Sunshine - 1971 FJ40 Build (2 Viewers)

[Milkshake]

Hello,

I figured it's time to start documenting my build of a 1971 FJ40 Landcruiser. I sort of happened into ownership of this back in the winter of 2021. A family friend had mentioned that they were considering selling their FJ40, and I expressed interest. She mainly wanted to see it get back on the road, but it had sat for at least 15 years, and she didn't have the time to fix it up. I was out of state at the time, so my father went to see it. Here she was, sitting next to a garage.
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipO9cw1ckk2dRSegVUBXK6FNEvVnxll5DzGepSSX
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipO9cw1ckk2dRSegVUBXK6FNEvVnxll5DzGepSSX

Though fairly beat up, many of the pieces were still their. The running condition of the motor was unknown. The interior was pretty rotted away du to being outside in Colorado for many year, and the paint was obviously not original.

As far as I could tell, all of the running gear was present minus the driveshafts. Most of the important bits seemed to be in the engine bay, and overall, the body was fairly rust free considering, except for the rear of the tub by the aft doors.

We ended up working out a purchase price of $1000, and I now had a project car that I would have to convince my wife to keep. My father was kind enough to help work the logistics of moving it to his garage (a few miles away), and I began to investigate what kind of work would be needed to get this thing going.

 

[coinoperated40]

I have seen worst and I have seen better. A few more picture and I will tell you which way I’ll fall. The price is a good starting place.

 

[B y r o n]

It took me awhile to remember where the seats came from; Subaru Brat. They are facing the wrong direction though.

 

[rainingagain]

Your photo links 404.

With some elbow grease, I bet you could get most of that yellow off and go back to capri blue...

 

[Milkshake]

My father brought the FJ40 back to his house. Up to this point, I hadn't actually seen the vehicle in person yet. This was all based upon pictures as I was out of state (military). My father cleaned up the FJ40 a bit, and started digging into the engine to see if it still fired. A uniquely interesting farmer fix was for the blower motor.

The Meter showed around 67K miles, and despite the condition of the vehicle, I would say that that seems to be the first trip around the odometer. As evidenced by some of the body damage and repairs (farmer grade), the FJ40 had lived a very hard life. As a fan of Vice Grip Garage, I looked at some of the things Derek considers when judging the vehicles. The rust was not too bad on the vehicle, and she still had a variety of original parts (shocks, voltage regulator, headlights, etc) Additionally, the gas, brake, and clutch pedals were not worn. This supported my theory that the FJ40 was run hard until something broke, then parked to die.

 

[Milkshake]

Once back at my father's house, he started going over various aspects of the Fj40 to begin building a plan of attack. I didn't have a huge amount of money to pour into the project, so my goal was to simply get the thing running. From there, I could incrementally improve the FJ40 over time. As a guy in my late 20's with a growing family, I had seen far too many examples of frame off-restorations that fell victim to the changing priorities of life. If I could enjoy this FJ40 early on, and then keep it mostly assembled as I cleaned it up, then I figured I would be more inclined to keep working on it.

My dad replaced the master cylinder and brake lines, and wheel cylinders, as well as turning the drums. This got the brakes working, albeit not adjusted. Next, he dove into the engine, quickly finding out that the original F block was the piece that forced this Fj40 out to pasture. The oil pan still had oil, but it was filled with metal. Upon pulling the pan, he found pieces of at least 3, maybe 3 cylinders. This engine had gone out with a bang!

This meant that I would either have to conduct a costly rebuild, or find a different engine. Though a V8 swap was enticing, I loved the torque and tractor-like power of an inline 6. I had a 2003 Jeep Wrangler with a 4.0 mated to 5 speed manual at the time, which is still one of my favorite powertrains I have ever owned. That sent me on a search for a 2F engine.

I found a candidate at a junkyard in Denver, it was a 2F out of a 1984 Fj40 that had been in a rear end collision. The Fj60 had about 200K miles, and was being sold as an engine, 4speed manual, and transfer case combo.

I was able to get the whole assembly for about $2200, and figured I'd run the engine until it needed rebuilding. My father pulled the old F block, and sold the engine, transmission, and transfer case to a local guy trying to keep his own F block alive. Once, home, he stripped all the emissions equipment off the 2F, and replaced the pan and valve cover gaskets, cleaning the engine up as much as he could. He also stripped the front end of the Fj40 to prep the engine swap.

 

[Milkshake]

At the time, the Christmas holiday was coming up. My wife and I were planning to spend two weeks in Colorado over the holiday on leave, and she graciously allowed me to spend the first week in a wrench-fest to try and get the engine swapped in and the Fj40 running. My father was also running short of garage space, so the plan was to move the FJ40 into a storage container in the mountains until the next time I came home. I had been stockpiling parts ahead of our trip, including seats (Pro-car aftermarket), a new gas tank (old one was rusted and had a pinhole leak), cooling system, and a weber carburetor ( I know OEM is good, but I didn't learn that until later).

Once I arrived, the week flew by!
The 2F assembly fit in the Fj40 remarkably well.

We had a metal shop in Denver bend a piece of Steel to work as the transmission crossmember, and utilized part of the Fj60 crossmember to bolt to the transmission. All in all, we had the engine in place over the course of a day. The next day I worked on the cooling system, with no major issues, and then started working on the wiring. Admittedly, wiring initially was very hasty and sloppy, again, just enough to run the ignition system and hear this engine in person.

Along the way, I also had to patch the floorboard under the fuel tank. I had recently bought a welder, and I had taken a class in college, so I figured I would practice the art and science of welding with this Fj40. the body can't get too much worse anyway, and I would rather learn to build and improve this myself than pay for external work at this point. This is exactly what i wanted my FJ40 ownership experience to be!

 

[Milkshake]

It took a few attempts to get the engine started once all was said and done (I accidently set my timing 180 out and got a good fireball out the carb once). Once that engine roared to life, exhaust blowing straight out of the manifold (It had no exhaust when I bought it), the FJ40 had truly received a new lease on life. We filled up the cooling system, and took a few trips around the block (much to the dismay of the neighbors). The exhaust was too loud to hear much on the FJ40, but the steering wasn't loose, it rode about as expected for having leaf springs and 50 year old shocks, and the brakes were marginal, at best stopping after 2 or so pumps on the pedal (not adjusted yet).

Unfortunately, the week was over, and I had to head back to work. So we took the Fj40 up to the mountains to wait for future improvements.

I tuck it away in a storage container, and put the battery on a Solar maintainer to keep the charge up for the next time I would start it.

 

[Milkshake]

 

[Milkshake]

Fast forward to the spring of 2023, not too much had happened to the FJ40. I had been doing a ton of research, forum reading, and part-accumulation. At this point, I had orders to move from Hawaii to California, which finally afforded my the chance to bring the FJ40 with me. We went up to the mountains to see how the FJ40 had faired. I was pleasantly surprised when she started up after a few accelerator pumps!

We brought it back to Denver, and worked on a few things, such as changing the diff, transmission, and transfer case fluids. Once it was time to leave, we loaded the FJ40 on a U-haul and headed west!

When we got to California, I ran into a problem unloading my trailer. The FJ40 would not start! As it turns out, I had run out of gas. I guess driving around the neighborhood and all around the mountains in Colorado had burned the 5 gallons I put in almost 12 months prior! A bit of clever trailer positioning combined with gravity got me into the garage. I was pleasantly surprised that I could still fit the truck in the garage also!

 

[Milkshake]

I had accumulated a pair of mismatched doors.

And hardtop, which I temporarily installed to save garage space while I continued improving my FJ40. I go the brakes adjusted better, timed and tuned the engine and carb.

 

[Milkshake]

Over the next few months, I worked to clean up a few of the items I had rushed while getting the Fj40 running. First up was the wiring. The original wiring was burnt in three places, and had been chopped and spliced throughout with trailer wiring kits. I elected to get a painless wiring harness to replace the original. It took while, but I was able to successfully finish all major circuits minus the heater, windshield wipers, and dome light. I'll finish those circuits as I piece the rest of the FJ40 back together.

Additionally, I welded in an exhaust system with a Flowmaster 50 series muffler. It gives the FJ40 a good deep exhaust tone while also ensuring I don't disturb my neighbors.

Now, with working headlights, tail lights, blinkers, and a working exhaust, I could work towards my next goal for the FJ40... a title and registration.

 

[Milkshake]

There were a few obstacles to overcome regarding proof of ownership. First, I had bought the FJ40 with a bill of sale, no title, from the previous owner. She in turn had done the same, and the guy she bought it from couldn't remember when he bought it, sometime in the 90's as a non-running project I later found out via Facebook.

I had the vin, which matched on both the body and frame of the FJ40. A few VIN history searches yielded no records, so I was pretty sure that the FJ40 hadn't been registered since before the age of digital records.

The internet can be a scary place, and I had read horror stories about the California DMV regarding old vehicles, and sketchy vehicles, of which I had an example of both. I looked at the Vermont loophole(right as it closed), and a Montana registration would cost me $$.

This led me to try my luck at the DMV and see what the process would be. As it turns out, I found luck in a few different places. First, The Cali DMV didn't seem phased by my requests, and gave me all the paperwork. 15 minutes at the counter had led me to a temporary registration with the state. All I had to do to finish was:

1. Get a bond to apply for a bonded title
2. Get the VIN verified by a DMV employee (no state ref referral)
3. Obtain proof that Colorado had no record of the vehicle.

1. A bonded title was simple enough. I purchased a bond for the NADA low value of a 1971 FJ40, and mine is definitely very rough.

3. The Colorado DMV was a bit of a challenge initially, as I called the DMV branch of a larger county, who promptly declined to give me any information because they had no procedure to document a VIN search. I was expecting this response. Next, I called a smaller county DMV, and they were extremely helpful, even sending me a letter with DMV letterhead stating that they had no record of the FJ40.

2. The VIN check would be a culmination of sorts. I had driven the FJ40 short distance at this point, but never more than about half a mile away from the garage. The DMV wasn't far (about 2.5 miles away), but it included stoplights, left turns, and interaction with California drivers. Additionally, I was having some minor issues with the engine that would lead to it heating up in traffic and dieseling after a hot shutdown (I've solved this problem, which I'll detail later).

I successfully made it to the DMV, and the FJ40 was running great. I pulled up the VIN check window, rang the bell and popped the hood. The DMV employee came out and was very nice. Immediately I ran into problems. First, the VIN wasn't standard length. This was due to it being from 1971, but again, the DMV didn't have a procedure for this. Next, the VIN wasn't in the "expected" places, namely visible trough the windshield. I had the plate on the driver door frame, the VIN on the emissions label in the engine bay, and on the passenger side frame.

Just as I was about to be invalidated on the VIN, the reputation of the venerable FJ40 saved me! Another employee came out, explaining that her father had a Capri blue FJ40 (she saw the paint under the hood). She then informed my verifier that the VIN locations I was referencing were acceptable.

After all that, I was able to walk out of the DMV with a bonded title and registration for about $250. I was initially worried about the bonded title, but in California the bond expires after 3 years, becoming a normal clean title.

 

[Milkshake]

The dieseling issue was solved by an obscure post I found about weber carburetors. I thought that I ad mine adjusted well, but it had always struggled with tuning IAW the manual. I found that my throttle plate were misadjusted, leaving them slight open all the time. This meant that my idle circuit was never fully active, and I had been trying to tune idle with additional air/fuel present. As a result, I had retarded the timing to fix my idle speed, which has led to increasing EGTs, igniting the rich mixture and causing overheating a dieseling. Properly adjusting the throttle plate allowed me to set 13 degrees advance, and properly adjust the idle circuit. Now, I have no dieseling, and much more reasonable temps.

 

[Milkshake]

That brings me to the current time. My next projects will be finishing a refresh of the cooling system to include a new water pump (making noise), thermostat, and radiator shroud (still runs a bit hot in traffic), fixing rust along the rear sill (first sheet metal welding, we'll see how it goes), heater system rehab (bought a used blower motor to replace the wood, and will clean out my heater core), and possibly FJ60 front disc conversion (if I find parts for the right price).

 

[South Texas 97]

Nice writeup and journey to resurrecting a good FJ40. The DMV discussion was interesting - I had a few battles in TX with them on another vehicle, it seems when you work with the folks, and ask interesting questions, they come through. Well done!

 

[Milkshake]

Nice writeup and journey to resurrecting a good FJ40. The DMV discussion was interesting - I had a few battles in TX with them on another vehicle, it seems when you work with the folks, and ask interesting questions, they come through. Well done!

I'm just fortunate to get old steel back on the road!

 

[batthewmrown]

It probably isn't many people's cup of tea, but I absolutely love the red/yellow/blue theme going on here. At first, I'd have wanted the Capri blue back but now, I don't know. Also, your dad is an absolute legend. Good luck with the project!

 

[RevISK]

Sub’d

Cool story and write up.
Looking forward to more.

Also, thank you for your service

 

[Milkshake]

Got around to a few different projects related to cooling this week. All of my replacement parts showed up in the mail, so I went ahead and drained the radiator and engine block of all coolant. The coolant still looked pretty good, having been only lightly used for the last 2 years. This indicated that the block likely had no issues with the cooling passages. Once drained, I flushed the system for about 30 minutes with water to ensure everything was clean and clear. I let it drain overnight in the garage, and then tore into the front of the engine the next day.

First up was the Thermostat. The bolts broke loose fairly easily, and once I opened it up, I could see that the thermostat had lived a hard life.

Next, I removed the old water pump. This was similarly crusty, an the shaft had significant play and a grinding noise when spinning. Safe to say it likely wasn't pumping very effectively anymore. I pulled off a few of the hoses that I hadn't replaced during the engine swap, and got to cleaning the block surfaces. It took about 30 minutes with a razor blade and steel wool, but now the surfaces look great, shouldn't have any problem resealing the pieces. I'll post pictures of the pump and surfaces tomorrow.