M416 Build

[dieselcruiserhead]

By now oddly I couldn't believe it but I actually started running low on the tan so in my mind I had to pick my battles. The tail gate still needed some work as well as the lid for the kitchen drawer (which I managed to never take a shot of oddly!)... I split the gallon with FJ40Fax but fear not Fax it all worked out excellently. But again I had to pick my battles which all in all turned out great.. The floor of the tub then became the last priority....

Pretty psyched with how it turned out. I then crawled in the tub and started taping again which was a lot of fun... Taping is actually quite fun as dumb as that sounds especially when you just nail it quickly...

Along with the paint rationing, originally the lid was going to be all tan but just the outer edge of the frame got it in the end...

And that's it for the tan...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

OK, on to the black.. Notice the lid taped up as well... What a better place to spray than right on the lid. You can see both dust that blew onto the fenders while drying as well as specs of overspray so it needed one more coat...

Coat 1 of black on the floor of the trailer....

Coat 1 on the inside of the lid...

Coat 2 and tape removed, woohoo!

Close up of the quality of the paint again. So psyched...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

A thickish coat 2/3 to get solid floor covering... And done! :victory:

The only living pic of the kitchen lid on the left that attaches to the drawer itself... You'll see how this works hopefully in just a couple days

And the tub and lid, final pic and painted, pretty psyched. This is about 5PM yesterday....

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Thought I was quite spent and probably should have gotten out of there Scotty arrived and his van only has primer on it in parts and a storm was rolling in. So it was actually sort of crucial to start assembling which made me quite psyched actually...

The is the best part... Getting to the wiring.. I can't say how psyched I was at a point to start wiring... I felt like I went through a fraternity initiation with the paint as it just took so long and all I wanted was for it to be over...

Boy this had me psyched as well to start installing these and be at a point of assembly, the best part!! Woohoo, tail light assembly... Also using all new hardware...

Right side and the wiring. This is about 10' of 6-wire harness that I bought at the trailer supply... Very high quality and 14 gauge wire...

To keep the wires matching I have to dig into an old box in the other room that I did much of my first FJ55 wiring with...

Spliting the harness to have the ground, running, and stop lights work on both lights simultaneously...

And taped up...

At this point something dawns on me which I couldn't believe never actually went through my mind before. Of course we've done plenty of neat stuff and I'm in the middle of a restoration on the FJ55 in the background... But, I have never actually completed a full "restoration" before.... Here I am wiring and realizing this was a frame off restoration and modernization (sort of our mantra) and I just realized my first restoration of anything was this neat little trailer... Pretty sweet!

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Again I was pretty psyched to be able to reuse these and they work really well... Here are the lights in action/being tested to show you their brightness. The only one that doesn't do justice is the running lights as they have a little mirrored aspect that shows up very well from behind though clearly much dimmer than the stop lights...

Stop lights, these will also be the turn signals for American vehicles and cars using standard towing wiring as trailer lights never had amber turn signals by design... This is discussed somewhat here...

And the amber lenses that I believe were originally the night light only function of the lamps so the military could turn off the regular and add these. I removed the light restrictor of course and these use amber bulbs... I'll wire all my Toyotas to use this style which is both cheaper and better (no toyota adapters requir )

Wiring in place...

Driver's side... Grommets in the metal. This took a quick trip to parts store for firewall grommets... The upper light is a reverse light that I also removed the restrictor for. It originally was a white bulb with white restrictor so I'm not sure if it was for signaling or perhaps MORSE or if it actually was a reverse light which is what I'll be using it for. I'm planning on adding a bright LED into the housing to get good strong reverse out of it...

]


At this point it occurs to me with my 6 wire harness (I'm using a 7 wire plug but no need to run battery power all the way to the back) there is no way to have all aspects of the lights functioning on only 6 wires including a ground... So I started scratching my head and was at first opposed to chassis grounding (the original design of the trailer though) but it's actually safer for lightening, the reverse light requires it (no place to easily add a ground wire unlike the larger housings). Scott is all for it and happens to have these killer star washers which have made their way all the way here from Kentucky where he and Damon were restoring FJ40s as cruiserheads there before they moved here to Utah...

Harness all buttoned up and appears to be working excellently

The wiring over the pass side shock...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Tub with fender attached, getting ready for installation! I actually took them off before installing but to see how the paint lined up...

The black inner portion beneath the fender...

Installed! :wings:

All new hardware..... Sweet

Final pic for the evening... Some more assembly, and I'm off... Maiden voyage on Tuesday!

 

[BigDaveZJ]

That freaking rules. Amazing attention to detail and you've got an awesome trailer that you should be extremely proud of. Well done sir!

 

[Box Rocket]

Looks b*tchin Dre! Paint turned out nice. Can't wait to see it next week.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Killer Dre! Have you mounted the RTT yet or are you waiting until you return from CM?

 

[fj40fax]

Great work, Dre! If you need more tan I won't need as much as you (no lid). Looks really good, wish I had your skillz.

Fax

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Thanks guys..

Fax, no worries at all and enjoy, I think I should be OK I believe... Kurt, should be mounting in the next couple days and will definitely take it with me.. Damon wants to try it out for a maiden voyage on Sat and I'm hoping I can get it mounted up and ready to go on Mon morning...

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Nice work, looks good. Just wondering why you left the light housings green?

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Good question on the green. I'm honestly not sure, I figured it would be a little more authentic or something to just leave them the way they are...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here are some updates from a few hours I had yesterday morning for assembly...

First, the kitchen drawer... I used some more thin angle iron/the ATV racking I previously mentioned... You can see how it fits around the handle and blocks dust ideally from entering. I still need to purchase and install some weather tape...

The "handle cover" is temporary or an experiment but I may glue it on permanently as it's nice. That is just a hook bent out...

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=28135&stc=1&d=1240795681

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

RTT on, pretty psyched...

A 20 cal ammo can. This will be mounted permanently on the tongue for electrical and storage of trailer related items... It gets fully wired tomorrow morning