Junkyard Jimmy Super Low Buck Build Thread

[Low Elco]

Got the front of yeller dropped tonight, have one for me, I'm out!
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[hgs_notes]

Last night I had some extra black bed liner. Decided to stick with the theme on my cooler.

[hgs_notes]

Last of the front floor work is done. The ford grabber orange was fairly close, but I thought I could do better, so I went through the body shops color chip books again and found a nissan color that was very close. Had the parts store mix up the tint and it was just a bit darker, so I added some of the grabber orange color to it until I thought I couldn't match it any better. It was really just looking brown because it doesn't have nearly the pearls or flake in it that the paint has, but that is actually a good thing because the pearls and flake don't work as well in coloring the liner mix.

No sprayer this time. I just don't like how it flows. I used a roller method. I had 3/8" mat rollers today, but I think the 1/2 would have been better. My method is to roll on a coat, then go back a few minutes later and coat again and keep doing it until I use up the mix. It worked for me.

Pics...




before...


Probably won't do much more today. This stuff needs 24 hours to cure and What I need to do next to the hood is grind welds. Don't need that dust settling on my tacky liner. Besides that, I need to move some stuff around so we can finally get our christmas tree up.

[87Jimmy4JP]

I would have to say, I think you nailed the color...and, with that many layers on there, I would say its protected!


looks great

Jp

[hgs_notes]

Thanks Jp. Putting the liner on with a roller actually makes thinner coats I think. Its almost like painting with household paint. I'm using up some of my vacation today. In and out of the garage. So far I got the heater box in, heater hoses (need to paint the vents yet), gas pedal, radio (not wired yet), heater control (need to find and hook up cables), gauges (need vac line and oil line through firewall), transfer case shift boot (need to find the screws) and glove box in.

Currently working on painting seat brackets, kick panel vents, console, etc. Will need to work on wiring and the other things in the parenthesis above, but its actually going together.


Check out my old radio. I bought this for my C-10 in the summer of 1984 I think. I used it until I tore my truck apart for the paint restoration. The aluminum mounting plate is the same one I made in shop class all those years ago. It just covers the holes and strengthens the mounting a bit.

[71swb4x4]

Looking great!!

Interesting lighter, it looks like it's billet, is it?

[Low Elco]

Maaan, that's comin out nice! Are you hauling it to the bodyshop to shoot the outside?
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[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

Looking great!!

Interesting lighter, it looks like it's billet, is it?

You noticed that huh? Nothing as fancy as billet. I just cleaned the black off on my wire wheel. It was kind of a fortunate accident. I pulled a lighter out of the parts stash, and the black looked dirty and chipped. So I was just cleaning it up to paint it, but liked how it looked when it was cleaned up.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Maaan, that's comin out nice! Are you hauling it to the bodyshop to shoot the outside?
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That's the plan. If I ever get back to doing body work.

After that last update I went out and finished spraying the seat brackets and got the seats in place. I decided that I want to raise the back mounts about 3/4" for a more comfortable seat position, so I'll be making some spacers to accomplish that.

I finally pulled the seat covers out of the boxes that I bought for this. There are some pluses and minuses. The positives are that they slip on and fit pretty good front to back and top to bottom. And with some string wrapped around the transition from seat back to bottom cushion it should stay in place alright and protect the seat from rain. The negative is that the bottom part of the cover does not wrap around the sides towards the back part of the seat. It wraps around the front bottom but then tapers upward so you can still see the old nasty vinyl cover on the sides. It is just temporary until I can afford to have the seats covered in marine grade vinyl. Even if I find different seats (not looking) for it down the road they would also be recovered in the marine grade stuff.

[hgs_notes]

I was at $4199. Bought tint for the al's liner, $35. The radio, I already had. The seat covers I think were accounted for months ago. Sold some body mount brackets and got back $15, so that brings my total spent to $4219.

Punch list (in no particular order, * for priority items):
*finish body work on the outside
*Finish roll bar install
*tranny o-rings and kickdown cable
*change fluid in both differentials
*install windshield
*make sure wire for gas gauge is hooked up to sender
*lights, lights and more lights
*tranny cooler lines
*seat belts (have them)
Al's liner inside of tub (half way done)
inner fender tubs, repair, paint, install
rebuild vent windows
door glass, handles, locks, mirrors, etc.
mark/drill holes for single wall top in bed rails
Fab front and rear bumpers
electric fan install (got it)
plumb vac and oil gauges
seat bracket spacers
replace rear lift blocks with taller ones (need new u-bolts)
heater control cables and vents
rebuild carb
heater install (half way)
wiper washer pump
manual throttle
door panels, dash pad, visors, etc. (have them, need paint, cleaning, etc.)
stereo (radio in, need marine speakers and antenna)
paint (getting there, summit racing mayan gold metallic)

Future plans, as time and money and ability permit:
Long travel link suspension front and rear
lockers
rock sliders
roll cage
skid plates


What I'm noticing with this list is that its a moving target. Everytime I cross something off it, I think I add 2 more.

[Maddoxdb]

Looking great!!!
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[87Jimmy4JP]

"What I'm noticing with this list is that its a moving target. Everytime I cross something off it, I think I add 2 more".

I hear ya on this one! Especially with old cars that are daily drivers too!....they seem to add to the list all by themselves!




JP

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Maddoxdb

Looking great!!!
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Thanks!

Originally Posted by 87Jimmy4JP

I hear ya on this one! Especially with old cars that are daily drivers too!....they seem to add to the list all by themselves!

JP

True dat. (I went all ghetto on you there)

Its been a long week. Death in the family, work, then took a working weekend trip and brought my wife along. We had a great time, then left the room and did some touristy things.

This morning it was time to get back out to the garage. My hood has become my workbench. The other day I dismantled the console I am using for this project. Just looking through the old pics and this is what I started with.


It still needed cleaned up, so I did that. Then started spraying it with the black OEM vinyl dye/paint stuff. And here we are with that...


There is still some cracks and holes drilled in it, but nothing major. Who knows, maybe the holes will come in handy later. It actually looks better than the pics show because the flash picks up every grain of dust and finger print. Here it is assembled.




I was looking at the emblem for the lid and the paint was kind of chipped, etc and I'm thinking it needs to be blacked out the the rest of the trim will be.

Before:


After:


And installed...


I also cleaned up my kick panel vents and got them ready to install.

Before:


After:

[Low Elco]

Looks great! Sorry about your loss. Hoping to have it quasi- done by spring?
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[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Looks great! Sorry about your loss. Hoping to have it quasi- done by spring?
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At least quasi done my man! Not semi-quasi or mostly quasi. It'll be full on quasi done by spring.

I hope to get a good part of the body work done by New Years. Paint shortly after that. It'll move faster once I get the hood done. The rest of the body is just some filling and sanding. The worst is over, except for the sanding.

Then it just needs some wiring, windshield, carb rebuild and tuning, differential oil change, fix a tranny leak or 3, and some of those other punch list items. Definitely quasi done. I love that phrase man. Excellent.

[Low Elco]

Ha, they're always quasi-done. I could still fill a pretty good punch list on Yeller!

[hgs_notes]

Haven't had much garage time lately. What I got I used for some other projects. Christmas is coming and every year I try to figure out some kind of gift for my wife that she won't expect or have a clue about. This year was tough. Nothing was coming to mind. Then this last weekend we spent together and in one of the shops, hanging on the wall was a frying pan with a clock in it. I've got the craftsman saw blade clock in my shop, why not something kitcheny for her shop (before any of the chauvenist comments come, she actually loves the kitchen and cooking).

So monday I found a clock at the thrift store that would work great. After a few more thrift stores without any luck finding a good fry pan, I stopped at the local antique shop (I know the guy). At first he said he didn't have anything, then as we were walking out he spotted one on the wall. It was kind of beat up, but it was a copper pan with a blacksmith formed long steel handle held on with copper rivets. And the price was right, I'm trading him a scythe I got for a dollar.

I straightened it out, cleaned up the copper, bent the handle so it would hang on the wall nice and put it together. The bright shiny copper wasn't the look I wanted though, so I got my propane torch and started playing around with it. Its got some bluing and darker copper and other colors mixed in there. I'll post a pic later. I think she'll love it.

While trying to find some other ideas monday I went into a shop that was going out of business. They were selling everything, including the shelves. My wife has a rather large collection of pez and is always complaining that she doesn't have enough display space for them. This shop happened to have a perfect case, good size, adjustable glass shelves, glass door (keeps the dust off, very important) and a good price. So I loaded that up. Not content to give it as is, today I pulled all the hardware off and prepped it for paint. The shelf is kind of a dark teal, all of her other shelves are white, as this one will soon be. I'm not leaving it at that though.

Last year I had custom pajamas made for her. Just found some of the style oversized tees she likes without any lettering or pics already on them (not as easy to find as you might think), then had a screen printing shop put on phrases that she is known for (the kids helped with that). She loved them. So I stopped back at the printing place and asked them to make me some PEZ font letter decals for the shelf. It should look great.

Since I'm on a roll here describing my wifes Christmas to be, I'll blab one more surprise about it. She said the other day that she had never had lobster claws, just tails. She loves lobster, it makes me gag. We normally have crab legs and steak for our Christmas Eve meal (we grill the steaks no matter the weather). Well this year she'll get her lobster claws (and tail, and head, and spines, and everything else). Turns out it's not so easy to just get claws. When the lobster is processed, they break off the tails and send the rest to be cooked and the meat from the claws is sold in packages. The only way to get whole claws (in MN) is to get a whole lobster. The only way I could get a whole lobster is live. Now today, I'm at the seafood market learning all this and trying to figure out how I'm going to get lobster claws for my wife on Christmas eve, when I can't get back the the market (100 miles away) between then and now. It's not like I can keep it in a tank in the garage for 5 days (well, ok, maybe I could). So I remember that I need to bring something to my daughter who lives up there and I have a thought (yeah it hurt a little). I tell the market guy, bag one up, then call my daughter and tell her to get her biggest pot filled with water and get it boiling. The market guy says, boil for 7 minutes, then I can freeze it ok. For some odd reason I felt it was better to boil the live lobster to death rather than just let him freeze to death in the trunk of my car, which would have been acceptable too.

So I get to my daughters, the water is boiling in her biggest pot. It's not so big. I pull the lobster out of the bag and he stretches the claws out and I put him over the pan and its going to be a tight fit. I've never done this before. My daughter is acting like I'm going to murder the thing (well technically, sure, whatever) and can't look. I'm wondering if there is going to be a struggle (with the lobster, not the daughter) and I dip him in. No thrashing about, just meekly surrenders to the caldren of doom. Just enough room. 7 minutes later he's ready to be eaten. Instead he's in my daughters freezer and she CAN'T forget to bring it home with her this weekend or there will be some thrashing about and a struggle.

So my christmas plans are almost complete, just need to paint and pick up some stickers and figure out how to present the gift.

Oh, and just so you know, I did some good garage stuff too and even one thing chevy related (a distant 4th cousin). I fixed my snowblower and made some foot locker keys, using some old chevy key blanks I found at one of the antique shops. Those foot locker keys are hard to come by, good thing they are easy to make.


Thanks for following along. I hope you enjoy my story. I only have 3 work days between now and January 2nd. Jimmy progress will be in high gear soon.

[RatRod68]

Good read. I like gifting real gifts as well. Ones that don't include the lame gift card.

[hgs_notes]

I got about an hour yesterday to work on the Jimmy. I fit up the top sheet of steel for the hood and tacked it in place.



And this is the clock I put together for her. I hope she likes it.


This is the shelf I got for her, repainted, with nice pez lettering decals on the sides.


I'm messing with her a bit too. I put everything I bought for her (except the shelf) into boxes, then put all those boxes inside one big box. They are taped to the inside of it so they dont move around. So she's like "You just got my one thing? And you made it?" There are like 13 things in that box. I'm just going to bring the shelf in from the garage early tomorrow, load the few new pez I got her into it, and then bring her to it.

[87Jimmy4JP]

Love the stuff you made for the better half....great job on that cabinet...Im right there with you on the hardware you used for the door pull and hasp.

The lettering looks like vinyl sourced at the local sign shop? Nicely done.

Merry Christmas


JP

[Dale99]

Cabinet looks great.

She shouldnt be concerned with getting her one item. It should be about the thought. Also, what if that one item was super expensive?

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by 87Jimmy4JP

The lettering looks like vinyl sourced at the local sign shop? Nicely done.

Merry Christmas
JP

Yeah, I had the lettering done at a company that does t-shirts, uniforms, signs, etc.

Originally Posted by Dale99

Cabinet looks great.

She shouldnt be concerned with getting her one item. It should be about the thought. Also, what if that one item was super expensive?

She's not concerned about the quantity, just baffled. She knows I'm messing with her. I told her it would be easier Christmas morning having just the one thing to open. She tends to just sit and watch the kids with her presents piling up around her, which is fine, but sometimes frustrating for me, because I'm watching her and the kids.

This year my mom will be joining us too. My oldest is home from college. Just got all our shopping done so no more worries for the next few days. Getting our traditional crab and steak dinner prepped (lobster for the wife). Having a good beer. Should be a good holiday.

I hope you all enjoys yours too.

[RatRod68]

dude, that is awesome

[Dieselwrencher]

Awesome work on the gifts for your wife! That is real cool thinking on your part. I liked the lobster thrash story, I was waiting for you to say that the super claw almost got ya! I hope you and your family have a Very Merry Christmas!




Oh yeah, nice work on the Blazer too. I'm really leaning towards Al's Liner for my truck. (If I ever get that far.) I've heard it has spraying issues, but most of that stuff does unless you have the high dollar applicating stuff it seems.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by RatRod68

dude, that is awesome

Thanks man.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Awesome work on the gifts for your wife! That is real cool thinking on your part. I liked the lobster thrash story, I was waiting for you to say that the super claw almost got ya! I hope you and your family have a Very Merry Christmas!

Oh yeah, nice work on the Blazer too. I'm really leaning towards Al's Liner for my truck. (If I ever get that far.) I've heard it has spraying issues, but most of that stuff does unless you have the high dollar applicating stuff it seems.

Sorry to disappoint you by not having lost a battle with the lobster.

I have mixed feelings on the Als Liner. I've had my share of problems getting it to spray evenly. The roller method works ok, but takes some time and patience. The main advantage for me was that you can color match it.

My brief Christmas update:

I got a good start with surprising her with the lobster. She loved it. She said she likes the claw meat better than the tails. This morning I woke up early, irritating bad habit of mine, and brought the pez shelf in from the garage. I had planned to set it up in the kitchen area then lead her to it after all the other present madness ended. But then thought it would be better to set it up with the kids stuff. One of our traditions has been that we hold back a special gift that gets put out Christmas eve as their "Santa Present". Usually unwrapped and placed by their stockings. My wife and I fill a stocking for each other, but have never done a "Santa Present". Until today that is. She was the last to come into the living room, I had the camera and got video. The look was classic. Mouth agape, and wide eyes. My oldest said she looked like she got the bike she wanted as a kid. She opened her giant box and couldn't stop looking at all the stuff I packed it with. My plan worked out 100%. She loved the clock and everything else. The kids were all happy, my mom was thrilled (we filled a stocking for her too, she said it was the first time she had one), and I got some cool stuff too.


None shall pass!

Merry Christmas everyone. Welding and grinding for me tomorrow.

[Low Elco]

Come back, I'll bite your leg off! Glad to hear all your scheming worked out well. Nice hood!
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