I started out just removing my gas tank to repair a leak, ended up spending the whole summer on the interior of my '77 FJ40. I just wanted to share with you everything I did… with the help of IH8Mud!
I started off by patching the holes in my gas tank with POR15 Por Patch and then lined it with their gas tank repair kit. It was a lot of work and quite a few steps but it came out really well and was a lot cheaper than a new OEM tank.
Then I wanted to fix the small spots of rust that had formed on the body under the gas tank. I used a wire wheel on a drill to remove the rust and paint and noticed that some of the seam sealer had some rust. I ended up using a screwdriver and removed all of the seam sealer because there was corrosion under just about all of it!
I used Por15 seam sealer to replace it.
I had some cheap bed liner that the PO put in so I decided to remove that also. Between a wire wheel on a drill, a heat gun and some aircraft paint remover I had the old bedliner off and most of the interior down to bare metal in about 3 days.
When I removed the tranny hump I found about 20 pounds of Oklahoma clay attached to the tranny, spend half a day trying to scrape it all off. There is mud (clay) caked on everything on the underside of my cruiser, the p.o. must have had it stuck up to the frame. Even the frame rails are caked full of mud. After pulling apart the dash there was even clumps of mud under the dash, I now completely understand “IH8Mud”! I'm still trying to figure out how to get all the clay out of the frame rails.
The rear sill had some rot so I got rid of that with the wire wheel (I know, should have welded in a new sill... I did buy a new rear sill but lack welding skills! I'll get it welded in someday!) I used Por15 Powermesh and Epoxy putty. This stuff is so easy to use I could smooth it out with wet fingers, came out perfect.
The PO must have replaced the clutch master because it had an obvious leak at some point, all the paint underneath it inside the cab all the way to the floor was gone. I didn't want to rattle can it and get overspray everywhere so I ended up buying 2 shades of rustoleum and mixed them together to get a close match. Used a high quality brush and brushed it on, can't even see any brush marks.
I then prepped with Marine Clean and Metal Ready before putting down 2 coats of Por15 (3 coats on the floorboards) Oh the floorboards... almost forgot about the chipping, scraping and bloody knuckles removing the tar from the drivers floorboard and the tranny hump
After speaking to a rep from Por15 I decided to use Por15 self-etching primer to help the Herculiner adhesion. I used 2 coats of the primer, 3 coats of Herculiner and 3 coats of Herculiner U.V. Protectant. I'm very happy with the results! Wish I had some before pictures of the interior with the old bedliner.
Before reinstalling the seats I took the brackets down to bare metal before painting them with Por15. I used a roll bar from a later model with the seat belt mounts on the bar and had to took it down to bare metal and rattle canned it. After a few tries with different silver paint I finally found a rattle can that matched the fuel filler cover, I plan to use it to repaint the backs of my seats. I also took apart the heater and used Por15 and a rattle can to paint it.
The inner rubber boot on my transfercase shifter was ripped to shreds and I thought 80 bucks for a new one was ridiculous so I soaked it for a couple days in bleachwite and then used an inner tube and some rubber cement to repair it, came out great!
I used a rubber gasket from Home Depot between the tranny hump and the body, I didn't want to use anything that would hold water.
I spent about $200 at Fastenal on all new stainless hardware.
Also had to do some wiring work The PO installed driving lights, I took the wires off to do the interior work and apparently when I connected the wires back to the switch I reversed them I went to turn on the lights and got a cloud of white smoke. Took the dash apart and found that the wire didn't damage too much, I didn't notice that the PO didn't install an inline fuse until it was too late. (if you have any PO installed electrical work you might want to check it out before you burn your cruiser to the ground!)
Bought a new Tuffy and some windshield mount mirrors
I still need to put my radio back in and hook up my speakers. I found some 8" Bazooka marine speakers that I'm going to use. I bought a Bestop Soundbar but after I installed it I realized that anyone that sits in the back would hit their head. I should have taken pics of it installed, it looked great.
Took me a long time to get everything done and I didn't get much time to drive her before I just put her away for the winter but I'm looking forward to next spring!
Thanks to Matt and DesertDude and everyone else who helped!
Pics
I started off by patching the holes in my gas tank with POR15 Por Patch and then lined it with their gas tank repair kit. It was a lot of work and quite a few steps but it came out really well and was a lot cheaper than a new OEM tank.
Then I wanted to fix the small spots of rust that had formed on the body under the gas tank. I used a wire wheel on a drill to remove the rust and paint and noticed that some of the seam sealer had some rust. I ended up using a screwdriver and removed all of the seam sealer because there was corrosion under just about all of it!
I used Por15 seam sealer to replace it. I had some cheap bed liner that the PO put in so I decided to remove that also. Between a wire wheel on a drill, a heat gun and some aircraft paint remover I had the old bedliner off and most of the interior down to bare metal in about 3 days.
When I removed the tranny hump I found about 20 pounds of Oklahoma clay attached to the tranny, spend half a day trying to scrape it all off. There is mud (clay) caked on everything on the underside of my cruiser, the p.o. must have had it stuck up to the frame. Even the frame rails are caked full of mud. After pulling apart the dash there was even clumps of mud under the dash, I now completely understand “IH8Mud”! I'm still trying to figure out how to get all the clay out of the frame rails.
The rear sill had some rot so I got rid of that with the wire wheel (I know, should have welded in a new sill... I did buy a new rear sill but lack welding skills! I'll get it welded in someday!) I used Por15 Powermesh and Epoxy putty. This stuff is so easy to use I could smooth it out with wet fingers, came out perfect.
The PO must have replaced the clutch master because it had an obvious leak at some point, all the paint underneath it inside the cab all the way to the floor was gone. I didn't want to rattle can it and get overspray everywhere so I ended up buying 2 shades of rustoleum and mixed them together to get a close match. Used a high quality brush and brushed it on, can't even see any brush marks.
I then prepped with Marine Clean and Metal Ready before putting down 2 coats of Por15 (3 coats on the floorboards) Oh the floorboards... almost forgot about the chipping, scraping and bloody knuckles removing the tar from the drivers floorboard and the tranny hump
After speaking to a rep from Por15 I decided to use Por15 self-etching primer to help the Herculiner adhesion. I used 2 coats of the primer, 3 coats of Herculiner and 3 coats of Herculiner U.V. Protectant. I'm very happy with the results! Wish I had some before pictures of the interior with the old bedliner.
Before reinstalling the seats I took the brackets down to bare metal before painting them with Por15. I used a roll bar from a later model with the seat belt mounts on the bar and had to took it down to bare metal and rattle canned it. After a few tries with different silver paint I finally found a rattle can that matched the fuel filler cover, I plan to use it to repaint the backs of my seats. I also took apart the heater and used Por15 and a rattle can to paint it.
The inner rubber boot on my transfercase shifter was ripped to shreds and I thought 80 bucks for a new one was ridiculous so I soaked it for a couple days in bleachwite and then used an inner tube and some rubber cement to repair it, came out great!
I used a rubber gasket from Home Depot between the tranny hump and the body, I didn't want to use anything that would hold water.
I spent about $200 at Fastenal on all new stainless hardware.
Also had to do some wiring work
The PO installed driving lights, I took the wires off to do the interior work and apparently when I connected the wires back to the switch I reversed them I went to turn on the lights and got a cloud of white smoke. Took the dash apart and found that the wire didn't damage too much, I didn't notice that the PO didn't install an inline fuse until it was too late. (if you have any PO installed electrical work you might want to check it out before you burn your cruiser to the ground!)Bought a new Tuffy and some windshield mount mirrors
I still need to put my radio back in and hook up my speakers. I found some 8" Bazooka marine speakers that I'm going to use. I bought a Bestop Soundbar but after I installed it I realized that anyone that sits in the back would hit their head. I should have taken pics of it installed, it looked great.
Took me a long time to get everything done and I didn't get much time to drive her before I just put her away for the winter but I'm looking forward to next spring!
Thanks to Matt and DesertDude and everyone else who helped!
Pics
I'm trying to sell my 78, I think I have a buyer but I need to get her running... problem is that it's about 20 degrees here and snowing. 
NICE WORK 
