Restorable???

[53Crusher]

Cab Dolly

Joel-

For some reason, the forum won't let me PM you. My e-mail is tim.wagonmaster@gmail.com

[Greg Coffin]

Thanks very much for the generous offer Joel, and pardon my overt hinting. I'll coordinate with Tim when he's done with the rack. I should be around on Saturday the 21st, so let's keep in touch. You have my cell number, and my email is gregcoffin2.0 at gmail dot com. Looking forward to meeting you and showing you my projects.

[JReed]

Thanks guys. I'll stay in touch.

[JReed]

Found some time to work on the truck a bit. Set the cab back on the frame. I plan to try and fire it up soon... before I put any more of the body back on. I also set the rest of my glass back into frames. I'm running out of space for everything in the garage so starting to collect parts in the house. I'll be doing some wiring soon which isn't something I know a whole lot about so probably be on here for some help.

[53Crusher]

WOW Joel! Truck is looking great!
Be sure to check your manual for wiring diagram. When I did my truck it was invaluable to me. I made sure to stay with same colors etc so it could be worked on in the future.

[Desoto61]

Really like that color! Almost as much as mine! Paint looks way nicer too. It is exciting seeing it all come together, though once everything is shiny it's sooo much harder since you need kid gloves.

[cj7ox]

That is a great color! Looking forward to the updates!

[JReed]

Really like that color! Almost as much as mine! Paint looks way nicer too. It is exciting seeing it all come together, though once everything is shiny it's sooo much harder since you need kid gloves.

I know what you mean man, I'll be keeping some blankets around to cover stuff where I'm workin. If I remember right there were people complementing your paint job and you were saying that it didn't look as good in person... that the pics were helping cover up a bit. Anyway, it's no different with mine. It's a decent job, but far from perfect. I think I've found more fault with it each time I've looked. The doors are done really well, but there's a few issues on rockers with hairline cracks and the back of the cab looks a little oily, like someone rubbed there skin against it. Went to wipe it off and realized it was a little inconsistency in sanding showing between the clear coats (my guess anyway). And there's definitely orange peel in places.

[JReed]

That is a great color! Looking forward to the updates!

Thanks man. Im looking forward to updates to. Ha, they don't come as often as I'd like. The paint is a Jeep color called 'Anvil'. I was teetering between Toyota's 'Sandstorm' that I had seen on some of the FJ's and the Anvil. Think I woulda been happy either way. The sandstorm would have showed less defects in the application and lasted longer in the UV up here, so looking back I might have gone that direction.

[Desoto61]

I know what you mean man, I'll be keeping some blankets around to cover stuff where I'm workin. If I remember right there were people complementing your paint job and you were saying that it didn't look as good in person... that the pics were helping cover up a bit. Anyway, it's no different with mine. It's a decent job, but far from perfect. I think I've found more fault with it each time I've looked. The doors are done really well, but there's a few issues on rockers with hairline cracks and the back of the cab looks a little oily, like someone rubbed there skin against it. Went to wipe it off and realized it was a little inconsistency in sanding showing between the clear coats (my guess anyway). And there's definitely orange peel in places.

You know the more I live with and accidentally ding or scratch mine while putting everything back together the more I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do much with trying to finish sand and buff it. I may go after some of the runs eventually, but I think if I spent all that time getting it as smooth as it can be I'd just be that much more upset when it got damaged, and I don't want this truck to be too nice to use.

Don't forget the tape too. Some nice wide painter's tape on edges when installing and working with panels is another tip for preventing damage. The edges are soooo fragile.

Maybe that's the benefit of getting someone else to build them, then you don't know where all the bodies are buried!

[JReed]

Progress

I've been really busy so I haven't had a lot of time to keep things on here up to date. I've started putting a lot of time into the truck after work and on weekends so I'm making some good progress now.

I guess it was a month or so back, but I hadn't got my engine started yet so I wanted to begin with that before I got much body in the way. I rebuilt the carb, temp wired, reset the valving and cranked to check for oil pressure but didn't register any. Anyway after pulling and re-priming the oil pump I still didn't show pressure. Finally found out the old gauge was seized and that I did have pressure so I went to start. Turned out I had installed the oil pump several teeth off so obviously I didn't get a start. Finally figured that out and I reinstalled the oil pump correctly based on some instructions Mr. Talbert posted on here and got it started no problem.

I'm not sure if it was the right procedure but I did a little break in on the motor based on some advise from a friend who is familiar with the old flat heads. I installed the exhaust before starting the motor. Its a new old stock exhaust and I was surprised at how tight some of the clearances were. I had the exhaust done with a coating called ChromeX. It looks good and its durable.

[JReed]

After getting the motor running, timed, and tuned well I decided it was safe to start getting more of the body together. I started with the windshield cause I heard they can be a pain and I wanted to get that out of the way. Installing the weatherstripping did live up to its reputation. I think If I had it to do again it would be a lot faster. I would trim the inside of the weatherstripping down on all four corners and use 3M's windshield urethane to glue the stuff in place at the corners. This is actually what I ended up doing after the fact when I wasn't happy with where the strip corners rested with the windshield out on the regulator.

[JReed]

I've found it hard not to get a little distracted while Im putting this truck back together. Not distracted altogether, but distracted from one job by another just in walking across the garage. That to say, I jumped from the windshield to a bunch of little jobs like restoring and cleaning up the air cleaner, gauges, and throttle linkage. When I got to the throttle linkage I realized I couldn't Install a portion of it with the cab in place so I had to lift the cab back up to get that in. Little things like the gauges can take a long time too. Think I had about 10 hours in getting them all to work correctly and cleaning them up. The speedo was seized and the oil pressure gauge was sticky too. I cut new gaskets and repainted all the needles and polished the old faces up. I forgot to get any before pics, but they turned out well.

[JReed]

Some of the gauges

[JReed]

couple more