jayster, you've got a great place to start! With a little (actually more than a little) elbow grease, a few hand tools including an angle grinder with a wire wheel on it, a shop vac, some rattle can Rustoleum, factory service and body manuals, you can have that rig looking like a million bucks! Don't worry about your or your son's lack of experience. I can't think of anything better to learn on - unless it would have been my first Harley, a 1959 XLCH Sportster - than an FJ40. Everything is heavy duty and petty simple technology from the '60s, no electronics to speak of, no computers, no OBD or test equipment needed except maybe a multi-meter and timing light. Oh, I would add to the things I mentioned some Ole Red - equal parts of Kerosene (or diesel fuel), acetone, mineral spirits (or paint thinner), and automatic transmission fluid which makes the best penetrating fluid/rust dissolver you can find. Put it in a metal squirt-type oil can (it destroys plastic spray bottles pretty fast) and shoot on every nut and bolt before you try to loosen them. Some good deep wall 6 pt sockets are a must and air tools can be handy too.
Some of the real pluses I noticed from your pics:
- '76 is a great year, 2F, disc brakes in front, 4 speed, etc.
- your engine looks like it has all the smog controls, vacuum hoses, stock carb and air cleaner, miscellaneous brackets and clamps, even the rubber air intake hose uncracked, in tact. These are the things that nickel and dime you to death!
- your seats front and rear look great, there's a savings of nearly $500 for new covers
-I don't know when I've seen steering knuckles as oil/grease free as yours, surely not on the '71, '76, or '77 that I've owned (but my '78 is much better)
Others referenced new sill and quarter panels and if you want to do it right that's the way to go if you have the bucks. But if you want to save some bucks you can fab a sill with steel tubing you can get from a local steel supplier, I've done this on 2 or 3 rigs. You can also buy a small household current Lincoln or Miller (or cheapo) MIG welder, some 16 gauge sheet metal and you and your son can learn to weld, something you'll be happy to know if you stay in this or any other car/truck/motorcycle hobby, fab your own patch panels and have money left over compared to what buying prefabbed panels can cost. I agree with the others in getting it to run, stop, steer. I'd add to get all the instruments and lighting working which is a snap with a wiring diagram, soldering iron, heat shrink tubing and LOTS OF PATIENCE!
The only thing I can see off the top of my head that could cost you some bucks is a new dash and even then you could go with a plastic cap or look around for an uncracked used original.
Good luck and ih8mud is the place to be for all kinds of good advice!
Pete
