PROJECT FJ40 - a history

[FJ40LVR]

I have been meaning to do this for awhile.... Create a timeline of the project on MUD so I can chronical the build of my 76 40. I still have plenty of pics that were taken on old fashion "film" that will need to be scanned in later, but I though I would share the steps in evolution from a rust bucket, to today.
First, the "before" pictures......

[FJ40LVR]

Old ----------------------------------------------New

[FJ40LVR]

One classic mistake I made when I purchased her was not checking under the diamond plate... A mistake I have revisited in my head a dozen times... There was not much left but the remnants of metal on the door sils, the rear tub / sill and the main floor under the drivers feet. (Covered in fiberglass)

[yldbill]

Dude, I guess you are blowin' me off, I P.M.ed you about sycamore creek and Igot no response. I don't want you to think that I will let this go unnoticed,you've never felt the rathof a"WILD CHESTNUTT" it 's not something that mortal men can withstand.

[FJ40LVR]

Originally Posted by yldbill

Dude, I guess you are blowin' me off, I P.M.ed you about sycamore creek and Igot no response. I don't want you to think that I will let this go unnoticed,you've never felt the rathof a"WILD CHESTNUTT" it 's not something that mortal men can withstand.

Just rechecked my PM's.......nothing. Looks like I will have to suffer the wrath!

[Relix]

Got any pics of the SOA

[FJ40LVR]

Originally Posted by Relix

Got any pics of the SOA

Absolutely, I am compressing / scanning old pics from back in the early days of restoration today, and will start posting them up here in chronological order then-now. These were taken after steering was completed, leafs back on, frame front completely boxed in, and winch assembly tacked into place.
Did you need some rear shots as well Relix?

[FJ40LVR]

Originally Posted by Relix

Got any pics of the SOA

RELIX - Here is couple more, with one of the rear. Also pictured are the leaf spring inspectors that had to approve the GVW load rate prior to my installation.

[FJ40LVR]

Originally Posted by FJ40LVR

One classic mistake I made when I purchased her was not checking under the diamond plate... A mistake I have revisited in my head a dozen times... There was not much left but the remnants of metal on the door sils, the rear tub / sill and the main floor under the drivers feet. (Covered in fiberglass)

At first, being gung ho on keeping the body / frame together i spent several months with the old body cutting out panels, replacing floor ribs, and welding new sheeting onto the gutted body tub.
it wasn't untill I went to jack up the body tub from the fram when I realized that ALL of the body mounts on the rear tub were powder, and beyond going through the trouble cutting off, bracing around the rust, remounting etc.
(pics coming soon of the tub rebuild attempt. (scanner) )


This is about the point where I hit up Tim Hill in Marana for a donor body, he just happened to have a 78 is perfect condition. (=little rust)
I did a little body work to the rear, primed up some surface rust, and placed the 78 donor on the 76 frame. Which was a pretty straight forward process. While we did this I took the opportunity to brace the rear of the frame, and make upper shocks mounts into the brace / new crossmember.

[FJ40LVR]

[quote=FJ40LVR;1520181]At first, being gung ho on keeping the body / frame together i spent several months with the old body cutting out panels, replacing floor ribs, and welding new sheeting onto the gutted body tub.
it wasn't untill I went to jack up the body tub from the fram when I realized that ALL of the body mounts on the rear tub were powder, and beyond going through the trouble cutting off, bracing around the rust, remounting etc.
(pics coming soon of the tub rebuild attempt. (scanner) )

Here is a few of the tub rebuild attempt......

[FJ40LVR]

Last One...

[FJ40LVR]

After the new body was set on the frame, I slid 78 axles under it, rebuilt the front knuckles, dropped in a set of Aussie Lockers, F & R and had FST (Fabrication Suspension Technologies) in Phoenix wrap the rebuilt axles with repacked / mixed original / new leafs apporptiate to the ride height. No pictures of this process besides what I posted for RELIX below. We ended up moving the front axle forward 1 1/2", and remounting the spring perches on the newly boxed front end / winch assemble mount.

[FJ40LVR]

The next big project has been the cage and bumpers, Which FST also handled for me, Designing a cage that had good looks as well as functionality was a challenge, but I believe it turned out pretty good.

[FJ40LVR]

Complete Cage

[FJ40LVR]

After the bumpers / winch assembly was decided upon, I put a WARN 9500 up front, and durabacked the sliders, bumbers / winch assembly. The cage will follow with duraback, but has not ben done to this point.

[FJ40LVR]

I might bet getting a little out of order here, but this brings me to the joy of having absolutley nothing left of the brake system, and starting over from nothing.
(no booster, master cylinder, working calipers, drums in rear, no lines etc.)

I decided to replace the front calipers with OE, turned the rotors, and packed in new pads. The rear was a little different. Once again I used Tim Hill as a reference, and got a complete new DBA rear disk conversion kit to update the 78 rears to disk as well.

[FJ40LVR]

Here is the process of coverting drums to disks: Remove drum, remove drum mounts

[FJ40LVR]

second set, remove old brake lines, take off all drum pads, etc.

[FJ40LVR]

Instead of pulling the axles, I decided to remove the old drum backing plate instead, which shortens the install time by about a hour and a half. Removing the backing plate with a cutting torch allows you to immediately acces the mounting plate. Unless you need the old drum backing plate for some reason, this is definately the easier way of converting the rear axle.

[FJ40LVR]

Replaced some wheel studs, cleaned up the axle assembly and slide on the new caliper mounts.