Nobody is going to call a FJ40 a “truck”. A FJ45 maybe. The Hilux was the same truck up to 1995, as we all know, and I think subconsciously we use that name as it conjures up images of the tough “trucks” on the veldt or in the outback.
I’m confused by the talk of removing “the silly little bumper”? All I’ve seen in your pics is the OEM bumper, no?
I hope I don’t come across as too opinionated, but here goes... I would have left the other mirrors on. Most of those trucks had the port installed ones on them, (including my 81 I drove in high school in 1986). They look way better than having the extra bolts in the doors. I’m also not a fan of the round headlight conversion. Your truck is not a ‘81. The grill on your truck is wrong for the round lights too. Are you going to swap it out for a 1979-1981 grill? It sounds like you are trying to keep it / return it to original, but doing a few obviously unoriginal things.
On the wheels, I think I’d stick to the original color too. Silver is not where I’d go. Gray? Maybe. With your color, I actually like black the best, but that’s not original if that matters.
What did they coat in bedliner? That crap is made for lining beds. Period.
I call mine a "truck" all the time.
Second. I refer to my 1977 Cruiser and my 2019 Tacoma as "truck" too. I say "Hilux" when speaking about the 1983 Truck because it's model-specific (albeit technically incorrect). We can agree to disagree. But if I said, "I'm going to add an Old Man Emu lift to the Hilux" you would know exactly which vehicle I'm talking about.
The truck originally came with a brush guard that attached to the factory bumper and the front spring hangers. I removed it. Here is a before and after.
On the mirrors, I hear you about the bolts. I'm not crazy about it either, but I absolutely
loathe the Ultra Mirrors. They seem really out of place on such a small truck. Like they should go on a 1980s Dodge diesel. Not a Toyota Pickup. I still have the Ultra Mirrors in case I want to go back. But for now, the current small mirrors w/ bolts are staying on.
I'm also moving forward on the
round headlight conversion. I prefer the round headlights to the square, regardless of which model-year they originally came on. You are correct - to swap to round headlights you need to change the lights, headlight buckets, headlight doors,
and the grille. Again, I'm keeping all of the old stuff in case I choose to go back. But I don't get too wrapped around the axle with "keeping it original." I just build the truck the way I want it.
I agree with you on wheel color - black. I think it matches the color combination well, and the wheels are already black, so I don't have to pay extra to powder coat them a new color. Black wheels look really sharp on this setup.
The bedliner is limited to the truck bed, but it was just poorly applied. I think it was one of the early DIY kits, and it is flaking off. I don't think it was prepped properly.
I am going to have the old bedliner sandblasted off, then primer, and a new high-quality bedliner reapplied. I will probably continue the black theme on the bedliner color. The Line-X provider can pull the original 557 Creme paint color, but I'm afraid it won't quite match the 37 year old paint on the rest of the truck. If it's not going to match, I'd prefer to just stick with black. I'm also going over the bedrails, so I think it would look odd with two different textures and slightly mismatched color. Quality black bedliner over the rails looks pretty sharp on the Marline Crawler truck, so I'm going to try it on mine.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I'll keep everyone posted on the progress on the truck.
