Hi everyone!
I have a 1974 FJ40 that I've been working on remaking a hard top for. I bought the 40 off a owner on here search "project red dawn" that saved it from the junk yard, prepped it to be a topless beach rig, then sold it. He did a lot of sheet metal work, freshened accessories, lot of new bolts and hardware, wheel tires, seat covers, paint, etc., He added a Holley sniper and surge tank. Seller threw in a pretty rough hardtop with fairly rusty sides, a cool soft top, and we bought a set of hard doors in so-so shape.
I bought the 40, and so far I've done a nut and bolt check, new full exhaust, fluids, ran a secondary modern fuse panel, oil pressure gauge, 12 and 5V for phones. Re-did and tuned the sniper & surge setup and lines and filters, fixed intake and exhaust mounting and leaks, fixed PCV and charcoal setup. Balanced driveshafts, new transfercase output housing, u-joints, etc.. basically I made it reliable and safe. I also added the soft top and soft doors.
The last year I bought hard top sides in pretty decent shape for $1400. I've now fixed all the minor rust and extracted all the broken bolts.
Plan is to take my newly fixed hardtop sides and my old fiberglass top, make a custom heavy duty gutter system that I can hinge on the front. thus making a Westfalia tilt top camper setup. I plan on using 1/8 inch steel for the gutter and foam on the bottom of gutter and top of sides to make a seal. (in reality the car never sees rain and I'd be a fair weather camper in it, we have a toyhauler for real camping). If you have any suggestions on the gutter system let me know. I'm ordering the steel tomorrow.
I can weld and paint so this should be doable. I painted a lot of the little red car in the image below and body worked and re-painted some of the 40.
my proposed heavy duty gutter, profile view. replacing rivets with bolts and rivnuts.
fixing rusty corners
replaced this entire corner and post
Some of the fleet. '14 Fiest ST (6 spd Turbo), '92 Cappuccino (5 spd, 3cyl, Turbo), '74 FJ40
I have a 1974 FJ40 that I've been working on remaking a hard top for. I bought the 40 off a owner on here search "project red dawn" that saved it from the junk yard, prepped it to be a topless beach rig, then sold it. He did a lot of sheet metal work, freshened accessories, lot of new bolts and hardware, wheel tires, seat covers, paint, etc., He added a Holley sniper and surge tank. Seller threw in a pretty rough hardtop with fairly rusty sides, a cool soft top, and we bought a set of hard doors in so-so shape.
I bought the 40, and so far I've done a nut and bolt check, new full exhaust, fluids, ran a secondary modern fuse panel, oil pressure gauge, 12 and 5V for phones. Re-did and tuned the sniper & surge setup and lines and filters, fixed intake and exhaust mounting and leaks, fixed PCV and charcoal setup. Balanced driveshafts, new transfercase output housing, u-joints, etc.. basically I made it reliable and safe. I also added the soft top and soft doors.
The last year I bought hard top sides in pretty decent shape for $1400. I've now fixed all the minor rust and extracted all the broken bolts.
Plan is to take my newly fixed hardtop sides and my old fiberglass top, make a custom heavy duty gutter system that I can hinge on the front. thus making a Westfalia tilt top camper setup. I plan on using 1/8 inch steel for the gutter and foam on the bottom of gutter and top of sides to make a seal. (in reality the car never sees rain and I'd be a fair weather camper in it, we have a toyhauler for real camping). If you have any suggestions on the gutter system let me know. I'm ordering the steel tomorrow.
I can weld and paint so this should be doable. I painted a lot of the little red car in the image below and body worked and re-painted some of the 40.
my proposed heavy duty gutter, profile view. replacing rivets with bolts and rivnuts.
fixing rusty corners
replaced this entire corner and post
Some of the fleet. '14 Fiest ST (6 spd Turbo), '92 Cappuccino (5 spd, 3cyl, Turbo), '74 FJ40
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