Build 1978 FJ-40 R2.8 Cummins Build - "Mater"

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This gave me just enough space to pull the motor and finish weld the engine mounts and transmission brackets and get the frame into final paint:

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And got it out of the garage on "wheels" for the first time in a while:

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The body shop has determined that the hood and drivers door would take significant repair work, so I ordered a new hood and door from @topnault. Order was shipped quickly and fairly well packaged. The hood looks really good, although I haven't been able to directly compare it to the OEM yet. The door was also high quality, but the spot welds at the bottom had all failed, so the inner door skin wasn't bonded to the outer (there are a couple other minor differences like some of the lips are just a little bigger than OEM). I think we'll panel bond or plug weld the inner skin back, that was really the only disappointment. Overall product quality looks great, and I'm very happy with the panels.

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rossl said:
The body shop has determined that the hood and drivers door would take significant repair work, so I ordered a new hood and door from @topnault. Order was shipped quickly and fairly well packaged. The hood looks really good, although I haven't been able to directly compare it to the OEM yet. The door was also high quality, but the spot welds at the bottom had all failed, so the inner door skin wasn't bonded to the outer (there are a couple other minor differences like some of the lips are just a little bigger than OEM). I think we'll panel bond or plug weld the inner skin back, that was really the biggest disappointment.

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rossl said:
The body shop has determined that the hood and drivers door would take significant repair work, so I ordered a new hood and door from @topnault. Order was shipped quickly and fairly well packaged. The hood looks really good, although I haven't been able to directly compare it to the OEM yet. The door was also high quality, but the spot welds at the bottom had all failed, so the inner door skin wasn't bonded to the outer (there are a couple other minor differences like some of the lips are just a little bigger than OEM). I think we'll panel bond or plug weld the inner skin back, that was really the biggest disappointment.

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Sorry to hear about this. We will inspect all the doors we have in stock and report to the production. Meanwhile for your next order I will offer you good discount - just mention this and said Tim agreed. Please also let me know what else I can do to improve the quality. Many thanks! Tim
 
tpclassic said:
Sorry to hear about this. We will inspect all the doors we have in stock and report to the production. Meanwhile for your next order I will offer you good discount - just mention this and said Tim agreed. Please also let me know what else I can do to improve the quality. Many thanks! Tim
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Thanks. I re-read my post above and it comes off too negative, so I edited it to be more accurate. Overall, I'm happy with the product quality - we can panel bond or plug weld the seam back together. Thanks though for checking your inventory, I love it when a company stands by their work and verifies that other customers won't have similar issues. It's a huge bonus that topnault is active on the forum here - watching the forum updates on parts progress is a great way for me to have confidence in the product you are making, and one of the deciding factors to make an order.

Now just waiting on my half doors and upper ambulance door hinges to ship...
 
Isn't the bottom weld on the door supposed to have voids for drainage? I assume you're describing something different?
 
jembourbe said:
Isn't the bottom weld on the door supposed to have voids for drainage? I assume you're describing something different?
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Yes, there are several drain spots along the bottom of the door. Those are meant to be open. But between those drains the inner and outer panels are connected again using spot welds. That keeps the two panels firmly connected while allowing the door to drain.

You can see it clearly in these patch panels (borrowed since the doors are currently at the body shop, not the actual parts from topnault):

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The holes are meant to be plug welds where the spot welds are on the doors, with the drains between.
 
After inspection on our inventory, I did find some have similar issue. I already took these off of the shelves. The corrective action I guess is to apply metal adhesive between panels. Of course the water drainage holes shall be left open.
 
Highly recommend you test fit before paint and body work!
 
Half doors from @topnault showed up yesterday. Doors were packaged well and suffered no damage in transit - I have faith that these parts are packaged well for shipping. Overall door quality looks pretty good, a couple of tack welds near the hinges are visible but that can be fixed with a quick skim coat.
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I only have two minor complaints - the first one is the door limiter on one of the doors is welded on at a slight angle. I don't think it's going to be that big of a deal with the way Toyota designed these, but one is straight and one isn't. The other one is trying to figure out exactly how to affix the inner door latch and door card - these doors have some nice access holes, but the stock door cards obviously don't work. Not a big deal really - I have some ideas on how to resolve this. But also I'd love to keep the inner door handle (lock doesn't matter of course), but the door isn't really set up for that. I plan on spending some time this weekend to figure out exactly how to get this to work.
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rossl said:
Half doors from @topnault showed up yesterday. Doors were packaged well and suffered no damage in transit - I have faith that these parts are packaged well for shipping. Overall door quality looks pretty good, a couple of tack welds near the hinges are visible but that can be fixed with a quick skim coat.
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I only have two minor complaints - the first one is the door limiter on one of the doors is welded on at a slight angle. I don't think it's going to be that big of a deal with the way Toyota designed these, but one is straight and one isn't. The other one is trying to figure out exactly how to affix the inner door latch and door card - these doors have some nice access holes, but the stock door cards obviously don't work. Not a big deal really - I have some ideas on how to resolve this. But also I'd love to keep the inner door handle (lock doesn't matter of course), but the door isn't really set up for that. I plan on spending some time this weekend to figure out exactly how to get this to work.
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Thank you for the feedback. I will report this back to the factory and see what the issue was there. Any additional findings please share with me.
 
Post up your latch ideas, I have been thinking of using the vinyl door latches which as it looks would require some work on the outer skin to make them look good and they would reguire acces on the inside for the loop pull but it seems it would work. I was thinking of cutting out the bead rolled detail above the current opening on outer skin for handle and flipping it to the bottom which looks like it would create a perfect spot fo rthe vinyl door latch to bolt up.
 
Regarding the half-door latches, I think I'm going to re-use the stock door latches. These will need to be placed further down than normal since the door is shorter at this point.

Here's the half door with the stock door card overlay - you can see that the door latch is outside the door:

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So I moved the stock door card down to transfer the door latch location:

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And transferred a bunch of holes:

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My current plan is to recess the door latch with new steel, bend the door latch release mechanism to reach the striker location which is now level with the latch. I'll drill the holes for a door handle further back than stock, which is in the location of the lowered door release, but I don't plan on using the handle because I'm assuming I'll just grab the top of the door. If I decide I need it I can just add it later.

Door card I plan on making out of aluminum sheet and spray with a bed liner, which I'll use the nice large hole in the door to make a map pocket.
 
Curious if you know the part for that latch? I assumed that was the intention, but it seemed really low on the door (it looks higher in the other aftermarket door in the picture above), and the stock latch doesn’t work there.

The piece I cut in will hold the standard door handle, and it just locks out the lock mechanism.
 
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