Yotatrail's Build Thread - Mustard Yellow FJ40

[YotaTrail]

Background Info:
Well after looking for a 40 series for a few months, I finally picked one up. It wasn't easy competing with flippers and dealers in Texas. Even with my computer background and countess RSS feeds, alerts, regular expression searches and daily browsing, I almost gave up the search. People asked for either too much money for a rig that required a lot of work or misrepresented the item.

I made sure to take the day off from work and pick up the cruiser before anyone else snatched it up. It's not a show car by any means but overall for a 36 year old car, it's not in bad shape. And I noticed the price of these cruisers kept going higher so the asking price was looking rather good and the longer I waited, the more I would pay down the road.


Drive Home
I decided to drive the FJ40 home. It was a 3 hour journey since I didn't want to drive 80mph on the freeway. She drove very well and straight and I had no issues on the way home other than freezing my butt off after the sun had set. There was a section of the freeway that went through the mountains and with the top off, I didn't think I was going to survive without pneumonia/frostbite.

First Cleanup/Walk-trough
I got my cleaning supplies out and vacuumed the interior, washed her down, and applied a layer of wax. The car started to shine again inside and out. There are minor areas of surface rust on the exterior. No rust under the wheel fenders. Minor surface rust in some areas of frame. Minor surface rust on top of tub.

Forum Help
Here are my plans to fix her up a little broken down by sections. I'm new to 40 series so I will be relying on this helpful community for help and answers to questions. This is a great resource and friendly community.

Restoration/Fix List
***Body***
1) Fix Rear Sill Rust
2) Remove interior items and inspect for rust (neutralize and apply paint/liner)
3) Fix/Paint Exterior areas such as surface rust/dents
***Interior***
1) Recondition Center Console.
2) Replace Steering Wheel Cover
3) Touch up interior knobs
***Exterior***
1) Replace faded light covers


That's all that is needed for now. I will be posting pics in the section below:
Pictures







Here we go ... I'm excited

Question
What FJ40 Vendors do you guys recommend ?
-So far I know about:
1) CCOT
2) Mark's Offroad
3) Specter Offroad

 

[YotaTrail]

Project Step 1: Rear Sill Fix
This is the worst area of the car and would like to fix it right away. I searched around a bit and noticed CCOT sells replacement sills. I also noticed a member Awl_TEQ also sells parts.

Questions
1) Which would you guys recommend ?
2) I've never worked on car body panels before, is there a reputable shop who can do the work with the
new parts ?

Luckily I live close to both Specter offroad in Chatsworth CA and marks offroad in Burbank CA so I can also get parts from there.

 

[Yellow Jacket]

Glad to see this didn't go to a flipper. Good luck with it, will watch your build with interest. I'm hoping to find one very similar in the next few months.

 

[overton]

I had thought that truck looked like a good restoration candidate and I also told Brad, the bloke selling it that he was likely leaving some money on the table but as I look at the photos, I think 10K was a good price! He definitely could have gotten a little more but it's always good to leaving something for the next guy. The rear sill is ugly but it will be great when you replace it. Interior looks very nice! Not sure what's up with all the bonus holes - Jerry cans? Steps? Hope you bring her back to new!

I've been using Real Steel for sheet metal - http://www.realsteelcruiserparts.net/ Try to resist the urge to use bed liner anywhere. It just takes the originality down a notch and is pretty much impossible to reverse.

G.

 

[winnie]

nice … love the OEM wheels and hubcap look … enjoy …

 

[overton]

If you want to take a peek at photos of what that truck could look like with a liberal application of cash, check this album out.

http://LCN.fototime.com/Sold 1978 Mustard FJ40

G

 

[winnie]

sweet … love the colour … the "liberal" amount of money is always the stopper for many of us …

 

[cbmontgo]

Subscribed. By the way, that ain't rust compared to most 40s. Beautiful rig.

 

[YotaTrail]

Thanks guys! I think I would like to limit my budget to 5k and see where that takes me fixing her up.
Overton, that example was beautiful and thanks for the metal link.

Yellow jacket, I will keep an eye out for you since I already made it a habit of searching on a daily basis. Today I will try to visit Specter and Marks and see if they can recommend an fj body specialist in Southern California To fix the rear sill. I have an 18 month old and wife which gives me limited time to take on big item tasks.

 

[justbecause]

I would do the least I could to fix the rust, and keep it as original as possible

patches/fixes add character to patina.

 

[SSCR]

Also plus 1 for Real Steel! Nice rig! I bought a 77 with little less sill damage a year and half ago for around 5k with the intention to putting 5k or so more into the restoration.... 20k later and I'm getting close. These trucks had rust between the sheet metal from the factory so I opted to replace most of the sheet metal to address that and stop any further spread of the four letter word. Take a look at the thread "bumps on my rear quarters" for some great info and fantastic fab work. Good luck and once again very, very nice 40.

 

[sgdisco2]

I wanted this rig so bad. However I am very glad it fell into good hands, looks like you will enjoy her. Great buy- sweet rig.

 

[TCSTARK]

Rear Sill: Awl_TEQ's rear sill is a piece of artwork. That is what I chose for my rear sill replacement and I would highly recommend his work to anyone provided that he is still producing them. Real Steel is another good option and their metal work is also high quality.

Vendors: Cruiser Corpes in OK has a wide variety of parts at decent prices and they do not overcharge for shipping.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

replied to your email

 

[DTSkyCop]

Incredible find here... Great looking cruiser. I too am new to the community and am reading what everyone is doing to their cruisers and trying to figure out what I need / want to do to mine. Right not I am enjoying it and having fun. You should have grabbed a couple of picks how you found it and how it sits now. You cleaned it up nicely compared to how you described it. Good lookin rig for sure... Congrats!!

 

[YotaTrail]

thanks guys.

 

[phillyFJ40]

My favorite color 40. Good luck!

 

[upperblack]

Any updates?

 

[carreta]

Do you have pics of the engine?

 

[YotaTrail]

no updates yet. Trying to find a fabricator to install the rear sill piece. I will post pics of the engine. I underestimated the amount of time you need for these projects.