FJ40 Nut: September 2013

I'm back!

It's been almost 2 months since my last post! Since we last met, a host of factors have kept me largely out of the shop:
1. A heat wave (and summer in general).
2. A boat (though that is a weak excuse).
3. Competing projects (we'll get to that later).

There has been progress, which has come in fits and starts, which explains why I just couldn't justify sitting at the computer (not to mention the fact that summer evenings are NOT for computing) . Posts might have read like this: "Got up. Went out to the shop. Started cleaning a part. Sweat so much the dust turned to mud on my face. Quit and got a beer."

My progress took a major leap this past week when I mated the tub to the chassis. (I see all of you jumping to the pics!)

Now that you're back lets look at the less glorious achievements:

Hub caps: In my last post I introduced you all to these little beauties. Rare as hen's teeth and all mine, thanks to another ebayer. I had explained that the caps were very nice, sans a bit of surface rust. What I loved the most was the gold paint on the embossed lettering. I was intent on saving it. The problem: refinish the entire black surfaces while preserving the gold embossing. Hmmm. I thought long and hard on this. I surmised that the lettering could be protected by a water soluble product (?) of some kind. Here is the cap (1 of 2) at the start.

I ran a few experiments with food stuff (peanut butter, dough, etc) but nothing stuck. ;-) Then after some further contemplation decided regular motor oil would be it. I used a very fine capillary tube to drop, drop, drop just the right amount of oil onto the lettering and circle to see if it would coat as I expected, and it did! So I went about sanding and cleaning every part but the embossed areas, then I repeated the drops of oil with the caps on a very stable and level surface. Then it was straightforward priming and painting.

After a few days of drying time (I needed the paint completely cured before attempting to clean the lettering), I took the caps into the kitchen where I gently washed the caps with warm soapy water. Cap ONE was a freaking complete success! The paint was perfect up to the small bath of oil and with a bit of scrubbing the original gold shown through. Cap TWO was going almost as well when I came upon an area about a half inch long in the circle where the black-over-oil wasn't budging. After an hour of fruitless labor two things became infinitely clear:

1. I missed spreading the oil on a half-inch section of the circle.
2. This SEM paint is fuc*ing INDESTRUCTIBLE!

After an hour of attempts to remove the black

So, in the end, all I did was scrape off the original gold paint so badly that the project was DEAD. Start over, Bob. I bought some gold model paint, re-sanded the cap, painted it all black and then, using a similar capillary tube, dripped in the new gold paint. Ain't perfect, but it will do!

This is the one I painted with GOLD

This is the one I was able to preserve the original GOLD

The oiler and the painter capillary tubes

Starter motor and carburetor fan: Did he just write "carburetor fan"? Toyota must have known these vehicles were going to end up in dry deserts, so they smartly added this little baby. It goes like this: During your safari, you run down a herd of rhinos and then run from an angry pride of lions which really heats up the heavy cast iron block of your 4.2 L engine. After successfully eluding these and several other wild animals, you stop to treat your guests to a Buffalo steak and a decanter of fine French Merlot. At the end of the feast, you find yourself the focus of 100 of your dinner's closest friends, a bit angry over the menu, and which collectively charge your party. You all quickly bale into the trusty FJ40 and escape unscathed! You and your guests might have perished had it not been for the forethought of the Toyota designers, who added this fan which cools the carburetor and intake enough to keep the fuel in the bowl from boiling off. Cool, huh?

My truck has headers and there is no need for the fan, but It's just too cool to eliminate!

Before

After

After 2

The starter on this truck appears to be a fairly recent replacement. Of course the reason why this particular vehicle caught my eye was the lack of rust. So, it may be an original, who knows. After my final coat of paint was applied, it began to rain so I hurredly brought it into my shop where I (as I often do) hung the wire from the door track. This time however, I hung it too far towards the door, not thinking...

When the rain abated and the sun made it's return, I grabbed the overhead door and (with great joy) flung it open. The top roller hit the wire holding the starter, and...

DOWN IT CAME! Right on the open bottom drawer :-( Crunch.

The drawer broke the fall. The GOOD: The motor survived. The BAD: The drawer did not.

Here is a before and after. And one with it mounted up to the engine.

Mounted!!

Other sh.. Stuff:

Front drive shaft

Front coupling at transfer output shaft (new bolts)

Can you guess what these little interesting parts are for?

It's a great lead-in for the next project: The body mounts.

These are the clips that keep the center two (of six) body bolts from moving up while you're attaching the washers and nuts. The bolts have a unique architecture (the pics are on another device so I'll post later) that, once in place, keeps them from rotating after they are inserted. I'm lucky to have found mine in perfect shape. The clips clamp onto the sheet metal of the body and hold the heads of the bolts from moving up, allowing one person to thread on the nuts and tighten them with one hand (and one ratchet)! I tried to capture this with this photo.

Body Mounts: The polyurethane body mounts seemed to be the only replacement mounts on the market. Each of my preferred vendors sold them, so I have to assume they are the best. But we're talking about a self-professed perfectionist of the anal retentive kind. So, naturally, I hate them. Who the hell designed these things? I had to make so many modifications, I'm thinking of creating my own set for the retail market. None fit to my liking at first.... but they do now! Just one of the mods: A nylon spacer to keep the steel bushing from contacting the chassis. I just happened to have a slab of 1/2" thick nylon... Go figure :-)

Cut the inside hole then cut out the disk

Fit to bushing... Good!

Slip into the lower mount

Check fit of complete set (new bushing fits through hole in chassis)

I bought and installed all new flexible, braided stainless steel brake lines and then restored all the hard lines and coated with black paint. But, I'll let the curious eyes find these in the photos of the final project:

Mating the body tub to the chassis!!!!

I'll let the pictures do the talking...