Build 76 Fj40 Face Lift

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65swb45 said:
My old wheeling buddy's stock bumper story was worse. Much worse.

He was giving his swb45 a mini tuneup in his hillside garage, with the ass end hanging out the door to vent the exhaust, and his driveway had a pretty steep slope. Well, his parking brake wasn't 100%, and he suddenly realized that the truck was starting to roll! He instinctively grabbed for the front bib, just in time for the open hood to catch on the garage door and come crashing down!😱

The hand injury would have been worse, but as the truck continued to roll back, the protruding end of the front bumper caught the back of his leg and took him off his feet.
As he fell, he watched his beloved FJ45 accelerate to launch speed, cross the street in front of his house, handily jump the curb, take out his neighbors fence and shrubs, and try to burrow under the staircase of the house!😱
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That was a pit of the stomach, Ill fated kaleidoscope of bad juju. Probably happened in less time than it took to read about it.

I’d gladly sacrifice a shin on a hitch to avoid that Dante’ level sequence of events.

A new thread is born?
 
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Another AM of big muscle movements.

Jack/extension rods are mounted.

Headed down to JR’s Upholstery this AM for a conference. Translation: “Grab some doughnuts and we’ll explain why your door cards aren’t finished/started”. I have found that a pre diabetic sugar rush tends to smooth over the jagged little edges of life’s inevitable disappointments…😁

Just to be on the safe side, I better stop and grab a travel size insulin pack and a couple elastic belt extensions.



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Chungas Revenge said:
Another AM of big muscle movements.

Jack/extension rods are mounted.

Headed down to JR’s Upholstery this AM for a conference. Translation: “Grab some doughnuts and we’ll explain why your door cards aren’t finished/started”. I have found that a pre diabetic sugar rush tends to smooth over the jagged little edges of life’s inevitable disappointments…😁

Just to be on the safe side, I better stop and grab a travel size insulin pack and a couple elastic belt extensions.



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It's funny how you can do a mountain of work on the truck and get "Nice truck!" But attending to little details like this are so satisfying. Cruiser heads notice the details. Had a guy comment on my Jump Seat Straps the other day.
 
MatthewMcD said:
It's funny how you can do a mountain of work on the truck and get "Nice truck!" But attending to little details like this are so satisfying. Cruiser heads notice the details. Had a guy comment on my Jump Seat Straps the other day.
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Catching Neutral said:
Agreed
Those little details are so satisfying.
@Chungas Revenge ….that yellow against the brown …💥
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It’s is funny how that works…

That was one of those small projects that I just put off for no good reason. In the flesh, the color has a very slight pumpkin undertone. The flash and the digital translation tends to brighten it up.
 
The saga of the door cards.

Picked up a bakers dozen yesterday and made my way to JR’s upholstery. BLUF: Not going to make my fall deadline.

A triple chocolate sugar bomb into the lead up to the explanation for the lack of movement, I dropped the “It’s OK, I’m not in any hurry/rush/dealine to get them on the truck”. I’m now in the top three contenders for customer of the year at JR’s.

Fun fact: I like the additional time IOT cypher on what it is exactly I want. I have a notion to try a set of black cards before committing…Jseat bottoms are black so that may work. Pics to illustrate.

In the meantime, I have a set of vapor/dust barriers to install and I’m a bit (waaaay) behind on the Meade Hall.

Regardless, door cards are small potato’s in the grand scheme of things. If I don’t like them I’ll try another combo.

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@Chungas Revenge I'm not sure about black…. My seats and door cards were re-upholstered to match and it was a black and gray tweed. Looked very nice but I actually replaced the seats with those ProCar 90 models with headrests and went with matching gray stock door cards. It’s a head thing for me…my brain refuses to see any other color as every cruiser I have ever had ….was gray

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I had brown door cards in my LX (along with brown fllor mats, brown and tan striped seats, brown seat belts and brown interior lining) and loved it. I'm trying to find brown door cards now for my 43, but no luck. The seats are likely to be spice tan though (given I can't find them in brown either), so I'm more realistically looking for spice tan door cards.

Love your jump seats. And LOVE those Aqualu tubs.
 
@Chamba. I have heard almost any upholstery shop will make new door cards in any color you wish….i haven’t done it yet because the only color is gray. But, if you find spice tan with yellow polka dots…you have door cards the way you want them
 
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Chamba said:
I had brown door cards in my LX (along with brown fllor mats, brown and tan striped seats, brown seat belts and brown interior lining) and loved it. I'm trying to find brown door cards now for my 43, but no luck. The seats are likely to be spice tan though (given I can't find them in brown either), so I'm more realistically looking for spice tan door cards.

Love your jump seats. And LOVE those Aqualu tubs.
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knuckle47 said:
@Chamba. I have heard almost any upholstery shop will make new door cards in any color you wish….i haven’t done it yet because the only color is gray. But, if you find spice tan with yellow polka dots…you have door cards the way you want them
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For sure, any upholstery shop worth their salt can make a set of cards. In my situation, the shop I normally use was hit with some late season full on interior work and my spot in the pecking order slipped.

So my persistent soapbox rumination is just me b!+#!%g…And, I’ll likely continue to b!+#% until spring or I find some other irritant worthy of an old man tirade..:deadhorse:


@Jdc1 I’ve used the interior dye in the past. I’ve never tried the ColorBond. Any good?
 
Chungas Revenge said:
For sure, any upholstery shop worth their salt can make a set of cards. In my situation, the shop I normally use was hit with some late season full on interior work and my spot in the pecking order slipped.

So my persistent soapbox rumination is just me b!+#!%g…And, I’ll likely continue to b!+#% until spring or I find some other irritant worthy of an old man tirade..:deadhorse:


@Jdc1 I’ve used the interior dye in the past. I’ve never tried the ColorBond. Any good?
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Yes- the plastic and vinyl on the Mules steering wheel is SEM though. Same with this set of lower pads-
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Jdc1 said:
Yes- the plastic and vinyl on the Mules steering wheel is SEM though. Same with this set of lower pads-
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🏆👈🏻

Well, I can testify now. Nice product.

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MOTOV8R said:
Side note, man I want this 40 back. Sold it in 2005. Carfax says it was last registered in 2019.
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Clean look. Toss up an exterior pic(s) 😁.
 
Chungas Revenge said:
Clean look. Toss up an exterior pic(s) 😁.
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Don’t need to ask me twice for pics of the kids… resolution was pretty bad back then and no idea how many times these have been resaved/resized. The exterior color is an FJ60 color, the carpet was done in a close match to FJ60 brown, and I had the upholstery place match the brown FJ60 headrests I had for the seats. I swapped out the FJ60 brown seats bits since this was an 82 FJ40 so the seats are basically the same.

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MOTOV8R said:
Don’t need to ask me twice for pics of the kids… resolution was pretty bad back then and no idea how many times these have been resaved/resized. The exterior color is an FJ60 color, the carpet was done in a close match to FJ60 brown, and I had the upholstery place match the brown FJ60 headrests I had for the seats. I swapped out the FJ60 brown seats bits since this was an 82 FJ40 so the seats are basically the same.
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Fully understand why you want that one back…🏆🍻👈🏻
 
Dylan went electric in 66, I figured WTH, why not. 😎

I can turn my 285’s easily in the driveway, parking lot or Tasty freeze with no effort or I can spin the dial back for road use. Coupled with 3:70 gearing, the mighty 2F and 285 tires, it functions well in the “slow lane” during short bouts of white knuckled interstate roulette. It really shines on curvy secondary two Lane roads.

It turns so easily, I had a slight learning curve with the sensitivity until I learned to adjust it as necessary. Unless you count the WV secondary road network, I can’t testify to its nature in serious off road conditions.

I’m a towering 5’9” and the motor mounted just under the steering wheel is a non event. I don’t notice it.

Some of the selling points for me was the fact it reverts back to stock steering if the electric motor takes a dump. Also, it’s less invasive compared to adding a traditional power steering mod.

One last caveat: I’m turning 60+ pound Falklan’s on 16” rims. I don’t know what kind of manners the system has with smaller traditional tires on 15’s or anything above a 33”.

So, unless you’re planning on rock crawling, HARD wheeling or crossing the Darién Gap, I think you will like driving behind EPS.

BLUF: Worth the asking price/Money well spent.

YMMV 🍻
MatthewMcD said:
@Chungas Revenge What's the word on the electric power steering? This may be a 2026 investment.
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Better shot of the system.

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