Builds FJ40 in a barn (3 Viewers)

[C6H12O6]

I pulled the transmission hump today to see how the rust looked underneath. I was pleasantly relieved to find nearly none. The oily tar sealant and the used-to-be-foam gasket kept things pretty well sealed up. No surprises, except the happy kind. I'm going to keep wire brushing off the loose rust and bubbling paint I have in spots, then treat with some rust converter. I'll grind down a bit on the pitted spots to see if any of the go through, but I think I'm in pretty good shape.

I also took the opportunity to scrape 40+ years of crud off the top of the tranny and TC. No surprises there, either. Everything is looking good. Just really dirty.

 

[C6H12O6]

The gas tank is another story. Looking like a total loss to me. I was hoping I could clean it up or have it boiled and sealed up again, but I think this is beyond saving.

First shot is down the filler neck. It doesn't get any better the farther down you go.

Exterior seams are rusty and appear to have been leaking.

The PO might have replaced the tank at some point, but it has at least been removed and reinstalled poorly. He used strips of outdoor carpet for the insulator pads. They look to have held a bunch of water against the tank, as there were rusty rectangles on the tank and the floor pan in each spot. The carpet pads were filthy, greasy, and stunk of old gas. Gross.

Inside looks like this or worse everywhere I could see. There is easily 1/2"+ of rust sediment in the bottom of the tank. Seams look bad from the inside, too.

Sending unit is shot. Rusted completely solid in spots. No movement of the arm.

 

[C6H12O6]

I posted this on this on the weekly update thread, but I'm sharing it here, too. I've been a little bummed about how slowly I'm moving on this truck, but I need to keep looking at the before shots to keep track of how far I've come.

Here is a before shot of the engine bay on the day I brought it home in April, along with a shot from today. I took the day off yesterday to take advantage of the last day of warm, dry weather we're likely to have for a while to paint up the air cleaner, heaters (front and rear),, brake booster and some small assorted parts.

 

[C6H12O6]

Also thought this was cool. My wife noticed the Japanese symbol for power and strength hiding inside the power brake booster. Thought it was a cool bit of hidden art stashed there by somebody in Japan in the seventies. Or it is an upside-down four. I'm going with the power kanji.

 

[C6H12O6]

Along the lines of power and strength, I finally filled her up with fresh oil and decided it was time to try to crank her over. No gas or spark hooked up, but I jumped the starter and she turned over like I'd just driven it yesterday. I'm still a ways off from really trying to fire it up, but it was very encouraging. I'm starting to think I might just pull this off.

 

[Matt1260]

Mines about ready to drive, getting the hard top on it now and waiting for a new solenoid and two more tires and a rim. I'll have to drive out there and have a look at yours and see how close (or far) my stock setup is to yours!

 

[C6H12O6]

Any time, Matt. Would love to compare trucks. Got the green light from my financial planner to order the gas tank, but will likely wait until next month. Time for new tires on the 100. Hoping to chip away at it while the decent weather holds. Going to be too cold to paint the floor pretty soon. I'd love to get it running at least by the end of the year. Driving would be even better, but I think that's a little optimistic.

 

[Rigger]

This project is coming along nicely! Great find!

 

[Gappy]

Just picked up on this thread.
I will use words I rarely use....I am jealous!
Great find and buy!! Thanks for sharing.
I need to hang out in the 40 forum more often.

 

[SnowroxKT]

Great progress! I'm jealous you get to work on yours AND have an engine lol. I don't have either at the moment.

 

[grimsey]

Nice truck I have a 75 here in Australia that's in similar condition and has been sitting just as long. My valve stem seals were totally shot from sitting for so long. If yours blows heaps of smoke when you start it chances are you might have the same issue...

 

[C6H12O6]

We'll see. The PO supposedly had the head re-done just before it went into hibernation, and the cleanliness of the valvetrain seems to support that claim. I'm hopeful that things are ok, but we'll see. Hopefully in a few weeks.

 

[Dirtgypsy]

Just stumbled back on our thread again Steve! Really looking great and Wow the engine is top notch! Did you end up powder coating or did you paint? How and where are things at now?

Clint

 

[C6H12O6]

Just paint. I pretty much blew my Cruiser budget on buying this truck. It kind of fell into my lap and I didn't want to pass it up. I was saving money (slowly), but with no shortage of other "more important" things to spend our money on, I figured the prices of a decent 40 were going up faster than I was able to sock money away. Best to just jump in and buy this truck now, even if it takes longer than I'd like to "finish" the build.

Prioritizing projects has been tough, as I'm easily distracted, but it's coming along. As I go through critical systems to get it back up and running, I'm trying to only fix the important things once. When I pulled the cooling system apart, I rehabbed the heaters so I wouldn't have to take them apart again and do it later. Some other stuff, like the valve cover and air cleaner, aren't mission critical, so I'm just grinding the rust off and hitting them with some fresh paint to halt the spread of the little rust I have to deal with.

I also got a nasty puncture wound on my right hand at work that resulted in cellulitis and a MRSA infection. It's healing (slowly) but digging around in a dirty old Cruiser hasn't been in the cards the last few weeks. I was hoping to get it running for the Christmas Tree Run this year, but no dice. Bah Humbug.

 

[Dirtgypsy]

Oh man that sounds terrible! The hundy would be more comfortable in the snow anyways. If you get down to a big project post up some dates. i would like to come give a hand.

Clint

 

[C6H12O6]

I might take you up on that. Hand is feeling better, but I need somebody with a welder to help me patch up a small spot on the floor before I put the tank back in and try to start her up.

And, yes. The 100 is almost too comfortable and great in the snow. Not much motivation to get the 40 done for the tree run, really. Just itching to drive it.

 

[emac]

Haven't visited your thread for a while. Sorry about the hand. Take good care of it and get it healed properly. Rig is looking good, I really like the patina and originality you are keeping. Cant wait to see more progress. All the best!!

 

[toyotaboy92]

Loving your rebuild! I am so glad that the people of this forum talked you into buying this rig and the most important part convincing you not to cut into it. My barn find was very similar except the previous owner started sanding and cutting out the old rust before it sat for 15 years. I will tell you that taking what I had got me to buy a small welder and learn how to put the puzzle of parts back to what it is today. She is a multitude of paint colors but she hasn't let me down since I started driving her. Some day I will get the proper paint job but like you all I wanted to do was drive it. Lots of the areas you are finding with pitted metal and small holes are the same I came across. My biggest challenge was chipping the old hard undercoating to make sure there wasn't rust I was missing, probably spent days under there.

Believe me you are making great progress, it is all about little victories, you will soon know how to put this thing together in your sleep.

 

[Drake2]

Back in the late 90's I pretty much cleaned out the 4 counties around my area of all sitting FJ40's, FJ55's, and even one FJ25. Today I dream about finding another one just sitting, waiting to be born again

 

[C6H12O6]

No new pics, but the hand is doing good and my injury was parlayed into a bunch of new PPE for Christmas—a proper respirator to prevent more bloody noses the next time I paint and a full face shield for all the grinding work I have in my future.

Ordered the six-pack of Rust Bullet for the floor so I can chip away at it in small batches, and a new OEM gas tank, fuel sending unit, and gasket were ordered today. Progress is forthcoming. It might even get warm enough for me to tackle the re-spray of the heater box.

I had three light, perfect coats down on the last really nice day we had in the fall, then decided to empty the rattle can with one last light coat. Between waiting a little bit too long between coats and the cold evening temps, the final coat dried weird and the texture sucks. Going to lightly wet sand it and give it a good final coat and some clear, then the reassembly begins. Bright side: the Dupli-Color Perfect Match paint I used (BTY1605 Antique Sage Pearl (1B2)) was a great match for the interior trim and laid on really nicely until I screwed the pooch.