What have you done to your Land Cruiser this week? (37 Viewers)

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Bought a new TRE since they are still available, but these parts bolt together without custom parts. The OEM 40 Tie Rod is even the correct length. :grinpimp:
That 555 TRE came in that Beck Arnley box?
 
That 555 TRE came in that Beck Arnley box?
It did. The Beck Arnley wheel bearings I bought a couple years back were also the same as OEM.

The parts counter guy even said he has even opened Beck Arnley boxes to find parts in Toyota packaging inside.

Results may vary… but I’ve got no complaints.
 
Artifacts, or, the art of facts. I'm using the Land Cruiser, and Caltopo.com's 'viewshed' rendering, to retrace an important Civil War track.

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There is just a tiny bit of bedrock exposed on the mountain pass. It is sandstone. It appears like steel-wheeled carts/cannons wheels made these marks?
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Maybe there was surface water, in March of 1862, before they installed the pump?
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Made progress on my caliper rebuild. As you can see they were pretty ugly to start with. I know I could purchase new calipers but I like to re-use/rebuild as much as possible.
  • First pass with wire wheel to get the big chunks off.
  • Disassembly and a bit more thorough work with the wire wheel.
  • Wrestled the pistons out after soaking them with ZEP Penetrating Fluid.
  • The edges of the pistons are a bit pitted but I’m going to try to re-use them. I think the pitting is outside the seal.
  • Cleaned in the solvent tank and ran pipe cleaners thru the fluid cavities. More solvent bath.
I really wanted to media blast these calipers because the wire wheel treatment was not doing very well in the tight areas but I didn’t want to damage the bores. I’ve seen where various things are stuffed in the bores for protection but I wanted to be 100% sure no media got in there. I also wanted to blast the inside of the pistons without damaging the outside so I installed the pistons in the bores then ran a bead of silicone around the outside edge & let it cure for 24 hours. For the machined mating surfaces I used a HVAC rubberized tape for protection. I used small rubber plugs to protect the fluid entry ports. After media blasting I used an xacto blade to cut the silicone around the outer edge to allow the pistons to be removed. Any residual silicone was easily removed. I washed the pieces in solvent one more time. Then I used some small, SS wire brushes (Harbor Freight) in a drill motor to do a final clean the seal grooves & bores.

I wiped the two halves down with acetone then taped off for paint. I like to use a small file to “cut” the masking tape. It’s quick and does a good job. (I used a sharp razor blade around the bores-too tight for the file method.) I used ACID 8 self etching primer. I probably should have used an epoxy primer but I was out…

Using this silicone method may have been done before but I’ve not seen it. It worked well for me. The rubberized tape did an excellent job of protecting the mating surfaces but was a bear to get off. I’ll probably use duct tape on the next one.

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For those looking for a better solution to the rubber door access plug (OEM #69881-60031), I found these steel metal plugs in 1-7/8” that work great. Painted and installed!

I just wasn't happy with the rubber door plugs from SOR that I painted.

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This batch of plating looks awesome. Toyota shipped radiator shrouds with just zinc, right? I keep thinking that the yellow zinc gold CAD shroud would make a good compliment to a clean engine bay, patina, or resto-mod.
I WILL have pre -owned replated gold cad shrouds soon

Before holidays

I have 7 various 4 and 55 and 60 ones
 
The yellow zinc dichromate finish looks nice. I'd like to have some of my parts done, including the cooling fan shroud. Any recommendations for someone near the east coast that does that?
My company uses Reliable Plating in Bridgeport CT for parts in the equipment we make. I haven't got around to doing 40 parts yet, but they do great work. Make sure you specify yellow
 

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