Building My 1st 40 - A 1976 Redhead Named Fancy

[a_traut_man]

@77mustard40 sounds like a plan, may have to put you to work though. got a few items on the list that require more than two hands, or at least the experience of someone who has done it before.

 

[77mustard40]

@77mustard40 sounds like a plan, may have to put you to work though. got a few items on the list that require more than two hands, or at least the experience of someone who has done it before.

Let me know, I'm in. I'll be out of town later this month so maybe sometime in June

 

[EmanC]

Any reason you went this the SOR foam and CCOT covers vs all SOR?

 

[a_traut_man]

@EmanC The CCOT covers were less expensive by about $150 when I bought them, looked easier to install based on the instructions I could find (purely subjective, not sure if this is a reality) and I wanted them in black. I thought the quality was pretty good and all in all I'm very happy with them minus my own screw ups on the install

 

[a_traut_man]

Decided to brave the heat and got around to installing the re-covered seats and a bracket extension kit from Classic Cruisers for the drivers side, sure is nice not sitting in a pile of foam and dog hair while being pushed up against the steering wheel.

Next little project will be some wiring fixes under the hood and once this 100 deg heatwave passes doing a coolant system flush and replacing some hoses.

 

[a_traut_man]

Been a long time since I’ve made any updates but some big progress over the last few weeks.
Finally got the kinks worked out and she is tagged and fully legal so no more just cruising around the neighborhood.
Center console delivered yesterday and working on figuring out a rear bench set up to support a car seat. Aiming to get the top off in the next week or so but before that I’m trying to get the paint fully cleaned up, made some good progress today getting the oxidation off, all original paint is looking pretty good.

Plan is to keep working my way around the 40 and have it all nice and shiny before popping the top. Goal is to do a famiky style top and will work out a conduit pipe situation to support it while figuring out what to do about a family cage. Coming in close behind that is getting the radio working.

 

[a_traut_man]

Have some time off this week so made a bit more progress on paint clean up.
After working a bit by hand the other week I decided to order a 1” buffer adapter for my Griots G8 mini to really get in there between the window trim and the windows/top and it did not disappoint, so glad I ordered it.

Haven’t touched the driver side yet but passenger is almost done. I also need to do some research on how to freshen up the original front turn signals because after seeing how much shine the paint still has I really don’t want to put a worn out looking turn signal back on but keeping as much original as possible is the goal.

I really wish I had the room to disassemble and really deep clean but at this point I’ll take what I can get.

 

[Chungas Revenge]

A lot of products out there. This is a pretty decent one. A little spend-y. Works really well on acrylic.


PLASTICRAFT

• 744 West Nyack Rd West Nyack, NY 10994
• (845) 358-3010
• ecom@plastic-craft.com

Micro-Mesh KR-70 - Aircraft Window Restoration Kit
Micro-Mesh(tm) has been used extensively in military and commercial applications to restore damaged windows and canopies.

 

[a_traut_man]

Still have some detail work to do around hinges and the windshield frame but she is shining now. Next step is figuring out the best way to get this top off and store it, cause lord knows our little garage doesn’t have the space.

This morning

Now

 

[a_traut_man]

Been getting some stuff knocked out over the last two weeks. I went with the CCOT rear flip bench and have had it sitting in my garage since May. Got around to pulling the old jump seats and heater and the bench installed in just a couple of hours.

Also installed my CCOT center console. Bit annoyed with the transmission lever hitting the console, I know it was all about getting more space in there but I would rather have a little less console room and NOT have to modify the shifter considering the console is made for this application.
Since I have done the seat adjustment on the drivers side to get a couple of extra inches of leg room I did have to remove and modify the right hand bracket to clear the base for the console.

All in all though real happy with the finished product and loving having an arm rest.

 

[a_traut_man]

After years of talking about taking the top off I finally bit the bullet and just did it and don't know why it took me so long.
All of the hardware came out nice and easy and was a two man operation to pop the top off and get it moved out of the way. Whole new experience, now the next step is to some kind of bikini top.

What is anyone doing about a trail cover or similar? I don't have garage space to park it but also don't want it getting rained on and all that. I've looked all over Mud and can't find anyone that has come in to fill the void of Dirt Road and trail covers. Tried a cheap jeep TJ cover and it just doesn't quite get there.
The kids were pretty dang excited.

Also, the top of the tub where the top mated to it was a weird seafoam-like color, along with the dowels that slide in right behind the doors. Does anyone know if that is the primer color? Did toyota paint them with the top already on?

 

[pb4ugo]

I have a freeborn red 75 FJ40 and it appears to have a gray primer under the red. Like on your fenders and hood. When I bought paint for mine, the paint store supplied gray primer also. I'm guessing the 40 was painted with the top on. When I took it off the paint around the top rail was light to nonexistent.

 

[pb4ugo]

Come to think about it i did find a greenish tint under the primer and under the cowl hood hinges. Maybe it was some kind of sealer.

 

[a_traut_man]

Come to think about it i did find a greenish tint under the primer and under the cowl hood hinges. Maybe it was some kind of sealer.

That sounds like what I’m seeing. My hood where the paint has patina’d away shows the grey primer in spots, the greenish color just surprised me. Sealer makes sense, especially for areas that wouldn’t normally be exposed.

 

[pb4ugo]

Your top rail looks a little better than mine did. The most prevalent greenish color was under the hood cowl hinges.

 

[a_traut_man]

Working on rigging up a bikini top frame so I can run a family top and keep the kids covered in the back seat.

Got my hands on an old jeep YJ soft top frame and I think it will work out pretty well, adding in a couple of braces with 3/4”emt and some brackets I found online. Hopefully this time next week it will be ready to go.

 

[a_traut_man]

Still needs a bit of fine tuning but excluding the SOR family top I’ve got about $45 and 2 hours into this.

Finding Maker Pipe and their EMT fittings (which the jeep frame tubing OD matches 3/4emt) made a huge difference.

Just need to trim the long tubes back a bit so the top will turn that corner and it will be ready to go.

 

[Martyt]

Nice find from San Diego— we don’t get much bad weather here— hence the lack of any meaningful rust on your rig— good luck on your build!!!

 

[a_traut_man]

Nice find from San Diego— we don’t get much bad weather here— hence the lack of any meaningful rust on your rig— good luck on your build!!!

Not gonna lie, sometimes I wonder why the heck did I find one in San Diego and drag it back to TX, then I work on it and see nothing is rotten, stuck, or otherwise and I’m like “yeah, that’s why”