AA Ron's FJ40 refresh
- Thread starter airon23
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- Thread starter
- #42
Well I finally "finished" the refresh on the doors. I use that term loosely because after getting the doors back together and mounted with the weatherstripping I find out/remember the driver side outside handle was having some issues. I think the thickness of the weatherstrip makes it too tight for the outside handle to work so I had to reach inside to open the door. So I need new latches is the bottom line.
For reference, I used the CityRacer weatherstripping for the doors and applied with 3M Black super weatherstrip and gasket Adhesive. Let me just say that I think they are great! Excellent fit for the doors and easy application too. I will say that I was confused about which way it went for about 2 mins. I almost was going to put it on up side down basically. But I turned it over and saw the error of my ways. I think it turned out really good and closes tight onto my landcruiser.
For reference, I used the CityRacer weatherstripping for the doors and applied with 3M Black super weatherstrip and gasket Adhesive. Let me just say that I think they are great! Excellent fit for the doors and easy application too. I will say that I was confused about which way it went for about 2 mins. I almost was going to put it on up side down basically. But I turned it over and saw the error of my ways. I think it turned out really good and closes tight onto my landcruiser.
- Thread starter
- #43
Here's what it looked like on the truck in a poorly lit garage picture, and then on out in the day. You can clearly see the difference in paint between the doors and the rest of the landcruiser, but it's still a pretty good match. I like that it is all one color finally. Now I'll have to put on the hardtop sides and top to complete a big part of my refresh project.
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- #44
Also a video of how I put the doors back together with one correction that I sort of had to back track and put the inner and outer window felts lines in before finalizing the window in place. Made for a real pita trying to fit those in after the fact. I scratched them up a little bit trying to put them in but hey it sort of goes with the rest of the FJ40 right.
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- #45
I should be receiving my gear box from Mark tomorrow and will try to put that in over the weekend. So the next thing I will be doing is prepping to pull out the old one and make room for the new one. Wish me luck, yet another thing I have never done but am excited to learn.
Thats interesting. Looks like i put my weatherstripping on backwards
- Thread starter
- #47
Or I did mine backwards lol. But like I said I tried it both ways and this one just made more sense. @Racer65 can you confirm one way or the other? Because I feel like I have seen someone on here put it on and I think it looked a little bit different.Thats interesting. Looks like i put my weatherstripping on backwards
But the way I did it made sense to me.
Your way is probably right. My way does not seal at all along the top of the doors. Lucky it never rains here!
- Thread starter
- #49
Ok so I think I'm calling this my refresh finale even though I still have a bunch of other mechanical stuff to refresh and perform regular maintenance on throughout the recently dubbed Rusty Smurf. Also I think I need to officially change my avatar picture now that it has been made all sky blue.
This was a super busy weekend with all that I was able to get done with the help of a friend for some of it.
So here's all the things I did this weekend...
I badly needed a new/rebuilt steering box. I talked to @65swb45 and bought one which arrived Saturday.
With the instructions Mark gave me with steps to pull the old one, it's almost as if he has done it before, it came out easily.
Step1: Disconnect battery
Step2: Unbolt the gas pedal housing
Step3: Unbolt the steering column-to-firewall plate (3 bolts)
Step4: Loosen column supports under steering column just under gauge cluster (2 bolts)
Step5: Take out coupler (2 nuts) and slide the column up
Step6: Remove the heat shield from steering box (3bolts)
Step7: Remove the big nut holding the pitman arm and remove pitman arm with puller
Step8: Remove 4 bolts/nuts from steering box and take it out by twisting and turning through the bottom
Side note, as Mark predicted, I did in fact break the washer fluid reservoir. But the joke's on him, with closer inspection I saw it was already broken and siliconed back together like humpty dumpty by the PO. I on the other hand tossed it and will just find a replacement.
Thanks Mark the rebuilt steering box works beautifully!
This was a super busy weekend with all that I was able to get done with the help of a friend for some of it.
So here's all the things I did this weekend...
I badly needed a new/rebuilt steering box. I talked to @65swb45 and bought one which arrived Saturday.
With the instructions Mark gave me with steps to pull the old one, it's almost as if he has done it before, it came out easily.
Step1: Disconnect battery
Step2: Unbolt the gas pedal housing
Step3: Unbolt the steering column-to-firewall plate (3 bolts)
Step4: Loosen column supports under steering column just under gauge cluster (2 bolts)
Step5: Take out coupler (2 nuts) and slide the column up
Step6: Remove the heat shield from steering box (3bolts)
Step7: Remove the big nut holding the pitman arm and remove pitman arm with puller
Step8: Remove 4 bolts/nuts from steering box and take it out by twisting and turning through the bottom
Side note, as Mark predicted, I did in fact break the washer fluid reservoir. But the joke's on him, with closer inspection I saw it was already broken and siliconed back together like humpty dumpty by the PO. I on the other hand tossed it and will just find a replacement.
Thanks Mark the rebuilt steering box works beautifully!
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- Thread starter
- #50
Another thing we worked on was removing/replacing the tie rod ends which I also got at the same time from Mark. The truck badly needed new tie rod ends as well. It pretty much badly needs a lot of things but I can't do them all at once.
So we replaced all the tie rod ends with new 555 tie rod ends.
One thing we noticed was a second steering dampener had been installed previously (custom), and was bolted into the driver side bump stop for the knuckle. Our only guess was that they put that in to try to account for all the extra play that existed from the blown steering box. So I chose not to put that back on now that the steering box is all better.
One thing I failed to get was the rebuild kit for the drag link. That will have to come at another time. For now we tightened it as much as we could and threw it back in.
So we replaced all the tie rod ends with new 555 tie rod ends.
One thing we noticed was a second steering dampener had been installed previously (custom), and was bolted into the driver side bump stop for the knuckle. Our only guess was that they put that in to try to account for all the extra play that existed from the blown steering box. So I chose not to put that back on now that the steering box is all better.
One thing I failed to get was the rebuild kit for the drag link. That will have to come at another time. For now we tightened it as much as we could and threw it back in.
- Thread starter
- #51
My seat belts for both driver and passenger were not mounted properly so I bought the metal pieces to mount the seat belt ends to the bottom or the roll bar. Works great and feels better when using.
Next I got started on putting on all the new weatherstripping I bought from City Racer. By the way I can't say enough how good the weatherstrip pieces were and just how well they all fit as I would expect OEM.
Next I got started on putting on all the new weatherstripping I bought from City Racer. By the way I can't say enough how good the weatherstrip pieces were and just how well they all fit as I would expect OEM.
- Thread starter
- #53
Now with all this new fresh weatherstripping in place it was time to get an early start on fall/winter preparations. I've enjoyed riding all variations of topless, soft top, and bikini top, but it's time to get that hardtop back on. I was especially excited after all the work I've been doing leading up to this moment with the hardtop and doors.
New headliner looks great!
New headliner looks great!
- Thread starter
- #54
At this point it was starting to get late but I had come this far and was going to be busy Sunday so I would rather finish it up Saturday even though I had been working all day on this. I started working on it at 9:30am and finished around 12:00am. But I honestly had so much fun and just seeing it all come together was super rewarding for me so it didn't seem like so much work rather fun.
Last were the ambulance doors which are in really good shape actually. This is one thing I sort of wished I would have not tried to rush through because some parts ended up not adhering as well as they could have but it was late and I was running low on 3M adhesive. So I may need to go back and re-do some or all of the weatherstrips on the ambulance doors but for the end of the night they turned out what I thought was ok.
Last were the ambulance doors which are in really good shape actually. This is one thing I sort of wished I would have not tried to rush through because some parts ended up not adhering as well as they could have but it was late and I was running low on 3M adhesive. So I may need to go back and re-do some or all of the weatherstrips on the ambulance doors but for the end of the night they turned out what I thought was ok.
- Thread starter
- #55
So finished up mounting the doors and just took a few late night pictures before heading to bed.
These pictures don't look so late but it was actually around midnight but google has a night vision camera setting that takes pretty decent pics in the dark.
These pictures don't look so late but it was actually around midnight but google has a night vision camera setting that takes pretty decent pics in the dark.
- Thread starter
- #56
So today I took some finale photos of how it came out. Again, I'm really excited how it all turned out. It isn't perfect and isn't going to win any shows or anything, but sort of like a parent sees their own child as the most precious and beautiful creation to walk the earth, that's sort of how I feel about this thing. It's like we have formed this bond from just me being able to work on nearly everything and everything else that will come in the future. It's been a blast and I look forward to making it right in all the other areas needed.
Finale picture...
Lastly, for me, this is what it's all about. I mentioned to my family if they wanted to go for a quick drive this evening and my kids eyes lit up and were begging so I even got my wife to say she wanted to come and so we all took a Sunday family drive. These are the moments I will remember and I hope this old Landcruiser will continue to provide me and my family.
Finale picture...
Lastly, for me, this is what it's all about. I mentioned to my family if they wanted to go for a quick drive this evening and my kids eyes lit up and were begging so I even got my wife to say she wanted to come and so we all took a Sunday family drive. These are the moments I will remember and I hope this old Landcruiser will continue to provide me and my family.
Well done! Reading through, it reminded me once again of the ‘rush to the finish line’ so many of us have experienced over the years. I’d pat you on the back if I was there. That’s a chunk of work for anyone with a full time job and a family.When you’re ready to tackle the rear end, put the rear axle on jack stands, pop the diff cover and call me and we’ll talk about what you’re looking at.
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BTW, if you change your avatar, I won’t recognize you! 
Man, this is a very cool thread. Well done on the refresh. It's an obvious labor of love. You did an amazing job on the roof. Looking forward to your next project...