Building Colonel Rustard, My 1975 FJ40

[DailyDrive_FJ45]

A little over a week ago I picked up my first Land Cruiser, a 1975 FJ40 (technically... I also have a 2007 FJ Cruiser) for $1400 from a guy about 60 miles away from me. In its previous life it had been a farm rig. The farmer died and it sat for a good 10 years or so...

The guy I bought it from purchased the cruiser from the farmer's son and intended to use parts from it as a donor for a 1971 he had a fiberglass tub on, and intended to drop a SBC into... sigh...

Luckily he lost interest in the project and decided to sell them before he did too much damage. He originally wanted to sell both together, but found a buyer for the '71, and he called me to offer me the '75. About 2 weeks later my father-in-law and I got to haul it home.

Allow me to introduce... Colonel Rustard!

Once my father-in-law and I hauled the FJ home we needed to find a good place to work on it...

Since I have no garage, and his garage is taken up by a 1952 Dodge Power Wagon that's his baby we needed to do some thinking on the matter...

Luckily we had some resources at our disposal... namely the family's old carpet business warehouse. With a phone call to Grandma the keys were ours and we hauled the Colonel over. We had to move a little bit of carpet (about 2 tons worth...) to get access to the garage door, but once that was out of the way we gave the Colonel access to a nice HUGE & DRY warehouse for the duration of the build...

It will be a great place to work on this with all of the shelves to keep things organized and most importantly plenty of space!

Over the past week I've been putting in a ton of work getting all the crap cleaned out of the tub, and letting the piston rings soak in Marvel Mystery Oil. The engine is seized pretty good, but after pulling the oil pan today I was able to rule out the bearings... which was a huge victory for me! I have no doubts I'll have the 2F back up and running fairly soon. After that I just have to deal with the tub...which is a MESS... Luckily the frame is SOLID, not even a bit of rot on it

Here's what i've got to work with...

 

[Zang469]

Good luck with the build, I've seen alot worse as far as tubs go.

 

[Thornton]

She's a creampuff. Congrats on your purchase and good luck on your build.

 

[krzyabncanuck]

Good times ahead here.

Looks like an old cherry bomb muffler on it.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Looks like fun. MIke

 

[DailyDrive_FJ45]

Thanks! It's been a fun week so far working on it. There's a lot of good things still there... It appears to be mostly original, and I have all of the parts sitting in the warehouse. The previous owner was kind enough to go ahead and strip EVERYTHING out of it. Saved me some work in that regard anyway.....

The plan is to get the engine running then start patching some of the worst parts of the tub. I'll be learning to weld on this build actually...

For now I just want it to be safe and driveable. I already have a reliable DD/offroad rig (my FJC), and just want this to be a fun weekend/ good weather driver...

Eventually when I have more funds at my disposal ( once the is finished with dental school) my father-in-law and I will do a proper frame-off restoration and replace the tub (or at least the rear 3/4) with a new steel tub.

I'm not turning this into a wheeling rig with huge tires or anything... although it will see some trails. There's plenty around here (WV). I plan to keep it fairly stock. I just want to have fun with it.

 

[spottydog]

looks like a great project!

Nice find

 

[DailyDrive_FJ45]

Good times ahead here.

Looks like an old cherry bomb muffler on it.

Haha.... yeah the rear 2/3rds of the exhaust was tied on to the frame with bailing wire, and was no longer connected to the front 1/3rd..

I tore that off today...

 

[twoyotas]

nice find, and great name. nice workspace, that will help out big time.

 

[DailyDrive_FJ45]

Ok.. question now. I'm starting to worry about this engine. It's been sitting for 10 years. It WILL NOT hand crank with the plugs out. It won't even budge if I put it in gear and rock it...

It's been sitting with MMO down the spark plug holes for over a week now. Have been adding more every day, and it appears to be seeping through from what I can tell with the oil pan off.

It's definitely seeping through 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 as I can see it start to drip after adding it to these cylinders. I'm not sure about 5... it seems to be working, but slowly.

I have not pulled the bearing caps to see if any were spun, but nothing looks out of the ordinary under there, and there were no metal shavings in the oil pan. I can pull the caps to inspect, but I really don't think it's the bearings.

Could the rings REALLY be this stuck?!?! Or am I looking at something more serious causing this engine to be seized....

 

[SteveH]

It's probably the rings, given that the oil pan wasn't full of water. I would continue to be patient. Have you put a 4' cheater bar on the socket of the crank, and given it some serious pressure? I think you will need to use this type of persuasion. Rocking in gear it likely won't do it. There are more 'redneck' solutions like towing it at 20mph, and popping the clutch, but those can have unintended consequences and I don't recommend it. You might put some ATF in the cylinders - but MMO might work as well - hard to say.

 

[DailyDrive_FJ45]

It's probably the rings, given that the oil pan wasn't full of water. I would continue to be patient. Have you put a 4' cheater bar on the socket of the crank, and given it some serious pressure? I think you will need to use this type of persuasion. Rocking in gear it likely won't do it. There are more 'redneck' solutions like towing it at 20mph, and popping the clutch, but those can have unintended consequences and I don't recommend it. You might put some ATF in the cylinders - but MMO might work as well - hard to say.

I was thinking of maybe trying diesel in the cylinders next.. I've heard it works better than ATF.

As far as water in the oil... there was none. The oil was actually surprisingly clean, and there wasn't even any sludge in the bottom of the pan

I haven't put a cheater bar on the socket yet, mostly because I can't actually get to it. There's some sort of metal shield covering it from underneath that I'll need to cut off (rusty screws holding it on). I was trying to hand crank with the OEM starter handle...

Out of curiosity, what size socket do I need for the crank nut?

 

[cjgoode]

I would let if soak and keep adding MMO, I would wait atleast two weeks before putting serious preasure to try and turn it, but would not hurt to try reasonable pressure to turn it.

You should able to fab up a simple hand crank to try and turn it, the front nut has a place to put a bar in to turn it, and it can slide under the radiator to get to it. Search this site for hand crank for what the original one looked like.

 

[DailyDrive_FJ45]

I would let if soak and keep adding MMO, I would wait atleast two weeks before putting serious preasure to try and turn it, but would not hurt to try reasonable pressure to turn it.

You should able to fab up a simple hand crank to try and turn it, the front nut has a place to put a bar in to turn it, and it can slide under the radiator to get to it. Search this site for hand crank for what the original one looked like.

I have one of the OEM hand cranks... can't get it to budge with that...

 

[subzali]

that metal plate is probably the OE splash guard...

 

[DailyDrive_FJ45]

that metal plate is probably the OE splash guard...

Yeah... it appeared to be OE... with the OE rust. That sucker's not coming off easily

 

[ingomar]

There is a rust penetrant product called Kroil made by Kano Labs ( they have a website, and sell direct ). Of all the "snake oils" I've tried, this is the best stuff. You might want to try some in the cylinders, and it'll work well for frozen bolts/nuts, too.
Good Luck!

 

[DailyDrive_FJ45]

There is a rust penetrant product called Kroil made by Kano Labs ( they have a website, and sell direct ). Of all the "snake oils" I've tried, this is the best stuff. You might want to try some in the cylinders, and it'll work well for frozen bolts/nuts, too.
Good Luck!

My father in law has a can of that. He loves the stuff, not only because it's a good penetrant, but b/c it doesn't smell like @#$% like PB Blaster does...

..I've been looking for it unsuccessfully in stores but suppose I could just put an order in..

 

[DailyDrive_FJ45]

Hmm... apparently they have a "google deal" 2 13oz cans for $12+ S&H... order placed!

 

[Walton]

Don't let a little surface rust scare ya! Nice find, and keep posting up the progress.