Family FJ Build : '76 40 Resto/Frame Off (a.k.a. the Japanese Baby Buggy)

[zerotreedelta]

Front doors are both hung with weatherstrip and latches...no glass/regulators yet. Longer day than expected...the hole for the latch on the driver's door was, er, not even close to correct, and I didn't catch it before paint. I knowingly took a gamble by not completely assembling the doors...I assumed some degree of basic competency there on the factory, and I was wrong. OEM weatherstrip went on nicely at least...slow and tedious job, but stuck well with the 3M Super Black.

The screw holes are the wrong distance apart, the opening needed a bit of clearancing open (was too small for the latch), and it's punched way too high and also somehow pushed/dimpled too far in. There's no way to move that pocket, and really not much you could do pre-paint either. I ended up slotting the striker plate and running a spacer to get the distance up and outward for now, and I'll likely just have to make a custom striker with the hoop shifted up and out a bit. The latch was fine on the passenger door, though...again, just really spotty QC.

Dabbled getting the Britpart/Defender mirrors on as well - prototype adapter is looking good so far. Debating whether to run it more body colored (like in the photo) or with the adapter in black to match the mirror. I'll crank out both and see I suppose...

 

[fjc-man]

Landcruiser Heaven doors For a 1000 bucks each

 

[zerotreedelta]

Was $1200 for the pair for the Colombian (?) doors...bit high for what they are, but my originals were pretty crusty up fairly high (up past the lower hinge pocket), and they'd already had the lowers patched once before. Finding decent OEM doors up here in the northland is pretty sparse, too. I figured worst case I'd use the full lower skin (up to the window) to repair the OEM inners and frame if they were really bad - just lower patches would've been about $500 or so anyway.

Luckily, the snafus have been annoying but solvable and/or minimally visible so far. It'll be interesting to see how that thread on the Alibaba doors plays out - hopefully they're a good option for others going forward...the bar is pretty low. The outer skins seem pretty well stamped, but they miss the mark at times on assembling the halves or punching in the rest of the holes for things like hinge mounts, mirror mounts, latches.

 

[fjc-man]

Was $1200 for the pair for the Colombian (?) doors...bit high for what they are, but my originals were pretty crusty up fairly high (up past the lower hinge pocket), and they'd already had the lowers patched once before. Finding decent OEM doors up here in the northland is pretty sparse, too. I figured worst case I'd use the full lower skin (up to the window) to repair the OEM inners and frame if they were really bad - just lower patches would've been about $500 or so anyway.

Luckily, the snafus have been annoying but solvable and/or minimally visible so far. It'll be interesting to see how that thread on the Alibaba doors plays out - hopefully they're a good option for others going forward...the bar is pretty low. The outer skins seem pretty well stamped, but they miss the mark at times on assembling the halves or punching in the rest of the holes for things like hinge mounts, mirror mounts, latches.

Just looked = 1040.00ea

 

[zerotreedelta]

Ouch...I didn't go through LCHeaven, though, and I did order them up last year.

For $1040, I'd probably keep hunting...for $600, it was a bit more tolerable.

 

[zerotreedelta]

Wrangled the doors some more this week...glass and hardware is all in except for the outer felts for the sill, needed the newer variant (hopefully). Should be here Monday...

Took almost a week of fiddling, though...lots of weird stuff on those SA doors. Latch holes were off, regulator holes were off, window rails were off...just odd that you'd make a door and screw up the basics like that. The window rails are a pickle, as they're welded on before it's clamshelled...and there's nothing you can really do once the door is assembled, but some were blatantly off kilter from the upper window track to where the window would ride against the inner door sill. Managed to creatively flex them into place, but definitely slowed things down.

I do think I'm **FINALLY** done sandblasting, though - the window rails inside the door were likely the last bit. Light sockets for the license plate also showed up, so got those wired up and tucked on. Only thing left in the parts pile is the door cards, but they're waiting for that weatherstrip to show up.

Home stretch...

 

[zerotreedelta]

No work on the 40 today, still waiting for that last bit of weatherstrip before I can dunk the door cards on.

...but, that did mean I can start packing up the shop. Felt good to pack up the last bits of supplies and take down the work table and stash it away. It'll come out for the next project, but that'll be after winter methinks.

 

[Honger]

Man, what a build thread. Lots of very fine work done here. And preserving a family heirloom of sorts!

Did you do your own plating of parts?

 

[zerotreedelta]

It is a member of the family for sure. There's some imperfections in the resto' here and there, but given the abuse it took from salt, I'll take it. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I do want it as a driveable rig -- not something you're worried about taking out of the garage.

I did a mix of replating, replacement, and painting depending on what the part was or how rough it was...everything got blasted at least. I only ran a 1-gallon bucket for my plating, so that limited how large I could do. I just used my bench power supply and the typical vinegar/epsom/zinc strips, then used the Cadwell yellow chromate. Some parts ended up better than others...if you're doing a lot, a tumbler would be pretty handy.

 

[Honger]

Have been wanting to play with plating... I've been collecting OEM hardware for some time now and would love to refinish it as a side project. I'll definitely do this sometime down the line...

 

[GatorPlater]

I agree, plating makes a huge difference when restoring OEM parts.

 

[GatorPlater]

I know a guy who knows a guy...

 

[zerotreedelta]

Good day today...front door cards went on, which were the **LAST** parts in the parts bin. The official "last part back on" was the passenger door strap.

Ended up taking just a few days under a year - pulled it into the shop and started disassembly on Nov 4, and today is Oct 28. Now just need to drive it while I can before the road salt flies - hoping to get it over the 500 mile mark this weekend. I'm sure there will be a few minor tweaks as it gets some miles, but definitely nice to have it 100% whole again.

Last bit will be some final photos when there's sunshine, and start to assemble up a photobook or two from all the library of photos...lots of video to edit still, too. Both are good projects as the clocks change...

 

[Green Bean]

Good day today...front door cards went on, which were the **LAST** parts in the parts bin. The official "last part back on" was the passenger door strap.

Ended up taking just a few days under a year - pulled it into the shop and started disassembly on Nov 4, and today is Oct 28. Now just need to drive it while I can before the road salt flies - hoping to get it over the 500 mile mark this weekend. I'm sure there will be a few minor tweaks as it gets some miles, but definitely nice to have it 100% whole again.

Last bit will be some final photos when there's sunshine, and start to assemble up a photobook or two from all the library of photos...lots of video to edit still, too. Both are good projects as the clocks change...

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Congrats on a job very well done. I sure enjoyed watching your progress.

 

[Slapshot]

Greet job on a 1 year restoration! I’m sure if I saw that rig out on the street I’d be floored. I’m still amazed at the quality and quantity of your work.

 

[Honger]

The rear flares are home brewed, right? They came out fantastic.

The rig is just beautiful. Love the two-tone white.

 

[zerotreedelta]

Indeed, the flares were hand-fabbed out of some sheet steel and a roundbar anvil...JDM part inspired, but I shifted them up so they matched the arch (vs extending it lower like the JDM part), and had them bolt on to the inner lip for any future removal.

Pretty happy with the two tone white so far as well - keeps with OEM, but also has the more classic two-tone look than the correct all-cygnus.

100 mile road trip today, happily hummed along down the highway just fine.

 

[zerotreedelta]

Another 100 mile trip today, happily clipped along at 62-63 or so. Averaged 11MPG both ways, which is about as expected. The Sniper is a bit cranky in the colder weather until it warms up...need to look into the tuning for temperature compensation. Pulled the latest map and logs, so that'll be a good project for tonight or tomorrow. But hey, 570 miles on the rebuild, so should be able to pull the break-in oil before winter.

Did have one issue - seems like the heat shutoff valve isn't shutting off for some reason, will have to check the cable adjustment. The valve is new/OEM, but it was still letting hot coolant through when pushed in...for today I just opened the window a bit, that rear heater kicks out a lot of heat even without the fan going.

Found my share of bugs running through farm country, too...

 

[zerotreedelta]

One last re-do...the shoulder belts from SeatbeltPlanet finally showed up, so fabbed up the roll bar brackets and dunked those on. I went with the flap-style latches and the soft strap for the inner mounts (vs the rigid), just to be a bit more like the originals. 125" length seems to work ok, rolls back up fine but also has room to extend.

And one nice sunset at the airport...

 

[zerotreedelta]

Quiet on the "work to do" front now that's it's winter, but took a couple hours while it was snowing out the other day and jammed together a photo book...finally showed up today. Filled it right up, 140 pages...will be neat to keep with the rig.

It was fun to page through at as well, even though I took the pictures and made the book...there's something different about turning actual pages.