1973 Restoration (1 Viewer)

[Ground Up]

So what is the verdict on roll bar and jumpseats? Are you putting the long seats back in and disregarding a bar? I know it's not the "safe" thing to do, but I would go stock with it. You can put the damn thing in the NWCruiser's Museum when your done...(BTW that is down town off 23rd and State.)

Yeah I have been by that place. It would look good there, but I think I better keep it or the misses will be unhappy.

I am going with the long jump seats. I should have had all of the parts that go silver back a week ago, but I did not like their work so they are starting over. I should have the parts this week.

I am looking at the rollbar issue as if it was a convertible. Which it is. How many sport cars do see with a roll bar. Now if I was going to be doing alot of on the edge off road it would be a whole nother story.

I will try and post up todays pics later.

 

[Ground Up]

Ground Up

where did you find the pintle hook? Is it original????

The body looks amazing. I would be afraid to drive that.

I got the pintle at a local trailer supply house. I could go the bone stock on it but at over $125 for one I said not right now. Maybe later.

 

[Ground Up]

Wow! I don't even want to guess what the price on that body work was.....worth every penny in my opinion. Congrats!

All of the body work I did. I replaced two areas about 3" x 6" at each side of tailgate opening (bottom) due to rust (typical spot and the only real rust on the whole truck). I also replaced the rocker panel on the driver side along with the two triangular areas beneath the windsheild hinges. That is the location for the mirrors on the '73 OEM soft top models. Both of the triangular pieces were stress cracked from the mirrors vibrating and the PO had mig welded 3/16 plate on the top of them as a band-aid.

I found a local guy to do the paint work that was willing to do each piece seperate. I take the stuff to the beadblaster and then take it to him for painting.

 

[Ground Up]

Here are a couple of pics. I am waiting to get the dash set up as the painter is coming tomorrow to reapair a run I found at one of the switch holes. After that I will be installing the "main" wiring harness. Then the dash area can start going together.

I was able to run all of the hard lines for the fuel and evap. system. I was happy to see that the hard lines did not get bent at all when they were replated (Yellow Zinc).

So far all of the prepackaging parts has worked great. To elaborate a little, I used the pages from the microfiche to use the parts #'s as a checklist in grouping all of the peices. The group pictured here is for the floor area. I did this with everything. The smaller groups went into zip lock bags and any larger groups went into rubbermaid containers. All of the bolts are bagged and marked with Toyota part numbers for ease of double checking them according to the parts sheets.

 

[Ground Up]

Parts bag for floor...

 

[lunap]

That looks just like my fj-40, only without the rust, dirt and chipped paint!
Great job.

 

[player]

Teriffic Job! I'm gonna try and restore a 1973 FJ40 with a PTO winch and everything like yours! heh. Now we can be 1973FJ40w/PTOwinchandeverything buddys! Too bad I'm in Hawaii.
btw, where'd you get the neat decals? Mine are starting to peel.

edit: hmm. That sounds like I'm trying to copy your FJ40. No, I have an FJ40 like yours, (green though) and I'm gonna try and restore it. First stop: unstick the brakes! Second stop: unstick the clutch!

 

[cruiser ken]

That looks really good Marc. You'll have to hook me up with your body guy when I get back. Also, what's another $125 for the real deal pintle, you've come this far right?

 

[Ground Up]

That looks really good Marc. You'll have to hook me up with your body guy when I get back. Also, what's another $125 for the real deal pintle, you've come this far right?

Yeah I decided the other night I am going to order it.



Here are some new photo's

 

[Ground Up]

A couple of more until the battery for the camera recharges.....

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

You gonna put a radio in it? Or leave that gay T plate in there?

 

[Trevor]

I was thinking the "T" plate is kinda cool. Looks better than my 1977 8-track player.

 

[Ground Up]

You gonna put a radio in it? Or leave that gay T plate in there?

The plan was to leave the "T" plate. But I do have an original 1973 AM radio along with a new stock Toyota antenna if I decide later to go with the radio.

I really do like riding in these things just listening to the motor hum and the wind.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Yeah, I used to say that too...the only cruiser I own with a radio is the 80, and that isn't mine it's hers. Even if I had a radio in the 45, I think all I could hear would be the motor "hum" (cough, sputter, gasp) the swampers and the wind.

 

[65swb45]

Very impressive! Takes me back to doing the swb45. Lots of fun tracking stuff down. Very nice to see you have the oh-so-rare backup light. Most of the 73s I've seen are long gone. Same for the courtesy light on the dash.

In the steering box photo, the nut on the sector shaft is not on tight.

 

[honk]

Nice,

I had thought that on the older door body there is an additional part that goes into the door hinges and the 'safety' strap goes from that part to an eyebolt mounted at the BACK of the door opening.

Toyota used very minimal protective coatings or even paint. There was only one thin coat of paint between parts if any, and a watery thin primer where no topcoat is used. Even the rubber hood cushions on top of the bib would rub through to bare metal very early in the life of the vehicle. It's really pretty appalling that after building such a fine reputation for sturdiness and longecity in their advertisements they actually produced a vehicle very much LESS enduring than an American sedan of the period.

It's no wonder that the 40 series can rust into a pile of brown paste in a very short time - it was in essence designed to do just that!

BTW, all door exterior body bolts were painted. Door hinge bolts, rear door bolts (all kinds of door).
The windshield hinge bolts were left bare because, I guess, the windshield was not attached when the body rode through the booth. Until 1975 hood latches were body color, after that they are pewter.

 

[Landpimp]

Did you retore the radio hole cover? if so how?

Love the OEM hose clamps

Where did you order the OEM pintal hitch from?

I used the same switch for my OEM fogs as you did for the dash light, only thing that would fit in the hole to the left and above of the ashtray

I have no issues with the upgrade to disc and the OME suspension, many other markets had leaf packs that sat higher then the US 40s. and IMOP it looks just right


Marc, this is prolly the finest resto I have ever seen, amazing work

 

[Ground Up]

Very impressive! Takes me back to doing the swb45. Lots of fun tracking stuff down. Very nice to see you have the oh-so-rare backup light. Most of the 73s I've seen are long gone. Same for the courtesy light on the dash.

In the steering box photo, the nut on the sector shaft is not on tight.

Thank You!

It has been a long time coming and am looking forward to the final product. The backup light was buy of the project I bought it about 3 years ago on ebay. It is a new old stock part and I paid $4.00 for it. The courtesy light was tough to find. I wish I had realized earlier that it was under the dash on the early 40's.

There are a few trucks out there that you can tell people took the time and energy to find every last piece and yours is definitley one of those.

 

[Ground Up]

Did you retore the radio hole cover? if so how?

Love the OEM hose clamps

Where did you order the OEM pintal hitch from?

I used the same switch for my OEM fogs as you did for the dash light, only thing that would fit in the hole to the left and above of the ashtray

I have no issues with the upgrade to disc and the OME suspension, many other markets had leaf packs that sat higher then the US 40s. and IMOP it looks just right


Marc, this is prolly the finest resto I have ever seen, amazing work

John-

Thank you for the compliments!

I have spent countless hours researching and working on this thing. Little things like the bolts that hold down the seat are only available in white zinc and not the yellow zinc from Toyota make some of the steps more tedious. I had to work out wether to try and reuse (after they were replated) the original bolts. In the end I opted for all new from Toyota. That was tedious in itself. For a time I had the local dealer locked out of getting any bolts from any of the distrobution plants as I had exceeded there order limits. I soon found that if I ordered them in lots of 20 we had no problems.

I did restore the radio hole cover. I wash everything in simple green. I then used a tooth bruch and Mothers aluminum polish and cleaned the whole cover. I then washed and polished again until I got the finish that looks like the dash pads. When I was done I let it dry for a few days and used a white paint pen to paint all of the high spots that were originally white.

I had a real dilema on wether it was white or silver as it seems that there were both out there. In the end it went white as that is what the on in the '73 factory brochure appears to be.


The switch is still a dilema and the other is that in order to run the fog lights you have to go without the front license plate bracket.

 

[poldo]

I have only one thing to say "jealous" I am embarassed by the poor job I am doing