I bought my '78 FJ40 in Aug. of '90 when it was a mere 12 years old. Paid $3500 and it had 78K miles and was a Texas truck with several owners, now in Colorado. On the offroad test drive, it growled through a bunch of nasty ditches and seemed unstoppable, and I scratched the paint on the test drive. I was smitten. It looked ok, but was sandblasted and rusty in various small spots. The rear sill had already been replaced with a 2x2 steel tube. Patina wasn't a thing back then.
In 1991, I painted it myself in my garage, after reading many library books on 'how to paint your car'. I spent $400 on a DeVilbiss JGA paint gun, Kondar primer/surfacer, and Dupont single stage paint, mixed a few shades off by a paint shop that didn't try very hard. I recall spending 80+ hours of time prepping and painting, and it looked great - one tiny run, no fisheyes, decent gloss, etc. I had touched up a few cars before that, but the result was luck over smarts. My sanding and chip filling was pretty awful, and my bondo was lumpy in spots.
First photo is 'as purchased'. The rest show the paint job in my garage (Iikely violating neighborhood covenants). There were no bezel police back then (or Internet), so the bezel is indeed upside down.
In 1991, I painted it myself in my garage, after reading many library books on 'how to paint your car'. I spent $400 on a DeVilbiss JGA paint gun, Kondar primer/surfacer, and Dupont single stage paint, mixed a few shades off by a paint shop that didn't try very hard. I recall spending 80+ hours of time prepping and painting, and it looked great - one tiny run, no fisheyes, decent gloss, etc. I had touched up a few cars before that, but the result was luck over smarts. My sanding and chip filling was pretty awful, and my bondo was lumpy in spots.
First photo is 'as purchased'. The rest show the paint job in my garage (Iikely violating neighborhood covenants). There were no bezel police back then (or Internet), so the bezel is indeed upside down.
Last edited:
