Thread - Finishing the 40! (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Nov 20, 2020
Threads
13
Messages
87
Location
Austin, Texas
My search for a 40 started about 10 years ago when I was still in college and didn't have much of a budget. My dad had one in the 80s before I was born and I always had a fascination. I had been close to purchasing a solid runner a few times, but it was always either not the right timing or someone else had already claimed it.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, with my budget thankfully more flexible than back in college, and a 72 came up for sale here on mud. A lot of great work has been done - engine rebuild, everything stripped down and prepped for paint, a ton of rust repair and replacement. It's far from being a "survivor", but it's well on it's way to becoming a great looking 40. I wasn't looking for a project, but I'm so excited to get to make it mine!

I plan on having help finishing. Even though I have a friend that knows what he's doing and wants to help, I know my own skill level (or lack thereof), shortage of free time, and general impatience means that taking it to a professional is the only sane thing to do. Fortunately, a lot of the hard work has been done already!

Excited to be a part of this awesome community!

**Pictures on this first post are a few of the photos shared with me by the PO and the PPO (who did all the work).

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The truck came with the original rear jump seats and two bucket seats out of a 74. I'm picking up front bench seats this weekend, and plan on trying to restore all the seats myself - more to come on that later!

In the meantime, I decided I needed a small project to get me going so I started cleaning up the seatbelts. I figured these were both used for the jump seats, but one of the two belts still had the tag on it (with a date that matches the truck) which says "front". Does that mean it was used for the front bench seats?

I removed the webbing and cleaned up the buckles, then primed the covers. I'll try painting the covers tomorrow or this weekend and post the results. Anyone know the best place to get these rewebbed? Any experience sending them to ssnake-oyl?

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The truck came with the original rear jump seats and two bucket seats out of a 74. I'm picking up front bench seats this weekend, and plan on trying to restore all the seats myself - more to come on that later!

In the meantime, I decided I needed a small project to get me going so I started cleaning up the seatbelts. I figured these were both used for the jump seats, but one of the two belts still had the tag on it (with a date that matches the truck) which says "front". Does that mean it was used for the front bench seats?

I removed the webbing and cleaned up the buckles, then primed the covers. I'll try painting the covers tomorrow or this weekend and post the results. Anyone know the best place to get these rewebbed? Any experience sending them to ssnake-oyl?

Nice work on the chrome polishing! Can you share your technique?
 
Nice work on the chrome polishing! Can you share your technique?

Honestly, it wasn’t much technique! I took everything apart and soaked in evapo-rust for a few hours, then used some sand paper on any rust that hadn’t already disappeared. I gave all the internals a quick spray with some fluid film before putting them back together. The chrome pretty much returned to life on its own!

I’m excited to spray the covers and see what it looks like put together.

I plan on using these for the rear jump seats. What do people use for front bench seats? I don’t have any additional original belts. I could find some online, but even though I’m trying to keep everything close to original, I also want to think about safety. I won’t have a roll cage to attach anything to, so I suppose that makes it a bit more difficult?
 
on the topic of chrome, are all the body parts in pic #3 chromed?

No, I think just taken down to bare metal. I have all those pieces primed for paint and nicely crated up - all work that the previous, previous owner did.
 
Question on the dash pad... does it install like this:

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Or like this:

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Dash pad: second pic. That’s how I did mine anyway.
 
Is this you? My daughter took a pick of your cruiser last week as she was driving by in her 93 fj80.

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Yep guilty as charged. Probably at the Ace Hardware buying spray paint or metric bolts! I saw her 80 drive by slow, I thought it must be a Toyota enthusiast. Small world.
Good to know my reverse light works.
 
The truck came with the original rear jump seats and two bucket seats out of a 74. I'm picking up front bench seats this weekend, and plan on trying to restore all the seats myself - more to come on that later!


Does this mean you have bucket seats you don't need?

I have a set of bench seats from my 69 that have covers from Spector (with a little damage). If your interested in a trade let me know, I'm in Oakland.

Nice rig looks really solid!

 
Does this mean you have bucket seats you don't need?

I have a set of bench seats from my 69 that have covers from Spector (with a little damage). If your interested in a trade let me know, I'm in Oakland.

Nice rig looks really solid!

Would have definitely jumped on this a while back, but have already sold the buckets and picked up new bench seats. Hope to see you around sometime!
 

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