1976 FJ40 Restoration

[Grant Vanuatu]

Hey everyone, great forum, heaps of info. I started restoring my 76 FJ40 a few weeks ago. I am in Vanuatu, a small group of islands in the South Pacific. The truck was originally purchased by me in Vancouver BC back in the early 90's.
It's a little bit of a mad max restoration, not going for the classic look so much. Here we have very little rain so the mods reflect that climate.
Here is some of the damage of the last few years, salt air not forgiving. 2 years ago I hired a local to do some maintenance repair, he did a VERY poor job of it, I am now repairing a lot of the same work myself. Not complaining, very rewarding.

 

[Grant Vanuatu]

There was significant water getting into the rear trim, running down into the door jams. Cleaned all that up, big job. Many of the repaired areas had been fibreglassed previously. Took it down to bare steel and went that way again. I have a lot of boat repair experience but this is my first auto body repair. Hopefully my hours upon hours of research prior serves me well.

 

[Grant Vanuatu]

Some of the ongoing repairs, mostly fibre repair images.

 

[greenbeasty]

Salt air is a killer! Looks great so far.

 

[Grant Vanuatu]

Salt air is a killer! Looks great so far.

Thanks greenbeasty, yeah, amazing rust here. Decided to eliminate the air doors, didnt see much point and seemed to be a famous rust zone. The hood is out getting a welded frame so I can fibre to something, the front and part of the sides are a mess but the rest is solid.