Builds FJ40 in a barn

[C6H12O6]

As you can see, I went ahead and attacked the rear floor, as well. Just didn't seem right to leave it vulnerable, especially the rear sill area.

After thoroughly cleaning everything and pre-treating with phosphoric acid, it was time for the Rust Bullet. I was planning on spraying it, but had some last-minute HVLP gun problems after I had already started cutting in the edges and detail spots with a brush. Decided that I couldn't/didn't want to stop, so just brushed the Rust Bullet on. The recommend not thinning it, and this stuff is damn thick. No way I could use the 1.0 tip HVLP gun I had. I really wish I would have sorted that out ahead of time and been a little more patient, because the brush strokes were terrible. It was a little too hot, and I was working a little slowly being careful not to get the RB anywhere I didn't want it. The final finish after three coats was pretty terrible looking and I was more than a little disappointed, but figured I could still rescue it.

Looking at the pics again, it is hard to see the brush strokes. I'm sure I'm being more critical than anybody else will be down the road. It really isn't a big deal for the floor, but I would definitely want to spray it (or something else) if I was painting anywhere else.

 

[C6H12O6]

I didn't get any pics of this middle step, but I sanded the high spots off and tried to even out the brush strokes a little. I called Rust Bullet to talk with them and they warned about making it too thin, but I had three coats on there, and epoxy primer was going on over it, so I wasn't all that worried.

I used some glazing putty to smooth out the rougher spots and fill in some of the treated rust pits. I didn't go nuts, as I'm not trying to fool anybody here, but it helped quite a bit.

 

[C6H12O6]

Next up was the epoxy primer. The local paint supplier hooked me up with PPG's cheaper Omni line. A quart each of epoxy primer, paint, hardener and reducers for each, some strainers, mixing cup, etc. and I was out the door for $130. Figured that was pretty fair and cheaper than I was looking at for rattle cans online.

The primer shot on great. I used the 1.4 tip on my new Harbor Freight HVLP gun, so it took two coats to get good coverage with the primer, but it laid down great.

 

[C6H12O6]

I was excited to get the color on, but I ran out of daylight, so decided to call it a night. Was going to spray the color the next day after work, until the temp didn't drop as expected. I came out of work to 96°F air temps. I called the paint shop to confirm, but they said I should wait. Being patient was agonizing, but I'm glad I did wait until the next day. Perfect 72°F temps, very little wind, and plenty of daylight left.

The Omni MAE (mixed acrylic enamel?) sprayed on great. Really good coverage, great color match to the unspoiled areas of the truck, a nice finish, and it hardened up quickly. My patience as seemed to have paid off, as it looks just about as nice as I want it to look. Seriously, any nicer and I'd be afraid to step on it. I'd have to put those little boot scrubber brushes on the side steps. Maybe some of those little blue booties the carpet guy puts over his shoes.

 

[C6H12O6]

PPG's application sheet said you can polish and reassemble after 16 hours. I felt it after almost 24 and it felt hard and finished, but would still grab your finger a little. Not to the point of leaving marks, but just still felt a little soft. I'm sure it was cooked, but I'm not in a huge hurry, so I left it alone for another day. Felt it this morning (we're all caught up now) and it was noticeably harder feeling. Slicker on the surface. I might just give it a few days to really harden up before I start putting everything back together.

The transmission cover and gas tank lid I painted on the driveway orange-peeled a little. I think that's probably due to a little higher temps than in the garage paint booth, and a little breeze picking up on the later coats. It also got cooler quickly after the sun went down. The finish isn't bad, just not factory smooth. Then again, I'm no auto painter. This was my first attempt.

Like I've been telling people, if I ever pull it all apart for a frame-off resto, I'll probably be blasting the tub and priming/painting it correctly, so this will be fine until then. And if I don't, I'll be rocking the farm truck patina, so an imperfect floor is just fine. Either way, I'm 100% ok with how it turned out.

 

[C6H12O6]

Starting to come together a little. The Fresh Air cable had pulled apart, so I decided to fix that first, while I had easy access to the back of the dash. Stereo was reinstalled after some quick faceplate touchups, then I installed the transmission hump. That was a little bit of a pain, as my crappy welding warped it a bit. I'll likely want to address the buggered up spots a little better at some point, but I had to make the call that good enough was good enough. Turns out my desire to actually drive this truck is greater than my desire for a perfect edge on my transmission hump.

Wish there was a good source for the JIS bolts for the hump with the captive washers. Nothing in my fancy gold cad kit seemed to be right, but good enough to get it bolted back down. I couldn't stand leaving it half done, so stayed up until 1:00 installing the shift boots and cleaning up the dash a little. It's just too damn pretty, especially with my rehabbed heater reinstalled.

Headed out of town for Labor Day, but I'll keep chugging away this week after work.

 

[cruiserboy14]

I'm dying to see what's next.. so perdy!!

 

[C6H12O6]

Gas tank is in and waiting to be plumbed with new fuel lines. Every hose I've taken off (except upper radiator hose) was the original hose, stamped 09/74 from Toyota. Pretty cool. I need to either have my fuel inlet tube blasted and replated, or replace it. I'm eyeing a new inlet tube that works with the modern gas caps. Need to figure that out soon.

I used some cool rubber stair tread mats from Home Depot to make pads for the gas tank. I cut them into strips and glued them down to the floor with 3M rubber adhesive to keep them from moving around. The rubber has little raised ribs in it that should help any water in there to drain away. I was careful to not block the recessed channel with the rubber strips. Not in the pictures, I also added one strip to the front of the raised ledge to the rear deck. Seemed like it was pretty tight and I didn't want the tank to rub against the metal step. Fits in there like a glove.

 

[C6H12O6]

I also painted the bottom and sides of the new Toyota tank. The paint was scuffed right out of the box, and some of the brazing splatter from the seams was crusty in a couple spots. I cleaned it up and gave it some fresh primer in the bare spots and a few coats of black semi-gloss paint just to seal things off. Should be good to go for quite a while now.

 

[troy scott]

I also painted the bottom and sides of the new Toyota tank. The paint was scuffed right out of the box, and some of the brazing splatter from the seams was crusty in a couple spots. I cleaned it up and gave it some fresh primer in the bare spots and a few coats of black semi-gloss paint just to seal things off. Should be good to go for quite a while now.

im so jealous of that floor mine looks like a patch work quilt

 

[C6H12O6]

Yeah, thanks. It was in pretty fabulous shape after I got all the surface rust off. Really wish I had my s*** together to spray on the Rust Bullet instead of brushing it on, but it still looks pretty dang good. Really looking killer as I start reassembling everything. My good fortune is not lost on me.

 

[C6H12O6]

More progress over the last couple weeks. Mostly noting here just to keep the build thread current. I have a couple questions moving forward, but I'll probably post them up separately.

I posted this up on its own, but I'll put it here, too. I whittled down an old OME poly shock pushing to make a bushing for the end of the steering shaft tube. The original whatever-it-was had completely disintegrated. This is what I had, so I went to work with the Dremel. Pretty decent outcome.

New keys and lock cylinder from @RAGINGMATT all went in perfectly and behave as new. I should have gone with him from the get-go. Serves me right for being a cheap bastard. Well, cheap and impatient. I was rewarded for my lack of frivolity and patience by having my OEM ignition lock and gas lock cylinders both damaged by a local locksmith, and have the same locksmith damage my nearly pristine steering wheel. Partly my fault for leaving it with them. Stupid. All is good now. Just took a few hours of sanding and polishing. I started with 220 grit sandpaper and ended up with a 5000 grit polishing pad and 303 protectant. Results are not perfect, but damn good enough for now.

I made the mistake of putting the steering column back in before the newly painted clutch/brake pedal assembly, but I wedged it in there without too much trouble that a little touch up paint couldn't fix.

 

[C6H12O6]

I ended up pulling out the seats a few more times to get the gas tank filler tube in. I was looking at a modern upgrade, but I didn't want to deal with venting issues, so I just went with the CCOT filler neck. Two things to note:

1. The filler neck is of seemingly good quality, but it is quite a bit longer than the OEM neck. Not a huge deal, but it is a bitch to get installed if the tank is in. Out came the seats, tank cover and tank, so I could wedge the tank into the installed filler tube and hose. The longer metal filler definitely puts a weird pressure on the middle of the filler hose. I used my OEM original hose because...

2. The CCOT hose sucks. No pics, because I think it's been documented, but it is really poorly made. Seems like a combination of inferior materials and poor craftsmanship. There's no woven center to the hose, just a solid rubber-like hose that is thicker on one side than the other over the circumference of the hose. Just terrible. I'll keep it as a back-up, but I think my 45-year-old original will work better.

One more shiny photo of everything installed again.

 

[C6H12O6]

I'm waiting for Booster Dewey to work his magic on my booster. He's local and it should be done next week. While it was out, I put in the new clutch master and slave and got everything bled. Twice. I wasn't watching once and the reservoir went dry. Thought I caught it in time, but on my last slow pump of the MC before I tightened the bleeder up, a steady stream of bubbles told me to keep going. Dang. One quart of DOT4 later...

I had a small leak at first because I forgot to tighten up the side bolt on the outlet hose copper piece on the MC. All good and after adjusting the pedal throw at the slave, the clutch pedal feels great. No binding, no crusty feeling like before. Everything just feels smooth.

 

[C6H12O6]

I also hooked up the rear heater. New hose and Breeze stainless liner hose clamps everywhere. I'm not sure I'm going to like it, but I used some network cable jacket stuff I had for another project to cover the crumbly foam on the rear heater hard lines. I know it would have been much cheaper (and probably easier) to just get new foam at McMaster Carr, I thought this might be a little more durable. Chinese Finger Puzzle install, and I used big heat shrink for the ends. Looks pretty clean to me. We'll see if it holds up.

 

[C6H12O6]

No tech for this last one, but I had a little Freeborn Red paint left over and I couldn't resist.

 

[reddog90]

Beautiful work

 

[87BJ74]

Amazing transformation, hard to find a decent 40 to start with these days.

 

[C6H12O6]

Thanks. The amount of luck involved in finding this rig is not lost on me. And, along the way fixing things. So far, the things that looked bad haven't been nearly as bad as I feared, once I got going on fixing them. Fingers crossed that the luck holds next week when I try to start it up.

 

[C6H12O6]

IT'S ALIVE!

Couldn't get the video to load in the time I was willing to spend on it right now, but I got it started today for the first time in probably 25+ years. My 9-year-old daughter shot the video and my wife manned the fire extinguisher (just in case—not needed).

Took a bit of troubleshooting of the ignition, but I got it. Wasn't getting any spark through the coil. I ended up cleaning up and re-welding the coil mount to the fender, cleaning all the wire connections in the ignition circuit, cleaned up the crusty points and re-gapped them properly, and she fired right up.

It was VERY smoky (the door to the garage was cracked open a little and I set off the smoke alarm inside the house), but I'm not stressing out about that yet. I poured a bunch of Marvel Mystery Oil into each cylinder over the last year, so it could just be burning off all that and the residual crap from sitting so long. We'll see.

Seemed like a pretty major exhaust leak from all over the crappy headers. I have a set of Downey/Mark's headers waiting in the wings, so need to source the right gasket and change that out. I blew a giant pile of old insulation out of the exhaust pipe. Likely a mouse nest (or ten). I also had a gross pile of rusty metal bits blowing out, but they stuck to a magnet, so unless the mice were eating the muffler from the inside out, the muffler is probably rusted out.