Shearin' off the bolts

Farley dropped off a piece of aluminum for me to rebuild the bed of the FJ40 with. It's a pretty nice chunk of metal. It should connect the bed of the truck to the rear cross member and hide a lot of rust. To put this piece on I need to take everything off the back end of the truck like the bumpers, trailer hitch, bottom door latches etc. So I got out the wrench and selected the appropriate socket, a proceeded to shear off almost every bolt on the back of the truck. For those of you who don't know what the pleasure of a sheared bolt is, you should really find the most important bolt in your life and knock the head clean off. The mental exercise that follows is a real character builder. How do I get them out? Beats me, I will probably end up either drilling them out or finding some sweet tool that will solve my problem.

In the picture to the right the silver dots are the shafts of the bolts that held on the bumpers on........just without the heads. Oh well onwards and upwards this will be a long journey and I can't get discouraged now.


Mood: 6
Optimism: 7
Bolt mutilation: 10

Duct tape Nature Panorama

Today was a laid back but productive day. I got up kinda early and went to the auto parts store for that broken fuel filter. While i was there i picked up some gojo hand wash, some shop towels, and a roll of duct tape. The installation of the fuel filter proved to be a breeze. Will stay in the hose while the engine is running? Who knows. With the filter installed I moved on to the seats, they have been bugging me. They are pretty ripped up and unsightly. My plan is to duct tape the rips together and buy some nice seat covers until I can afford new seats. So thats what I did. Then I thought it looked like crap so I decided to try a duct tape flame job on my driver's seat. Making duct tape all curvy and flame-like is wicked hard so I decided to go with badass duct tape lightning bolts. Yet again, this proved to be easier said than done and I settled or freeform abstract duct tape art. It ended up looking like a bunch of trees, and also like crap but I am going to keep it.



Mood: 10
Optimism: 10
Duct tape skillz: 6
Investment so far: $20

Hardcore FJ40 pics

Here are the pics from today for those of you who are really interested in this project and not just in it for the lame videos of my dog.

9.24.2007

Farley is an awesome dude

Around 2:30 or 3:00 my girlfriend's father dropped by and gave me some tools for the FJ40. When I say some tools I mean like two socket wrenches, about 30 sockets, various pliers and wrenches, electrical tape, and he said he would bend up a part for the back of the rig. What an awesome dude, he is the most apt fellow I know. To take the time out of his day and the money out of his pocket to drop off the ridiculous amount of tools means a great deal to me. He really helped my morale and gave me some great technical advice.

My buddy Stevie also dropped by today to check on my progress and he qualifies as the guest mechanic of the day. He advised me to fill the radiator and change the oil as soon as i can. Here is my wrap for the day.


Mood: 10
Optimism: 8
Drunk?: 5

The afternoon wares on (Engine anatomy part 2)

As the afternoon wore on and i got more frustrated an decided to delve a bit more into the anatomy of an FJ40. Please enjoy the video, and try to ignore the obvious anguish in my voice.


Mood: 6
Optimism: 5
Accuracy of info: 3?
Drunk?: 4