Topnault complete 1978 tub-first impression (2 Viewers)

[Papa Rich]

@brian @peesalot that’s the way mine are as shown (more or less). Looks like an overall length issue body mount-to-body mount. The firewall brace should sit just in front of the body mount/frame step support, looks like it’s resting on it.

@Papa Rich what happens if you set the tub in place with front body mounts sitting on (there will be a gap for the rubber body mount pad) the body mount support? Where do the aft body mounts fall wrt to their frame mount locations.
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In this picture, 2 out of the 4 rear mounts across the bumper/rear frame rail are installed and bolted with the rubber body mount in place. I believe there needs to be a metal “stand off” bracket welded to the tub where your arrows are drawn. The one that is there is flat against the bottom of the tub. Where you drew the ️ I don’t believe it will hit. I just closed up the garage for the day. I’ll check it out in the morning. I did mount a new fender and it’s not even close to mating to the tub, so what you are saying about it needing to move forward may be correct.

 

[middlecalf]

I believe there needs to be a metal “stand off” bracket welded to the tub where your arrows are drawn.

Yup. Tough stuff but keep at it, you’ll get there and then we’ll all be jealous.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

I am watching this with eagerness. I have a 76 FJ40 and I am thinking rather seriously about a Topnault tub as all I really have that is good on my 40 is the bib, aprons, firewall/cowl and transmission tunnel. Everything else is tweaked, rusted or dented pretty severely.

I wonder how much body work this will require to make it 'right' vs other options, like PACOL or CoolCruisers?

On the other hand, for a trail rig this might be just fine?

 

[peesalot]

OK, just went out and looked, brace is correct and front of brace should sit almost flush with front of frame support lowest spot within 3/8 ' ish off frame, the piece they welded on above mount should have been dropped down with a 1" ish gap & mine has a 5/8" ish pad/body mount so that will have to drop down, the sides of the bracket that drops off the brace on mine are longer , on the ones in your pic it does not look like the side will be long enough to let you drop it down the factory amount. trying to load pic?

 

[Papa Rich]

OK, just went out and looked, brace is correct and front of brace should sit almost flush with front of frame support lowest spot within 3/8 ' ish off frame, the piece they welded on above mount should have been dropped down with a 1" ish gap & mine has a 5/8" ish pad/body mount so that will have to drop down, the sides of the bracket that drops off the brace on mine are longer , on the ones in your pic it does not look like the side will be long enough to let you drop it down the factory amount. trying to load pic?

That would be great. What year is yours? Anyone that has pictures of the body mounting positions is greatly appreciated!

 

[peesalot]

70' and I just noticed the overall hiegth of the bracket compared to mine is less,, meaning it does not drop down as far to start with. Cut that standoff thats not a stand off off and build one to fit. I can measure the distance from bottom of pass floor to bottom of standoff so you can get an idea of the right tub hiegth at those mounts.

 

[HJ44]

W@W …
Pride is a lost art . seems as if pride isn’t even secondary anymore after profit .. 8K , I agree with CondeCruiser , they came up short on PRIDE & CRAFTSMANSHIP , no matter how Rich you are Papa .. A definite improvement judging from your cancerous donor of all other parts but
“”DANG”” …. … .. . .

 

[Firemedic831]

That piece of angle or what ever it is that they have tacked on needs to go in the garbage . There is no way to add the top part of the body bushing with it like it is . Cut that piece off and make a piece . I am going to say that the QC from TP is about what i would figure for Grade A Crap .

 

[Racer65]

I would buy their parts and assemble myself after seeing this. The various pieces seem ok but the attention to detail of assembly is , well, not very good at all. Look at the pic Conde circled, WTF, sending that out and wiping sealer over the seams they probably didnt even spot weld is crappy and they tack weld the other panels where there should be full welds along the edges, like where tub /cowl/dash mate.
I appreciate the company bringing the availability to the market and the pieces look good, sell the parts and let others assemble, IMO.
Nothing against Topnault at all, great to see new vendors in the space, they make panels/parts well, they seem to have trouble with quality control when assembling pieces together. IMO due to minor changes over years it is very, very , very hard to offer a prebuilt tub that will be right fo rthe application.

Won't make a difference. By now it should be plenty obvious that most of their parts are way off the mark, with poor workmanship and no quality inspection. Even the smallest pieces have many issues. Topnault isn't at fault. They are the dealer not the manufacturer, and they're doing their best to provide excellent customer service.

It's puzzling why they'd invest in making all these parts and not try to get it right. If it were my factory, I'd fly some of you guys over as consultants for a week or two. Sometimes I wonder if they got their jigs from Columbia. I recall a conversation with Sophia Lee a couple of years ago, who shared that they're friends with Alberto from Troa, which makes horrendous body parts .

 

[V8FJ4078]

The rear crossmember looks more like 79+ and the front mounts looks like it was flipped as others have said.
My father had a coolcruisers tub for 83 and had to add a few brackets from the old tub to the new tub and also change the Tunnel area since 83 was different than previous. Overall was a nice tub, almost everything we have ever bought aftermarket has some things you need to do to them to make them fit right.

 

[peesalot]

Racer, I didnt say I'd buy all their parts. Alot of the stuff is decent and usable, I do agree that detail & dimesions that are easy to check reproduce are left to some assembly guys opinion. For all we know thay are using non us spec samples to priduce us spec parts.

 

[Papa Rich]

Here are some pictures of the body mount locations. I also held up an oem step to show how off the pre drilled holes are. If this is simple thing is off , how many other things will I run into? So disappointed in the fab and body work it’s going to require. I’m wondering if they have ever even set one of these on a frame. The pictures look great and the whole body kits are shown bolted together but never on a frame. The mounting hole for the body through the rear floor has a welded nut…why??

 

[Papa Rich]

Step…

 

[HJ44]

Step…

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Thoroughly impressed by your passion to inform PapaRich . GREAT , INFORMATIVE , ILLUSTRATION for potential buyers . Kudos to you and THANKS for the great content !!!!! If only they had a bit of your passion .….

 

[zerotreedelta]

I feel your pain - I got a CCOT 3/4 tub that had similar (but different) weirdness around assembly. It's annoying and frustrating (especially for the price), but eventually solvable. A rust-free 40 is worth it in the end too...mine was pretty far gone as well. Massaging the tub is work in itself, but it'll be some work to make sure the front clip also fits - any quirks in the body mounts compound up front. (I had to eventually cry uncle and my bib hinge is shimmed upward about 1/2")

It'd definitely unfortunate, as it seems like the panels themselves are stamped well, it's just missing the boat on assembly. Ironically, it'd probably be easier to "flatpack" the pieces and leave it to the buyer to assemble, too.

 

[Dianna]

Jigs? I thought all of their parts were created using 3D scanning technology. I am glad I waited to pull the trigger on a tub. If it is going to take the same amount of hours to correct the Topnault tub, makes more sense to put those hours into the original tub. Thanks again for posting Erich.

Won't make a difference. By now it should be plenty obvious that most of their parts are way off the mark, with poor workmanship and no quality inspection. Even the smallest pieces have many issues. Topnault isn't at fault. They are the dealer not the manufacturer, and they're doing their best to provide excellent customer service.

It's puzzling why they'd invest in making all these parts and not try to get it right. If it were my factory, I'd fly some of you guys over as consultants for a week or two. Sometimes I wonder if they got their jigs from Columbia. I recall a conversation with Sophia Lee a couple of years ago, who shared that they're friends with Alberto from Troa, which makes horrendous body parts .

 

[zerotreedelta]

All the pressed panels would likely be scanned, but it would take jigs to assemble all the various pieces together in to a full tub. It seems like the pressing itself is good, but they're missing the mark on assembly (weld quality, alignment, order, etc).

I was curious to see if there's any glimpse of how Uncle Toyota did it originally, but they didn't really capture that part...they kind of jump from pressing steel to full bodies rolling down the line, although you can see the front floor pan/B-pillar mating at 3:02:

 

[middlecalf]

@zerotreedelta I was wondering the same thing, how many of the frame-to-body mount locations were finalized on assembly - by welding or drilling - so each body-frame combo was unique up to some point. I‘m not familiar with the auto industry standards wrt to this for major assemblies, but if that’s the case that they are unique to some degree, then what needs to be supplied are subassemblies that have their subassembly interconnection points non-drilled or non-welded. More work for the assembler but better than having to rework each subassembly. It also shouldn’t be expected that the original subassembly - the frame - needs to be reworked, however that’s assuming it’s viable, original and straight. It’s highly probable that many aren’t, given their history and assumed purpose of use.

 

[zerotreedelta]

I wonder if this is related to the Topnault assembly? I don't recall names...but ironically I noticed it in the "related videos" pane of the vintage/OEM video. Seems somewhat likely as it has that same rear seam on the quarters, same primer, similar crating, etc.

 

[middlecalf]

I don’t see any of the rigs in that original toyota video on their actual frame. They’ve gone through a lot of assembly, including complete painting, and aren‘t even on their frame yet. Interesting.

Same with the modern video.