Hi all, so I've been lurking on here off and on for quite some time now, and I'm in need of a little motivation. I have a 1972 fj40 that I picked up in Bend Oregon in December of 2015, luckily it was running and driving when I purchased it, so I was able to enjoy it for a while before tearing into it.
So I started off with a relatively solid base. there definitely was some rust but overall I felt it was pretty solid especially after seeing some pictures of other projects on here. Although it had rust in most of the usual places. The rear sill was the worst of it, but there was rust in both quarter panels and rear corners, as well as the rocker panels under the front doors.
Although it technically was running and driving ( I actually got lost during the test drive, and ended up driving around for about 30 minutes) the brakes needed some attention. So when I got it home to Northern California I decided to do a disk brake swap all the way around. I ended up doing the chevy disk swap just for the availability of parts basically anywhere. But as I said before I tore into it I drove it all over even with the old bald 33/9.50 BFG's. But i took it on some light off road trails fairly local to my house where the bald BFGs gave me a little trouble.
In the first Pic I'm stuck in a creek crossing, where we thought we could make divert a large tree that had fallen during the winter. Unfortunately i got hung up on the old flat leaf springs and the bald tires didn't help much even aired down to 10psi. And in the middle picture, it's hard to tell but that is a pretty steep descent and on the way back up we ended up tearing up the trail, due to the soft muddy surface. That ended up being a 2 hour debacle just to go the 3/4 mile back uphill.
Shortly after this adventure I left to work the fire season with the Forest Service so my project would be put on hold for a couple of months. When I got back I decided I was brave enough to start cutting out the rot and replacing with new sheet metal, as well as learn to weld.
Here it as at the first stages of the tear down.
Here it is after pulling the tub off of the frame and starting to asses the rust situation.
New sheet metal going in. I ended up replacing the entire drivers side quarter panel, as well as the entire rocker panel.
As I said this was the first time I had ever welded, so there definitely was a learning curve.
This corner ended up being a lot harder to do than I thought. If I had to do it all over again I probably would have replaced this entire quarter panel as well.
I replaced the bottom corner of the quarter panel that meets the rocker, as well as patched the passenger side rocker instead of replacing the whole thing.
Her is a better look at the drivers side rocker, I replaced the entire outer panel.
Lining up the rear sill, Im doing the best I can with what I've got as well as on a college kids budget. ( Hence the Harbor Freight welder)
I ended up having to rework that corner twice to get it to line up.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the progress I've made after replacing these panels. But this is not going to be a show truck by any means, I just wanted it to be solid and prevent any more rust from exposing itself as best as I can. This entire project has been a do it yourself type ordeal and this is my first project of this magnitude. The reason I purchased a land cruiser is because my dad had one when he was my age, so I would hear just the fun and quircky stories him and my mom had with it. Unfortunately he ended up rolling it on a levee road long before I was born. But my goal with this truck is to lightly restomod it. I originally was going to put a fuel injected 2f in it and keep it entirely Toyota, although my plans haven't entirely changed, I hope to make it slightly more capable off road while keeping it fairly original. I hope to eventually get 2.5" OME suspension, as well as ARB lockers and put a fresh set of 33" BFGs on. The F motor that is in it is fairly strong, I have not taken a compression check on it yet, but it has a fair amount of power and cruises pretty comfortably between 60-65. I do have an F.5 motor that I may steal the head off of. Im not 100% positive if everything will work, being the original motor is a 72 I don't know what I would have to do to address the oiling issues.
I'm thinking of also doing the Mini truck PS conversion since I don't ever plan on running tires bigger than 33"s. I know I would have to replace the original steering column since mine is the early style that is solid all the way down to the box. Ive been debating putting in a tilt column when I do this. Im also really thinking of putting in an sm420 to get the crawl gear for off road use. Basically this project has been off and on for the last 2.5 years, we purchased a 1970 vw westfalia camper that has stolen a bit of time, as well as I saved a 74 fj40 from the local junk yard but didn't have enough funds to manage everything. Im currently living about 3 hours away from my 40, I just got my EMT and will be back with the forest Service come April. Im hoping to at least make some progress this spring and get some fresh paint on the tub and roof panels.
I am definitely open to any encouragement you all have, hopefully my body work hasn't offended anyone. And I hope to have some progress pics up soon, as I will be back with the cruiser by the end of March.
Also what do you guys think for color? I'm debating between Rustic green which I believe was the original color or going with spring green.
So I started off with a relatively solid base. there definitely was some rust but overall I felt it was pretty solid especially after seeing some pictures of other projects on here. Although it had rust in most of the usual places. The rear sill was the worst of it, but there was rust in both quarter panels and rear corners, as well as the rocker panels under the front doors.
Although it technically was running and driving ( I actually got lost during the test drive, and ended up driving around for about 30 minutes) the brakes needed some attention. So when I got it home to Northern California I decided to do a disk brake swap all the way around. I ended up doing the chevy disk swap just for the availability of parts basically anywhere. But as I said before I tore into it I drove it all over even with the old bald 33/9.50 BFG's. But i took it on some light off road trails fairly local to my house where the bald BFGs gave me a little trouble.
In the first Pic I'm stuck in a creek crossing, where we thought we could make divert a large tree that had fallen during the winter. Unfortunately i got hung up on the old flat leaf springs and the bald tires didn't help much even aired down to 10psi. And in the middle picture, it's hard to tell but that is a pretty steep descent and on the way back up we ended up tearing up the trail, due to the soft muddy surface. That ended up being a 2 hour debacle just to go the 3/4 mile back uphill.
Shortly after this adventure I left to work the fire season with the Forest Service so my project would be put on hold for a couple of months. When I got back I decided I was brave enough to start cutting out the rot and replacing with new sheet metal, as well as learn to weld.
Here it as at the first stages of the tear down.
Here it is after pulling the tub off of the frame and starting to asses the rust situation.
New sheet metal going in. I ended up replacing the entire drivers side quarter panel, as well as the entire rocker panel.
As I said this was the first time I had ever welded, so there definitely was a learning curve.
This corner ended up being a lot harder to do than I thought. If I had to do it all over again I probably would have replaced this entire quarter panel as well.
I replaced the bottom corner of the quarter panel that meets the rocker, as well as patched the passenger side rocker instead of replacing the whole thing.
Her is a better look at the drivers side rocker, I replaced the entire outer panel.
Lining up the rear sill, Im doing the best I can with what I've got as well as on a college kids budget. ( Hence the Harbor Freight welder)
I ended up having to rework that corner twice to get it to line up.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the progress I've made after replacing these panels. But this is not going to be a show truck by any means, I just wanted it to be solid and prevent any more rust from exposing itself as best as I can. This entire project has been a do it yourself type ordeal and this is my first project of this magnitude. The reason I purchased a land cruiser is because my dad had one when he was my age, so I would hear just the fun and quircky stories him and my mom had with it. Unfortunately he ended up rolling it on a levee road long before I was born. But my goal with this truck is to lightly restomod it. I originally was going to put a fuel injected 2f in it and keep it entirely Toyota, although my plans haven't entirely changed, I hope to make it slightly more capable off road while keeping it fairly original. I hope to eventually get 2.5" OME suspension, as well as ARB lockers and put a fresh set of 33" BFGs on. The F motor that is in it is fairly strong, I have not taken a compression check on it yet, but it has a fair amount of power and cruises pretty comfortably between 60-65. I do have an F.5 motor that I may steal the head off of. Im not 100% positive if everything will work, being the original motor is a 72 I don't know what I would have to do to address the oiling issues.
I'm thinking of also doing the Mini truck PS conversion since I don't ever plan on running tires bigger than 33"s. I know I would have to replace the original steering column since mine is the early style that is solid all the way down to the box. Ive been debating putting in a tilt column when I do this. Im also really thinking of putting in an sm420 to get the crawl gear for off road use. Basically this project has been off and on for the last 2.5 years, we purchased a 1970 vw westfalia camper that has stolen a bit of time, as well as I saved a 74 fj40 from the local junk yard but didn't have enough funds to manage everything. Im currently living about 3 hours away from my 40, I just got my EMT and will be back with the forest Service come April. Im hoping to at least make some progress this spring and get some fresh paint on the tub and roof panels.
I am definitely open to any encouragement you all have, hopefully my body work hasn't offended anyone. And I hope to have some progress pics up soon, as I will be back with the cruiser by the end of March.
Also what do you guys think for color? I'm debating between Rustic green which I believe was the original color or going with spring green.
