Hi all,
I'm refreshing my '76 (well, 9/75, but registered as a '76) FJ40. I'm waffling between body-off or body-on, and could use some insight from people who have been there/done that. Primarily, I'm looking for guidance how the labor involved taking everything off of the firewall/cowl- wiring, steering column, brake/clutch cylinders, etc etc.
This is what the rig looks like right now, except with more bracing (preparing for quarter panel and sill redos):
This started as a project to remove the crappy old herculiner that a PO slopped into the inside of the tub, which of course revealed some rust and pitting that I didn't expect (covered by lots of bondo of course)... which then led me to investigate more areas of rust, etc. Which then led me to decide that I wanted to take the rig back to a more stock look (PO cut the quarters for 35's), and to redo a crappy PO rear sill replacement (it doesn't look bad in the pic, but it was done quite poorly). Right now, I have bought patch panels for the quarters, rear sill, passenger side wheel well, amb door bottoms, front door bottoms, and front floor boards. So I have some surgery to do as it is.
I'm going to take all of the peripheral body panels (i.e., doors, hard top parts, etc) to sand blasters for blasting and epoxy priming. I don't see any rust on the underside of the rig, but it's tough to tell with the undercoating on there. The clutch or brake master leaked at one point and stripped some paint on the firewall, which I covered with a rust converter for now. so that currently looks kind of crappy.
Anyway, like I said, I'm debating whether to take the body off the frame to get it blasted and epoxy primed too. My main constraint for this decision isn't budget, it's time. I'm currently working in a space on my parents' property since I don't have space to work on it at home. They want to sell their house this summer, and I only have time to work on the rig on the weekends. Luckily my wife is very understanding, so I am spending almost all of my time on the weekends on this project. And the rig is mechanically very good (SBC conversion, but it ran perfectly when I parked it).
Removing the body will give me a chance to clean up the frame and underbody, and repair any additional rust that I didn't know was there. But i'm worried that the additional work may cause me to miss my spring deadline.
So long story long, my question is: how much extra labor can I expect to remove all of the crap from the firewall, remove the body, and reassemble? I replaced all of the body mounts last weekend, so luckily that horrible project is behind me (eff those front body mounts!!!!).
Sincere thanks for any wisdom you can bestow upon this noob.
I'm refreshing my '76 (well, 9/75, but registered as a '76) FJ40. I'm waffling between body-off or body-on, and could use some insight from people who have been there/done that. Primarily, I'm looking for guidance how the labor involved taking everything off of the firewall/cowl- wiring, steering column, brake/clutch cylinders, etc etc.
This is what the rig looks like right now, except with more bracing (preparing for quarter panel and sill redos):
This started as a project to remove the crappy old herculiner that a PO slopped into the inside of the tub, which of course revealed some rust and pitting that I didn't expect (covered by lots of bondo of course)... which then led me to investigate more areas of rust, etc. Which then led me to decide that I wanted to take the rig back to a more stock look (PO cut the quarters for 35's), and to redo a crappy PO rear sill replacement (it doesn't look bad in the pic, but it was done quite poorly). Right now, I have bought patch panels for the quarters, rear sill, passenger side wheel well, amb door bottoms, front door bottoms, and front floor boards. So I have some surgery to do as it is.
I'm going to take all of the peripheral body panels (i.e., doors, hard top parts, etc) to sand blasters for blasting and epoxy priming. I don't see any rust on the underside of the rig, but it's tough to tell with the undercoating on there. The clutch or brake master leaked at one point and stripped some paint on the firewall, which I covered with a rust converter for now. so that currently looks kind of crappy.
Anyway, like I said, I'm debating whether to take the body off the frame to get it blasted and epoxy primed too. My main constraint for this decision isn't budget, it's time. I'm currently working in a space on my parents' property since I don't have space to work on it at home. They want to sell their house this summer, and I only have time to work on the rig on the weekends. Luckily my wife is very understanding, so I am spending almost all of my time on the weekends on this project. And the rig is mechanically very good (SBC conversion, but it ran perfectly when I parked it).
Removing the body will give me a chance to clean up the frame and underbody, and repair any additional rust that I didn't know was there. But i'm worried that the additional work may cause me to miss my spring deadline.
So long story long, my question is: how much extra labor can I expect to remove all of the crap from the firewall, remove the body, and reassemble? I replaced all of the body mounts last weekend, so luckily that horrible project is behind me (eff those front body mounts!!!!).
Sincere thanks for any wisdom you can bestow upon this noob.
