1970 J4000 RestoMod Americana Build

[TurboJ4000]

Well the brown was in fact way off. Maybe not way off but the shine was way off and without the metallic showing through it was pretty bad.





So I top coated the Raptor with two coats of the full paint and it looks a lot better. I got a little heavy handed in a few spots with the paint and the metallic did some weird things with the texture but its good enough to assemble the truck and if I hate it later I will redo the fenders. With the fenders back on the Jeep and in the right color I'm getting more and more excited to drive this thing for real. I forgot to paint the taillights unfortunately so I need to go get another bit of paint so I can complete the rear end of the Jeep.



I set the wood back in the bed, it will be coming back out to be wire brushed and sealed with a deck stain in the near future before being installed for good.


I moved back up to the cab and got the rest of the sound deadening X-Mat installed. This stuff makes a huge difference and I hope the truck is drivable without having to change the exhaust.






Got the fuel filler neck installed, this may have to be reworked as it has very little vertical drop in it. Its a short filler hose but still may be an issue.


And last night I got both windows and regulators installed. The last thing to seal up the cab and keep out the dust from the shop will be the windshield. I hope to get that done this weekend and then its on to installing carpet and seats.

[rocklaurence]

This is a Man's truck! Not some Girly, Drive it on Sunday project but a vehicle that is useful.

[Stuka]

Awesome to see an update on this!

[TurboJ4000]

This is a Man's truck! Not some Girly, Drive it on Sunday project but a vehicle that is useful.

I intentionally didnt fix every dent and have done my own half way good body work because I dont want to feel bad when I plow it into a mud hole or throw crap in the bed. I want it to have the old work truck feel.

[jpswapmohn]

Looks great! Are you putting any sort of spacers in the bed between the wood slats? I only ask because they can get wet and swell resulting in bulges and cracks if not given a little room to move.

[TurboJ4000]

Looks great! Are you putting any sort of spacers in the bed between the wood slats? I only ask because they can get wet and swell resulting in bulges and cracks if not given a little room to move.

I am not planning to leave any gaps. This wood is plenty moist at this point and its going to be tight to get it in. It will cup and bow over time but I'm not too worried. I don't know if this will be the permanent solution but it should be too hard to replace if I decide to.

[TurboJ4000]

The windshield is in! But its not quite right. It'll work for now but the trim isn't fitting right. The top and bottoms parts went on fine and the top corners are fine too but the sides don't fit right. I can get them on but when they are installed it pulls the gasket up away from the windshield.







This gasket isn't from BJs or TGW its from a local glass shop. I'll have to call him and see if they can get a different one or if he might take this one back. It was only 60$ and it fits great everywhere but the side trim just doesn't like it. I debated for a minute cutting the side trim down to it doesn't wrap around the A pillar. It would look just as good but certainly would have to figure out how to secure it then.

But in better news the truck is down to the point where I can make a to do list and it doesn't feel entirely overwhelming.

[Chubbinius]

Wow, that's some great progress and great pictures. Love the paint colors.

[TurboJ4000]

Status update,

The bed wood has been installed after getting stained/sealed up. Hopefully this is the final time but.....that seems unlikely.


Before the bed wood went in I did a bit of future planning type work. I added a set of battery terminals to the back of the cab that come straight from the batteries (which are mounted to the frame behind the cab). Its a fused power and ground that goes through the cab wall with some bulkhead connectors and 2 gauge wire. If I want to put in an inverter or power an amp for the stereo I can do that very easily now.







And then I started on the finishing parts of the cab. With both seats installed and wired for power and heated seats I cut a piece of luan to fit on the back panel and covered it with carpet as well. I'm going to do the same thing with the spaces along the B pillar and then cover the floor back there. I ordered the material for the headliner and plan to make the backer for that from ABS plastic.

[thej10guy]

Can you tell I have ADD, then I moved on to the seat issue again. The old seats needed to be redone and after calling a few shops I decided it wasnt worth re doing them. So if any of you guys want them I have the bucket seats that are free to a good home.

I found a set of Ford Escape seats with nearly zero use since the car was wrecked in the first couple thousand miles.


The side airbags had deployed but fortunately modern seat airbags have intentionally weak stitching at the seam for the air bag so if you remove the cover and sew it back up you can reinstall the cover and its like brand new.

The other plus is that these are heated and power, the power isnt a huge deal but heated seats will be nice. The plug for the seats is ridiculous with 90 wires but it was relatively easy to find the two that are needed to power the seat motors and the two wires that are needed for the heated seats. With the covers sewn up and some new seat brackets made they fit awesome with the factory jump seat.



I also had the seamstress friend replace the top panel that used to have the headrest holes. We took the covers off the headrests and cut the replacement panel out of those and once that was done they almost look like they below there, just 50 years newer.

So with these seats, what year of escape are they out of? I don’t have any seats, and they look really good in there, so this might be an option.


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[TurboJ4000]

Can you tell I have ADD, then I moved on to the seat issue again. The old seats needed to be redone and after calling a few shops I decided it wasnt worth re doing them. So if any of you guys want them I have the bucket seats that are free to a good home.

I found a set of Ford Escape seats with nearly zero use since the car was wrecked in the first couple thousand miles.


The side airbags had deployed but fortunately modern seat airbags have intentionally weak stitching at the seam for the air bag so if you remove the cover and sew it back up you can reinstall the cover and its like brand new.

The other plus is that these are heated and power, the power isnt a huge deal but heated seats will be nice. The plug for the seats is ridiculous with 90 wires but it was relatively easy to find the two that are needed to power the seat motors and the two wires that are needed for the heated seats. With the covers sewn up and some new seat brackets made they fit awesome with the factory jump seat.



I also had the seamstress friend replace the top panel that used to have the headrest holes. We took the covers off the headrests and cut the replacement panel out of those and once that was done they almost look like they below there, just 50 years newer.

So with these seats, what year of escape are they out of? I don’t have any seats, and they look really good in there, so this might be an option.


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They are from a 2019 I believe but any Ford Escape seat from the 2013ish to now are all very similar.

[thej10guy]

Cool thanks for the information! Those seats look SO good in there. Great build all around.


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[TurboJ4000]

Well I'm getting very close to full on road testing. I got the stereo equipment mostly done which means the seats are bolted in hopefully for the last time.



I finished up the wiring for the taillights and reverse lights etc. The bumpers are bolted on and I have driven it up and down the street a few times but now I need to work through the EFI tune with HP Tuners. I have never tuned an EFI engine before so this will take me a while. This weekend I will be working on it as much as I can.

I did have a big moment last weekend actually putting the plate on it.



Its getting close enough that I can taste it!

[ScramblerCJ8]

Just a word of caution, don't use bedliner on both sides of the bed floor, and also that square tube frame will need some holes for moist to scape. otherwise it will be trapped and will rust from the inside.

[devildog80]

Color choice actually looks nice......to me.

Had a '61 Chevy Apache 10 years ago with similar colors......miss that truck!

[TurboJ4000]

Well it drove around today! Went into town to get gas and did some tuning on the engine.

The steering is pretty loose so I gotta get that fixed and the ride is rough but I knew that was coming.

Next is wrapping up the interior and getting the ac installed.

[TurboJ4000]

Just a word of caution, don't use bedliner on both sides of the bed floor, and also that square tube frame will need some holes for moist to scape. otherwise it will be trapped and will rust from the inside.

Yea the wood won’t get any bed liner it’s just deck stain. Most of the tubes have vent holes so I should be good but I’m also planning to spray all the internal parts with rust coating so hopefully it’s not too much of an issue.

[TurboJ4000]

This past weekend I drove the Jeep a bit more,



Met my dad on a camping trip that was only a few miles down the road.

I unfortunately also found this in the radiator.



Looks like I have a leaky head gasket. Not sure which side and it doesn't appear to be that bad since I drove at least 25 miles on it that way but none the less I ordered new head gaskets and I'll tear the heads off to have a look. I am hoping I can pull the intake and rockers and then pressure up each cylinder to find which side leaks. Then hopefully only have to replace one gasket.

[devildog80]

Yuuummmmyyyyyy......butterscotch

[TurboJ4000]

Well I tore the motor down and didnt find any big things that would validate my head gasket leak but I replaced the gaskets and put the heads back on.





I then started the truck back up and worked on cleaning out the block and radiator. While doing that I dumped a gallon of ZEP degreaser in the radiator and let that run for a while to get hot and circulated around before flushing that out. Unfortunately I did not read the bottle thoroughly enough. It says good for engine parts but in fact it is corrosive to aluminum. So that means my brand new heater core was destroyed along with my brand new aluminum radiator! Just a simple $500 mistake over a 10$ bottle of degreaser. I really hope the aluminum heads are ok. It was running fine with the hose in the radiator while I flushed out the degreaser but I wont know if the heads leak until I get the new radiator installed.

So I now have the radiator back out, and the new one took weeks to finally ship. It just arrived this week and I now need to get the mounting tabs rewelded back on this one.



Since this is killing me I went back to working on the door panels while I was waiting on parts for my screw ups. I got the backers cut out of ABS plastic sheet and started working on the covering.





I am waiting on the 1/4" foam sheet to arrive to glue the parts together. I stamped speaker grills from expanded aluminum sheet so it will hopefully look pretty professional when its all put together. These panels are about the last thing for the interior.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but man is it hard to get there. All the little details are hard to keep track of. I just found out last week that my newer model door that I made the old style latch work on is not going to allow the key cylinder to work, so I have installed the lock cylinder but cant lock or unlock the driver door with the key. Had I checked that before I had it painted I could have fixed it but oh well. I likely will never fix that.