Front Bib Restore
Jolene’s 1968 front bib has been sitting on my shop floor for over a year during the engine swap. It was time to go ahead do its restoration.
I have seen some… um… unfortunate YouTube vids that do a terrible job of showing how to remove the front bib.
This picture borrowed from SOR shows the parts in an early FJ bib.
It is *not* necessary to disassemble the bib for removal!
Remove the five M8 bib flange bolts and nuts from each side. Unscrew the wire connectors for the headlights (3 per side) and signal lights (3 per side) from the fuse bar on each inner fender well. My early FJ did not have modular plugs between the lights and the fuse bar, so had to be removed from there.
Now, remove the two M10 horizontal bolts from the bib hinge. That’s it. Now you can lift the complete front bib assembly off the truck and do further work with your bib project on a flat bench surface.
Note the can of Kroil penetrant on the bench. It plays an important role in the following bib disassembly steps. Yes… Kroil is breathtakingly expensive compared to some other alternatives. I learned the hard way Kroil is best and any money saved on cheap substitutes will be spent in frustrated attempts to remove rusted and frozen fasteners in old equipment. Kroil makes my FJ restoration experience so much easier.
Starting at the back of the bib, let’s get Kroiling.
Two M8 x 1.25 x 25 bolts in the crossbar center channel hold the TOYOTA badge on the bib grill in place. Kroil them.
Four M6 nuts with washers fasten the bib grill behind the bib body. Kroil them. Two tiny (M4?) nuts with lock washers fasten each turn signal lights to the bib body. Kroil them.
The flat circular anchor plate on back that surrounds the headlight bucket contains six screw holes. Two are bigger, and don’t have captured thread surfaces. The two larger screws at 9 and 12 o’clock are headlight adjustment screws. The white plastic grommet surrounding the headlight adjustment screws don’t need Kroiling — they come intact out of the bib headlight bucket hole. Kroil the remaining four threaded screw holes around each headlight bucket perimeter.
That’s it for the back. Flip the bib over. Remove the four screws that hold the white front grill to the bib body. Set the grill aside for further attention. If you have not removed your front grill before now, go ahead and Kroil the four screws and wait a day to remove them. I had new screws from a prior event and knew they would not be bound up.
I can’t recommment enough the importance of genuine JIS tip screwdrivers for this job. Don’t try it with a regular Phillip’s head.
Now Kroil the headlight fasteners from the front. Begin with the aiming screws at 9 and 12 o’clock — Just a spritz. The screw threads usually don’t seize in the plastic grommet that sits in the bucket rim below. Follow up with spraying well the three trim ring fasteners that hold the headlamp unit fast to the inner bucket. Then generously Kroil the remaining 4 JIS screws that fasten the headlight bucket to the anchor plate on the back side.
Kroil both headlights in this manner. Here’s the hard part. I Kroiled everything twice a day for two days. Didn’t remove a single fastener (except the chunky front grill screws) until all bib fasteners had been soaked.
On the third day, I dared to start loosening JIS screws.