1963 J-200 SLOOOOOW Build

[Kaiserjeeps]

The bed looks great! Your truck your rules.... And always remember, facebook is bad.... And I mean that.
Looks like you are making progress. Post up on the AC install and maybe even a wedding pic.

[rang-a-stang]

I agree with Kaiser jeeps; your bed looks great! I think the wood and the green look amazing together.

[Frank Ziebert]

About time! Was wondering where you were. Good job on the truck!

[ddversatile]

I love the box! Looks Fantastic!

[rang-a-stang]

Originally Posted by 63J200atLSU

...I've caught a lot of flack for my idea of a wooden bed. One of the folks on facebook was kind enough to point out that my bed would look better on a Willys... Thanks guy. Sarcasm intended. ...

I'm sorry, those dudes on facebook are smoking crack, that is amazing looking. Once you have the wheels/tires on, it's going next level.

I've come back to these pictures like 6 times in the last 24 hours. So nice looking!

[63J200atLSU]

So we're in the final 60 day countdown to the wedding. Life has been a little hectic. I think I may have mentioned it here, but the truck is our getaway vehicle, so somehow, miraculously, I've been given the green light to spend some serious time getting this ole guy prepped and ready.

About two months ago, I messaged a guy on fb about some old rims he had, he seemed standup enough at first, then after about 3 weeks went by and he still hadn't gotten them shipped, he stopped returning messages. It ended up taking another FSJ friend of mine who lives near him going and getting them and packing them on a pallet for fastenal... What a pain. And when the rims got to me, one of them had a cracked lugnut hole. One of my first questions to the seller was, "Can you sell me three of these?" and he was adamant that he couldn't break up the set. What a jerk.

Anyway, I digress. Elizabeth's dad found a sand blast cabinet in the free section of craigslist, but its light was completely dead. The ballast was dead. The switch was dead, the bulb was dead. So I looked around and saw that a lot of people were taking little flood light mounts and installing them in the cabinets, so that's what I did. plenty of room in there for the rim and I waste so much less sand now. I also got a chance to put my craigslist powdercoat oven to use. I'm a fan of powdercoating now.

Speaking of powdercoating, Toddthewelder was the one who originally turned me on to the idea of powdercoating the rims. Has anybody heard from him lately? I know he was pretty busy travelling around, but he seems like such a cool guy and he's been seriously helpful in the process of this project. Todd, if you're out there, hit me up.

Long story short, got the bugs worked out and got the first one done. Cannot wait to get all five done and get the tires mounted on this thing. It'll also help me identify if it's the tires that have been causing the vibration or if it's an unbalanced driveshaft. I'm predicting a much better ride. More soon.

Before.


After. Not perfect, but pretty dang close, and possibly too nice looking for the rest of the truck, lol...

[bkilby]

Nice job. It looks great. Did you post these on FB too? I've seen the pics but it wasn't here.

[63J200atLSU]

Originally Posted by bkilby

Nice job. It looks great. Did you post these on FB too? I've seen the pics but it wasn't here.

Ya, I'm Greg, one and the same. Hit me up here or there any time!

[SOLSAKS]

nothing like freshly blasted and painted metal,...

especially with gloss white.

great job.

good luck on the wedding and the after wedding getaway ride.....

dave in NC

[63J200atLSU]

Originally Posted by SOLSAKS

nothing like freshly blasted and painted metal,...

especially with gloss white.

great job.

good luck on the wedding and the after wedding getaway ride.....

dave in NC

Thanks Dave!

[Wagoneer Taylor]

I didnt know we had another person using a FSJ as a getaway vehicle!!! My now wife and I did the same with our 77 Wagoneer! We loved it and so did everyone else at the wedding. 1 year ago 9/23 we drove away in ours, can't wait to see pics of yours on the day! Congrats man your close!

Also who cares what other people (especially on FB) say we all build our cars and Jeeps the way we want them! And even though you shouldnt care what i think, I think the wood bed looks boss on your rig.

Also digging the powder coated steelies. Keep posting bud!

[Kaiserjeeps]

Pretty nice looking wheel Greg. Now I get the clip thing from your question in my build thread. I put a semi detailed answer there for you on hubcaps and wheels. I have never seen clips through a rim like that. Great price on the blasting cabinet.. Learn about the different media's and please protect yourself from breathing silica.

So you are about to get married!! I thought you already had... So cool and it sounds like things are going really well for you both. Never stop talking to each other and do what ever it takes to make your marriage thrive and grow. I sure hope you post up a departure in the truck pic.

Todd has been incognito. Not sure what he is doing, but hope he is well and getting some FSJ time in.

On your vibration, check to see if your rear driveline U-joints are withing 1 degree of each other. Despite using all new original parts, Sadie was 8.3 degrees out. (terrible vibration driving)

Have a good one!

[63J200atLSU]

So very stoked to finally be able to post this. Finally got all my rims done and had my radials mounted on them. The tires are Nankang M889's in a 235/85R16. Next set I get, I might go with the American-made buckshot, which is a nearly identical tire, albeit with a thicker sidewall. I'd heard really good things about these and also really liked the tread pattern, definitely has more of an old-school look.

I could not find an acceptable set of front hubcaps for the Kaiser-era trucks. I had two with the holes cut out, but they were AMC era which meant that the hubcap itself was too small and the hole was too small to accommodate Warn Lock-O-Matic front hubs on this truck. Someone on the FB page recommended wheel spacers. I generally am opposed to spacers on daily drivers, but for a vehicle which is driven as infrequently (and small distances) as this, I think it's probably fine. These push the rim out just far enough that a normal dog dish can cover the locking hub in the front. I had two NOS hubcaps and two which were in pretty good shape, but needed to be repainted. For anybody interested in the colors I used, it was Model Master International Orange and Testors Metallic Gold. The gold is not quite an exact match, but it's pretty close and the orange is almost identical. At any rate, I put both of the NOS hubcaps on one side of the truck and both of the repainted ones on the other, so nobody will ever see both shades of gold at the same time. Problem solved.

The tires REALLY helped the look of the truck. The spacers also pushed the tires further out and gave it a little more "filled out" stance, which I am a fan of.

Here's the truck with the wheels/tires (and then hubcaps) first mounted. The truck is pretty dirty...





Then after the bath.







Overall, I'm extremely happy with how that came out. The truck also rides MUCH better under 50mph, which is where I do most of my driving. I still have a wobble that starts up around 55, and I can't feel it in the steering wheel, but in the shifter, which tells me it's probably either a driveshaft out of balance or the driveshaft u-joint angle that Al mentioned. I also know that installing the driveshaft was one of the FIRST things I did on this truck, so I might want to go back and double check my work, as my learning curve has been pretty steep...

Currently, the truck is sidelined with a fuel filler hose that's cracked. I had the style from BJ's that I believe typically went with the townside bed, it was the "S" shaped one, and I had cut it down to where I needed. With the bed on, I needed to revisit that anyway, so I got all my necessary pieces parts from fillernecksupply.com. I should be able to get that done this weekend and I had better! This truck needs to go pick up its first pumpkin...

I also have all of the pieces either in my possession or on the way to construct the bed skirts, bulkhead, which I'm reinforcing pretty heavily, in case I want to mount a spare tire to it (spoiler alert, I do) and the tailgate. After I get that all mocked up, I'll pull the wooden sides off one last time and rhino-line (it's actually the upol raptor liner kit) the bulkhead and floor of the bed and do one final installation. I have a pretty cool surprise in store for the tailgate. I think y'all will be pleased. More soon.

[SOLSAKS]

very nice truck

it will get a lot of looks,..

especially from folks with new 60 grand trucks

who wish theirs was as cool as yours !

it will look great with a bed full of pumpkins.

dave in NC

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Can not tell you how jealous I am!!
Your truck looks amazing and all the work you did really shows it is spectacular!
Looking forward to your pumpkin pictures, now go show that thing off!

Side note, I just visited fillernecksupply and they have great stuff! Thanks for mentioning that.

[rang-a-stang]

SSOOOoooo awesome! This truck is amazing! Good you on you! Wow! I soooo love the bed.

[Crankyolman]

I have been trying to follow this thread but had fallen a bit behind. It's really kind of a shame I didn't keep up. I may have decided to go a completely different direction and done a bed just like yours. Good job on that!

[63J200atLSU]

Originally Posted by Crankyolman

I have been trying to follow this thread but had fallen a bit behind. It's really kind of a shame I didn't keep up. I may have decided to go a completely different direction and done a bed just like yours. Good job on that!

Man, I just read through your truck bed saga. That kind of stuff makes me want to pull my hair out. If you ever feel like building a bed like mine, I've got a solidworks assembly file for it!

[rws31]

Looks great. The tires definitely give it a cool old school stance. Keep the pics coming, can't wait to see it done.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Greg, your truck looks like a million bucks The hubcaps really set it off. Nice bed, tires , everything!