FJ with a V8!

[makaveliks]

Today I made the alternator, put a caddy air cleaner on, made the shifters, started the battery, and I'm working out a way to make the distributor fit...

The alternator was some work.





Battery started. Not finished. Still waiting on the red paint to dry, gotta paint the tie down, label the top of the battery, and make the terminals.




For the distributor... Where it mounted was where I needed to trim to fit all my wires out the back of the motor. So my mount will solve 2 problems. It will hide the wires coming out the back better, and mount distributor so I can put the spark plug wires on! I made a mold of the top of the motor, then used epoxy to fill the mold. Now I can take the hard epoxy piece and vac form some styrene to cover this.

I also turned the stock air cleaner into a caddy air cleaner for some attitude. I used clay and put it over the filter part, then sculpted and massaged it to the right shape, baked it in the oven, then painted it black.

While I had the clay out I made the shifters. I saw some pictures had the big rubber boot on the gear shifter, and then a leather boot on the 4wd shifter, and some had rubber boots on both. I like the leather on the smaller one, so that's what I went with. I made the boots from clay, baked them, then used styrene for the shifter and knob.

[adamargue]

One of the coolest engine bays I have ever seen. Is there going to be a hood and fenders?

[makaveliks]

Originally Posted by adamargue

One of the coolest engine bays I have ever seen. Is there going to be a hood and fenders?

There will be no hood and the fenders will be a tube style like the rears which will be "floating". I want to get the engine bay finished up before I make those though. Give myself a little more finger room putting in all these tiny bits... Instead of a hood there will be a light bar with a 6" led bar. It will have a cross member across the front lower edge of windshield and there will be removable tubes going from this to the brush guard to protect the motr.

[rcjeepbuilder]

Wow great update!! keep up the killer work.

[Loehdingc]

Any idea what this will weigh when complete? It looks like it will ride AMAZINGLY. Heavy trucks are my favorite because they move more scale, I think.

[makaveliks]

No clue when it'll be done. I have a job and a life so I work on it when I find time. I still have a lot of work. Hoping it'll be 100% by next spring. Maybe sooner though.

[makaveliks]

I got my small cover vacuformed for the part of the motor I trimmed away to fit my wires out, made my distributor, connected my plugs, mounted the battery, and ran the power wires.

So first I vacu formed the motor cover over an epoxy cast I made a few days ago. Then I drilled a hole, glued in a post for a distributor and made the distributor. I gave it a nice test fit.




It fit great so I painted it up!




Once I had the distributor fit I got my battery mounted up. I also had to make a power distribution box, some clamps to run the wires, and then get it wired and the plugs as well.








I even made labels for the Optima!

[rustneversleeps]

Frigging nice.So much detail like the way you did the wires,great skills man.looks like you this this before...
I guess this bute won't be seeing and mud or will it.....
Would love to have that as a trail truck...

[makaveliks]

Originally Posted by rustneversleeps

Frigging nice.So much detail like the way you did the wires,great skills man.looks like you this this before...
I guess this bute won't be seeing and mud or will it.....
Would love to have that as a trail truck...

I usually spend lots of time building these, and then bash them pretty good. We will see. This one is the most detailed so far, but I do plan to drive it. I will stay away from water though as I have not waterproofed the electronics on it.

[rustneversleeps]

Well you did a nice job.No No bashing to much work went into this cool rig.
If it were me a little dust and slow climb wouldn't hurt it would give it the weathered look...
well thought out the way you did the wires...Again very nice...

[makaveliks]

I had ordered some better foams for this a while back and have putting off their installation... When I was looking I was going off of what I could find in stock that had the approximate size I needed and could support a heavy metal truck. What I ended up getting were Crawler Innovation single stage foams for Pitbull 1.9 Mad Beast Tires.

As you know 1.7 is smaller than 1.9. LOL. The foams were a little flop around on their initial test fit on the beadlock ring, so I used styrene to make a ring to fit around the beadlock ring and fill the gap. Now they fit snug. These are nice and stiff and fit the tires quite nicely. They squared them up and now there no longer super soft floppy tires on this truck! The truck has about 1/4" more ground clearance now just because the tires are not sagging.





Once this was done I finished detailing up the engine bay. Made a brake master cylinder and used a styrene rod to act as the steering column.

[makaveliks]

As you noticed the exterior was getting quite scratched and chipped from driving. I'm going to be doing the fenders, interior and cage, It would look silly with scratched paint in places it wouldn't get scratched with those items, so I decided to repaint the exterior. I blended out all the chips and scratches, then masked off everything except the exterior, and resprayed it! Weather was perfect for it, and it looks like a smoother glossier finish than it had before! Now I'm not going to drive it again till it's finished!

[-SCXD90-]

Originally Posted by makaveliks

Looks awesome dude! Subbed!

[rustneversleeps]

Yes really cool rig man.I wonder what the weight is at this stage....
i know one thing your one of the best i seen on here..great work.
and I like the way you did the electronics great hiding spot.....
Looking forward to the end results...Can't wait to see your next build...
Peace.

[makaveliks]

One of the best? I guess that's a matter of opinion and I appreciate yours! LOL

Front fenders exist now. I built some aluminum rod frames and then formed some .032" aluminum over them. I added a little JBweld to help hold the skins on and help smooth out the edges around the bends, but the sides are wrapped around the rod so they stay on on their own anyways. Tomorrow I will sand and paint them, and get them mounted up. Right now the rod is just sitting in holes I drilled onto the frame rails. Tomorrow I will drill and tap a hole to use a set screw to hold them in place so they will be removable to work on the truck.

[rustneversleeps]

Nice job on the fenders,good old JB weld ,great stuff to work with.Looking at the last pic it looks like you been using your winch,I can see little tiny grooves in the polystyrene from the winch rope. lol
Awesome...

[makaveliks]

Originally Posted by rustneversleeps

Nice job on the fenders,good old JB weld ,great stuff to work with.Looking at the last pic it looks like you been using your winch,I can see little tiny grooves in the polystyrene from the winch rope. lol
Awesome...

I have been using the winch... But what polystyrene are you talking about? The only polystyrene is engine details and the interior!

[rustneversleeps]

Not Sure if it's my eyes but if you look at it, little grooves from the winch rope,or is it painted that way...last pic...

[makaveliks]

Originally Posted by rustneversleeps

Not Sure if it's my eyes but if you look at it, little grooves from the winch rope,or is it painted that way...last pic...

Sorry, can't help! I don't see what you see! The stinger and bumper is all bare aluminum. If you see grooves, there probably either from sanding, or gouges from the vicegrips I used to bend it up.

[rustneversleeps]

Right below the word Warn....you don't see that.Where the line enters your warn winch above your fairlead or fairlady..Maybe its a shadow from the line...