I have been lurking on Mud for years having owned a 1990 Toyota Pickup and a 99 4runner. Toyotas have always been my favorite and the 40s are probably the most iconic, to me anyways. Last year I seriously began looking for a decent starting point for a project and located one in January of 2021. My wife and I drove to pick it up in Billings, MT from a guy in Casper, WY. The seller recommended to trailer the rig home as 400 miles of interstate isn't where these rigs excel. With a 50+ MPH headwind, I was happy we had the trusty Dodge to cruise us home.
About the rig. Apparently this rig spent the majority of its life near Green River, WY and was used to transport people to and from the marina at Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The previous owner bought it at an estate auction a few years earlier with the intention of restoring it. That restoration never happened and he decided to sell it. The rig is relatively rust free with only a few spots of obvious rot which should be easy to get to. I didn't notice initially, but it looks like at some point somebody replaced the rear floor, sill, wheel wells and possibly the rear quarter panels. Whoever did this used a heavy gauge steel and did not use patch panels from a vendor but fabricated them. Now that I have been lurking, I can see that this was fabricated but it's solid and was done well so I don't plan to redo the work. The hard top was also disassembled at some point with new weather stripping and self leveling sealer installed but it had seen better days.
Aside from the crappy paint job, the rig runs great. I have enjoyed using it as my daily driver and plan to make this a slow rolling restoration.
Since this will be a rolling restoration, I decided to remove the ambulance doors and hard top for summer and start the restoration there. As mentioned in my first post, a previous owner replaced the weatherstripping between both the hard top and tub and the fiberglass top and sides. I soaked the bolts with PB Blaster and only broke 2 bolts during disassembly. The doors were easy to strip down. I tried locating a good thread on removing the windows but they were pretty vague. Now that I have them removed, I see why they were vague..... removing the windows was actually really easy once I figured out how to do so. The rubber is still in good shape so I'm planning to reuse it.
As you can see in one of the photos, the rust on the bottom half of the ambulance door is probably the worst on the whole rig. There are some other spots in the hard top that will need to be cut out and replaced but it should be fairly simple.
The rail that the fiberglass is riveted to is in really good condition so I dont plan on removing the rivets or replacing it. There is some surface rust that should clean up easily.
The hardest part of the whole disassembly process was removing the carpet that was glued to the ceiling. Whoever did this did a great job, unfortunately. The carpet was stained and actually really nasty. I plan to spray the ceiling with lizard skin or possibly have it speed lined at a local shop. Does anybody have input on this?
All of the body panels will be dropped at the sandblaster today.
Here are some photos of the work done by the previous owner. The wheel wells appear to be fabricated and the rear pan is just sheet metal but both are stout.
These spots are the worst of the rust. the first image is the rocker on the front side of the drivers door. I believe there should be a seam here that was covered up at some point. Perhaps that's why it's bubbling here. The second image is on the rear quarter panel. I have ordered wheel well opening patch panels so will cut out the rust and weld in new metal here. The wheel well openings are not stock, but the "cut" almost looks too precise to have been done by hand. I'm wondering if these quarter panels were replaced years ago from a supplier that has since gone out of business? There are no marker lights on the quarter panels and I cant see a patch on the inside of the tub or the outside. Somewhat of a mystery.
After removing the hard top, the fumes in the cab were unbearable. I just about choked out driving around the block. After doing a bit of research on Mud, I read that the stock location of the exhaust came out the side at a 45, whereas my exhaust came straight out the back. I had a shop change the location of the exhaust and it made a huge difference.
And yesterday I dropped off the hard top sides and ambulance doors at the sand blaster. Should have those back in a couple weeks.
Received a call that the sandblasting was done. $225 for the ambulance doors and all metal panels and brackets for the hard top and license plate holder. Not bad. I was pretty nervous about receiving warped panels back from the blaster. When I dropped it off I mentioned my nervousness about warped panel. I told the blaster it was for a '78 FJ40 and he said he would take care of it. No noticeable warping!
Everything blasted was really clean. Ill have a bit of metal work but it's minimal. I ordered a lower ambulance door patch panel from Real Steel Cruisers, just waiting for that to come in. Ill put a couple coats of epoxy primer on this weekend before I dive in too far.
Does anybody know if there is supposed to be a tab on the end of the "brow" that connects the front of the hard top to the windshield? Both edges appear to be cut but it's possible that the piece is just dinged from taking off and putting the top back on. Seems like it would have a hole for another bolt on the outside but I could be mistaken.
It's been a while since I've updated my progress. At some point the fiberglass cap was painted black which has since faded, cracked, curled, etc.. I sanded the paint off the cap which took forever. Additionally, carpet was glued to the underside with super thick carpet glue. I had to use a grinder to clean it up. I plan to replace with a headliner which I purchased from Cruiser Corps but havent installed yet. This was last summer.
I purchased some door patch panels from from Real Steel Cruiser Parts. The parts looked pretty good but I had to stretch the outside panel. Not a big deal...
The door patches turned out pretty decent. The patches weren't exact fits but a few blows with a BFH made them fit better. Mind you, I am not a welder, but with enough time and patience it can be done.
Roughed up the epoxy and sprayed another coat on all of the panels. The side panels for the top had quite a few rust spots that needed patched but no photos. Late in the fall, I laid some 2k primer on everything then ran out of time before the temps dropped too low for paint.
I am using AkzoNobel aircraft epoxy primer. The body shop I purchased it from said it is leftover from Boeing. I didnt realize it was Kawasaki green before I opened the can. Ill likely use something different for a seal coat.
I didnt get photos of the 2k primer but will pick up finish painting those parts when the temps increase.
Also, all of this body work is boring so I had my wife buy me a bumper for my birthday to replace the old rusted out tube bumper. I liked the HFS Warn 8274 bumper from CCOT. I mounted it up and then realized that my old Warn M6000 had a different mount points. So I sold the old winch and picked up a used 8274. Ill rebuild the 8274 at some point but man these winches with this bumper look sharp.
Ill need to get a different fairlead at some point but for the time being I just painted this one.
Does anybody know if there is supposed to be a tab on the end of the "brow" that connects the front of the hard top to the windshield? Both edges appear to be cut but it's possible that the piece is just dinged from taking off and putting the top back on. Seems like it would have a hole for another bolt on the outside but I could be mistaken.
We did a fair amount of bird hunting this fall and traveled quite a bit.
Idaho is beautiful but I sure miss the wide open spaces of Wyoming. Here we did a week long trip to Wyoming. Over 1000 miles in the regular cab with a 75lb dog. The old Dodge does pretty well with 285k on the clock.
My wife and I drove the Pan American Highway in this Dodge with the Alaskan for a year and a half.
We wrote a blog if anybody is interested: Ducknotes.org
And that's where I left off in the late fall. On Christmas day our first child was born. Its a boy! I sure hope I'm not in the build stage when he shows interest in working on cars. We will look for something for him to tinker with when he gets to be that age.
With the top and ambulance doors sitting in primer waiting for paint, I decided to patch the wheel wells that were cut with panels from Real Steel Cruiser parts. I ordered these last summer when I got the patch panels for the ambulance doors. As I mentioned in a previous post, the back half of the tub was replaced at some point so these may have been cut from the factory. I wish I had more history on the 40.
I removed the fender flares and clamped the patch panels where I thought they should go. The seams along the rocker panels do not exist after the previous restoration so I used a drywall square to mark where it should be. After clamping in place, it looks to be where it is supposed to be.
It was much more enjoyable welding on thick clean steel vs. thin door body sheet metal.
