Blitz build 79 FJ 40. Rust, engine work,seats

[FJforty]

Busy schedule and not getting the FJ driveable so I will try a blitz build to get this 40 on the road. 7 days, that's all I have. I will shoot pics as I go. Haven't got the exact start date but it will be soon. Here are pics of my two best finds so far.

1) Seats from a 2002 Monte carlo $127 from a wrecking yard
2) Truck bed from a 90's Dodge to replace rear bed and maybe probably more. $75 off craigs.

More to come

 

[gwalt584]

Build

Good Luck! is all I can say, tearing it down will go quickly. If you have everything lined up it is possible. My engine sat on the loading dock at the engine shop for three weeks before he could get to it.
I hope you have lots of friends and money to get it done.
Heck, if they can build a house in 7 days on extreme makeover why not a FJ40.
I say give it a shot.
How can I help?
Gary

 

[FJforty]

I have been doing searches for months. I need to do something with the stock roll bar where it attaches to the tub, all rusted out and the right angle brackets underneath are not what I want. I saw trollholes "

I got tired of the mold" and the round tube supports look good but I'm not sure how to tie all this to the frame? I guess the roll bar is supposed to stay with the tub so maybe that will be enough. Any thoughts. Thanks.

 

[FJforty]

Seats, a little history. I went to 4 or 5 places looking for seat covers and none of them fit well. One set of covers(leather) was almost $100 and still a bad fit. Finally went to the wrecking yard and found the pictured leather seats. They have a bunch of really nice seats. Brand new looking fabric seats for $67/pair. For $127 real nice leather seats are a no-brainer. It will cost me a day to install them of coarse.

 

[FJforty]

Got some focus today. Here is a starter picture (from the front) and a bent bumper rear pic. Polished most all of it with that Nu finish stuff, it really works. I'm off to change out the valve stem seals.

 

[imabigbangkindaguy]

Hey good looking seats! A steal at that price!! What do you plan doing in your build? Besides your super cool new gauge cluster...

 

[nicholastheczar]

Looks good and nice find on the seats. Take lots of pics during your build and post them up!

Nick

 

[77TLCFJ40]

Wow. Monte Carlo?!? Really?? Those look like some nice seats. Not too far off from the OEM look. I hope they're short from the mounting points to the seat surface. Looking forward to updates. Thanks for sharing.

 

[imabigbangkindaguy]

Wow. Monte Carlo?!? Really?? Those look like some nice seats. Not too far off from the OEM look. I hope they're short from the mounting points to the seat surface. Looking forward to updates. Thanks for sharing.

I was wondering the same thing, They look old school, but how much work to make it fit? Since he is running a 79, might be easier to mount, but harder to drop down. I am looking froward to seeing what he can come up with.

 

[FJforty]

A short update, more to come when I get some other pics. This pic shows the valve seals being changed. Air 100 PSI into cylinder and a small piece of uni-strut for the lever. Got that from another post. One thing that really helped was the alternator right there, it allowed me to turn the engine over without using the crank. Once I got to rockers off, emergency brake on and all plugs removed. Here is the procedure:
1) put in neutrel, view in hole, put piston at top of travel
2) put in gear
3) attach air and turn on
4) compress spring, remove keepers, remove spring assy.
5) remove old seal, slide on protective plastic sleeve, install new seal
6) remove plastic sleeve, reinstall valve spring and keepers
7) do the other spring on that cylinder

The initial problem was this thing smoking like a tire fire so I found that the seals were loose. Well, the PO just slide the seals on and did not seat them with a hammer. They were just sitting there. So I fixed that, put it all back together and .......... it still smokes, not as bad but bad enough. So I have pulled it back down and the next pics will be with the head off. While getting ready to pull the head the intake/exhaust manifold came off and I noticed that #4 exhaust is oily wet. That is my smoker. I also noticed that #4 is also right next to the oil feed to the rockers...Hmmm
A list of possible problems:
1) bad rings
2) bad head gasket... leaking oil in
3) cracked head... into the oil galley
4) cracked block... into the oil galley

Dry compression ....... oil added
#1 118 ....................... 128
#2 120
#3 122
#4 75 .......................... 82
#5 120
#6 120

 

[FJforty]

Oh man! it's a fully coated high temp silicone head gasket( both sides). The good side of this story is that I can have both sides clean in 20 minutes. I'm surprised water even got to the head, looks like some of the passages are closed up.
OK. The ridge is pretty good, I can just catch a fingernail. I am open for comments. Think I should pop on a new head gasket and put it back together? The PO said the head was just done, and the PO-PO had the crank replaced so I presume that they did the ring job. Hmm.

 

[FJforty]

I probably should add that when I got the rig I also got a complete rebuild gasket set(man-a-fre), and a complete standard ring set. So if I picked up a set of rod bearings, I could hone, rod bearing, ring and head gasket all for the price of some bearings.

 

[waiting for time]

Cilinders look oke from here.
But looking at the head gasket I don't know.

 

[imabigbangkindaguy]

Ya got the rebuild kit, just do it, you are already halfway there.

 

[FJforty]

Got 1 piston cleaned up, 5 to go. Found 1 broken compression ring, 2 seized oil rings, 2 pistons with both compression rings lined up.
The good news is that I picked up some rod bearing (.010 over because the crank has been turned down) and I have all the stuff to put it back together.

 

[FJforty]

Got it all honed up and the pistons back in. Found a cool tool, the top to powered creamer jug works great to keep the hone out of harms way. Anyone that has ever honed cylinders with the crank in knows how tough it is to keep the hone from going down too far. The lid fits just perfect and a turn of the crank holds it in place.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

Those are great looking seats, I would love to know how tall they are from the mounting point to the front edge of the seat. I am just starting the search for seats for my 40.

 

[FJforty]

Seats are next, 5-1/2 ". One is manual, the other is an electric bucket but the seat unbolts from the motor platform. Not sure yet about sliding front to rear. Might need to build stuff or use some of the stock seat sliders.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

5 1/2 would be perfect for me. I had been running seats out of a Saab but they were almost 10 inches tall. I had to do some real mods to my custom seat bracket to make me able to fit under the steering wheel.

 

[FJforty]

Got the engine put back together and started. Yes! It runs but I need to work on the carb.
Here is a shot of the plug that everone needs to replace in their heads. There are many threads about this. Since I had the head off it was time, I was amazed at how easy this pressed in plug came out. Confirmation on replacement procedure, drill the center, pull the plug out with make-shift slide hammer, tap 5/16-24, screw in a set screw. Piece a cake. Thanks forum.