Did Toyota paint the FJ40 with the top on? (1 Viewer)

[overton]

I recently was told that Toyota painted FJ40's piece be piece before assembly. I disagreed. Every original FJ40 I have taken apart appears to have been painted with the top (side panels) on and doors on . There is gray primer showing when these are removed. What's your opinion?

 

[Mr. Toad]

1975. No primer visible.

 

[Brian in Oregon]

1971 no primer visible.

 

[Sea Knight]

1975. No primer visible.

Ditto for present '82 40, and previous '76. Never saw any exposed primer on tub or top panels.

 

[G-Cat]

I've seen a few threads with original 40's that had primer where the hard-top marries-up to the tub. There was a thread about this several (if not more) years ago.

I can't remember what the consensus was, though.

I do have a hard-top (off a Freeborn Red '77) that has original paint and is gray primer under the lip that marries-up to the tub.

 

[lostmarbles]

.. Every original FJ40 I have taken apart appears to have been painted with the top (side panels) on and doors on . There is gray primer showing when these are removed. What's your opinion?

I agree with you that they painted a lot of the topcoat AFTER assembly.

For instance I saw bare primer between my fenders/guards and the tub/apron panels to which they are attached (on my 1979).



And again bare primer under my windshield/windscreen hinges. (And under my side-door hinges, bonnet/hood hinges, and ambulance-door hinges too as I recall.)

IMO it can't EVER have been practical to topcoat everything individually prior to assembly (no matter when your cruiser was built). The logistics of doing that would have been horrendous.

I'll bet the factory got instructions like .... "This week you'll produce FJ40s as follows: 350 in code 854, 500 in code 309, 100 in code 464 or whatever." And I believe keeping-costs-down would force them to assemble them "as one" (in primer-coated panels) until a certain point in the production line.




PS.
I did find topcoat under the rubber door seals which shows they fitted these seals AFTER topcoating the doors.

And I don't think the hardtop was COMPLETELY fitted/on prior to the first topcoat paint being applied. (They got too far under the lip with topcoat on my 1979 for that to have been the case IMO.) .....

Certainly window glass wasn't fitted prior to topcoating. (It would be shoddy workmanship to paint a new vehicle with the glass in place IMO.)

(I do think the doors were painted ON the vehicle as you suggest.)

 

[bsevans]

Bare primer under the hinges. All the mounting bolts were painted in place. Aug. '78

 

[John McVicker]

Greenish primer where my hardtop sides meet the tub. Original owner, 2/'75 40.

John

 

[Isotel]

same here, 76, Green primer of some sort.

 

[Folkert]

primer visible for me as well when hardtop was removed, greenish in color.. 1981 jdm bj44v

 

[crushers]

i have stripped numerous 40s over the decades and there is no rhyme or reason, some are primer as if assembled and painted
others have appeared to have been painted peice by peice, the ones i am using for examples are non- body work, non-repainted units.
most (if not all) of the "primer" units were after 1976...

 

[Dusty 66]

xxx3 green primer under hinges and bottom hard top sides early 70s top originaly red

 

[iptman]

Found this on my July 77 this weekend. Painted after the hard top was on?
Edit: Found the data plate which states 532 so apparently, yes, it was painted after the hard top was installed.

 

[Tysano]

They were assembled and then painted, if you have one that doesn't have a greenish color primer showing under the door hinges, top of the tub, between the mated surfaces. Then you have a truck that has been taken apart and painted. However they were painted before the fiberglass section was installed

 

[Dieseler]

Iptman there appears to be yellow in the nutserts which would lead me to think the top rail was primed later in life. If the roof panels where installed before painting there would not be yellow in the threads the bolts would have prevented the paint from that area.
All of my originals have been top coated along the tub rails which would make sense since the tops are removable and primer alone does not protect from rust.
How Toyota did the paint I can't say positively but I have observed the same as lostmarbles on parts that reveal primer when removed it is possible they installed and painted the roof panels after doing the body it seem to point that way from what I have observed on disassembly.

 

[JohnnyC]

Toyota was ever changing the methods in assembly ... They were also done with the top slightly raised ... There is no one way cut in stone... As with most things about the cruiser it had slight differences in there ever changing need to achieve production perfection... Tiiachi Ohno was never 100% happy ... There was ALWAYS room to improve

 

[JohnnyC]

Here is a great video showing the earlier cruisers in production... Half way in is the assembly and painting

 

[iptman]

On mine the 7 bolts on each side of the tub rail are not painted. In that case there would be yellow in the threads if the tops were assembled, laid on tub then painted.

 

[iptman]

Lol, I actually remembered seeing that video on here a while ago then searched for it after I pulled my top on Saturday to see if they showed the top on when painted.

I was fairly certain this was original paint because of the (assumedly) dealer installed pin stripes. They are slightly cracked as I'd expect 39 year old decals would be and I can't imagine anyone putting them back on if it was resprayed but who knows.

 

[Helipilot]

77 here with primer on all mating surfaces. Have it disassembled for total resto/very light mod.