excited

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

I am almost ready to shoot the tub with bed-liner. I sanded down to the metal on the entire inside of the tub and front floor boards up to the firewall. I filled the "pock marks" from rust pitting. Only two pin holes in the entire floor! very lucky. I bondo'd the rivet dimples and am going to shoot the liner with a schutz gun this week I hope. There was a rust thru where the rear seats mount to the wheel well so I installed 6 x6 " steel plates on top of the deck and sealed around the edge so I can encase them in the bed-liner. That should be plenty strong enough to support the rear seats. While I had the tranny cover off, I took off the transfer case guard so now I'll have 2 low. I also scraped off lots of gunk from the t-case and tranny. The skid plate had never been off!. It had 32 years of dirt mixed with 90 weight, there was 22 pounds of #### in there. (really, I weighed it!) I took out the speedo cable and am going to replace it.(broken) I changed out all the 90 weight (frt & rear diffs, t-case, tranny) After I shoot liner and put the seats back in ,I'm installing a stereo and rear deck all-weather speakers. After that I'm replacing the steering stabilizer shock and putting in new shackle bushings, new rag joint and installing extended rear shackles to compensate for the 32 year spring sag until I can afford to buy new springs. I am doing my best to keep the rig "stock" This last two weeks has been great therapy for me. I love working with my hands and seeing the results. My Dad who gave the rig to me last year before he died would be so proud of what I'm doing with it. I'll post pics when she's done. TTFN

[1973Guppie]

hey bro,

sorry to hear about your dad. Same story here. My dad and I bought my fj40 back when I was 17 in high school. I am old and 33 now. It has come a long way and yes, my dad would be proud too. Good for you! and best wishes to your family. Keep on keeping on!!!

Noah

[AZkick-n40]

CO-boy,

That is great. Keep us posted.

Wonder how many other people have a similar story. My '71 FJ40 has been in the family since '73, I learned to drive on it in '83, and then my Dad passed away about 3 years ago so I bought it off my Mom.

He was a great backyard mechanic and I never took the time to work on rigs with him. Now that he is gone, I'd give anything to twist a wrench with him.

Looking forward to watching our progress.

Brian

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

I finished sanding and bondoing. I will shoot the liner without the tranny cover or fuel tank cover in place ( I will mask off the tramnny. I do want the gas tank well shot. I will then put it back together after it is shot & cured

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

pics

[Fast Eddy]

Originally Posted by Colorado Boy-74-FJ40

installing extended rear shackles to compensate for the 32 year spring sag until I can afford to buy new springs.

I'm also trying to keep mine stock, so I had the springs re-arched for $140. Better than a hokey shackle lift imho.

Good luck getting the shackle pins out. Be careful of the threads if you want to reuse them. Ask my how I know. The rear of the front leafs were the worst for me. Six hours for the pair.

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

Originally Posted by Fast Eddy

I'm also trying to keep mine stock, so I had the springs re-arched for $140. Better than a hokey shackle lift imho.

Good luck getting the shackle pins out. Be careful of the threads if you want to reuse them. Ask my how I know. The rear of the front leafs were the worst for me. Six hours for the pair.

Sounds like a 12 pack project to me!

[honk]

Heat wrench if you have it available. The old rubber will really be bonded to the pins and to make it worse every little rust dimple on each pin is a place for the rubber to hold tight. On two of my trucks I pretty much had to just burn the rubber up.

it's gonna' look SO good !!! You're doing it right.

[miker]

I would use something on the rust to encapsulate or kill it. It looks like you may have used bondo directly over some of the rust. If so, it wil eventually lift and blister. It may continue to look fine on the top side (bed liner) but underneath it will continue to eat away at the metal.

Again, I'd either use a chemical product to kill or enapsulate the rust or have those area sand-blasted to remove all traces of the rust before applying the bed liner.

Also, my experience with bed liners like herculiner or durabak is that its not necessary to fill small imperfections like spot welds, etc. The liner will do that for you and probably bonds to the metal better anyway.

Another caution is that most of the thicker type liners want a sanded but somewhat rough surface for a better mechanical bond. I've generally final sanded with 180-220 grit if applying the thicker liners.

If you are using dup-a-color (sp?) then you will need to have a very good and smooth prepped surface because it won't hide much if any imperfections underneath it.

[1973Guppie]

nice work, BUT I would consider redoing that patch panel work on the pic near the rollbar, do you have access to a welder? if you patched a panel in there and then smoothed it with a minor thickness of bondo I think it would be a cleaner fix....

Noah

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

Pics

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

pics

[fussy_cruiser]

Looks good.



What did you use for the liner?

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

pics. Note I plugged the bolt holes with Golf tees and foam ear plugs.. Worked fantastic!

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

I used Dupli-Color truck bed coating . 1 gallon was $46.00. I used 1 1/2 gallons

[Cuerno Largo]

Looks good.

What liner did you use? Where did you get the gun to spray with? Great tip to use golf tees and ear plugs. I am writing that down for when I spray mine.

Sorry, just now see you beat my question with your answer.

[miker]

Looks good. Let us know how it holds up.

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

I got the Schutz gun at an auto body supply place for 20.00. The jug is a Gatorade bottle. I ran 45 psi to shoot it. I had to thin the coating slightly with acetone so it wouldn't glob and spray chunks. I will let it dry 1 more day before I put the stuff back in it.

[metalonmetal]

dude that looks great, i was looking at some duplicolor kits, not a bad price, keep us updated on the quality and if you have any problems.

[PScottBx]

Looks great... I have a quick question.... Can you guess about how thick you put this stuff on??? I've seen a few threads w/ folks talking about how thick they thought they "needed" and how many coats. I'm not sure how much that matters unless you really beat on it. You put one coat, correct???

Anyone got their $0.02?

Thanks again... looks great.

Bx

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

I did 2 generous coats. I would guess that it's about .040 thick or so. I may need to put thicker coats down in the bed area if it starts to wear. The majority of the work was stripping down to the metal. Shooting was the easy part.

[niblik]

nice work on the liner.. after reading this i think i will have to put some kind of truck bed liner or rhino or whatever the hell we have in new zealand on the deck of my 40... doin a ground up resto...

does this deck liner crap act as a body deadener/noise reduction agent aswell?

well done on the job....

[Colorado Boy-74-FJ40]

Thanks!
It's hard to tell if the sound has been deadened yet as I am running with the top off. I'm sure this winter when the top goes back on I'll be able to tell.

[Degnol]

I used the same stuff, Duplicolor, and my only regret is not painting over it.
It has held up really well, but looks dusty all the time...because it is. You sure did a helluva lot of nice prep work!

Ed

[honk]

Originally Posted by Degnol

........looks dusty all the time...because it is.
Ed

Visions of Henry Fonda and some of the magnificent work done by WPA photographers during the draught of '35....

[Degnol]

Originally Posted by honk

Visions of Henry Fonda and some of the magnificent work done by WPA photographers during the draught of '35....

Grapes of Wrath?


I do think a top coat of enamel would make it hold less dust and be easier to clean.



Ed