fj45 rat rod (ish)

[Dirtydog]

look for an old chevy truck front end, they are the same stud pattern as a safari (and most other 6 stud japs), even cooler, they are the cool rat rod looking drop axles.

thats what i will be using on mine anyway.

otherwise its not hard to put a falcon axle under there for some better ratio's

[meatc]

Had a chat to a clever bugger today and while chatting about my project mentioned welding onto the cruiser chassis and he suggested it might not be a good idea as the chassis is made from spring steel (so welds will be prone to cracking).

He then asked wy I was upgrading a leaf sprung wagon chassis when i could just start with a Safari chassis and get; power steer box, coils and disks all round. And later on the rear coils could be swapped easily for air bags. The front end will be removed of course for the rod front so matching wheels and stud patterns might be a bit hard unless I can graft the nissan knuckles on the front. Just worried about the width of the axles (dont want it too wide).

Or use a terrano or surf chassis, coil rear end, and fronts will be similar to their 2wd ute cousins to swap a low 2wd front end and you can get drop spindles for them to.

[Heath]

look for an old chevy truck front end, they are the same stud pattern as a safari (and most other 6 stud japs), even cooler, they are the cool rat rod looking drop axles.

thats what i will be using on mine anyway.

otherwise its not hard to put a falcon axle under there for some better ratio's

Because of the larger rear tyres I intend running I have been advised to get a 4.1/1 ratio rear end.

Sweet pointer on the chevy axle (although finding one might be hard. ) as thats the front style I was going for.

[Dirtydog]

i may know of a couple down here, have to make sure they arnt 5 stud though,

otherwise if you find a 5 stud rear thats 4.1 i know of some 5 stud front axles

im thinking that the terrano chassis might be the way to go though, very similar setup to the safari with the steering box, and they are cheap as chips.

[Heath]

i may know of a couple down here, have to make sure they arnt 5 stud though,

otherwise if you find a 5 stud rear thats 4.1 i know of some 5 stud front axles

Might be interested in one if its a 6 stud, hell even if its a 5 stud (running different size rims anyway) depending on price, would just need to sort some disks for them later.

Hows your project progressing?

[Dirtydog]

very very slowly, havnt even moved it to the new house yet.....

but i may have to put it on hold anyway because im really low on funds, just got another car...

[Heath]

Got some books I ordered ages ago from Amazon.



Now I just need a little time and quiet to have a play.

I have been trying to identify my carb, but it doesnt seem to fit withing the usual parameters with the number on its side.

7058508 1078 BJY

I think maybe a number is missing from the front (#1) which would make this a 1978 carb

[Heath]

Grabbed this too from trade me.

Cant really afford it but what the hell, might be handy. I'll sell a kidney - well I have two of them so why not...

[Heath]

Nearly ready to start up but not sure about the size of the battery required to turn over the engine.

I intended to turn it over for a bit until I see some movement on the oil pressure gauge and then put fuel and spark into the mix, but not sure what size battery I should be looking at for the eventual vehicle battery. I intend to run the battery hidden from sight somewhere so may have to consider larger cables etc. Not going to be many electrical accessories fitted so not an issue I guess.

What size battery should I be considering?

[Sadam_Husain]

any battery will start it, definately worthwhile bringing the oil pressure up first it could have been sitting for a while, pop all the plugs out so it'll turn over easier, make sure its well strapped down when you start it coz the crankshaft will want to stay still while the engine spins around smashing itself to bits

[Heath]

Got a redneck wooden frame it is sitting in (bolts through the engine mounts and a long wooden post to put across ways to make it even harder to flip (I hope).)

Just want to start and run so I can check oil press and see if its a metal box full of broken bits or a a barely tamed beast.

I wont be reving, it just run on idle and a quick release lead feeding the dizzy so if it goes wrong I can kill it quick.

Will grab my camera too (phone) for the inaugeral startup.

Its all motivation really to keep moving ahead.

Might borrow a starter jump pack from work. Dont really want to jump off the vehicle batteries incase I screw something up . Dont want to stuff the ECU's.
Heath

[Heath]

Decided that instead of paying someone else to do all the fabrication work, not to mention carting bits back and forth, that I would give it a go myself. Of course with this requiring certification the welding has to be up to a specific standard, so I am going to do a welding course through some guys in town (night classes - stainless and aluminium welding academy). The prices are about what I expected, but at the end of the process I will be qualified in Mig welding to the new as/nz2980 trade qual (formerly 4711) and will be able to do my own stunts. Due to the price of the tests ($250 per evaluation) I will probably just do the mig certification and get rid of my Arc welder.

Not much heavy duty stuff in my project and a 180-200amp Mig should do all I want (mainly body and chassis stuff). Also frees up some more cash (if I can sell the damn thing) for gas bottle hire etc.

I'll have to find somewhere I can get some steel of varying thicknesses to practice on (might give the guys at fletchers easy steel a call about their off cuts - worked there for a while so maybe they will be nice to me).

Anyone want to buy an arc welder - 180 amp with a pile of rods (satin craft and satin chrome) and a new handpiece (not fitted yet). $300 or there abouts will do for me.

[turoa]

You dont have to be a certified welder to go through the certification process. The certifier just has to be confident in your welding ability

[Heath]

Hmmm I got told different.

Might have to recheck the regs. Perhaps the cert chap is making things safer for himself (just a guess).

Might just do it anyway, then there is no issue down the line and if I do any odd jobs there is a certain amount of sureity for the owner/operator of the vehicle I worked on.

And it would be good to have in a CV - not that I'm looking for work .... just yet.

[yeti]

Decided that instead of paying someone else to do all the fabrication work, not to mention carting bits back and forth, that I would give it a go myself. Of course with this requiring certification the welding has to be up to a specific standard, so I am going to do a welding course through some guys in town (night classes - stainless and aluminium welding academy). The prices are about what I expected, but at the end of the process I will be qualified in Mig welding to the new as/nz2980 trade qual (formerly 4711) and will be able to do my own stunts. Due to the price of the tests ($250 per evaluation) I will probably just do the mig certification and get rid of my Arc welder.

Not much heavy duty stuff in my project and a 180-200amp Mig should do all I want (mainly body and chassis stuff). Also frees up some more cash (if I can sell the damn thing) for gas bottle hire etc.

I'll have to find somewhere I can get some steel of varying thicknesses to practice on (might give the guys at fletchers easy steel a call about their off cuts - worked there for a while so maybe they will be nice to me).

Anyone want to buy an arc welder - 180 amp with a pile of rods (satin craft and satin chrome) and a new handpiece (not fitted yet). $300 or there abouts will do for me.

howdy heath,,,,good reading thread, will be watching progress.....where are the welding classes at you are doing....keen to do one myself,,,cheers

[Heath]

7/97 shakespeare rd, waltham, Chch
stainless steel and aluminium Welding academy.

www.weldingacademy.co.nz

Prices not too bad and depending on my ability it might not cost too much but we'll see I guess. Night classes available.

[surf10]

You dont have to be a certified welder to go through the certification process. The certifier just has to be confident in your welding ability

I second this. Welds just have to look good. i.e no seagull defication

[yeti]

7/97 shakespeare rd, waltham, Chch
stainless steel and aluminium Welding academy.

http://www.weldingacademy.co.nz

Prices not too bad and depending on my ability it might not cost too much but we'll see I guess. Night classes available.

cheers mate , will do one in the new year...

[loppee]

Have ya got your own mig welder yet?
Woody.

[SMOKEY]

Hi Heath, let me know when you want offcuts for your welding , we have plenty at work. I'm not a welder but I wouldn't be in a hurry to get rid of your stick welder, the welders at work still use the stick in a lot of applications, if I had the use for one I would go for one of those flash three in one jobs, AC/DC inverter Stick Mig Tig. Then again , sitting in the sun with a couple of coldies sounds better than sucking up dirty old welding fumes,

THE GOOD LIFE,

FITZY.

[kiwipete]

Then again , sitting in the sun with a couple of coldies sounds better than sucking up dirty old welding fumes,

THE GOOD LIFE,

FITZY.

Hell yeah................

[Heath]

The body has arrived.

Actually the whole rolling chassis is here but I have decided to alter my plans a little and use an IFS chassis to make things a little easier (will get that later). I was advised that the chassis was not suitable for welding on (spring steel or something) and when it was pointed out I saw all the joints and additions to the chassis were riveted or bolted on (even the rails are riveted together). Never mind I'll sell off what I dont want or get $$$ from the scrappy.

Some pics.


From the front, the grill etc is on the tray in bits.


The tray was going to be kept but I'm not going to waste time on it so its going too.


The interior is full of the usual farming junk and build up of rubbish/dirt (two bucket fulls just from the drivers foot well area, which unfortunately means moisture retention and rust - que the next pic.


I'm not stupid enough to have thought a junker would be rust free and considering some I checked out this ones not too bad (so far...).

I'll be honest and say that I am excited as a school boy with a pile of his dads "secret" magazines at the moment and just shot inside to load some pics.

Right back to the job at hand - cleaning out the crap - hey, gotta start somewhere.

[Dirtydog]

Thats what i felt like when i got the l200 chassis, only problem is it will take a couple of people to lift the dam cab onto the chassis....

but otherwise, looks like you got everything you need to do it, looking forward to seeing it progress

[Heath]

Cleaned up the dirt and removed the sound deadening crap to discover more rust - I knew it would be there when I saw the bog and extra thick underbody sealer. Might have to see if I can find a corogated metal patern the same or another body that hasnt rusted out in the same places for donor patches.

HArd case thing is after 45 mins of chipping it off with a chisel and a hammer and only getting halfway through the passenger well, I remembered I had an air chisel - Doh!!. Hooked that baby up and 30 mins later it was all done - easy.


Rust never sleeps I guess.


Drivers side isnt pretty either - possibly worse with a bad patch up job covered with silicone gunk.

Might have to find some replacement floor pan including the sills.

Ce la Vie

[Heath]

I wonder if a ute tray might match the corogation?

[KIWI_TERRANO]

if you need some parts i could possibly put you on to someone, there a feller down here with 3 of them that arent going anywhere fast

ohh and have you thought about surf chassie? then you get coil suspenion?

[2.f]

Awsum project,il have to follow this one, heres some pics of a Hilux and a Stout ratrod minitruck'n style
Hilux:(the image is to big to upload)
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/s55 ... -angle.jpg

Stout:

[Heath]

Coils in the front would be cool, but I'm going to stay leaves in the rear for now and actually use the tray/ute (whatever I decide on) for carrying shite. It will mean fitting a bar to stop Diff rotation though.

Imagine that a ute being used as a ute - the hot rodders will freak even more with it being a jappa and a daily driver...priceless.

[Heath]

Front off and not too bad but I'm going to need a new guards and running boards (running boards will be made up to suit once tray is sorted).


Roof looks okay with surface rust and the worst bubbles in the pass front.


Pete how about this for an air tank? Its the vac tank I think, mounting brackets, two lines in, a drain and a sensor point threaded in. I dont know if it will be up to high pressures though. I can bring it to work if you want to have a look.

[kiwipete]

Pete how about this for an air tank? Its the vac tank I think, mounting brackets, two lines in, a drain and a sensor point threaded in. I dont know if it will be up to high pressures though. I can bring it to work if you want to have a look.

Worth a look see, the metal skip is close by