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Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica


Hi guys! Did you know you just dial the last 3 digits of my license plate when you see me and help will be on the way?

I think it's time, why the gently caress not.

Long story short, as per my bitching all over the rest of this place:

I quit my job doing physical design (ic photomasks) and moved to the region I live in 7 years ago because my parents had bought a farm in the area and we had talked about starting a business making some kind of alcoholic beverage. They were planning on retiring up here as well. During the interim, I moved from said farm to a house in the nearest city, discovered I was somehow poor all of a sudden, and got a job in a print facility that I thought was going to be a temporary thing.

Here we are three and a half years after all of that, four after I bought the house. My parents are planning on selling their various properties in the area and move elsewhere and embrace retirement. This includes where I store and work on my vehicles, but that's beside the point. I am left wondering what the gently caress am I doing, having wasted my entire 20s being some introverted fuckstick letting his folks run the show. I took the voluntary summer layoff from work and it is imperative that I get the LC driving again. It is also imperative that I find new employment because I am killing myself working a dupont rotation for under $20/h trying to survive for a dream that fizzled years ago. I've to work like 17 shifts between now and August and I'm trying to make it so I don't have to work more than the first four before saying "see ya!"

I've dragged this poor thing along with me for the entire ride:



This all brings us to the Today, and the Now:



But picture fenders, and a cab tub that's recently been bolted down, there's a post in one of the chat threads, I forget which. I built up mounts out of shitloads of body fill:



I've set aside Mon-Weds of next week to knock out the fender alignment and start putting her back together. There is a hard time deadline now too, my folks are putting the place up for sale sometime in the next month and they want the truck out of the shop by June. Yesterday I cashed out a bitcoin and while I can think of oodles of ways to waste it, such as a sweet-looking rusty datsun 510 WAGON FOR $500 HOLY gently caress I WANT IT SO MUCH, but I'm going to use most of this to get the Versa saleable and the truck road legal.

For those not following until now, I have most of a fiberglass replacement cab for it and have spent literally years dragging my rear end about the swap.
My old thread here.

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gimpsuitjones
Mar 27, 2007

What are you lookin at...
Cool. Fix er up bud

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
^^^^ Wanna help me track down something? I'm looking for the soft top hoops for the cab. I've seen them for sale before, but I can't find them in NA at all beyond ancient mud and pirate threads.

So, one of my problems is I am terminally bad with money. I'm sure I could make zaurg look responsible in some ways, but that's not a thread I'm gonna post.

I ended up using most of the proceeds from the bitcoin today, to settle my property taxes, dog registrations, and water bill (city run utility) since that was due too. The property taxes are a huge thing for me, I was further behind on them than I thought because lol the current quarter just rolled. Setup autopay on a 10 month cycle because one of the main reasons I was behind was due to the quarterly billing and never really having enough money on hand when they'd roll. Getting out from under the quarterly cycle has been a huge goal for me for a long time because it's been utterly impossible for me to fully pay up which is required to change it. I've been behind since around the time I realized I needed a job after buying the house.

After all that, capital gains, and some misc poo poo to meet the minimum transaction number for some rewards thing I got with the account, I've got around $2500 left of the proceeds that are solidly in the "Automotive" category of my finances. Thanks to my recent enlightenment of ebay's -bs I have found shitloads of what I thought were unicorn-rare oem parts. Likely all from South America, but who gives a gently caress. Terrible Robot I think was joking about me one day driving a stolen LC through the jungle while being chased by the guerillas I'd stolen it from just to get the parts I want, and for some of this poo poo I quietly thought that was likely the only way to obtain them. Still fingers crossed on the troop-carrier hoops and jump seats for the bed, but unless anyone here happens to know some rebels running Bandeirante or Macho pickups, I'm not really sure I'll ever get those.

I need to be thinking about poo poo like door cards, dash poo poo, headliners, etc. The poo poo I'm gonna need to finish out the truck because if I'm gonna afford painting the drat thing I'm gonna have to sell the Versa and press it into service or sell another bitcoin and potentially deal with having both my 88 Pickup and the Cruiser sitting in my back yard instead of just the Pickup.

So without further "what the gently caress is Tinal posting" I present you with a cunundrum.

Do I go with an OEM-style dash:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/TOYOTA-LAND...xJVX1ql&vxp=mtr

and

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Toyota-Land-Cruiser-FJ40-OEM-Dash-Pad/292164115113?hash=item4406569aa9:g:CBoAAOSwgkRVU-yX&vxp=mtr

Or do I go with something like this:
https://btbprod.com/product/dash-box-toyota-fj40-land-cruiser-btb/

The "lip" mentioned is a steel lip that the OEM dash slips onto, it runs the width of the dash. Mine was rotten and twisted iirc and mounting the dash box might ostensibly be easier (as well as far cheaper, the lower pads are optional with this setup). The mounting screws hold on the bottom really well, but the lip is necessary to keep it in place and I'd have to figure out a way to do that for the OEM dash.

I'm kinda lost because I do like the original dash a lot and you really don't see them complete here except on survivors.

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica


Today was the big day to attempt dealing with a problem that came up the last time I was working on the truck.

The problem being that one of the fenders is half an inch longer than the other:
Pass side front:
Pass side back:

Drive side front:
Drive side back:

To try to bring the passenger side one back a little, some material was shaved off the front of the driver's side running board in an attempt to both close the gap a bit and get the fender to shift backwards.


Result was far from perfect, but that brown spot on the driver's side fender in the first picture is now hidden. Not ideal, and far from perfect, but it was either go this route or attempt to cut, shorten, and resculpt the fender. The majority of my alignment issues have stemmed from this fender being 1/2" longer than the other, though some of them also come from the frame rail being about 5/8" pushed in on that side (though the frame is square and okay on the critical measurements, go figure).

After that, it came time to start mounting the fender brackets, originally these were a bit longer and actually spot-welded to the original fender. Originally they would've looked more like this and less like in the following picture. To deal with the thickness of the fiberglass you have to cut them short and figure out some way to space them off the frame.


I got two 1/4" or so thick polyethylene cutting boards from a dollar store and made shims, four went on the passenger side, 5 on the driver side.


The scalloped portions from what originally would've been the handles on the cutting boards worked really nicely for clearing the bumpstops.


Bracket bolted in for the first time in 4+ years.


Almost as if I knew what I was doing too.


Next step is to drill through both of those holes in the bracket to bolt the fender to it. For now we're just using big fender washers and hex heads, but I don't want bolt heads sticking up out of my fenders in non-original places so I've got some bolts with machine screw heads that will eventually be countersunk and glassed over to encapsulate them inside the fender.

E: I also ordered a NOS diesel 40 series specific lock and ignition cylinder set. $150 price premium just for that GLOW position, but my locks and ignition cylinder are over 40 years old anyways... It's JUSTIFIED, okay!

Fermented Tinal fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Apr 10, 2018

Ferremit
Sep 14, 2007
if I haven't posted about MY LANDCRUISER yet, check my bullbars for kangaroo prints

But your not gonna need a glow position when you drop that direct injected 12HT motor into it :shepspends:

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica

Ferremit posted:

But your not gonna need a glow position when you drop that direct injected 12HT motor into it :shepspends:

I signed up for Japan Car Direct and am trying to find a shitheap 70 with a running 1HD.

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
In keeping with the multi-posts, but also in keeping with my propensity for tangents. I present to you the following:

I decided to take the AM-only radio home to give it some TCL and get it demodulating some amplitudes. Also because it is in need of a good cleaning. Why am I doing this? Well, the slot in the dash isn't din-sized and this is too 80s: https://www.retromanufacturing.com/products/1972-78-toyota-land-cruiser-fj40-hermosa-radio?variant=29743800067

So, here it is, partially disassembled, you'll have to dig in my old thread to see pictures of it assembled (or just Google FJ40 radio). The larger two nuts are 14.5 :wtc: and the rounding is because I had to use a 15


Apparently somebody moved in at some point, I wonder how old that cobweb is.


It was manufactured by Matsushita (which I've been told is basically Panasonic), and I must say I am highly impressed with the build quality, especially since a lot of this radio looks hand-assembled.


The mechanical memory selector mechanism which I have yet to figure out.


When was the last time you saw a hand-populated and soldered board look this good?



Also, who's bright loving idea was it to weld in the mounting bracket for the wires, thus preventing further removal of the shell without in situ balls deep disassembly.


I'll get some other head unit or something and mount it under the driver's seat or on the ceiling of the cab for modern audio convenience. I'd like the radio sitting in the centre of the dash to work and look good, even if it is only AM. Guess I have to go balls deep, fire up the soldering iron!

gimpsuitjones
Mar 27, 2007

What are you lookin at...

Ferremit posted:

But your not gonna need a glow position when you drop that direct injected 12HT motor into it :shepspends:

Get out of my dreams

randomidiot
May 12, 2006

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 11 years!)

Fermented Tinal posted:

It was manufactured by Matsushita (which I've been told is basically Panasonic), and I must say I am highly impressed with the build quality, especially since a lot of this radio looks hand-assembled.

Correct. They officially changed their name to Panasonic in 2008, but prior to that, Matsushita was the parent company of Panasonic, Technics, Quasar, and some others I can't remember. They also now own Sanyo, and they've worked with Toshiba and JVC on various stuff in the past (Toshiba mostly on TVs, too lazy to read much further on what they did with JVC).

They've always made solid stuff, IMO.

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
I haven't finished cleaning up the radio yet because reasons but yeah, I see nothing that should prevent it from working when I finally do hook up a speaker and turn it on.

Right now I'm trying to figure out what to do about the truck's bed, because in its present condition it might present a problem when I do go to get the truck safetied. When I bought this truck, I knew I would be replacing significant amounts of the body, but my cursory inspection of the bed, and subsequent years of completely ignoring it in favour of working on the cab, made me originally think it wasn't really all that bad. The rules seem kinda vague about it, but the reality is the bed is at best, a hazard. I am 100% not worried about the frame of the truck itself in this area, and the four on-frame mount points are good.

Let's list of the parts that are in solid and good condition first. The headache rack and gussets, as featured in many pictures, probably the parts in the best shape, especially since it looks like the PO replaced the gussets at some point, they're essentially new. The next part that essentially just needs paint, is the driver's side bed side. It's not 100%, but close enough and is basically the largest piece of body steel on the truck that has survived the last four decades relatively unharmed.


There's four braces for the tray, two act as the four mounts. Front mounts themselves seem solid, but the brace is quite bowed. We'll get back to the tray which you can see part of the underside of.


That's it. That's all the good. Now for the bad.

The rear mounts and all braces are not happy. Three are bowed and rusty.



One is practically gone.


Now on to the tray, it is dished out heavily, but the main section and wheel wells do seem solid, it could potentially be salvagable but it needs new bracing and to get flattened out without destroying the ridges... As for rot, the four corner panels are all trash. Here's two as examples. I could probably just replace these outright with four flat panels welded in, the bolts serve no real purpose, there's nothing under the bed other than the rear driveline which is completely accessible from underneath without lifting the truck.



The tailgate is on life support. The main panel is trash, the latches are trash, and bottom of the frame is a lot less solid than it looks. At best I could save the top and side parts of the frame, and lose the TOYOTA. Below it is the valence, which is mangled.


Passenger side bed side probably last saw better days before my parents met. It's solid except for at the very back where the rust hole is. I, or a shop, could potentially get the wheel well in a presentable state as all the metal is there, just crunched. It will never be 100% again, but I'm okay with that because it's a large piece of original steel that I might be able to keep.



Remaining piece in poor condition is the front wall of the bed, it's not salvageable and I can't seem to find a decent picture of it. You can sorta see part of it in one of the tray corner pictures.

Basically it boils down to this. I can replace the bed in part or entirety. I have the money for it, that's not an issue, but that isn't to say I'm willing to just hand out $7k (CAD) plus freight from the US if there isn't a better way. At best I can save the rack, main tray, and two bed sides, but to even know if the main tray can be saved I'll likely have to get the bed sandblasted. Fabbing my own patch panels is out of the question, it's beyond my abilities, and having a local steel place fab them will run me about $80/h in labour alone. I could probably weld them in myself.

As for a complete replacement, I have my choice in three materials. One is fiberglass from the same guy who made the cab, and likely my cheapest choice overall at $4500 and no freight because he's local enough I can go pick it up. I will likely have to fabricate mounts and figure out how to bolt the hardware on, also I don't think he does tailgates but I could be wrong. The next is aluminium, orderable from one of a half dozenish places out of the US. Would have to replace the entire bed if going this route or with fiberglass. Tailgates and some misc bits are included, but I think some of the hardware might not be. The cost is around $6-8k plus freight from the States. Lead time is about two months BEFORE shipping. Finally we come full circle back to steel, potentially orderable from about the same number of places, roughly same cost, same lead time. I can source replacement panels from the same places, about $400 for the valence, $1100 for a tailgate, $2600 for a tray (can't get just the corner panels unless I find some guy on ebay selling salvaged ones for fuckyou pricing), and I'll need to beg for a front wall to even know what it costs as a panel because lol its not offered alone by anyone. The freight might be less due to not having a fully assembled bed if I go with panels. Same lead time, and I'd have to cut apart and weld together a bed afterwards, when I likely have no shop to work in anymore.

I need help, please help me AI.

E: Aqualu's pricing for Canadian customers has changed since last I looked: http://www.hardbody4x4.com/uploads/6/4/2/2/6422733/cdn_-_land_cruiser_pricing.pdf

Fermented Tinal fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Apr 22, 2018

BitBasher
Jun 6, 2004

You've got to know the rules before you can break 'em. Otherwise, it's no fun.


What's your intended purpose for the bed? Do you intend to haul a load with it old school style? Is it just for appearances?

Also what is your climate? I know here in Vegas fiberglass tends to go to hell after a few years in the sun. I assume you aren't in the desert since you mentioned a farm and moving to a nearby city. That and you already went with a fiberglass cab apparently, but I thought it would be good to ask.

My situation was very different because I had a set of requirements a good deal outside of normal for what I wanted as the end result.

You need to make the choice of what will serve your needs versus the price you pay. Will the fiberglass meet your requirements for what you want to use it for? Are you sure about that? If so go with fiberglass. If not then then does the aluminum? Can you use a steel or aluminum tailgate on the fiberglass bed?

Welcome to cost/benefit analysis!

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
Intended purpose is to use it as a truck, it'll be my DD once completed. I told the guy from the body shop yesterday that I wasn't after a perfect restoration, but a solid and servicable bed that didn't look like poo poo. As for climate, I'm in Ontario, Canada, wet and rust is life.

The fiberglass is one I'm really unsure about, it'll probably be a lot of work and then who knows how well it'll hold up to full loads of crap even if I get it coated with bed liner.

Fermented Tinal fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Apr 22, 2018

Powershift
Nov 23, 2009


At this point i would think the options are the aluminum bed or a bunch of sheet metal tools and a welder.

BitBasher
Jun 6, 2004

You've got to know the rules before you can break 'em. Otherwise, it's no fun.


Powershift posted:

At this point i would think the options are the aluminum bed or a bunch of sheet metal tools and a welder.

I pretty much agree with this.

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
Well, repairing the tray myself and making new braces would probably require a 8' long brake I don't own to run the tray through in the hope it flattens out a bit.

I guess I'm calling Aqualu tomorrow.

yaffle
Sep 15, 2002

Flapdoodle
When I lived in Costa Rica it was pretty common to see those with a whole new bed fabbed out of angle iron and wood, sometime quite nicely done.
This sort of thing:
http://www.buylandcruiser.com/2017/03/1975-fj45-flatbed-truck.html

yaffle fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Apr 23, 2018

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
Aluminium bed is on order, as well as a bunch of other stuff. I picked up the grille screen from the steel shop today and I'd say it's a real improvement and for the $100 it cost me I'm happy since this piece was not really replacable.


Before:

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica


Holy poo poo, the bed is already on its way. The cheque is somewhere between here and BC according to Canada Post. I really hope it arrives. :ohdear:

Anyways, other news...

As should be readily obvious, the dash of a J40 is effectively just one wide flat panel of (typically) steel. Toyota attempted to improve safety by adding a hard rubberized foam pad that went across the dash and would probably crush your face or crack your ribs/sternum in a collision if you were a passenger, or get covered in blood from the steering column shithousing the driver. Essentially it's there to add insult to injury if the seatbelt fails to be sufficient. You can kinda see my original dash pad in this picture.



Mine is pretty trashed, as are the three lower blocks (which I'm debating buying replacements for, as most people don't bother, you can see two beside the radio). It mounts with 4 screws across the dash after it has been pressed onto the long track you can kinda see going across the top of the dash in this picture.


I neglected to retain that track because reasons and without it, mounting an oem dash pad would require fabricating some sort of reasonable facsimile. Other option is to replace this crash safety device with a steel lockbox.

Naturally, I decided to go with the face-mutilator instead of the face crusher. It arrived today, last one that was in stock for the next couple months. It didn't come with a lock but the BJ42 lock set I got off ebay included a lock for the suv-body tailgate and is not used on a 45. The tailgate lock is a bit larger than the hole, and the dash came powder coated. I'm thinking very steady hand and dremel/file will be the best approach. Anyways, here it is, along with my feet.


That's all for now, stay tuned for next time, with special guest star Redo The Lettering Paint Again.

Fermented Tinal fucked around with this message at 05:20 on May 2, 2018

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
Well, I hope this wasn't in danger of getting archived!

I left home around 5:40 this morning and after meeting up with my father we headed out from my folks' place around 6:15. Mostly uneventful aside from a big slowdown due to construction that required a slight detour and a light rain, we got there around 8:40. The depot is a gloriously chaotic place that had a good 500 trailers sitting in the lot, about 120 loading bays that I was able to count, and seems to be forever stuck mid-transition between paper and paperless. I think this is where the breakdown in communication occured because linehaul shipments seem to lose out to the noise of routine haulage. Anyways, I griped about having to wait despite being told it was going to be on the dock and waiting for me.

Around 9:45 or so, and 10 full days after it arrived in Brampton, my truck bed worth at least 11 beater Honda Civics (every time my mom asks me how much it cost I tell her this) was signed for and we were loving out of there. This was a much better outcome than I was expecting and there may have been a long pole-like object in the bed of my dad's truck...




I hope finally you guys who never seen one in person can truly understand just how large a FJ45 is. My father's truck is is a 2012 Silverado 1500. Front of the crate was almost flush to the bed it contained, which was probably 3" off the back wall of the Silverado's bed. Pretty sure that means mine's longer. :dong:

We got back around 12:30 and I went home to let my dogs out. At around 2, the bedgle had landed, I think it actually weighs under 400lbs, the two of us were able slide it off onto the ground with minimal fuss. We're pretty sure once the crate's off it'll be an easy lift.


These are some pretty thicc panels (walls are 5/32" and floor is 3/16"):


The mounts are beefy too:


Latches and hinges and mounting hardware's all stainless and the latches look great but also like they would be at home on a barn door:



It's not completely right yet in my mind, missing a few things that my mental illness will not tolerate long term. Like the three hooks on the tailgate the manufacturer forgot to add but after a quick email they are sending them to me free-of-charge. For now they won't be going on and the bed won't be getting painted, but do expect three hooks, raised letters, and hoops to be added to the tailgate and ribs to be added to the deck. Also my damaged brain is demanding I replace the cables with chains.

That's all for now, I've gotten a buttload of parts in the mail but most of them are at the shop now and I don't really have anything to take pictures of here.

Fermented Tinal fucked around with this message at 01:43 on May 16, 2018

BitBasher
Jun 6, 2004

You've got to know the rules before you can break 'em. Otherwise, it's no fun.


It is damaging my thought proccess looking at a bed that's not ribbed. It just feels totally wrong.

That said, cool poo poo man!

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
Yeah, I'm gonna look into having some aluminium channel welded onto the tray for ribbing because goddamn does it need it.

spog
Aug 7, 2004

It's your own bloody fault.
Ohhhhh.

I thought you were waiting for delivery of a bed bed. For sleeping on.

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica

spog posted:

Ohhhhh.

I thought you were waiting for delivery of a bed bed. For sleeping on.

I would've burned Brampton to the ground after 2 days if I'd been waiting for a bed to sleep on.

gimpsuitjones
Mar 27, 2007

What are you lookin at...
Cool. So what remains to be done on the truck to get it up and running then?

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica

gimpsuitjones posted:

Cool. So what remains to be done on the truck to get it up and running then?

At a minimum right now? Diesel, some wire, a battery, and a screwdriver, at least in theory...

Gotta finish installing the trans tunnel and shifter boots, install the pedals and brake and clutch cylinders, tighten down the steering wheel, install the fuel tank, and it should be capable of running and driving. Everything else is auxillary to that, but the next thing I do will probably be swapping beds and installing switches and lights and deciding at what point I'm gonna do the wiring harness.

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
Been almost a month since I've posted anything here, um, hi I guess?

I've been helping my dad with replacing the soffit on a house and it's taken us a lot longer than we initially thought. Now that I start a new job on the 18th we're trying to get that done so we can get 3-4 days on the cruiser to button some more stuff up before it becomes a weekends-only thing. Hopefully I'll be able to save this thread from the archives without a shamefull bump post like this soon.

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
Significantly less shameful bump post incoming:

Now that dad and I are finally done replacing the soffit on my folks' house, we return to the cruiser. Unfortunately for project progress, but hopefully fortunately for me, I start a new job on Monday. It cuts my "time off work" short by a month and a half, but finding a new gig was part of the reason I took the layoff in the first place. This is going to be a Saturdays thing for a little bit but we're triyng to get all the major "2 person" work done this weekend and next so progress can continue.

The "2 person" work left to do is the bed, everything else should be doable by one person and would mean the truck could potentially be moved to my place if the shop sells sooner rather than later.

The tray was in worse condition than I thought. It's been a long time since it was empty:


Anywhere you see holes is paper thin and rotten underneath and I am glad that I went with the aluminium one to replace it instead of getting it repaired.

All ten bolts did not survive removal, I had to cut four of them and the other six put up a real fight but snapped. We shimmied the bed off the back until it tipped onto the ground and then flipped it. Then we flipped it again.

Definitely old and busted:


Now my truck's butt is in the buff for the first time in over fourty years. I can't help but think it would've been a lot easier to weld on those frame patches if I'd decided to replace the bed years ago instead of only recently.


While the patches do look large, they actually cover much more area than they needed to and are on the less important inner rails. For those who don't know, the frame is boxed by two C channels rivetted together, with the inner rail running from the frontmost crossmember to the one above the rear axle serving as extra support, all crossmembers go through it to the outer rails. The inner rails in those areas had numerous perforations and represented the worst of the frame rot.

Kakermix's cruisers' lack of chassis rust make me jealous af, but my NA FJ45 frame is in amazing shape considering its age and how bad a lot of the body was. My frame isn't mint, but it's a lot closer than most, even my vin stamp is 100% legible. I've been told it's a unicorn before because of poo poo like the original loving paint on a truck that has spent four decades in Canada:


We didn't get the new bed on, the frame needs a lot of cleanup (most of that light brown on the outer rails is dirt, not rust) and a good slathering of por-15 before that can happen. That's tomorrow's thing. There's some bulges in the outer rails in a few places from flaking rust off the inner ones that I'll need to dig out and hammer back flat too. According to a tape measure it is 3/16" out of square but I'm not concerned, entire frame's out by about 3/8" assuming this is a continuation of what we knew for the front half. Probably due to whatever event pushed the driver's side running board in a little. The truck tracked straight the last time I had it on a road and was hands-off and it's not like there's much adjustment to be had for wheel alignment, especially on the rear so I'm not really concerned about it.

Have to do something about the swaybar too, the end links aren't in good shape and the tabs on the axle aren't either. If I took it off I'd get way more articulation when offroading, but I'm not really planning on using it as a dedicated wheeler, might have to figure out a solution, the links don't look too different from tie rod ends...

Also, I am still angry at whoever decided it was a good idea to weld that bumper on. It's not even loving OEM. :mad:

Fermented Tinal fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Jun 16, 2018

gimpsuitjones
Mar 27, 2007

What are you lookin at...
My BJ73 handles much the same with or without the swaybar, for what it’s worth. I don’t bother with it because the mount brackets on the axle kept breaking whenever it tried to flex. Depends on your lift though maybe, I’m below stock height with lovely, hosed, sagging springs and blown shocks

Ferremit
Sep 14, 2007
if I haven't posted about MY LANDCRUISER yet, check my bullbars for kangaroo prints

Ive got a 100 series with IFS front and coil sprung rear and its only running the smaller rear swaybar to free up the front end for articulation (and 600kg constant load rear coils...)

Its a LITTLE boaty.. but not too bad. My old solid axle leaf sprung hilux never came with swaybars and it handles just fine. I mean, steering input was a suggestion when it was new, and still is half a million kms later, but it doesnt have any real body roll!

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
I think for now I'm.just gonna leave it alone until it breaks.

Cut the bumper off, gonna do some sand blasting soon.

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
Did I say sand blasting? Well, apparently we only had one bag of media and wasted most of it trying to get it to actually do more than spray sand lightly against the frame...

Regardless, dropped the turd hanging off my truck's rear end.


And removed the tire carrier winch crossmember, all four bolts and nuts survived, which left both my father and I quite surprised:


The winch on it is slagged, but I think I remember reading somewhere the one on either a Tundra or a 100 series is identical and should work. I'll have to take what's left of mine in to the dealership and ask if they have any on hand I can compare it with but I don't really know of anywhere else to mount a spare on this thing without making it look like its having an identity crisis about what word comes after Land in the model name. Not like I have a spare wheel and tire for it right now but it'll have to be something at some point.

Main reason it came off was to make cleaning around these a little easier. Water gets trapped in between the three layers of steel and flaking caused a lot of bulging. Impossible to get the needle scaler or a flapdisk wheel in there so that's why we were setting up the sandblaster. Next weekend I guess.



As for the next major rot zones I present to you the areas the bumper was welded to, which included not welding in those two through holes on each side but did include a blob of weld all the way around the outside of where the bumper met frame. This trapped water in an area water normally does not get trapped (the holes are supposed to be closed off with rivets and I don't get why whichever PO that did this didn't just drill holes in the bumper's mounting tabs and bolt it to the frame where the rivets used to be.





Dad used the welder to touch up some holes in the rearmost crossmember, but we're thinking that some 3/16" plates are going to find themselves welded in there since the original material is getting thin due to questionable decisions made by a previous owner.

While he was working on cutting off the bumper and cleaning up the frame with a flapdisk, I went to town with a needle scaler on the crossmember:


We wrapped up for the week after this point. I might head over tomorrow for a little while to work on things, but we woefully underestimated how much media we'd need to do the blasting and just how long it was gonna take to flapdisk the frame. Next Saturday we should hopefully get the blasting taken care of and start throwing por-15 on it.

Fermented Tinal fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Jun 19, 2018

Bajaha
Apr 1, 2011

BajaHAHAHA.



I'm not sure if you know but make sure you use the POR15 metal prep solution before applying, supposedly it's important if you want good adhesion even if the metal has been otherwise well prepped.

Being frame pieces, I'm assuming you're just using standard POR15 and not using any of the UV resistant after coatings?

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
Haven't decided what paint to put on top of the por-15. I was considering some sort of spray-on bedliner, but I think it might be too much of a pain in the butt to take off if I have to chase rust again. Plastidip maybe? I dunno.

As for the metal prep, I have a bottle. It's not necessary and I didn't use it on the front half when I did it years ago, but I will be using it on the back half.

E: Front half was needle scaled and then wire brushed so the entire surface was rough and peened, I haven't noticed any issues with the years-old POR15/DOM16 on it.

Fermented Tinal fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Jun 17, 2018

Bajaha
Apr 1, 2011

BajaHAHAHA.



Huh, I remember when I was reading online about it when I was doing my subframe pieces some people made a huge stink online that you have to use their metal prep or you'll regret it, guess that was just sensational.

Sorry for perpetuating the hysteria I guess.

Not sure if you'll need another coat over it, but if you're set on it then bedliner would probably be the most durable. Plastidips ease of removal also means it'll be easier to scrape off from rocks impacting it, but then again the POR15 is the primary coating and this would just be for UV resistance (although I think UV exposure just makes it cosmetically ugly by making it turn grey and doesn't actually affect the integrity of it, or am I remembering wrong?)

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica
I don't know if it breaks down to the point of letting rust happen, or even what really goes on.

The metal prep etches the steel, and coats it in zinc. So, I imagine it's like any other paint in regard to how well it bonds, smooth = bad, rough = good, etched = better with the zinc being an extra layer of protection. You could probably apply it to a galvanized frame without using the metal prep and get a similar bond.

Honestly, it's 70s Japanese steel, I'm probably going to be chasing rust off it all the time and I really don't expect to get more than a max of five years out of the POR15. I really only used it because I saw a lot of guys use it on Pickups and 4Runners. Ontario rust is insidious poo poo and I'll be legit surprised if I don't see the signs of it after the first winter on the road. If this new job works out then the money I could be making by the time I need to address the frame again I'll just go the full monty and have it dipped and powder coated.

The only griping I ever heard about POR15 is from a few of the hardcore cruiser nerds who act like my using it is going to ruin one of the few remaining good-condition LWB FJ45 frames. The Right Way (tm) according to them is that I should sandblast the whole thing, box the rails, have it hot-dipped, and then powder coated. I mean, yeah, I'd love to do that, just let me add that to the $70k or so I'm already into this for, no biggie, really. :fuckoff:

Suburban Dad
Jan 10, 2007


Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself




Fermented Tinal posted:

I mean, yeah, I'd love to do that, just let me add that to the $70k or so I'm already into this for

:stare:

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003






This is why you never add receipts on a truck you've been working on for decades.

Just don't.

Bajaha
Apr 1, 2011

BajaHAHAHA.




QFT

My wife once threatened to make me add up the expenses on my projects, I caved, it got her the desired result and I'm thankfully still blissfully unaware as to exactly how much I've sunk into them.

E: spending in small "bites" over a long time makes it super simple to spend an impressive amount. Also one of the better mindsets to get into when trying to save as every little bit adds up to something substantial over a long period.

Bajaha fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Jun 18, 2018

Fermented Tinal
Aug 25, 2005

by Pragmatica

IOwnCalculus posted:

This is why you never add receipts on a truck you've been working on for decades.

Just don't.

It's a rough estimate. :smith:

The cab wasn't cheap.

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Ferremit
Sep 14, 2007
if I haven't posted about MY LANDCRUISER yet, check my bullbars for kangaroo prints

My old red Hilux ended up costing me $16,000 to replace an alternator. Alternator for the old 3L diesel was about $600, so I replaced it with one from a 1kz. With the 1kz attached. And crawler gears. And a new clutch. And twin air lockers. And a body off rebuild. And a surf front end swap. And new suspension. And a body lift. And 33” tyres....

The land cruiser is insured for about $80k...

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