Builds Hi, My name is..……………….(yellow 76 FJ40)

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Roof rack was made by the PO. I reworked it after the rearender collision broke a couple of the mount feet. PO built it with taller sides on the back half. Since I knew I wanted to add the rod vault, I needed the rack to be all one level. And because I planned to add the lift and these bigger tires and garage door clearance was a worry I kept the short front height though the whole rack. About that same time I realized that the 1” tube construction was not ideal for using your average ratchet strap whos one inch hook is coated in plastic and thus will not fit on 1” tube. So I set up the welder and added 1/2” cold roll bars on both sides of each upright. This gives plenty of grab spots for straps and lashing.
Original rack configuration:
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First re-work of rack:
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Added more verticals :
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Mounted a small axe and shovel using motorcycle handle bar brackets and QuickFist tool grips.
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Need to source a longer bolt
For the butt end of the axe. Will add wing nut an drill for a cotter pin keeper.
 
Painted the shovel blade. Worked on the mounts a little more

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Settled on an fixed mount for one end of each tool, and a quick fist on the other. I need to source a longer m8x1.25 for the axe handle so I have room to drill it for the retention clip.

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Milled some fairly clean cedar fence pickets into 3”x11/16” planks for a base in the roof rack. Finished them with linseed oil. Vintage VW bus racks were my inspiration

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when planning the slats it was my intention to space them appropriately so that I could still install ski racks. I was so enthralled with the project that I didn’t take that measurement and it wasn’t until I saw the ski rack on the shelf the next day that I remembered my earlier plan. Look how lucky I got!!!!! I need to fabricate a riser to clear the slats but they’re gonna fit just fine.

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Painted the charcoal canister and bracket and cleaned up the hoses……

Before
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And after…. This pic is the reason I have to keep doing one thing every day. There’s sooooooo much left to scrub, polish, and paint.


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Pulled the valve cover, stripped it, and evened it out pretty well with medium grit sanding blocks. I’m not going for a polished look, just clean and beautiful. I’ll hit it with finer sand paper, but will resist the urge to break out the cloth wheel and polishing compound.

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Very nice. Did you build that winch mount behind your factory bumper?
 
Picked up a pair of warrior products Quicklatch jack mounts off Facebook marketplace. $40 for the pair. They seem like a sturdy, well made product. I’ll get a lock in one soon. I’m going to try to get the rear door, rod vault and a couple padlocks all keyed with the same key.

I had hoped to mount the jack inside the rack but the wood slats and geometry off the latch arms on the bracket forced it to me mounted so high that it looked funny and would probably not fit under my garage door opening.

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Rebuilt and refurbished the carb PJohnson gave me. It was a project!

The secondary main jet was badly mangled and it’s size stamp wasn’t legible. I have a couple extra jets from a knock off carb with no markings too. My best guess is that I am about 130 in the main and about 180 secondary. Slow jets are 55 and 70.

Local elevation is 3500’
76 2F HEI headers

I hope that jetting works.

(After taking the pics I noticed that linkage rod that is backwards. Fixed it.)

The carb kit from Cruiser Outfitters didn’t include the gasket between the throttle body and the riser. Had to cut one out.

Can’t wait to make the swap. I think the only thing left to do to prepare is to bend some hard fuel lines.

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I don’t have pics of the functional part of this job, just the cosmetic. I pulled the heater blower out to redo the weather stripping in hopes of getting fewer engine compartment fumes when fresh air knob is pulled. All the weather stripping had turned to dust. I have a couple thicknesses of adhesive backed foam weather stripping in my tool box. It was easy to cut and paste into the needed shapes for the blower box. The blend door operates so nice and seals nicely now that it’s cleaned and re foamed. To clean the housing I used simple green and a nylon brush, followed by scrubbing with a manic eraser. Then I used a meguilars product for re-saturating chalky faded plastics.
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As I went it install the blower I was met with a scale covered firewall. Simple Green and some elbow grease got this section of the fire wall shined up nicely.
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Last for today was installing a new antenna. The PO painted over the original, plus the little plastic upper mount had eroded to almost nothing, so it felt really good to finally replace this with new OEM antenna.
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Your first 40 is what sold me on getting a 40 my self. I remember sitting in the back jump seat and climbing up what seemed to be straight up a hill and handling it with no problems. Since them I was like I need a land cruiser and it has to be a 40.
 
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So, the other side of the firewall from the blower that I cleaned up this weekend is this duct and recirc’ vent with blend door control.

When I pulled it to clean it, some speaker wires and electric door lock wires fell down. They had been hastily run when they were installed. I reworked the disconnect at the passenger door so when I take the top and doors off, the electric lock wiring is easily plugged. And I did better job of running the wires under the dash which took me back to the lock controller which also was hastily installed near the fuse block.

So pretty soon I’ve got one door and the whole dash apart.
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The pile of wire in the back ground is what lured me over to this side of the truck. The remote electric lock controller had never really been properly anchored. Instead it was just tucked behind the blinker relay and ECU. I can’t even blame that on the previous owner. 😳

I started to measure up the space available so I could fabricate a mounting bracket but I noticed the suspicious wiring at my headlamp switch. This was a birds nest of twisted wire and electrical tape connections that even cousin Eddy would’ve been ashamed by.

After some googling and consulting the FSM I figured out how the wiring was supposed to be, and I started assembling a new 6 wire plug. My plug male end was just about 0.25mm to big to fit in this OEM headlamp’s female plug housing. I greases the plug and cautiously applied some heat from a heat gun until the walls of the plastic socket were slightly more transparent. I wiggled the plug into place and waited for the plastic to cool. Perfect fit.

I’ve had an LED bulb for this switch since I converted the rest of my lamps to LED a couple years ago. This was the opportunity to install it. It doesn’t seem much brighter than the OEM bulb. Per Toyota Matt’s instructions i event cleaned the bulb socket end of the fiber optic shaft that carries the light. The knob illuminates just fine, I’m not complaining. It just didn’t change, except for the lower current draw.

Sadly, I didn’t take a picture of the adapted plug whilst it was out. Here is the critical page from the FSM that saved me. The PO’s wiring had my headlamps coming in at the second and third position of the switch. I’m happy to report that I now have the option to run just running lamps 👍👍

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I fabricated a bracket seen here between the fuse block and the Emissions Controller. Difficult to see, but at the top, on the back side of this bracket I also mounted coolerman’s LED compatible blinker ready.

I used a great fabric wire loom that local cruiser guy Ken showed me. It’s visually way better than the corrugated plastic loom and will get me thru the next 5 years while I save for paint.
 
Found this very suspicious hole while cleaning around the blower box.

Good grief I bet that was loud!!!

I was surprised to find that there wasn’t any other dammage down range in the engine bay. It shouldve hit the back side of the passenger fender.

There are better ways to drill a hole….. but none faster!!!!

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