73 FJ40 rustic green addiction

[Turtle40]

After selling my 76 fj40 in the early 2000’s, I had all but given up finding another one. Then fate took over and a buddy at work gave me a phone number of a guy who wanted to sell his. I didn’t think I could afford it but my buddy said he wasn’t asking a lot. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to buy it. He called it the Turtle, and had owned it since the eighties. I have spent the last two years working on it when I have time. My plan was to take care of the rust and bring it back to good mechanical condition, and preserve most of the originality of Turtle. This isn’t a frame off restoration, I decided to hold off on the frame off and have fun driving it.

 

[Turtle40]

And the journey begins..

 

[Turtle40]

I started with cleaning the undercarriage and frame and then inside the engine bay. Along the way painting with por15 rattle can paints and brush on formula. I then addressed the cooling system, brakes, exhaust, electrical, fuel.. under the hood. I converted the front brakes to disc and replaced the birfields and asin hubs from an early solid axle Toyota.

 

[Turtle40]

Onto the rust in rustic green.. after cutting all the rusty rot out with my angle grinder, I started welding new metal.

 

[cruisermatt]

Nice. A less-then-perfect truck that you can drive is always better then one sitting on jackstands for years and years.

 

[Turtle40]

And more welding..primer and small amount of filler and body icing.

 

[Turtle40]

Nice. A less-then-perfect truck that you can drive is always better then one sitting on jackstands for years and years.

Thanks. I agree, I learned that lesson with a 66 VW that I never finished, ended up giving it to a local wrecking yard.

 

[Turtle40]

Onto painting.. I wanted to save the original paint, but after all the welding I made the choice to repaint with the same factory rustic green. After all later on I can always do a frame off restoration but for now I wanted it to look uniform and not a patchwork. I tried out the activated rattle can paint but ran out and wasn’t impressed with the overall thickness of the paint. I went and bought Omni urethane and redid the painting twice after I ran out the first times. Finally got done. Also, I painted with a small makita compressor that really struggled to keep up. I used what I had and someday will purchase a larger compressor.

 

[Turtle40]

I had a lot of runs so I wet sanded for hours and hours, 1200,1500,2000 grit, finally buffing compound and polishing. I left the original body panel spot-weld divots. Turtle had more spot-weld divots than my 76 fj40.

 

[Turtle40]

After ordering some oem rims and painting them with Kubota rattle can gray. I went and cut out the rust in the floor and welded new metal and treated the floor to naval jelly before a coat of paint. I used epoxy rattle can paint. I might raptor-line the bed and floor later on.

 

[Turtle40]

I had to troubleshoot some signal light wiring problems, turned out to be grounding issues and corrosion on the switches. After my first test drive I found my rear diff shot. I replaced it and in the process learned there’s a particular way to put the spacer in the rear diff back in. I replaced the oil pan after oil leaks with a new gasket didn’t stop. I then found that the master cylinder was locking the front brakes on because the brake pedal rod was too far out. I also had the manual steering gearbox rebuilt along with completely replacing all the steering components. Now..Turtle is a lot of fun to drive but my to do list continues.. new clutch, 3 speed and transfer case overhaul, muffler, windshield and hardtop rebuild, jump seat restoration, and heater fan motor restoration.

 

[cruiserkev]

Nice work turtle40!

 

[Turtle40]

Thanks, cruiserkev.

 

[katwalk]

well done!

 

[MDH33]

What a Beauty! Nice job.

Reminds me of my old Rustic Green '73 that I regretfully sold in a moment of weakness.

 

[Pierps]

Great looking truck!!

 

[cbmontgo]

Wow. That rig really turned out beautifully. Nice work.

 

[SipLife]

Awesome 40, she cleaned up real nice!

 

[Turtle40]

I went and took a few more pictures of Turtle as she is now.. I have to admit it feels great to have gotten this far.
Thank you for the comments, I'm thrilled to share the Turtle after all the years of reading and learning so much from all the other fj40 builds and dreaming about my own. I appreciate it.
I installed all new stainless brake lines and picked up some seats from a Subaru WRX and installed them. I plan on restoring the original seats eventually.. I reused the original floor mats that were pretty crusty but they turned out better than I thought after a cleaning. I made sure the brackets I made can be taken off and the original brackets are still there. I also bought a 76 cruiser that came from the same owner of the Turtle. I was planning on restoring it but the frame was badly bent, it had a 327 chevy engine, and a PTO winch. I decided to sell it and let someone else tackle the restoration. I kept the roll bar and the rear shock mounts. I also kept the steel wheels that came with it that have the slots, I think they are the factory type from fj60 and toy mini trucks of the eighties except these are painted not chromed. I plan on having one set of early steel rims with hubcaps and one set of the white slotted steel rims. Has anyone repaired a dash that has cracks in it with success?

 

[rkymtnflyfisher]

Damn, that rig is turning out nice!