Build 1978 FJ40 Mustard Yellow - almost perfect thread.

[jomelo]

Crazy nice. Timing this just right for some nice Fall weather.

 

[wngrog]

I’ve been wanting some of these bad ass @lcwizard 4Plus front shock towers for a long time but have not had a 40 that needed them …. Until now. Man. These things, like everything Dave makes are straight legit. Other than the cussing and such associated with Toyota frame rivet removal they were easy to install. Gonna look great with the flip kits and Dobinsons shocks

Once the rivets were out I enlarged the holes a bit with a Matco bit. @Ozark cruiser turned me on to these and they make frame hole drilling a snap.

Next you take a body saw and enlarge the fenders a bit then bolt them up. Love these.

 

[Catching Neutral]

Too early to disclose what kind of lift your putting in?
wish I had the cabbage to sent the Iron Yak to Tilda Bogue for the “spa treatment”
be safe with Ida headed your way…..we dodged a bullet here on Pensacola Beach

 

[wngrog]

Too early to disclose what kind of lift your putting in?
wish I had the cabbage to sent the Iron Yak to Tilda Bogue for the “spa treatment”
be safe with Ida headed your way…..we dodged a bullet here on Pensacola Beach

No secret.

Dobinsons IMS

I’ve installed the kits on my 60, a 45 and my 200 and I’m super impressed with them. I like the leafs better than OME. Less spring with more arch yet they ride great. Not sure how that works but I’m sold. This is the first kit I’ve done on a regular FJ40

Flip Kit and ubolts are at powder so I won’t be able to get this all the way in with the shocks just yet.

 

[wngrog]

Didn’t get a lot it before here on the engine bay and inner frame but it was in pretty good shape but I got in there and worked it hard this morning. CLR scrub then Griots polish as best I could. The paint popped nice.

Added a nice thick coat of paint on the inner frame since that will be hard to get to soon.

Yanked off the bumper and all the frame supports to be powdered

I’ll let that all cure and move elsewhere …..

 

[wngrog]

Little Dobinsons IMS tech.

The last 40 series kit I got from them the shocks were same front and rear (long). With the stock towers they were too long in the front. They worked but it was close. I passed my feedback and lo and behold they actually fixed the problem and I did not know. I was expecting to have 4 long shocks when I did the 4Plus towers but I have 2 short and 2 long.

I ended up mounting the long ones up to make sure they are what I need two more of. @Ozark cruiser has a set on the shelf he’s sending me to make it whole.

Here is how they fit. Pretty nice.

This is the PN for the longer shock. Body is about 13” long.

At full droop you have this much shock leftover which is good. No using the shock as a limit

This is the amount of shaft showing at
Full droop …. about 6”.

Here it is all buttoned up

 

[wngrog]

Aight. Last update for the day.

I unpacked a metric ton of OEM parts to build out the rear axle on the truck. @Onur was thorough as always. 385 parts thorough to be exact

I’ve rebuilt some drum axles but some of thia stuff is new to me. One is the dust seal and seal that’s on the semi float axle themselves. Never replaced those or the rear wheel studs. These, like a good 70 series, were seriously baked in but I got em. Swapped.

Done for the day. Onward.

 

[middlecalf]

So you could have kept the original shock towers and not fought the rivets?

 

[wngrog]

So you could have kept the original shock towers and not fought the rivets?

Worth the fight

 

[tlaporte]

@wngrog I’m curious to hear your thoughts on having the lift and how much it helps in all of your work. It feels like you’ve had it a year or two now so you’ve surely developed a solid opinion of lifts in general and your application in particular. From an outsider’s perspective it looks like it is an immensely valuable addition to your shop setup. Seeing it in action in these past few sets of pictures makes me think that it’s a vastly underrated tool.

 

[wngrog]

@wngrog I’m curious to hear your thoughts on having the lift and how much it helps in all of your work. It feels like you’ve had it a year or two now so you’ve surely developed a solid opinion of lifts in general and your application in particular. From an outsider’s perspective it looks like it is an immensely valuable addition to your shop setup. Seeing it in action in these past few sets of pictures makes me think that it’s a vastly underrated tool.

It’s kind of like fake boobs.

I lived for 40 years without them but the last 12 have been the best years of my life.

Can’t go back…..

 

[wngrog]

Was missing a part and the guys @cruiseroutfit managed to get them from Utah to Mississippi for me overnight . Bravo.

I also got one of the new stickers that had to be added next to the old sticker…..

About 150 parts in…..

 

[OGBeno]

Nice dude.

 

[peesalot]

Is that a clock ? Nice pic on the box by the way, what year was that ?

 

[wngrog]

Not sure what your drunk ass is referring to but …… hello my brother.

Is that a clock ? Nice pic on the box by the way, what year was that ?

 

[wngrog]

A couple people have asked about the rear axle choice.

We are going with a fj60 H42 trans and 1980-84 FJ60 split case. With the case we lose the ebrake.

This 70 series rear axle allows us to go with a 40 width axle and put the ebrake at the axle.

 

[Catching Neutral]

How are the body mounts?

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Did you need to relocate the perches on the 70 series axle? On my son’s 1973 FJ40 project, we had to move the perches in on both sides. Not sure if 76+ requires it.

 

[Bloomer]

Impressive work!

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

Excellent work!