I can put it back together. I'm going to wait on the hardtop and doors for a while. Too much work and I'm just already burned out on sanding all the old paint off.

 

[Chamba]

My widened stock steelies are 7". I wish they were 8". I run 35x12.50s and went from a 10" to the 7". the truck drives much better on the 7"s than it did on the 10"s.

I'd say go with 8"s, if it were me...and if you are running no wider than 12.5" tires.

On another note, my 77 has a bored-over 2F, H55F and 4.56 gears. It is perfect (for me) for highway, around town and on the trail.

Cool project.

Bored over how far? Balanced, ported or polished? Shaved head? Enquiring minds want to know.

 

[bsilva132]

If you are still looking for seats, I have these that came out of my buddy's FJ40. Not sure if they are stock or not though.

 

[sggoat]

I really like the shift knob!! Where did you get the logo to print? The one I made for my 77 is out of Karriwood(Aus), but it would look way better like yours
Gary

 

[hairy_apple]

Thanks. I am not really sure, I had a whole bunch of TEQ logos saved on my computer that I've found over the last few years for stuff like this. I don't remember where this one came from, I am sure I just found it online somewhere at some point.

All day sanding and almost there... sooo close to being able to paint the rest of it.

 

[cruiserjunkie]

Like the spring green on there

 

[DSRTRDR]

the new color is definitely better than the old color

 

[hairy_apple]

Wooooo.... it's green. All of it.

Got to clean up some overspray on the frame, take the grill off and respray it black. Took the tailgate off and am going to do some more work on it before putting it back on... but overall... it's done. That was a crapton more work then I expected to do, but the more I sanded the chips the more I found I needed to just take it all down to metal.

It's a 5 foot job for sure, didn't come out perfect, but nothing about my cruiser is perfect and it's a wheeler so its going to get rockrashed again and be dragged against manzanita all summer so it's good enough. It got the cruiser back to the look I wanted cheaply.

Going to replace all the hardware with stainless as well before I put everything back. All the bolts are rusty and I'd like to replace them. Going to take a list and head to the hardware store tonight to start replacing them.

Pictures later tonight once I have the hood back on it and it all back together.

 

[hairy_apple]

All done!

Just kidding!

Still have to put the steps back on, and the emblems and latches. Just need to finish paint them tomorrow and get new hardware for a lot of stuff that broke or was so rusty I don't want to put it back in like that.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Did you weld the rear doors, and then put tailgate hinge on it? Can you show it more of a close up?
Looks really good,

 

[kylenine]

How does the paint feel? I am thinking of painting mine but I want it to be smooth and look nice. Was it tough to sand it down to the metal? Did you use a gun or a rattle can? Looks great!

 

[Chamba]

Looks nice! Now you need a new avitar

 

[hairy_apple]

I know... it looks like a totally different cruiser!

It wasn't super hard to sand... just took forever. I actually used a white wheel on a grinder for most of the nooks and corners and odd places. Then I got tired of switching back and forth and just ended up using a cup brush wire wheel for most of it. It was slow, but it came off easy and totally.

It's a rattlecan, "Krylon Pistachio" and is VERY close to spring green. The few little bits that I found good paint under the orange it was almost a perfect match. Either way, it's a great color and I love it. Couldn't be happier with how it came out. The first couple parts I painted were rough... but I figured out it was the primer I was using and from then on took 600 grit sand paper to the primer before painting and it came out pretty smooth. I still plan to clear coat it to protect it a little more and I think that will add even more to the smoothness.

The tailgate... Yeah, I welded it together and cut and modified the bottom barn door hinges. I found that the bolts actually lined up if you turned them 90* but they were too short. So I just cut them and added 1/2 or so and angled them to reach. The top I just cut out the pins for the hinges and put ones in that I pull out to open it. I just found out last week that the barn door latch works perfect right there and so I am going to find another and modify it to work on the right side so I have latches instead of the stupid pins I made. I need to pull the whole thing soon and clean it up.. I did it when I was young and my fab skills have improved 10 fold since I did that. I actually don't love it... it makes it harder to load and unload stuff then the barn doors are... but it's nice for camping to put the stove and cutting board on. My plan is to actually cut out the sheet metal on the inside, and make a square tube frame for it so it's strong. It's got a length of angle iron running down middle of the back, so it's strong enough for setting things on, but not to stand or sit on.... I know it's not strong enough to sit or stand on... but one of these days some tard is going to stand on it and bend it and hurt themselves and ruin my tailgate. I'll get some pictures tomorrow of what I did. Be warned.. I think I was like 17 or 18 when I did it and it's not pretty.

 

[hairy_apple]

Found some pictures I took when I did the tailgate on my other computer tonight. Here ya go. Like I said, don't judge too hard, I have plans to fix it's short comings in the next few weeks.

 

[cruiserpilot]

I won't judge, looks kind of innovative to me. The lower hinge has a bit of style. It gets the job done. The way you have made the hinge pins removable, you might be able to have a side opening, &/or tailgate option if you found a set of lower hinges again. It would be a big side opening door, but what the heck.
Job well done!

 

[OrygunCruiser]

All done!
























Just kidding!












Still have to put the steps back on, and the emblems and latches. Just need to finish paint them tomorrow and get new hardware for a lot of stuff that broke or was so rusty I don't want to put it back in like that.

Hey I see a Pig in there!

 

[hairy_apple]

There are actually two pigs that can be seen in those pictures! The blue one is getting a newly rebuilt F engine next week and is totally stock and REALLY complete and in awesome shape.... the rusty ugly one with the top chopped is waiting for me to figure out what I want to do with it.

 

[hairy_apple]

Went for a little drive this afternoon to shake out all the dust and it was just a nice day for a drive.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Looking good! I noticed the taillights are different, not stock, what are they from?