Where does it all go ....

The money and time that is ....
Well it becomes more obvious as time goes by ..... its all in the labour and attention to detail. Most of the ancillary engine bits have been cleaned, primed, repaired and painted. Most of the bits got a satin back finish. The wheels have gone from white to a really dark grey or more a back with a grey tone. The engine bolt on bits have been finished in a silver, its the silver that i think has come up just right. The rocker cover on the BJ's always looked very agricultural, but the new paint and cleaned up bits gives the engine a really good look.
At this point I have to say I'm pretty happy with the whole thing. The guys at the classic car centre are coming up with some cool ideas .... it the attention to detail and figuring out ideas to make the truck work better for that keeps it exciting. Like changing the door hinge pins so they now have locking spuds so the half doors can be swapped by just pulling the hinge pin rather than taking off the full hinge.....
Its the little things that make all the difference :)

Progress ...

Been down to the workshop to see the progress, funny thing ‘progress’ …. Sometimes it’s hard to see it …

Well that was my initial thought, the fact, is there has been a lot. The axles are rebuilt, the good news is all the original internals were really good, no damaged shafts, cogs or gears, the bad news is we pretty much left the original stuff out in favour of the ARB lockers. The lockers are a neat piece of metal, really good quality, there’re piped, tested and ready to go.

All new brakes, everything stripped, primed ready to be painted and fitted to the chassis.

The engine and gearbox have come up really good. Been cleaned and tidied, the rocker case and a few odds and ends are being painted. The metal pipe work is being nickel coated .. going to look really cool. The turbo is mounted, bit of concern over the oil return position, but nothing to serious other than the guy fitting it has a thing for ‘everything has to be right’ ….

 Cleaned up gearbox and hubs

 Engine with turbo fitted

 Axles with locker fitted

 Engine bit to be painted

The roll cage has been fitted to the back, we’re not too happy with the front roll cage, it’s a bit clumsy looking at the moment. Will need to widen it and cut some openings in the dash to make it fit neater.

The upper section of the cab and front window frame are back from the soda blasters, all cleaned and primed. And of course more rust uncovered, not too much this time and not enough to slow things down.

So whats next …

Pretty much everything has been test fitted to the chassis and frame. All being taken off again for painting. Getting some nice stainless steel bits fabricated, bits like a modified snorkel, the one that came from the US is really good, but we think we can come up with a better one plus the one we make will sit on the air intake side. We are also going to lower the height of the snorkel to allow the front windscreen lay on the bonnet as intended.

Getting some additional brackets to strengthen the front fenders and a tail gate made in case we ever get the weather here to take the top off.

The dash has been getting the most attention/discussion and we have finally decided on a simple minimalist look. Going to add a tachometer and clock centred on the dash with a bank of switches below. Hopefully it will look as good as I think it will.

The fact that park of the truck are being painted means we have reached a major milestone. Hope to have a finished rolling chassis pretty soon. Not bad considering this blog was started 8 months ago …. :)