I recently acquired a mostly original mustard yellow 1978 FJ40 with 52k original miles from my Father-in-law. It was purchased from the original owner in 1980 and parked for good in 1997. In Oct 2021 he towed it over to my house so we could get it running, but quickly realized he no longer had much interest in it after we drove around the block. He loved the FJ40 but did not want to put any more time or money into getting it back on the road. After owning it for so long, keeping it in the family was high on the list and I was in the right place at the right time to purchase it.
The block was frozen due to sitting in place since 97, so we had to take the head off and free up the block. We then ordered any gasket/seal/grommet/hose from the pushrod cover up, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap & rotor, fuel pump, water pump, thermostat and battery. After I got the head back on we rebuilt the carb and did a quick cold valve adjustment to fire it up, set the ignition timing, and perform a hot valve adjustment. I am more skilled than an average diy'er but don't do any mechanical work for a living. It was great bonding time working on the FJ40 with him and he even said the FJ40 never ran as good as it did after we got it running!
That puts us to where we are today, it starts and runs perfectly but there is still a lot of work to be done. Seals on the transfer case and transmission are leaking. All of the other powertrain fluids need to be replaced. Complete brake system needs to be inspected and most importantly the door seals need to be replaced.
The block was frozen due to sitting in place since 97, so we had to take the head off and free up the block. We then ordered any gasket/seal/grommet/hose from the pushrod cover up, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap & rotor, fuel pump, water pump, thermostat and battery. After I got the head back on we rebuilt the carb and did a quick cold valve adjustment to fire it up, set the ignition timing, and perform a hot valve adjustment. I am more skilled than an average diy'er but don't do any mechanical work for a living. It was great bonding time working on the FJ40 with him and he even said the FJ40 never ran as good as it did after we got it running!
That puts us to where we are today, it starts and runs perfectly but there is still a lot of work to be done. Seals on the transfer case and transmission are leaking. All of the other powertrain fluids need to be replaced. Complete brake system needs to be inspected and most importantly the door seals need to be replaced.
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As 
Yes, that is my 05 AP2 and 91 Civic Si next to it. I am also restoring an 87 LT250R to take to the dunes once it's all ready 
