One year and counting!

Anniversary #1

So, it's been a solid year of rebuilding.  Rebuilding that is!  I bought the truck in '05 and have been tinkering with it ever since, and many of you know that it's been off the road for almost three years.  In any event, I still think there's a reason celebrate not only the coming of another year, but major accomplishments in the FJ garage.  Cheers!

I gave some thought to a recap (a sort of year-in-review) but decided to encourage you all to read the old posts if you haven't already done this.  If you found this blog by chance and don't know that there is a years' worth of entries, click the little arrow under to the "Blog Archive" to the right... then start reading!

Brake and clutch Master Cylinders

Time to install the master cylinders in anticipation of getting the steering and pedals back in place, which in turn leads me to getting the dash assembled.  The wiring harness snakes around all this stuff, and I need the wiring in place to get the truck running (which as you might glean did not happen last week!).  The cylinders were both fairly new, but because brake fluid is an excellent paint stripper, they needed another coat of black.  Here's all the action:

Measuring for gasket (to be made)

Pedals and steering column:

The pedals mount into a bucket that bolts into the dash and firewall and in general, the pedals are assembled to the bucket before installing.  I did this the challenging way, but without incident.  No pics as there is nothing more boring that brake and clutch pedals!  You'll get glimpses later.

The steering column has a bracket under the dash and a flange on the firewall.  My buddy and I made a cork gasket for the flange.

OK, one picture of the pedals!

A clean bench is the sign of a sick mind.

Template

Cork gasket

This wheel is rare for the 1980 models, released for 1981+

Alternator Installed

In the last post I spoke of the alternator I snagged in an auction.  Here you can see the freshly painted fan and pulley after I got it installed.  No belts yet and this doesn't show the adjuster in place, which needed refinishing.

Valve adjustment:

The valve lash was preset after I installed the rocker assembly, but it was time to make the cold adjustments. It appears from other message boards that the lash is not likely to change more than one- or two-thousandths when warm, so I took my time and rechecked my work after several rotations of the crank.

The (other) Good Book

Cleaned and polished!

Eight quarts of oil to fill this baby.

Other Stuff:

Cooling lines, restored

Heat shield for steering pump high pressure
 line is flexible cloth with a reflective metal coating.

Brake light switch.  This is the pedal bucket -
Note the pivot for the brake pedal at top.

Battery tray bracket with impact proof coating, all new hardware.

New battery tray and hardware (sticker was removed)

Temperature sender

Power Steering Pump -
I opted not to try doing anything with the finish on the reservoir
because the original label in intact.  I did paint the brackets and
the pump body with POR-15.

The first body part is installed!  Rear side lights.

Perfect chrome bezel and flawless lenses