CharlestonG8R's FJ40 Build Thread

[joyRidaz]

Dang that is looking sharp! It even looks like he sprayed the firewall, or was that orig paint in there?

It's amazing how tranformative a gallon or two of paint can be! Once my rust patchwork is done, I'm definitely going down this road.

 

[emac]

Jeremy, it is looking great. What is the scoop on the bumper? I am trying to decide on typa and color for my 8274.

 

[CharlestonG8R]

Dang that is looking sharp! It even looks like he sprayed the firewall, or was that orig paint in there?

It's amazing how tranformative a gallon or two of paint can be! Once my rust patchwork is done, I'm definitely going down this road.

Thanks, George. The original color was white, but since that was rattle canned with black primer, we decided to go to the 1981 color that we liked best. And yes, the firewall has been painted olive as well.

Jeremy, it is looking great. What is the scoop on the bumper? I am trying to decide on typa and color for my 8274.

This is the "Hell for Stout" bumper by CCOT. "Hell for Stout" Bumper by CCOT - FJ40 FJ45 I'd originally wanted a non-winch bumper, but CCOT accidentally sent the winch bumper so I picked up an 8274 off craigslist. The winch isn't hooked up since the solenoids need to be replaced, but that's another story.

 

[emac]

I rebuilt my 8274 recently. One thing I learned about the solenoids that may be helpful. Inside the solenoid there is a flat disc that moves up and down and connects the lugs together. The lugs have a flat part inside the solenoid that mates to the flat disc. If you rotate the lug at all the contact will not be good and it will click, but not transfer enough power. My lugs were rusty and when I removed the wires the lug rotated a little and it caused this problem.

If you carefully drill out the rivets (without breaking the brittle ears) you can open them up and adjust the contact. Then rivet it back together.

Herb the overdrive guy has replacement solenoids.

Herm The Overdrive Guy | Shift into High Gear!

Looking at the CCOT bumper along with a couple of others, thanks.

 

[CharlestonG8R]

Is this the correct fuse block for a 1981 FJ40?

EDIT: Yep, appears to be correct. But alas, everything is not wired where it ought to be... Gotta figure this out...

 

[ErikinSC]

Have you got the Mean Green Machine home yet?

 

[CharlestonG8R]

Have you got the Mean Green Machine home yet?

Not yet, should return this week, though.

 

[joyRidaz]

@CharlestonG8R - give us some pics for inspiration! Also when did the tan forty show up in your avatar and did I miss something?

If I'm interpreting the garage pic correctly, congrats!

 

[CharlestonG8R]

Alrighty! Here, I'll post a few up.

View attachment NCM_0379.JPG

 

[CharlestonG8R]

 

[CharlestonG8R]

 

[CharlestonG8R]

So, it was all a little out of order... But essentially, the PO did some hacking to the wheel well in order to allow the rear tires to flex a bit. It wasn't going to clean up without some work and I didn't want to just cover up the damage with the old fender flares... So I ordered new quarter panels from CCOT. The metal was in much better shape than my original metal and it fit very nicely. I was VERY impressed.

The old tires were 31" and I went up to 33x10.50 BFG KO2's. The picture that many of us know from the CCOT ads was my inspiration for this build. Also, I think it may be the same truck, but since I don't plan to wheel the snot out of this vehicle, I wanted it to look like this:

Generally, I feel like I succeeded. It's not exact, of course, it's not the same year... Different exhaust, suspension, winch, but reasonably close. It's worth pointing out that my exhaust had to be re-routed to accommodate the tires. You can see how it was run in Post #69; if anyone wants to see what it looks like now, I'll take some more pictures.

 

[joyRidaz]

Absolutely amazing! Really cool that you took it down to raw steel and did it the right way! That is also my inspiration. That color turned out amazing. Thanks for the pics.

 

[CharlestonG8R]

Absolutely amazing! Really cool that you took it down to raw steel and did it the right way! That is also my inspiration. That color turned out amazing. Thanks for the pics.

No problem! The other truck is a 1975 HJ45, BTW. It's not currently running; I wanted to finish the 40 before I started in on the 45. The 40 is almost complete, just a few more minor things. The seals on the TC/Tranny are worn and it needs a speedy sleeve; Marshall is going to take on those tasks after the Relic Run. After that, there's really nothing else for the 40, just driving, maintaining, and waiting for something else to go wrong!

 

[CharlestonG8R]

My seat foams were pretty worn out, so I ordered some new foams from SOR. All I needed was for Santa to bring me some time to work on the truck... which he did. The vinyl on my original seats was pretty shot, so @Rice sold me his. They were already torn a bit, but the torn area is hidden towards the back. I guess what I’m trying to say is, original vinyl has character, so I didn’t want to lose it. Anyhow, replacing the foam on the DS was much smoother than the PS. Neither was difficult, so I probably did something wrong. Regardless, they’ll be covered up by the SOR seat covers.

It should be noted that the PS seat bucket was bent pretty bad so I used safety wire instead of hog rings.