Well I’ve decided to start a build thread. I’m hoping this will serve as a way to keep myself motivated and making steady progress on our FJ, but we’ll see how it goes. Don’t be hanging on the edge of your seats waiting for the next installment – progress will be slow (I’m talking years here people. EDIT: It's coming along faster than I had anticipated and could have hoped for! Almost certainly be done with the frame-off by 2017. Then the adventures begin!). But I’ve been inspired by some of the amazing builds and stories on IH8MUD (IelandEOD and Sea Knight in particular) to get my story written down and documented with photographs. It may not be as exciting or well-written, but at a minimum, it could serve as a good memoir to look back on down the road.
First, a bit of background. As of writing (December 2015), I’m in college. A few years ago, when I was still in high school, my dad and I started looking for a project car to work on together. He has always been pretty handy with cars, and I have a strong passion for cars and was interested in learning to work on them. After perusing eBay for a few weeks, we stumbled upon a 1976 FJ40. We had kind of been looking for a more traditional classic; my dad’s first car was a 68’ Camaro whose engine he rebuilt, and that was the idea we both had in our heads. But the Land Cruiser attracted us. We knew nothing about them at this point, but a few quick Google searches proved they had quite the following and could be worth a lot restored. So we went for it.
This ’76 was a bit rough. It was missing: the hardtop, jump seats, roll bar, entire brake system, clutch hydraulics, doors, drive shafts, and more. You get the idea. It had recently, however, gone through the conversion to a Chevy V8, and had a running small-block 327 under the hood. It had also been repainted in a non-original blue, and looked decent in the pictures. Any first project car is going to have quite the learning curve, and this first FJ was no exception. I don’t want to go into the details of that build on this thread, but essentially we completed the project and got it back on the road. Only took 2 years too! (haha) Throughout the course of that project, we agreed that we wanted to do another FJ, except the second one would be all original. Hardtop, straight-6, the whole nine yards. So when we spotted an all original 1973 FJ40 on eBay with minimal rust, we brought that home too. The 1976 has been sold, and now all our focus is on the ’73. Let the build thread commence!
Status of the Cruiser when we got it: all original, sold to us by third owner, had been a farm vehicle for most of its life in Idaho. Paint was original, and in fine condition but faded. Rust was in fact minimal as described, and the restoration will hopefully require very little rust repair to the tub (and none to the frame). Engine ran and it drove pretty well. Electrical system and lights were unreliable. But the potential was there, and we were ready for the challenge.
We’ve planned to complete the project in three phases. Phase 1 is to continue doing small improvements to make the truck a better daily driver. Phase 2 is to do the complete frame-off restoration: repainting, restoring and replacing as we go. Finally, phase 3 will be to add a few improvements to the usability of the 40 as an off road vehicle, such as a roof rack and a light bar. Unlike most flashy Wranglers that have never seen a spot of mud, we actually have a use for an invincible off road vehicle like the FJ40 with a light bar on it, which I will probably get to at some point in the future on this thread.
I’ll conclude this first post with the things we have done so far. We have recovered the seats with SOR’s great upholstery kit, mostly fixed an issue with the electrical system (clean your fuse box and contacts!), repainted a few parts like the rear bumpers in CCOT’s pewter (which is a very close but not perfect match to the original Toyota pewter), and recovered the dashboard with a plastic cover sold by SOR. All these changes and more have made the vehicle a more comfortable and better looking truck, and given us a few little projects to work on while we find time to begin the phase 2 restoration.
I will include pictures in a follow up post. And in reference to the title, I have grand plans for adventures to be had in this FJ, inspired by some of the legends here on Mud (Rustbucket, Hecrod, etc). More on that in the future. Thanks for reading, and welcome along for the ride.
First, a bit of background. As of writing (December 2015), I’m in college. A few years ago, when I was still in high school, my dad and I started looking for a project car to work on together. He has always been pretty handy with cars, and I have a strong passion for cars and was interested in learning to work on them. After perusing eBay for a few weeks, we stumbled upon a 1976 FJ40. We had kind of been looking for a more traditional classic; my dad’s first car was a 68’ Camaro whose engine he rebuilt, and that was the idea we both had in our heads. But the Land Cruiser attracted us. We knew nothing about them at this point, but a few quick Google searches proved they had quite the following and could be worth a lot restored. So we went for it.
This ’76 was a bit rough. It was missing: the hardtop, jump seats, roll bar, entire brake system, clutch hydraulics, doors, drive shafts, and more. You get the idea. It had recently, however, gone through the conversion to a Chevy V8, and had a running small-block 327 under the hood. It had also been repainted in a non-original blue, and looked decent in the pictures. Any first project car is going to have quite the learning curve, and this first FJ was no exception. I don’t want to go into the details of that build on this thread, but essentially we completed the project and got it back on the road. Only took 2 years too! (haha) Throughout the course of that project, we agreed that we wanted to do another FJ, except the second one would be all original. Hardtop, straight-6, the whole nine yards. So when we spotted an all original 1973 FJ40 on eBay with minimal rust, we brought that home too. The 1976 has been sold, and now all our focus is on the ’73. Let the build thread commence!
Status of the Cruiser when we got it: all original, sold to us by third owner, had been a farm vehicle for most of its life in Idaho. Paint was original, and in fine condition but faded. Rust was in fact minimal as described, and the restoration will hopefully require very little rust repair to the tub (and none to the frame). Engine ran and it drove pretty well. Electrical system and lights were unreliable. But the potential was there, and we were ready for the challenge.
We’ve planned to complete the project in three phases. Phase 1 is to continue doing small improvements to make the truck a better daily driver. Phase 2 is to do the complete frame-off restoration: repainting, restoring and replacing as we go. Finally, phase 3 will be to add a few improvements to the usability of the 40 as an off road vehicle, such as a roof rack and a light bar. Unlike most flashy Wranglers that have never seen a spot of mud, we actually have a use for an invincible off road vehicle like the FJ40 with a light bar on it, which I will probably get to at some point in the future on this thread.
I’ll conclude this first post with the things we have done so far. We have recovered the seats with SOR’s great upholstery kit, mostly fixed an issue with the electrical system (clean your fuse box and contacts!), repainted a few parts like the rear bumpers in CCOT’s pewter (which is a very close but not perfect match to the original Toyota pewter), and recovered the dashboard with a plastic cover sold by SOR. All these changes and more have made the vehicle a more comfortable and better looking truck, and given us a few little projects to work on while we find time to begin the phase 2 restoration.
I will include pictures in a follow up post. And in reference to the title, I have grand plans for adventures to be had in this FJ, inspired by some of the legends here on Mud (Rustbucket, Hecrod, etc). More on that in the future. Thanks for reading, and welcome along for the ride.
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