Wifey's '73 FJ55 Build-up (1 Viewer)

[Lee777]

Front clip has 2 coats of por15, now im doing the engine bay with several coats of white enamel. Pics of the final product will be posted soon!

NB: Its difficult to get any painting done. The only dry place to paint is in the garage and the smell is driving my wife nuts. I have to seal up the doorways get both garage doors open and get the fans moving the air. I think this will be the last bit of painting I do until spring

Lee

 

[bobm]

Lee, if you have any issues with welding or fabricating, I have been in the business for more than 34 years. I am sure I can Help a little.

Bob.

 

[Lee777]

Hey Bob,

I sincerely appreciate the offer for help. I will definitely need it

Lee

 

[Lee777]

Finished front Clip

Ta Da! a finished front clip, all painted up;p

Before:

After (both inner fender aprons refabricated and engine bay patch welded)

 

[PabloCruise]

That is just nice!

Well done!!!

 

[Lee777]

Ok, I need to rethink my strategy

Ok guys, I need your advice.

I was all psyched up after having finished up the front clip. Now I have focused my attention to the Drivers side (DS) floor including the body mount at the front and the one at the rear wheel well, as well as the support members which have all dissolved to some extent and need replacing. The following pics document the extensive rust.

My question is, is this doable without using a rotissery? I imagine there will be issues with floor flexing if I start cutting out large patches. Has anyone replaced the floor of their pig without body off?

I was going to go at er, but Ive decided to hold up and think this through a bit.

DS floor underneath looking towards front body mount

Notice the rocker (or lack thereof). The PO must have drove this thing up on log or something, the entire seam is completely warped

This is how she sits now.

This is a huge project

Lee

 

[bobm]

Lee, good move by not diving right in. The floor is actually 2 pieces the front section and the rear section towards the back seat. There should be a seam approx 25 inches from the kick-panel at the firewall. If you do start on the drivers side just make sure the body is supported (floor jack to rockers) or wood blocks someway to support a solid area. And yes you can replace them without a rottisery. I did mine in a dirt driveway on my back. Expext to get burnt welding though.

Thanks Bob.

 

[Lee777]

I think I opened a can of worms

I spent some time figuring out how the DS floor was attached to the mounts and cross members and assessed the rust issue to decide what I wanted to cut out. It turned out not too bad. But after removing the front DS mount I realized the much of the metal around the bottom of the A pillar/rocker/DS floor pan was dissolved and discovered that the PO had done some fairly detailed work to fab up the rocker panel at the A pillar. Actually it was pretty amazing work with, especially given he/she was limited to a pop-riveter!

I had supported the rocker with some blocks prior to removing the floor mount as advised by bobm and noticed the support taking weight after the body mount was removed

The initial plan was to cut out the floor rust and patch in. But before doing that I had to focus on rebuilding the rocker/bottom A pillar.

I must have shoveled about 2 full dust pans full of dirt off the floor after cutting up the inner rocker

Pics pics pics

DS floor pan cut out

Floor mount removed. The PO had scabbed some sheet onto the end of the mount at the rocker side, but the original mount is almost completely dissolved!

Inner rocker was cut out

View of where the bottom of the A pillar meets the rocker, viewed from the firewall side. There is very little original metal left, but just enough to tack onto

The PO had fabbed up this piece of sheet to form the corner at the rocker/Apillar. Not bad work. Im going to reuse this piece but weld it instead of pop riveting it!

 

[laguna80]

Good luck! Those areas are huge jobs. Just keep at it and it'll be over before you know it.

 

[bobm]

Lee, make sure you dont remove too much without bracing, If you plan on removing the entire floor you should brace from rocker to rocker a pillars and b pillars. Use 1 inch square tubing to minimize any movement. The more the merrier.

Bob

 

[Lee777]

Laguna -- Thanks for the encouragement, it much needed

Bob -- Good advice. When I started cutting out the floor, I initially thought it would save time to just cut out the entire floor, especially since i have to replace the entire length of the inner rocker, but I held back. So I have just cut out the DS floor pan with the one border 3-4 inches forward from the B-pillar to keep the alignment. I have a support at the B pillar, it seems to be taking all the weight.

When fabbing the rocker back together it would be nice to clean out and coat the inner aspects with POR-15 but I will be doing a lot of welding on it. They should come up with a POR-15 like coating that is weldable. I have weld through primer but im not sure how well that will stand up to moisture/rust. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Lee

 

[cruiser_guy]

When fabbing the rocker back together it would be nice to clean out and coat the inner aspects with POR-15 but I will be doing a lot of welding on it. They should come up with a POR-15 like coating that is weldable. I have weld through primer but im not sure how well that will stand up to moisture/rust. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Lee

Clean it and deal with it as best you can and then get it rust proofed with a spray in wax/oil type mix that DOES NOT HARDEN. The stuff, when it doesn't harden, seeps into all the cracks and places where even paint can't get to.

That's about the best you can do.

South Coast Auto here in Cranbrook will rustproof vehicles.

The bracing they are talking about looks something like this https://forum.ih8mud.com/fj45-owner...-67-central-american-model-7.html#post5955746 That's my '67 FJ45LV under restoration in Costa Rica.

 

[laguna80]

I was told on the forums here that this stuff is great. Picked up a can and sprayed it into the seams etc.

 

[Lee777]

Refabed A-pillar/rocker

Mum and the kids are still away so I took advantage of the time and I went at it again today after work. I got 2 hours in and I was kind of surprised at how much I got done. Time seems to fly when your working on a cruiser

Can o' worms.... I had planned to start work right at the bottom of the A-pillar/rocker panel but noticed the upper DS floor pan had some rust at the left and top margins that needed to be ground out and patch welded.. didnt bother patch welding though, just ground out the rust and patched over with new sheet metal. I want the new floor pan from Bobm to have a good base to weld on to.

Metal was thin at the bottom of the A pillar so I patched on a some sheet on the rocker side and folded it under and welded it, ground it down, then welded on the cap that the PO had fabricated, it fit nicely.

Im now at the point where I want to weld in some sheet to form the inner rocker which will also form the base for Bobm's front DS body mount to attach to. I'm going to run out the length at the bottom of the sheet since it will eventually form a pinch weld with the rocker panel and since I dont have them fabbed up yet, Im not sure of the dimension. Im aiming for stock on the rockers.

Tomorrow I plan to drill holes in the inner rocker sheet for spot welds. Then weld er in.

Pics:

A before picture of the A-Pillar/rocker (or lack thereof):

This is a interior view of the refabbed A-Pillar/rocker:

Reinforced DS floor pan from engine bay/firewall view:

Refabbed A-pillar/rocker from outside view:

New internal rocker panel sheet being positioned:

Does anyone find themselves getting overly obsessed about the welding? Spot welding is like meditation sometimes, you get into it and want to fill every little gap up with weld, I think I get carried away sometimes. I guess im just strange

Lee

 

[cruiser_guy]

Does anyone find themselves getting overly obsessed about the welding? Spot welding is like meditation sometimes, you get into it and want to fill every little gap up with weld, I think I get carried away sometimes. I guess im just strange

Lee

Lee, you need to fill the gaps with SOMETHING, weld or sealer or you have a water entry point. Where you are currently working gets the spray from the front wheels.

 

[Lee777]

Hey Charles,

Your right.

Im wondering what to fill the gaps with. I plan on going over it with several coats of POR15. Prior to this should I seal up the cracks with with bondo or should I go with some rubbery/goopy compound.

For some reason, Im adverse to going with anything rubbery. I seem to have it in my head that I will always be going back clean things off, and re-applying POR15 in the future and we all know how fun it is to remove rubber crap.

Lee

 

[scottryana]

I would think a seam sealer would be a good idea. I have used 3M in the past but Por15 also has a seam sealer.

PORPATCH-POR-15 Inc.

 

[cruiser_guy]

There is a seam sealer compound for this purpose.

 

[Lee777]

Thanks guys. Seam sealer it is..

I decided to give my neighbors a break from metal grinding this sunday morning and decided instead to do some wrenching. I had pulled the front axle off a '76 FJ 55 that had front discs. Its been sitting by the wood pile for about a month now. We have been blessed with mild weather lately so I figured I would take advantage of this and pull off the hubs/knuckles off the '76 axle.

The one side went really fast, faster than the service i did on my BJ60 but the other side had spindle bolts that were completely rusted out to the point where a socket couldnt grab anything. I managed to pull the spindle/knuckle off and bring it into the garage. I plan to weld on some bolt heads and try to get them out that way. I have really bad experiences with trying to tap out bolts, I definitely dont want to mess this one up. Any suggestions on the best way to get these bolts out is much appreciated!

Picture of the spindle/knuckle with rusty bolts - my nemesis

Picture of disc parts all cleaned up. I got lucky, the parts have minimal corrosion in unimportant areas.

Anyone need an axle?

THanks
Lee

 

[PabloCruise]

A little late now, but why not just bolt on the entire '76 housing?