or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Sawzall...
Long story short, the TLC needs some TLC. She was parked at my parents place for the past 5 years or so and was sadly neglected. Now that I finally have a place to work on the old girl it's time to fix the cancer and all the hacked crap that has been done to her.
The first thing I did when I got it down here was start prodding at the bubbled paint below the tailgate....bad idea :barf: The whole rear sill is gone along with the back of both quarter panels. I wanted to keep the full body so I order some budbuild quarter panels.
Other plans are to stretch the rear some more. Thinking about FJ-60 rear springs but every time I find a set I don't hear back from the person so I might end up with waggy springs in the rear. If anyone has a rear pair of 60 springs you know who to contact Also going to redo the traction bar, rear shock mounts, and x-members while I'm down there. A new cage, seats, and fuel cell are also on the list. Originally I was planning on contracting the cage out but I picked up a copy of Bend-Tech so I might give it a whirl...or ruin a ton of DOM, either way :grinpimp:. And lastly I hope an Orion find's it's way in there at some point. Also need to make a new skid and x-member down there as well.
I just bought a house so progress will probably be slow.
On the way to her new home in Arizonaahh:grinpimp:
Cruiser cancer
Also the tailgate is in pretty bad shape. Probably the one part that pisses me off the most. I'm going to try to fix it but I'm not getting my hopes up.
And with all that bondo I found I'm learning that this isn't the first time she had the cancer.
Haven't gotten much done yet. Mocked up the BudBuilt panels and started unbolting junk. Ended up having to cut the rear bumper off :shaking: I was hopping to reuse it as the rear x-member but guess not. I'll have to wait till next week so I can get some help to get the cage and fuel tank out before I can start welding the the support braces and cutting out the quarter panels.
Not much progess, work gets in the way of cruiser time :shaking:
Finally finished up a cross member for the trans/tcase. Originally it was mounted to the stock skid plate but that was a joke as it was flimsy and hung low. I'll build a new skid later and for the most part it should be flat except for under the tail end of the tcase
Filled in the fuel door on the new 1/4 panels. I'm going to ditch the stock tank for fuel cell and have the filler neck on the driver side so that I can fill it up on the trailer without having to fill up the truck and move to fill up the 40.
Would have gotten more done today but I sliced my hand open :shaking:
Next is to pull the cage and tank and add some bracing before cutting the rear out. Also need to get a 220 line run to the garage, unplugging the dryer is getting old.
Also have a crazy idea of a 4-link but I'm hoping that's just from the loss of blood :emb:
Thanks. I've been lurking on mud getting ideas from your build and a few others. I'd love to pull the body and clean everything up better but I know there's no way I'd ever finish if I took it that far. After all can't make it too pretty, its still gotta be dragged across the rocks after all!
I'm glad to be done with the web wheeling, or almost :laughing:
I'm going full retard and cutting the old panels out and welding these in and using a section of 2x2 box to replace whats left of the rear seal. I originally thought it was a rust free cruiser years ago but I keep finding bondo :shaking: I Figured I'm never going to sell her so I need to get this rust crap taken care of now before the body just falls off.
Panels are 3/16" steel :smokin: I wanna say they were $350 shipped for the pair.
Gonna hopefully try to make cruiser moab next year.
Sounds like I need to make a trip down the mountain to Lenoir, have a chat with Bud. I didn't know he sold those panels. Does he do installation work also?
Kinda what I'm thinking. I'm already in over my head, why stop now . I got to drive dhondagod's 40 a while back and really liked his setup with the 1/4 elliptical.
I was actually reading a lot about propane setups last night. What motor are you running and did you put the setup together yourself or did you get it as a kit? How much propane do you typically go thru in a day? I've had great luck with the qjet but eventually need to take the FI plunge. Can probably get 2 33lb forklift tanks for the price of a fuel cell and hardware. Gas station just down the street has propane so filling up locally won't be an issue.
I used a "Got Propane" kit and was very happy with it, Cary was awesome to deal with.
I will generally use an entire tank in a day of running trails, that is leaving my parents house in Moab, driving to the trail, running it for about 6-8 hours and coming home. I then pull the tank and refill it. I run two tanks to be safe. I use about the same amount in propane that my buddies do in gasoline, I am running a stock 2F.
Propane works well but has its obvious disadvantages.
1. I need to build a rack above the tanks for tool and cooler mounting, the Propane takes it up.
2. Removing and switching tanks can be a hassle at times, just requires a little extra planning.
3. not spilling fuel or having starvation issues is awesome.
4. The lack of wiring makes it simple and easy to diagnose.
5. I have not noticed any real power loss with tuning (timing and A/F adjustments).
6. Your friends will tease you (mine did) about having a BBQ truck, but they don't tease you at fill up where your fuel is generally about a dollar less or more.
I am purchasing more tanks as I like to have extras, I'll build a rack in my Ford to hold the extras when I trailer the rig to wherever.
I should have named this thread "I bet I can take longer than flatty" :flipoff2::laughing:
I just cut the open area part of the body panel off then came back and grabbed the part that is spot welded to the wheel well with some vice grips and yanked. Pulled right off, thank you rust :shaking:
I was surprised how well the new panel fit up, just popped right into place.
At this rate I'll be finished by christmas if I'm lucky :shaking: Going to take some vacation this month to try to make some progress.
I've been flip-floppin on buying a set of those quarter panels for a long time but now after seeing them in place and knowing I can omit the gas filler and move the wheelwell opening, I'm going to take some measurements tonight and order a set TOMORROW!
You won't be disappointed. You can see the radius of the bend in them so if you're doing a stock resto they might not be the best choice but for something that's going to smack into rocks they're perfect.
Hopefully finish up the welding and fill in a few more random holes tomorrow and then cut the rockers and figure out what I'm going to do there. Found the drain holes were plugged so the bottom of the rockers is good as gone.
Next I need to buy a bender and start wasting tube :bounce2:
Also need to find a couple of tweaked out meth heads to finish scraping up the rest of the herculiner. I hate that crap
Are you just welding edges of the plate corners to the sheet metal where you cut the old shit out? Looking to do this to my 40 tub and I'm not sure if I want to cut the old stuff out or just bolt on the plate similar to how the jeep crowd installs corner guards....
Pretty much. The original 1/4 panel bolts to the body at the doors with a couple spots that are welded. Unbolted that and cut the welds and then cut the top right below the lip. That was the hardest part. The second side went a lot smoother. Then at the back cut it all the way to the corner. Budbuilt 1/4 panel just butt welded all the way around. On the inside I got rid of the factory lip that was spot welded to the 1/4 to make it easier to get everything lined up and then used some small angle in it's place.
More time consuming then just bolting them on over top but really wasn't that bad. The second side went a lot smoother and quicker. The hardest part is trying not to blow through the sheet metal when welding. Every time I feel like I have it figured out and everything set right I hit a thin spot
I wish. I've been sick all week trying to make some progress and it finally hit me hard today and put me out of commission. I still have the cage, seats, tube fenders, propane, rear suspension, and paint to do. I don't see much wheeling getting done this year
Oh Man! this project reminds me of cutting off the whole back end of my 40 save the very top quarter panel rail. Anytime you start really looking at the body on one of these trucks get ready to open a can of worms
Your work is looking really good though. I used tube/new sheetmetal on my 40and a few photos are under the Rock40 build. You will love the rust-free end result!
I went full retard again :shaking: Finished up the 1/4 panels and then figured why not cut out the inner fender and raise them up a few inches. Need to go pickup some more 16g to finish off the inner fenders but the rest of the 1/4 panel is finished. Just needs a little more sanding along the top rail which is a PITA.
Got tired of dealing with the fenders so I moved on to modifying the tranny hump to fit again.
You already had the fenders off...wouldn't have taken much more to take the whole back half of the tub. Then you could be cool like me.
Lookin good dude!
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