Builds Won a '74 40 on a coin toss...

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Got a few things done tonight... Replaced the inner shifter boot. Old one was crunchy and the hole looked like someone was hungry and chewed it up. OEM part from the local Toyota dealer.

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And rounded off the door handle - that's as close to OEM as its getting. Fought the sheared off screw for far too long. Used 400/1000/1500 wet sanding to get a pretty nice finish. Amazing how much easier it is to open the door with that extra length created by the handle.
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Not seen is the correct plug for my GR starter thanks to @Coolerman. No chance that plug will slip out now. Thank you!
 
Weather was nice enough to get out and do some painting. Figured it would be an easy quick rattle can of the frames and install. Well, as we all know nothing comes easy with these things. After taking off the seat covers I found a funky repair and also some metal shearing on one of the jump seat frames. I bought a cheap harbor freight welder almost a year ago but haven't used it since I have never welded and I was a bit afraid to do it. But decided since the repair would pretty much be covered by the seat covers I decided to go for it. Did a quick couple of practice welded and here is my end result. Thank goodness for grinders and for this not being visible. It ain't pretty but it is fixed. I'm happy to have overcome that little fear and I will do more practice before I weld a little patch on my inside rear wheel well.

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Did some cleaning up of the rust and treated with rust Doctor (this photo shows untreated). Will paint tomorrow.
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Cleaned up the front chair mounts and gave them a few coats of paint. Look nice and purdy now. :)
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Well, if you can do it, I gotta at least try. What kind of welder did you get? I picked up two beat up jumps for my rig that look worse than yours. Need to get busy!
 
Quick deep dive into the welder for a brief moment. I love this thread btw.

Haha two birds of a feather, I bought the same welder with the same dude-logic(not much $ to lose) followed by a period of 2.5 yrs of fear and procrastination. My sack eventually dropped and I opened her up and started zapping after years of youtube "research". I was so pumped and annoyed at how uneventful it actually was! What fun and very empowering, all of a sudden my 40 had more "real" potential!

I was surprised at how much grinding is needed. Also I was shocked at how easy it is to burn right through the sheet metal. I then got lots of practice at filling in burn through holes.

I'm still too chicken to attack my quarters, not sure how to even start. But I have about ten of patches I can attempt before I finally will have no more excuses.

Final thought, check out youtube for "harbor freight flux core mods" or "tips", there's about three easy things to make this welder better. Lincoln wire, right sized tips and can't remember the other stuff.

I'm no expert, only have fiddled with it a bit. Just wanted to pass along some assurance to others to try it. If you mess up, just remelt the metal and keep trying till it's good. pls nothing structural or critical though ! Cheers

EDIT: you tube guys channel name is "Matt Heere"
 
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The tan seats are just about ready to go in my 74. Decided to "refurb" the seat belts and now waiting for the clear coat to dry. They turned out pretty good but now the strap/web looks so faded. Doubt they can be dyed and I don't want to spend the money to get them totally redone.

Still need to redo the metal backs on the tan seats as they're a bit scratched up and have a few small dings.

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Purists be damned, I really like those seats! Wish someone sold reupholstery kits in that color.
 
If you are looking to replace your screws on your pre-75 Cruiser doors and have a Grainger nearby (free to ship to store) here is a nice deal:

$2.06 for 50 - Lock Washer, Bolt M6, A2 SS, PK50 external tooth (they aren't the countersunk type but work fine and bend when tightened):
GRAINGER APPROVED Lock Washer,Bolt M6,A2 SS,PK50 - Lock Washers - 22UK27|M51456.060.0001 - Grainger Industrial Supply

$3.90 for 50 - Mach Screw, Oval, M6 x 1 x 12 L, PK50 (oval head an exact match for the factory screws but in stainless steel):
GRAINGER APPROVED Mach Screw,Oval,M6 x 1 x 12 L,PK50 - Machine Screws - 6HY13|6HY13 - Grainger Industrial Supply

Each door requires 12 each so that is enough for 2 sets of doors. 4 for the window crank, 4 for the access panel, and 4 for the door lock assembly. You'll pay almost $25 for just enough to do both doors if you go through the traditional routes for Cruiser parts... ;)

I'm going to eventually paint those parts of the door so this will give it a nice finishing touch!
 
LasCrucer said:
Purists be damned, I really like those seats! Wish someone sold reupholstery kits in that color.
Click to expand...

Had these not been reupholstered I would've bought some from Cruisercorps. But they were in too good of shape to spend the money on new ones.
 
Seats are all set to go in!

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Here's the new SS screws and washers. I was missing a couple and some of the heads were just trashed so it is nice having all now without nearly stripped out heads.
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Yeah, and thanks for the cheesecake shot of the seats:smokin:
 
Yessiree one is in!!! Can't access the other side in the garage so the driver seat will have to wait. One day I will have a big shop where I don't need to shoehorn things in... ;)

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Snuck the cruiser out just before the rains hit and got the other seat installed. Liking it! Just need to finish up the rear jump seats. Unfortunately lots of rain in the forecast for the next 10 days so very likely no painting. Probably no driving the cruiser either so doesn't really matter.

And btw, if you have the pull handles I measured the screws and they are M5x0.8x16mm oval head machine screw. You need 4. No lock washers. If you want all your screws to match the screws that hold the window frames are M6x1.0x20mm. They have a big fat button like head. 6 per door. I'm assuming they're all the same length - I didn't take them all out. And they all have washers and split lock washers. I'm going to check out the local Ace to see what they've got... :)

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This is the back of the steering wheel pad - now I see why the red "T" emblem isn't restored... Looks like everything was molded together. Getting to the emblem it appears would require some pretty destructive work... So maybe a flat sticker on top of the clear plastic covering the logo to look like it's authentic?

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Got my new tach mounted. Total redline action engine is about to blow up!!!

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Okay not really it's not connected. Unfortunately in all my stash I didn't have the inline fuse connector they recommended (shouldn't you provide that if you recommend it?). But I like how much smaller it is than my old one and I'm pretty certain the old one read high. And I like this too as it only goes to 6K and 3K is about my limit on this thing - easy to read that at 12 o'clock.

Oh and the screws for the door hardware were the same ones for the cluster so I swapped those out too!
 
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