AM General FJ-8A

Same truck; different year. The one used in the movie was an 84. I'm hoping I can handle it myself! RHD will be weird enough but with some power it might be really squirrley.

 

thought it was the same make..hard to tell years on a cube
sounds like a fun project.

 

Not a whole lot of spare time this weekend but I did manage to get my motor mounts built. I need to move the tranny crossmember back about 6" and I'm good to go. Also threw on the valvecovers to check clearance; all looks good so far.
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No pix but I got the motor mounts finished, the trans crossmember moved back to where it needs to be, and the drivetrain pulled back out. I guess i'll start back on the body. There's some holes to patch and some more sanding to do before we can think about primer.

 

Doodling on my lunch hour....

 

I took advantage of having MLK day off work and got a solid 12 hours in the garage today. Lots of little stuff done: Sanded and painted the column and the brake pedal assembly, started looking at how to make a new front clip; the original is one piece but I'm going to make the side pieces seperate and the front will bolt on. I cut up the sides off of the old one, I think i'll try and make them first. I started cutting the front piece out of some 16 gauge but the jaws on my air shear broke so that was as far as I got on that. I sanded for a long time on the doghouse; I can't believe how much paint was on this thing but I finally got it finished. I had to drill some holes and cut a small access panel in it for when I bolt it all together. Once again had to push the truck out to clean up all the sanding dust, it gets overwhelming. Finally I had to notch the frame for the drivers side header so i got that finished, too.

 

Got the side pieces started...

 

Got another decent weekend of work in. I got the whole top sanded; I'll never complain about sanding a car again after doing this thing. It's relentless but at least I'm seeing the end in sight. Also found a guy with a 8' brake so I got my front piece bent. I got these quad headlight assemblies from a 68 Dodge and these trim rings from Ebay; hopefully we can put it all together and make something. Also painted the back of the rear quarter pieces with POR-15. These bolt on; I hope the coating will keep them from rusting in the future. I'm going to do the same on the back of some other bolt on pieces.

 

That is awesome! should scoot around pretty decently =]

 

Stay tuned for a smoky burnout video in a few months..........

 

I'm down to the last door and I used up my 100 sheet roll of DA paper. Being out of sandpaper sounded like the perfect reason to be sick from work today so I took the day off. Here's where we are; the side of the hood is going to need some hammer and dolly work which I'm NOT very good at. I guess I'll pull out my Ron Covell video and give it a shot. I've got the block and heads loaded and I'm going to drop them off at the machine shop on the trip to get more sandpaper today.

 

I started putting the new front clip together. I fitted the side and front pieces, marked the headlight and grille location and got those cut. the headlight assemblies are a little narrower than the trim rings so I split them, made some simple angle brackets for mounting, and screwed them to those. I think it came out good; I still need to make a bracket for the bottom but it should be plent sturdy. Spent a lot of time on little stuff; the hood hinges were pop riveted on before but I took some small pieces if steel plate and drilled and tapped them to make an adjustable hood hinge. My wife has been taking some online classes for her degree so I've had a lot of time to kick butt on this lately. More to come tomorrow!

 

Got the lights on the other side mounted today. I made some braces to go around the perimeter of the grill opening and will hopefully get the grill made this week. Also started putting some angle braces on the hood mating surface; just drilled some holes and plug welded them in. I got these parking lights from a big rig place; they're Kenworth marker lights. I had all the inner panels sandblasted a while back and decided to just take some Rustoleum industrial enamel to paint the back side of them so they wont rust. the side that will show is going to get painted white like the rest of the truck. Here's my son and his "friend who is a girl but not his girlfriend" helping me out. She's got it bad for him but he's not seeing it.
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I threw a grill together from 1/2" square tubing tonight after work. It's a little plain looking but I think if I put an expanded metal backer behind it it'll look decent enough. Also put some more angle braces along the upper edge where the hood rests. It's starting to feel pretty solid; maybe some lower braces when I'm putting it together for the final time. Here's a shot of the old front for comparison.

 

You're building a neat truck and I have enjoyed your thread, looking forward to frequent updates.

And the picture with your son, straighten that boy out, she's a keeper.

 

Thanks, buddy. I'm glad you like it! As far as my son, he'd rather hang with his buds and play his PS3 than mess with girls. I guess that's a good thing; keeps him out of trouble.

 

Very very cool.

 

Thanks, man. I like your avatar; what is that? It looks fast!
Got the motor back from the machine shop tonight so now I just need to order parts. Everything turned out standard; this thing was in great shape inside. I decided just to make another panel for the side of the hood. With everything being flat and bent at straight angles on this thing; it's been great practice for making panels. I drilled out the spotwelds, cut a new piece and after a few trial and errors on the brake, it came out pretty decent.
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I got a few hours in yesterday; these side braces were pop riveted on so I drilled them out to 1/4", put 1/4-20 bolts in and welded the nuts on the back. I'll use stainless bolts when I put it together for real. Also got the block and heads painted, and finished cleaning up the welds on the piece I made for the center console. There's a ton of room in this thing but I still have the headlight and wiper switch to mount. Maybe I'll put a cigar lighter in to take up some space. I dont want it to look too empty. Ordered all the rebuild parts for the engine so I should be putting it together this week, too.
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Well, here she is. Still needs a few things bolted on but it's pretty much together. Now back to work on the body; I hope to be ready to shoot some primer in the next month. Also wanted to say what a cool dude SwimEasy is; he mailed me his factory assembly manual on the FJ-8 so I could copy it. I appreciate it, bro. It'll be on it's way home by the weekend.<!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->

 

Man, it was tough to work out in the shop today. Just gettin over a bout of the stomach flu and I feel like I had the crap beat out of me. I made it about 3 hrs and had to call it quits. Hopefully I'll get more done tomorrow. I need a shifter as the old one was mounted on the dash and was junk. I had this old hurst ratchet shifter and this old truck shifter so I did a little slice and weld on the handle and came up with a ratchet shifter that will look like an old stocker. The floor was covered in rubber cement from the old factory mats so I spent a few hours with the little angle grinder and some 50 grit discs and got a pretty good size section cleaned up.
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This floor was a total PITA; rubber cement and undercoating all over it from front to back. I dont know why; the metal underneath was in great shape. My oldest son called me Sunday and said, "Dad, i need to earn a few bux; do you have any work I can do?" He finished cleaning up the floor last night after two days and about 10 hours. He called just at the right time; I'll try and get some pics posted this week; the camera is acting up.
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Now you know WHY the floor is still in such great shape after all those years....

 

No kidding; same with all the multiple coats of paint on the body. A major pain to remove but it really saved the metal underneath.

 

My son finished cleaning up the floor and here it is. He did a nice job; I'm happy, not a single place that needs patching. I think I'm going to paint the whole floor with POR-15 and then lay down a mat made with bulk rubber sheet from Rubbercal. If it turns out like I think it will, it'll be slick. I'm taking the wheels over to have the old tires pulled and then down to the sandblaster along with the bumpers. I feel like it's moving along pretty good. The wife and I are heading to Florida for Cardinal spring training next week so I'm going to try and hit it hard between now and then.<!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->

 

It doesn't look like I got much done today; mostly little stuff but it all eats up time. Dropped my wheels at the sandblaster and my intake at the machine shop to get a stripped hole TIG welded and retapped this morning. The front clip had a lot of side to side movement so I made four brackets; two inside the fenderwells and two that will bolt to the frame. I know the welds look like crap but it's just tacked to hold it in place for now. I drilled holes in the core sopprt and used some speednuts to hold it to the side pieces. I'm getting a bunch of stainless allen head screws for the outside. Took the clip back apart, time to finish up a little puttywork so I can primer the main body before long. Lots of nooks and crannies to get paint out of so I spent a few hours on that. That's all for today, folks. Stay tuned for our next episode.

 

I dont know what's gotten into my oldest son lately. He's been coming around wanting to help me on this. It's nice; our relationship has been kind of strained the last few years and he's stayed away a lot. Here's a couple pics of him pitching in; the "pants on the ground" song comes to mind. There's just a few body spots here and there to go over again. We cleaned the shop to get some room and had a load of scrap hauled off this morning. Patrick took a vacuum and went over the whole truck. Also I got my wheels back so I shot a coat of primer on them before they start to rust. My wife and I are heading to Florida tomorrow. Time to put hot rods aside for a week and think baseball. I hope to be ready to shoot some primer when I get back next week. Also I'm starting a new job on the 15th so wish me luck. Ya'll be cool, talk to you next week.

 

Nothing like a good father-son project to get things together -- until he says "throw me the keys dad, I'm taking the mail truck for the weekend...."

 

Thanks for the kind words, Pat! I will get some picts. up on this thread asap. I am in the swimming pool biz and March starts our pool season and I will have to make time to get back on the board. BTW, one of our buds here at work has a try out with the Cardinal's farm team! His name is Joe Key, watch for his name, GOOD LUCK, MAN!

 

Got back from Florida last night and had today off before I go back to work. Didnt see Joe Key in the lineup, but they sure could have used him! We looked pretty lame, only won 1 game out of three while I was there. I got my wheels painted and finally got the body and some smaller pieces primered. Movin right along; now for some long hours wet sanding! Frank, if he helps me wet sand this thing, I'll let him take it out and drive it before I sell it!