Hello, meet Elsie.

Rezarf <><

Explorer
Love that green!

My dream is a pig with late model running gear/chassis as a family wheeler. The blue one is nice!
 

hairy_apple

Adventurer
Yeah, I had thought about putting the 2FE/h55 into it... but really really want a stock 55 as a weekend driver. There is just something about driving old cars the way they were built to be. My favorite cars at car shows are always the perfect restorations where the hoses and battery and spark plug wires are correct. I'd love to do that to that blue cruiser. It's so complete and in pretty good shape. Needs a headliner, needs the rust in the fenders fixed, need a dash pad and that's it to be really pretty. The motor is shot, but I've got a rebuilt one sitting there waiting for it to go in. Just need more time and money... like always. :)
 

hairy_apple

Adventurer
No.. the engine bay is embarrassing! ha ha. I had an engine fire last year, and repaired everything, but haven't really cleaned it all up to look nice again. It's a mess. Once I put the 2FE in I am going to take some major time to clean up the engine bay and make it presentable and even pretty.
 

Chevrolado

Cruisin'
No.. the engine bay is embarrassing! ha ha. I had an engine fire last year, and repaired everything, but haven't really cleaned it all up to look nice again. It's a mess. Once I put the 2FE in I am going to take some major time to clean up the engine bay and make it presentable and even pretty.

hah. Oh I see! Alright. Just thought I'd ask.. :) Looking forward to seeing more pics of this thing as it continues on bringing more good times.
 

hairy_apple

Adventurer
FINALLY got the doors painted... it's only been 4 months since I painted the rest of the cruiser. :)

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Also pulled apart every pully on the serpentine belt and cleaned and greased the bearings because something was squealing soooo bad I was going to go insane if I had to listen to it anymore. No more squeal makes me very happy.


Was doing some major brainstorming thinking how how to maximize such a small truck for long distance trips, and had a cool idea last night. Actually, two ideas to get across the same idea. To build a subfame inside the top of the cruiser, just under the fiberglass cap. Then build another subframe inside the cap, and attach the two frames with a heavy hinge. You could pop the fiberglass cap off the hardtop and hinge it over the hood and have two legs come down to support it. Then build a tent that would go onto the large platform that you've now made. A solution to sleeping in the truck, and keeping all your stuff packed in the back. Also, anywhere you can park you can camp.

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Figuring I wasn't the only one in the world to think of this, I did a search and came up with a picture (from this site actually) but couldn't really find any more information on it, but the idea is exactly the same.

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Also, then was thinking, there is no reason to double the footprint of the roof for two people to sleep in comfortably, crap.. the tent we use is smaller then the cruiser's roof is. You could also just have the fiberglass cap pop straight up a 3 feet or so, and have fabric sides, again making a tent, only using the fiberglass cap as the roof of the tent. Couldn't find anything like this, but I doubt it would be that hard, to do really. A big project, but nothing too hard that I can think of. I have a friend who might have a hardtop I can play with, I think I might call him tomorrow and see if he's got one I can buy so I won't cry if I ruin mine!

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hairy_apple

Adventurer
Made something awesome today to help with storage for camping and exploring. They will hold MOLLE pouches. They will be mounted about 6 inches higher then they are sitting in the picture. I am also going to put some soft MOLLE panels on the back of the seats. Should give lots of storage for smaller stuff.

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hairy_apple

Adventurer
Working hard on getting it ready for our Death Valley tip in April. I've never driven the cruiser that far from home before, but it should be an adventure. Fixing little stuff here and there and replacing crusty old stuff that I hacked together when I was young and didn't know what I was doing!

This week I got the battery box replaced. I removed the heater blower when I did the V8 swap, and hacked together an ugly plate to bolt on where it was. Then bogger welded the rusty stock battery tray on it. It was UGLY! But it's gone now and this is in it's place now. Wish the rest of the engine bay looked that nice! My only complaint is that I did a dumb thing and the TEQ is backwards if you're standing next to the battery, I'm going to recut the top plate again tomorrow.

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Tomorrow I'm going to start building a rear bumper/tire carrier/fuel can holders.
 

hairy_apple

Adventurer
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Installed my center console today. Added a MOLLE pouch mount and one of my cool little TEQ badges. :)

Also found the sending unit was not the problem which is good, saves me $100. The wire was broken, I guess when we had the fire two years ago it got damaged and I missed replacing it when I replaced 90% of the harness. Easy fix and now my gas gauge works again! No more figuring how many miles we're going to drive that day so I can' know how much gas to put in!

Also fixed my dash lights. For 12 years I've been driving in darkness with a small flashlight to look at my gauges. I had removed the dash at one point to try to fix them, but the sockets were missing and I didn't care too much so I never did anything with them again. While checking the wiring to the amp meter last week, I found the sockets stuffed into the wiring in the dash. DOH! Bought some bulbs and now I have dash lights.

I taking a little break and then going to go back out and install a small tach I have so I can actually have a educated guess as to my speed instead of a random guess. Ha ha. I MIGHT actually go down to Toyota and see if a speedo cable is available. It would sure be nice to have all the gauges work for the first time ever.. AND the dash lights so I could see them at night.

It feels good to finally be address so many of the small little things that have been bothering me for so long.

Calling tomorrow too to see about getting the wheels widened. It's time for new tires... so it's time to start thinking about widened steelies again. :)
 

reldred

Observer
That's awesome. I love the 40 series and Iron pigs. Before I bought my six wheeled 70 series I was eyeing off a six wheeled 40 that was being sold by the mob that converted mine. Decided I wanted something from this millenium but now I'm not too sure! Ahh! Hindsight!

Love the colour, I'm a big fan of brightly coloured nimble little 4wd's but the green is a nice change from the orange!
 

hairy_apple

Adventurer
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Built a receiver hitch today. Going to be a bumper which is why the gusset is sticking out so far. The 2x2 square tube will sit on top of it, and the there are two more plates that are going to be also bolted onto the rear crossmember with holes in those gussets for D ring attachment points. Going to attach the spare on one side, and three of the fuel cans holders I made on the other.
 

hairy_apple

Adventurer
Finally got back out to start working on the bumper. Got a lot done today. I'm hoping to have the main structure finished tomorrow and then I can start working on the details.

Going to have three jerry can mounts on it like the two in the picture (still need to build one more and finish one). Behind the jerry can mounts I'll have a small table that will fold down for campstove/work station. I'll also put a small light on top of it for a back up light/camping light.

I'm going to do my best to figure out a way to mount the highlight to the gussets for the tube that tire will go on. I would like to do it, if I can't make it happen it's not the end of the world.

I've also got a FJ40 windshield latch I'm going to use for the latch. I think it would be pretty cool to use a old Toyota latch and I think it's plenty strong. I'm going to also have a 1/8 plate on the front of both tubes to stop them parallel to the main part of the bumper. I'll probably cut something cool into it like "Elsie" and some little skull and crossbones. :)

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hairy_apple

Adventurer
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Got a ton done today. Got it all tacked up and aligned and drilled the other holes I needed to in the bumper. Then got it all welded up. Got the tire carrier almost done, still need to add the gussets to the corner and to the plate the wheel actually bolts too. I did make one semi big mistake that annoyed me. I welded the gussets on wrong side of the vertical tube for the tire carrier. It's not a big deal, but I was going to have the highlift there, now it won't fit. But I'll just move it to the roof rack (to be built next week) and the shovel and axe can go here instead of up there. In the summer I'll have to figure something else out for the highlift when I take the top off again.

I think if I get myself into gear again tomorrow I can get it done tomorrow. I still have to build two more jerry can mounts, and the box that will hold them on to the other swing out. But.. it's not a ton of work. If I can stay motivated tomorrow I think I can get it all done.
 

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