First 40...finally

[Ocho77]

Congrats on the FST cruiser

Your wife looks handy ... does she sew? Or you?

You can make your own top... or buy from trollhole or gr8ful (he may still have a few) or there are two others on eBay I think now

To make your own:
Canvas Makers Guild

Thanks for posting! She is very handy and prefers outdoors to anything else. However, neither of us have that sewing skill

I have a friend in my National Guard unit that owns a textile sewing company and makes all sorts of stuff for the automotive industry and military. My hope was to find some blueprints for him to make a top for me, but even after looking through that site, I still can't find a set of blue prints. May just have to make my own "draft" version and do a test fit, then have them make the final product.

Cheers,
Jonathan

 

[Ocho77]

Congratulations! An FJ40 is great family fun. Your kids will remember this adventure forever. My wife didn't get it until her first Rubicon trip. Now every time I'm tinkering on it she says, "Is the 'cruiser running yet, I want to be able to drive it".

Thanks! My wife took the 80 and won't drive anything else unless the 80 is down for maintenance...

Yesterday, we drove the 40 with no top/doors and she stated "days like this make me think this is the best purchase we've ever made".
She's now learning to drive a stick because she wants to drive it...and keeps reminding me that she would like a red 60...she's sort of inherited my cruiser addiction...thankfully.

 

[AKAIE15]

she would like a red 60

My wife also wants a 60. We see 2 around town - adds to the desire. The addiction is real and contagious.

 

[RustyNailJustin]

Glad you are enjoying the FST.
I am glad it went to a good home.

 

[Ocho77]

Glad you are enjoying the FST.
I am glad it went to a good home.

Thanks, Justin.

We absolutely love driving it around and are trying to slowly make it better. About to start fixing oil leaks and the rust areas. Hoping to have it repainted by next summer with a soft top installed. It's slow progress...mainly because I refuse to tear it apart while the weather is still warm! I mentioned taking the interior apart this past week and my wife reminded me that it's supposed to be 80 and sunny this weekend...guess we'll wait.

Thanks again for making it an easy transaction!

 

[dogfishlake]

I got the opportunity to see it, and even drive it (was fun trading 40's). Thumbs up from me!

 

[Ocho77]

Found some old rusty steel rims in a barn that I procured fairly cheap. Thanks to @dogfishlake for taking on the challenge of blasting/powdercoating them. One was pretty badly pitted, but he resurrected it and delivered them last night. They look brand new! And, we even had a few minutes for a beer.

After ordering a set of new tires and hubcaps for the wheels, I started trying to take the paint off my 40 to see if I could uncover the original rustic green paint...it was repainted in the early 90's. With the use of a pressure washer and some bumper stripper I worked about half of one fender. Extremely time consuming, and took some down to bare metal, but I think I may be able to make it work, if I decide I have the patience...

 

[Gazzo]

Great old 40, I bought a 84 hj47 and I'm only 14

 

[Franz]

I think the 80 Series was probably Toyota's finest moment. I still regret selling my Jap spec 80 VX TD (the 105 is nice, but not quite the same). That said, I love my 40, it puts a smile on my face every time I drive it. Unfortunately the wife hates it, so you are a lucky man!

 

[Ocho77]

Well, I took @TCEd's advice and tried out the pressure washer. It took about 85% of the paint job off the truck. Only took about 4 straight hours of pressure washing...but worth it. Yesterday, I spent a few minutes trying different techniques removing the primer that sits on top of the original paint. My first attempt was the SEM Bumper Stripper that @dogfishlake recommended, which I used on the fender a few posts above. It works, but it's tough figuring out how long to leave it on, as the primer is thinner in many spots and it ate through to bare metal.

So, after I used up that can, I tried wet sanding with 220 all the way to the green, then used a cutting compound and polish to see if it would remove the scratches from the sand paper and it did...but I think I'm going to pick up some 400 and 600 grit and use that after the 220 to see how it works.

A few pics...

Also took delivery of my new tires to put on the steel wheels that @dogfishlake resurrected (hubcaps are on order and will be here Saturday):

 

[RustyNailJustin]

Dude, awesome!

 

[dogfishlake]

Lookin good! If you haven't yet, try laquer thinner in a small spot on that grey primer too. It would be less aggressive than the stripper but might get primer off before taking the green. It's crazy stuff, basically being destructive to just the right level to save the original paint, but I think it's worth it.

Digging the tires!

 

[Ocho77]

Spent quite a bit of time still trying to remove the mid 90's repaint to get the original rustic green back. After pressure washing the entire rig, a lot of the new paint was gone and primer was left.

On the primer, what I found to be the the least amount of work was Easy-Off oven cleaner. Letting it sit on the primer for about a minute or so, it would mostly come off by wiping it with a paper towel or cotton towel. Some scrubbing was needed, but for the most part wasn't too bad. She's about 70% back to original paint at this point. Still need to do a few spots around the body, the windshield frame, tailgate and inside of the tub. Then I'll apply a rubbing compound and figure out what I am going to do about the spots that are down to bare metal.

The downside, is I found some bondo. Both front fender corners have bondo, as well as the raised portion on the center of the hood...not sure what I'm going to do about that. Still debating on whether to fix it or buy new fenders.

Also installed new steelies and rubber.

Just for grins, here are two pics...the day I brought it home:

How it looks today:

 

[dogfishlake]

That is so cool.

 

[RustyNailJustin]

If you are going to discover Bondo there is no better places than that. I would not buy new fenders get the dent out the best you can or have a body guy show you a few tricks with heat and such. You will need to skim a little filler in there but that's norvsn issue.

 

[Ocho77]

If you are going to discover Bondo there is no better places than that. I would not buy new fenders get the dent out the best you can or have a body guy show you a few tricks with heat and such. You will need to skim a little filler in there but that's norvsn issue.

I agree. The bondo isn't even that bad, nor is there very much. Whoever did it 25 years ago just didn't do a tremendous job. Easily fixable

 

[73fj40lc]

To me, black bezels are no bueno. If I were you, I'd use aircraft stripper and green pads to see if you could get that green back. I'd also take the bezel back to white.

X2 To me 40’s just doesn’t look right without the white bezel and the white cap on a hard top if running a hard top.

 

[73fj40lc]

Spent quite a bit of time still trying to remove the mid 90's repaint to get the original rustic green back. After pressure washing the entire rig, a lot of the new paint was gone and primer was left.

On the primer, what I found to be the the least amount of work was Easy-Off oven cleaner. Letting it sit on the primer for about a minute or so, it would mostly come off by wiping it with a paper towel or cotton towel. Some scrubbing was needed, but for the most part wasn't too bad. She's about 70% back to original paint at this point. Still need to do a few spots around the body, the windshield frame, tailgate and inside of the tub. Then I'll apply a rubbing compound and figure out what I am going to do about the spots that are down to bare metal.

The downside, is I found some bondo. Both front fender corners have bondo, as well as the raised portion on the center of the hood...not sure what I'm going to do about that. Still debating on whether to fix it or buy new fenders.

Also installed new steelies and rubber.

Just for grins, here are two pics...the day I brought it home:

View attachment 1552363

How it looks today:

View attachment 1552364

Great work on restoring the original paint. I am really digging the rustic green. Hands down though my favorite colors for the 40 is is dune beige, both olive colors, and white. I might have to add rustic green to my list though.

 

[69LC]

If you hadn't posted before and after pics here, no one would have believed that it is the same truck.

 

[Ocho77]

Wife and I spent some time, over the past few days, continuing to remove more paint. We have every type/size of razor blade available...

We were able to get the outside windshield frame, the tailgate, the rear sill and the inside of the door sills done. Found bondo in both rear quarters and the passenger side rocker. The good news is that it's not covering up rust holes, as the back of the metal is solid, and they did a fairly decent job.

I'm not sure if the original paint is rustic or judson green, so I've ordered a can of Judson to see if it matches. My plan is to blend the areas of bondo level and then figure out a way to prime/paint it and scuff the paint up somehow. Once we find matching paint, I'll restore the FST doors and paint them to match.