Details of Topnault FJ40/45 Bodies (TP auto parts.com) (1 Viewer)

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So, has anyone here purchased a 40 or 45 tub and mounted it with great success? looks to be a very fair price for aftermarket.
 
I bought a 1/2 tub from Topnault for a 1984 BJ42 that I’m restoring. The price and promises from Tim that the quality were up to par were the motivators for giving them a try.

Due to a communication error in their warehouse I was sent a 1/2 tub that had failed quality control, but they handled that well and got a fresh one coming from the factory. This did give me a chance to give it a good look over and I contacted Tim with a few concerns. He assured me that the replacement would be both better in terms of the quality issues, and in terms of the details that were incorrect for a post 1979 tub. The QC stuff was better but the details were still wrong.

I’ve contacted Tim/Topnault to give them a chance to address my concerns, but it’s been 12 days since I sent that email and have had no reply so I’ve decided to post here with my thoughts on their product. Both the good and the bad.

Following is a cut/paste from the email I sent to Tim.

I noted in the email that I put 8.5 labour hours in to fixing these issues.

The first set of issues are ones that I had to correct in order to make the 1/2 tub useable for the project:

-The ends of the rear channel are poorly fit, resulting in a large gap at the top and a space between the outer fender and the rear channel. This is a problem because it will trap debris and will be hard to seal the large gap. Also since the spare tire carrier bolts through both pieces the gap would cause major distortion of the outer fender when bolting on the tire carrier. I've corrected this by making a slit in the channel, clamping it against the outer fender, and welding the slit back closed.

-The upper spare tire mount reinforcement did not fit due to the fender height (measured top of inner fender to top of outer fender) being incorrect. To correct this I had to cut a section out of the reinforcement before installing it in the corner of the fender.

-The captured nut bracket for the rear doors was installed poorly on the right side resulting in a gap between the outer body skin and the bracket. I corrected this by drilling out the spot welds on the bracket and reinstalling it correctly with no gap.

-The wheel well support channels that the roll cage bolts to from above were not present. These are on every 40 Series sold in North America that I'm aware of, and I addressed this in a previous email to Tim. These will be expected by North American restorers. I have sourced them from another supplier and will be installing them on this tub.

-The rear marker lights holes were not present. They would have lined up with the panel join (which is not present on original outer fenders), so I had to move it forward approx 2" which makes it not in the stock location.

-The edges of many of the sheet metal panels have kerf/slag along their edges, which would make for a rough finish and for the final paint job to have thin areas at sheet edges possibly resulting in rust issues later on. This I corrected by lightly grinding the edges of sheets where I could get to. This should have been done at the factory before the panels were joined together.

-The floor reinforcement channels were both in the incorrect locations. Tim, I addressed this with you and you assured me they would be correct. They were not, and didn't match the picture you sent showing them correct. The rearmost one had to be moved forward 1", while the forward one had to be moved 1 5/8" forward. To do this I had to drill out every spot weld attaching them to the floor and re-weld them in the correct locations. Also, at the ends of these channels was an angled section which is not present on the factory channels, nor should it be as the body mounts that these line up with are a flat section on the frame. You can refer to previous emails where I provided information and pictures of the way these should have been made.

-The fuel tank brackets were not made to fit like the original ones, nor were the bolt holes in the correct locations. This would have resulted in the fuel tank not fitting properly, and the straps being difficult to line up correctly to bolt the tank into place. To correct this I removed the brackets from the old tub, modified them to fit the step-up near the front of the floor pan being in the wrong place (more on that later), and installed them on the new tub floor. It was fortunate that the brackets on the old tub were in good enough condition that I was able to re-use them.

All these issues took me 8.5 labour hours to correct
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Next I detailed the issues that were not up to OEM spec, but didn’t make the 1/2 tub unusable. If I was doing a concourse restoration I wouldn’t consider their 1/2 tubs adequate for the job. This truck is supposed to be “nice”, but will be driven and is not going to be perfect.

Here’s the next batch of issues, again pasted from my email to Topnault.

The following are issues that make the 1/2 tub not "correct" compared to an original Toyota tub, but which I have not corrected. If I was embarking on a restoration where I was trying to keep the truck extremely original and stock appearing I would not have been able to use your 1/2 tub as these issues would not be acceptable for a high quality restoration. My client is looking for a "very good" restoration, but not particular about having it perfect, so I went ahead and used your 1/2 tub.

-The inner fender heights (measured top of fender to top of tub) are different than stock and are also inconsistent within the tub itself. This is purely a quality control issue. It caused the above mentioned spare tire carrier reinforcement bracket to not fit correctly, and will have some impact on the rear Jump-Seats not fitting correctly.

-The inner fender lengths (measured from rear corner to the bend downwards near the front of the fenders) are not the same, differing by approximately 1". The original ones are identical in length. This should be corrected in future tubs.

-The main floor has a step up near the front. This step is 1" further forward than original. This causes fit up issues with the fuel tank brackets as mentioned above.

-The width of the floor pan is not consistent front-to-rear. This is a quality control problem. This undoubtedly causes inner fender fit problems.

-The spot welds that are visible on the outer fender panels are quite pronounced and some are dimpled inwards on the panels. The original tubs had visible spot welds from factory, and in a factory original restoration it would be correct to leave them visible. Since the Topnault ones are so pronounced though, it would look non-original and would need to be filled. I believe the primary causes for this are dimensional inaccuracies of the floor pan and inner fenders, resulting in the panels being pulled tight when the spot welds are done.

-The vertical panel join near the outside rear corners is not present on original tubs. While I appreciate that you may be offering just the corners as a restoration part, complete fender sides should be offered, and would be "correct" for a proper restoration. I'm going to have to have this panel join filled prior to final paint.

-The rear channel is not as tall as original, so I'll be needing to shim the rear body mounts by somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2" when installing the body to the frame.
 
The overall dimensions of the 1/2 tub were good and I was able to get it square and level with the front half without much trouble. The fact that the tubs are e-coated is a nice touch and hopefully will keep corrosion at bay. Of course I’ll be seam-sealing every join that I can get at and rust proofing all the cavities regardless.

I also ordered inner and outer rocker panels from them and they were very good. They required very minimal work to fit really nicely.

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The overall dimensions of the 1/2 tub were good and I was able to get it square and level with the front half without much trouble. The fact that the tubs are e-coated is a nice touch and hopefully will keep corrosion at bay. Of course I’ll be seam-sealing every join that I can get at and rust proofing all the cavities regardless.

I also ordered inner and outer rocker panels from them and they were very good. They required very minimal work to fit really nicely.

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Your info is invaluable, keep it coming! 👍
Thank you mate!
 
Was discussing this with a friend who pointed out that the 8.5 hours of work I put into making this work is based on me being a professional fabricator. It could be days of frustration for the hobbyist.

And another pic showing the 1/2 tub just before mating it to the rest of the body.

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Nice work Jason and great perseverance through it all. On those roll bar brackets....did they supply and you install or did you have them made up? they look "Beefy" 👍
 
Nice work Jason and great perseverance through it all. On those roll bar brackets....did they supply and you install or did you have them made up? they look "Beefy" 👍
The cage supports I ordered from Cool Cruisers of Texas. Topnault doesn’t even make them.
 
Wow, great work and detail, and perseverance! On my ‘63 FJ45 SWB the wheel well supports were pretty much rotted away. I didn’t know anyone (ccot) made replacements of sorts for these, would have saved me a fair amount of backwater manufacturing 😂.
 
The inconsistent fender length means that the fuel filler cover parts don’t fit properly, so of course I’ll be modifying them to fit.

I don’t find a fill piece for the drivers side on their website, but I’ll be making that anyhow to make sure it fits.

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Did these brackets come with the nuts welded on? If so was there a different thread on one nut for seat belts?
The brackets don’t have any holes, I drilled them and tacked nuts on. However you just brought to my attention that I failed to make sure one of the nuts on each bracket is the larger seat belt nut. Oh well, inconvenient to change now but better than realizing that after paint!
 
This reminds me so much of the Columbian rear quarter panel I installed on a 1980 FJ40. There are no non-critical dimensions on these parts - they all have to be right.
 
Next I detailed the issues that were not up to OEM spec, but didn’t make the 1/2 tub unusable. If I was doing a concourse restoration I wouldn’t consider their 1/2 tubs adequate for the job. This truck is supposed to be “nice”, but will be driven and is not going to be perfect.

Here’s the next batch of issues, again pasted from my email to Topnault.
It's mind boggling that companies will spend massive amounts on tooling and dyes, but not pony up the money to bring in subject matter expert consultants to make sure the parts are exact replicas. I'm so happy to see companies investing in making parts for us to keep these rigs going and restored, so it's kind of bittersweet to see them doing it, but not doing it right.
 

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