1977 FJ40 Rebuild Project - AZ

[Skywagon]

I have been looking for a candidate '76 or newer FJ40 for a while and one came up right under my nose: https://forum.ih8mud.com/vehicles-trailers-sale-wanted/464790-77-fj40-az.html

I went and looked at the truck, assessed all the rust (and what panels needed to be replaced), and made an offer accordingly. I drove it home 5/10/11.

Here I am leaving with it from the shop it was being stored at (Toy Specialists, Mesa, AZ):

It had been running but only to pull it in and out of the shop daily for the last 8 months... no worries of mosquitoes in this area now (it stopped after a few miles and the motor was warm):

Back in my shop:

I will use this thread to document my rebuild/restoration. I am going to strip it down to a bare chassis and rebuild every part from there. I am hoping to have it back on the road in 6-8 months max. There will be some mild modifications including, at this time, a 2.5" OME lift, custom front bumper with winch, custom rock sliders, custom armor underneath, rebuild the engine with high compression pistons/cam, add A/C (this is AZ), and some other debating ideas. The color has already been decided... it will be yellow with a white roof and white grille surround. I am undecided if the interior will go back black or gray.

A friend of mine, Steve, is helping me out with this rebuild and took most of the photos.

 

[Skywagon]

Well, Steve and I started early Saturday morning (5/14/11) with the goal of just disassembly and assessment of what is there/left.

We started by dismantling the roof/rear doors/tire carrier.

Stop, hammer time:

I knew most of what we found to be bad short of a couple areas. I had already planned on replacing the rear bib, quarter panels, and outer rockers. I now added the rear fender well tops (where the seats/roll bar mounts in the rear bed) and the drivers floorboard, not that much more steel. And actually replacing the upper fender tops will make doing the spot welds to the quarter panels easier as it will be straight, fresh metal.

Heat and PB blaster were our best friends on this part. Some were just completely stubborn:

Maybe this is why:

After around 7 hours of working, part of that figuring out what we were doing, we had it to this point:

The pile of parts:

Things looked good from this point of view:

The unexpected driver's floorboard after removing the tar like sound deadening and insulation that was over that:

The bulkhead forward of the spot weld point is fine. We will just replace that floorboard section.

The main piece that prompted my price offer on the truck... the basically gone rear bib:

The floorboard forward of the seam line is just fine, no holes, so a replacement bib will take care of that. Replacing the bib, the rear fender well tops, rear door post sections at the bottom, along with the quarters will take care of all the rust in that area.

It is a little more than I expected but I still feel the truck is fully rebuildable at much less than purchasing a replacement tub, especially a new one. Plus we are going to tackle the challenge as we have seen worse trucks rebuilt on this forum and they came out excellent.

This is going to be a fun challenge!

 

[Melloj123]

Very restorable truck. Just time,patience, and a few $$$. The rear piece you are replacing is the sill. The bib is in front. Good luck. Keep progress pictures coming.

 

[Skywagon]

Very restorable truck. Just time,patience, and a few $$$. The rear piece you are replacing is the sill. The bib is in front. Good luck. Keep progress pictures coming.

Thanks, I was thinking one and typed the other. Actually, the front bib is in excellent condition along with the firewall. Pretty much everything forward of the floor pans is in excellent condition.

 

[Skywagon]

Thanks to my friend Steve's help again we made some more progress this past weekend at my shop. We are close to having the body off now with only a couple electrical wires to fish out (the dash and firewall forward are out), the body to chassis bolts to remove, and weld some bar stock across the openings to retain the dimensions. That should happen this coming weekend. What we can see of the chassis now it looks in really good condition and should just need some clean-up, a couple gussets replaced at the rear, and a coat of POR15. The oil seeping out of the drive-train all these years has helped save the chassis.

We started by attacking the front fenders and grill. It's funny they had the foresight to put the grill on a hinge to work on the radiator easily, but it still takes a wrench to loosen the bolts from the grill to the fenders.

Most of the bolts came out easily and we finally got the radiator out, heater motor, brake and clutch master cylinder, and everything else off the firewall. Sure does make changing the oil and spark plugs easy this way.

So then we worked on the interior and got the gas tank out and most of the dash items out.

The pile of removed parts keeps growing.

 

[hawkeyealum]

pretty decent looking truck to start with

 

[jbee]

Teardown looks like. . . fun

I just bought a '77 fj40 project too, but I bought in at the stage you are at currently. I now appreciate the amount of work the tear down is!

 

[DSRTRDR]

I got some rusty doors - just in case you were thinking of doing hard half doors . . .

not expensive at all - PM me

 

[Gruntled]

Wow, that's a good amount of hidden rust in the floor. It's about the only place my FJ doesn't have rust! Looking forward to watching her progress!

 

[kurtnkegger]

HOLY WHA!!! That drag link to center arm is majorly bent. How was the steering on the drive back to the shop??

 

[Skywagon]

HOLY WHA!!! That drag link to center arm is majorly bent. How was the steering on the drive back to the shop??

I will call it interesting... I am converting it to power steering and going away from the push/pull set-up so it is all coming out anyway. As long as you were moving you could get it to turn and once you started turning it would wrap in quickly; it also, as expected, had a considerable dead zone in the middle. The only problem part was stopping for gas on the way home and having to make an Austin Powers multi-point turn to get out of the station. I had to get the truck rolling well to get it to turn otherwise the bent drag arm would just flex more and the center arm would not move. I had to be moving at least 8-10mph for it to turn at all.

I guess this would be a great opportunity to post an update as my friend Steve and I managed to get the body off this past weekend.

We first removed the rest of the wiring harness, some really stuck body mount bolts (had to cut most of them) and pulled the transmission tunnel:

The front floorboard rust is not as bad as it may look, the only holes are in the drivers front corner, the drivers seat mount on the floor, the rear section of the drivers well along that vertical section, and one hole in the gas tank well.

We welded in some square stock to support the tub for the removal and for when we start working on it off the chassis:

Using my engine hoist and 4 ratchet straps we pulled the body off:

And after 3 work days (24 hours of work, 48 man hours) the body is off the chassis:

The frame is in excellent, solid shape and should clean up nicely. Up next will be to remove the drivetrain, axles, and suspension; basically gut the frame down to bare structure. We will wire wheel it to clean metal and I am leaning towards POR15 to re-coat it.

 

[robinhood4x4]

I just bought a '77 fj40 project too, but I bought in at the stage you are at currently. I now appreciate the amount of work the tear down is!

It was more work than I thought it would be. I was thinking we'd have it to this stage by the end of day 2, but then again, we took our time in labeling every wire, bagging almost every nut and bolt, and keeping everything organized.

 

[Cdaniel]

You're off and running! And at this pace you're sure to beat me back.

If you haven't stopped in already, there are plenty of locals to chat up for tips on your project. AZ- Copper State Cruisers

Good group of Cruiser heads. Although the 40 owner ratio is dwindling. We are small but mighty!

 

[Skywagon]

You're off and running! And at this pace you're sure to beat me back.

If you haven't stopped in already, there are plenty of locals to chat up for tips on your project. AZ- Copper State Cruisers

Good group of Cruiser heads. Although the 40 owner ratio is dwindling. We are small but mighty!

I have been meaning to post in that section; this truck was actually listed in there for sale, I bought it from JDuart.

I actually was researching custom bumpers today and came across your thread on your design. I liked it the best of what I have seen so far so I bookmarked it. I may want to see it to take further notes off of. The main thing I like is what you did for rear quarter panel protection by tying it back to the frame underneath. I was discussing your very set-up with my friend Steve today (robinhood4x4) and we are going to do a variation on your design just to add our own touch.

And as far as the pace... we were charging forward to get it apart. What will take the time is rebuilding all the drivetrain components and doing the tub repairs. I plan to put new bearings and seals in the transmission and transfer case along with doing a motor rebuild. I am also going to do a direct port injection set-up (working on a custom idea that I am thinking will work well) with an electronic distributor. As of now I am hoping to have it back on the road in the next 10 months or so; it all depends on how the rebuilding goes.

 

[msahr]

Hey welcome to the sickness! I'm one of the dwindling number of '40 owners on Copper State Cruisers. I was wondering if your screen name had anything to do with airplanes. Yes, apparently... Looks like you're off to a great start. Look forward to seeing your progress.

 

[Cdaniel]

Yep, they always come apart faster than they go together.

No problem borrowing some bumper ideas. Plus you can get the "what I shoulda done info too"

 

[3doghouse]

Nice work and great pace!

I'd recommend sand blasting the frame. If you're taking it all the way down, might as well get those nooks and crannies you can't reach with a wire wheel.

Its way faster too, and shouldn't set you back too much if you want to hire it out.

 

[SHUSH]

Great thread so far......do you by chance like aviation?!! I think all will agree we want a FINAL photo shoot with those awesome looking "skywagons" after you are done.

not sure if I envy your project more or that AWESOME Shop....Good luck!

 

[skidplate]

I'd be so afraid of wrenches flying off of bolts, and hot pieces of metal flying around and damaging that beautiful Cub fabric! What is the biplane? I cant quite see enough of it to I.D. it.You have nice toys! I somehow think you'll do well on the '40 rebuild. Good luck.

 

[Skywagon]

Thanks for the good words guys! We took a break from the truck this weekend to get some other stuff done; and mainly just relax (Steve and I both needed a break). We will probably resume dismantling it next weekend.

The biplane is a 1928 Travelair 2000 that is powered by a Curtiss OX-5; the Cub is a 65hp 1946 model and it is my main flyer.

And yeah, I will plan on doing a photo shoot with all 3 of my yellow toys; the FJ40, my Cub, and my Ducati Monster. Yeah, I like yellow.

As far as sand blasting the frame... I am actually leaning towards soda blasting instead as it is water soluble and the risk of sand getting left in a crevice to draw moisture and cause corrosion goes away. I will make that final decision after we get the rest of the rig dismantled.

The screen name Skywagon actually comes from an airplane my family used to own and I used to fly; a Cessna 185 Skywagon. I have just used that screen name since.