1970 Custom Special

[bluehwy]

Hey bluehwy, Central Valley represent! I am originally from Visalia, though I have been living in SoCal for quite a while. I still spend a lot of time up there though. My Wag is going to see a LOT of trips in the foothills and Sequoia National Park. Where are you based? Your sig says North Idaho, which is funny because I get up there pretty often too. My father-in-law moved up to the CDA area about 8 years ago. He couldnt handle SoCal anymore, and I cant say that I blame him. I started reading through your thread about your 79. instead. You are definitely doing it right.

Howdy. Actually I think you are doing it right. You

[bluehwy]

Howdy. Actually I think you are doing it right. You

Dang apostrophes

[melford1972]

Dang apostrophes

Tell me about it. I posted something on the other FSJ site tonight and when I hit submit, I thought "Oh no! I forgot to check for apostrophes!" But then I remembered that I was not on ifsja.

[bluehwy]

I was in the mountains near CDA when trying to respond. Cell service, apostrophes and a time crunch I never finished responding. I'm about 25 minutes from downtown CDA. Back in Bakersfield now for about a month. Then gone for good.

I was tryin' to say you are doing it right because you will be enjoying yours sooner and saving a hell of a lot of money!

My uncle lives in Visalia. You should stop by one of these times passing through Bako. I dropped my Wag off yesterday where a guy is helping with the wiring. I'm guessing I'll have it back in a couple of weeks.

[SOLSAKS]

great build !

on the woodgrain,.....3M DINOC is going to be the best material, no question.

from the other suppliers you are prob getting a digitally printed material

that when compared to actual 3M dinoc is 2nd or 3rd rate at best.

[melford1972]

I was in the mountains near CDA when trying to respond. Cell service, apostrophes and a time crunch I never finished responding. I'm about 25 minutes from downtown CDA. Back in Bakersfield now for about a month. Then gone for good.

I was tryin' to say you are doing it right because you will be enjoying yours sooner and saving a hell of a lot of money!

My uncle lives in Visalia. You should stop by one of these times passing through Bako. I dropped my Wag off yesterday where a guy is helping with the wiring. I'm guessing I'll have it back in a couple of weeks.

I am not sure about the "saving a hell of a lot of money" part. But it SHOULD be on the road very soon. We fired the engine two weeks ago and are just putting the interior back together now. Home stretch.

Yeah, my brother left CA for ID for good too. So I get it.

I might not be through Bakersfield before you leave. We are in the middle of moving ourselves. But maybe I can meet up with you next time I am up your way. My father-in-law lives in Rathdrum, and that is probably pretty close to where you are.

When I get my Wagoneer done finally, I have a dream of driving it up there and fishing at a bunch of spots on the way up. That might just be a pipe dream though.

[melford1972]

great build !

on the woodgrain,.....3M DINOC is going to be the best material, no question.

from the other suppliers you are prob getting a digitally printed material

that when compared to actual 3M dinoc is 2nd or 3rd rate at best.

First of all, I LOVE your J-10 "Tonka truck" build. It is just...gorgeous the way it turned out. Most people would have been happy with where you started. But you took it to the next level with the interior, paint, wheels, seats. Nicely done.

I actually had a hard time finding the DINOC I decided to go with. I could find it in the interior/normal material, but since it is going on the outside of my truck it needed to be the exterior (EX) version.

Everyone was saying it was out of stock and one distributor told me it was discontinued. But then a woman named Cindi at Interwest talked to me on the phone and helped me locate some...in Japan!

She and her husband are into restoring old Audis, so when she heard it was for a car project, she went above and beyond. Always nice to find good folks that are willing to help others out. Unfortunately, it seems like that is getting more and more rare these days. But then I guess it makes it even better when you experience someone like that.

[bluehwy]

Rathdrum is pretty close. Excited for you to have yours running soon. Fun stuff!

[SOLSAKS]

Melford,

sorry I did not mention the company that I got mine from on eBay
'METRO RESTYLING"

but it sounds like you found some with help from good car people.

thanx for the J-10 compliment, it never gets driven, I am terrible for going all in on a project, then getting bored with it, and cautious about when and where I drive it, that is the problem with taking a project too far.

I will try to make myself use it more often.

I am ready for you to enjoy all of your work on your project.

dave in NC

[melford1972]

A few recent pics of progress.


Fresh glass is cut and ready to go in. Windshield is supposed to show up tomorrow.


I am still not happy with the air cleaner setup, but it will do for now. As previously mentioned, the adapter to the D20 tcase pushed the engine pretty far forward in the engine bay. That left very little room for the air cleaner assembly. NOW I realize how I could have addressed the issue, but too late to go back and fix that now.


Recreated the armrest on the center console. Thanks to Kaiserman for tracing a template of his armrest for me to copy. The materials are not exactly right, but it is close enough for me. As for the seatbelts, these are borrowed from the aviation world since this is going to be my daily driver and I will be using it to haul kids around. Those seatbelts have full airbags in them. If anyone is interested, here is a link: https://www.amsafe.com/airbag-system...atbelt-airbag/


Really happy with how the woodgrain turned out on the center console. I will be using the same DINOC on the outside, so everything matches.


I opted to delete the chrome strip around the center console. Felt like it was visually distracting and I like this better.


Here is where the ride height settled. It is a little higher than I was hoping, but I can switch the leaf springs out later if I really want to. Still undecided on which tires I am going to run. Those are Falken Wildpeaks on it now, which I might run for a while since I have them already. Ultimately, I won't go any bigger than what is on there now, which is 30x9.5. Going to powder coat the original wheels white and run the original Radial style hubcaps. At least I think that is what they are called.

Also deciding on the process for the fender badges. I have too much on my plate to try to figure that out right this second. I can have them machined out of aluminum or I could 3d print them and cast them myself out of pot metal. Thanks to tgreese for the suggestion on that.

Very close. Thanks to everyone on this board that has offered advice during this build.

[bkilby]

That's a pretty cool seat belt/air bag system. Looks pretty expensive too. Does it work with 12V systems too?

[melford1972]

That's a pretty cool seat belt/air bag system. Looks pretty expensive too. Does it work with 12V systems too?

Seat belt electrical is self-contained with batteries. No wiring to truck power. I think this is because they want to make sure they always work, no matter what happens to electrical systems. The FAA requires reman every 7 years for this system in an airplane, but for automotive use I figure I can go a little longer.

And yes, the system is not cheap, but with the way people drive here in SoCal, $3,200 is a small price to pay for a little extra safety. A few years ago, I got into an accident on 5 north near Disneyland and it scared the heck out of me. Should probably switch the seats out to something with a headrest, but that will be left for another day.

[bkilby]

Ah batteries. Amsafe's website isn't the most informative one I've seen. Lol.
I understand the how people drive comment. I'm in Burbank, where are you?

[melford1972]

I understand the how people drive comment. I'm in Burbank, where are you?

Just relocated to Ventura. But over the years I have lived in Glendale, Pasadena, San Clemente, Encinitas, and San Diego.

Glendale, right next door to you, is probably one of the most terrifying places I have ever driven. I used to have to commute through there every single morning on the way to work. Going by the Galleria on the 134 always felt like I could die at any given second. Crazy how the tire tracks and skid marks on that freeway just go all over the place. With zero attention to lane lines or anything.

[bkilby]

Yeah, that sounds like Glendale all right. That section from Glendale Blvd off ramp to the 5 freeway is always a cluster to drive through.