Copper and Rust (72 FJ40) (1 Viewer)

[BeerFit]

I think I’m going to go the route of pulling the body all the way off the frame. It’s a lot more work but at least I know I will be able to get all of the rust. The parts of the body that I thought were ok have about 1/2” of bondo and are not I. Great condition. Here are a couple of pics of the progress.

 

[BeerFit]

Pics

 

[archie73]

The advantage of doing bodywork on the frame is that it will keep it in proper specs. Kinda like a jig. This does nothing however when you need to body mounts. My advice is do as much as you can on the frame and continue bracing. Enjoy the madness.

 

[BeerFit]

We’ll…. I found out last week that I will be moving to the Pittsburgh area. Now my timeline to get the rug back “driving” again is pretty accelerated.

Question for you guys. Are the rear corner panels spot welded to the rear sill support (in the curved portion)? The quarters are not going in as smoothly as I had hoped and I may need to weld them to get them to sit right but I also don’t want to do something that is totally out of the box.

 

[BeerFit]

1 quarter down.

 

[BeerFit]

I got the quarter panels done and started reassembly. I am not reconditioning as much as I had planned because I’m up against the clock (I need to get the garage presentable before we start showing the house). I like the stance with the 35” tires and no body lift. I got it running for the first time today and I was very happy until I noticed the massive puddle of transmission fluid under the fj40. It sprayed all over the back of the engine. The leak appears to have stopped after I turned the engine off. Now I need to research th400s and why this could have happened. I did disconnect and re-connect the linkage from the transmission. I wonder if I have too much pressure in the selector switch? Who knows. On the plus side, the transmission fluid looks to be in great condition.

 

[cruisermatt]

Did you do anything with the transmission cooler lines when you were moving the body?

 

[BeerFit]

I did not touch the cooler tans cooler lines. I will need to install a new radiator (this one is about 3 inches too tall) but that project is on hold until I get it moved. I was reading last night that th400s that have been sitting can leak after starting up for the first time. I’m not sure I want to try it again though.

 

[BeerFit]

I finally got Humpty Dumpty back together enough to ship. The final product is not what I was hoping for and I wish I could have changed the radiator so I didn’t need the pool noodles. The current radiator is about 2” too tall. The transmission leak fixed itself. After doing a lot of research it sounds like the torque converter on a th400 can drain back into the pan while sitting for a while. Starting up with a very high level caused the ATF spray. After running, the TC refilled and the level came back down to normal. I’m still not happy with how she runs overall. Either a motor rebuild or swap will be in the cards the next time I start tearing her apart.

 

[BeerFit]

I’m up here in Pennsylvania now. I redid the corner panels. I was a little rushed by the move and they weren’t as strait as I wanted. I also redid the rocker panels. I had a lot of rust/rot underneath that I cut out and repaired with 16 gauge steel. The main floor panels look good. The rot was in the floor between the inner and outer rocker panels.

While I was at it, I moved the rear axle back 3.5” by flipping the springs, and I moved the wheel well back by the same amount.

I am getting close to finishing the rebuild of an Ls 4.8. I will install it and the matching 4l60e after it is rebuilt. The next step will be to remove the 327 and th400. If you know anyone who wants a th400 setup with an advance adapter to a LC transfer case let me know. I will be looking to sell them in a feeble attempt to recoup some costs.

 

[cruisermatt]

Good choice on the wheelbase stretch and going Gen 3. We just finished up a build with that setup here.
Going split-case too hopefully?

 

[BeerFit]

Yes on the split case. I have an Orion on it now that I am planning to fit to the new transmission.