Irish's Slow 1978 Rustic Green Build

[Irish11]

Irish's Feb 1978 Rustic Green FJ40:

Current Photo: (May 2016)

Completed list of everything I have done to the rig since I bought it:

Completed Mods:

Body/Exterior:

• Factory Rear Bumperettes
• HFS 8274 Bumper
  • OEM Bumper gussets
  • Front Bumper Side Frame Brackets
• Paint
  • Toyota 621 "Rustic Green
  • "Ford Performance White" for bezel and top
  • Rebuilt Doors
    • Weld on lower patch
    • Door seals and window felts/wipers
  • Rebuilt Hardtop
    • Racer Hardtop Seals
    • Welded Up Rust Holes
    • OEM Door and Window Seals
    • OEM Rear Door Lock
• New rear light covers
• New windshield with OEM seal
• Factory Tire Carrier
• OEM Mirrors
• Side Fender Badges
• Bezel Emblem
• Kaymar Hi-Lift Mount
• Bikini Top (track installed with nutcerts)

Drivetrain/Engine:

• Cleaned up POs de-smog job
• Air cleaner to valve cover hose
• 33x105r15 BFG ATs
• Factory Steel Wheels
• Gas tank hoses replaced
  • Line in and return line
• 4" skyjacker lift
• Greaseable spring hanger pins
• Greaseable anti-inversion shackles
• Knuckle rebuild with koyo bearings and Marlin Seals
• New tie rod ends
• 4* Shims and new U-Bolts
• Air cleaner intake hose

Interior:

• Refinish dash knobs
• Bed liner
• Gas filler cover
• Front seats
• Year correct jump seats
  • CCOT Jump Seat Straps
• Con-Ferr toolbox
• Heater rebuild
• Door panels with weather liner
• Door bushings
• Seat bracket lengthening
• Metal-Tech Jackson roll cage
• Tuffy console
• 5lb fire extinguisher

Electrical

• New headlights
• LED lights inside the cab
• Replaced light switch
• SunPro tachometer
• LED strip gauge cluster lights
• LED motorcycle dash light
• JVC Stereo (in Tuffy Console)
• Pioneer TW150 speaker boxes
• Interstate group 34 battery

 

[Irish11]

Backstory:
My love affair with the Fj40 started back in High School. I told myself that some day I would own one. I figured I would wait until I had a job where I could afford one and the skills needed to complete the project. In the mean time I settled for a number of other Toyota rigs: 1981 Toyota Pickup, 1988 4runner, 1999 Tacoma (my current and faithful DD), and 1990 FJ62. Well my friend picked up a nice 1975 Mustard yellow 40 and I decided after playing around with it that it was time to buy my dream rig. So I sold my 1990 fJ62 to fund the project.

In Sept 2013 I found the Fj40 I had been looking for. My "Rustic Green" 1978. It wasn't much to look at when I picked it up. The engine had been freshly rebuilt and desmoged, with an electronic choke and HEI distributer added. The body was in decent shape. The PO had replaced the entire rear of the tub with fresh sheet metal. The PO before him had given the truck the "custom" desert camo spray paint job along with a really poorly done bedliner kit for the interior (friends don't let friends do bad bedliner work). Here is what it looked like the day I bought it:

The new rear of the tub:

I drove it around for a few days like that. But being Sept in Seattle the rain was going to rust away my nice new sheet metal, so I started the tear down. Here you can see where I started. It wasn't too bad looking to begin with. The new sheet metal looks all shiny, you can see the bad bedliner job in the front. The dash is complete with the factory radio and everything. All and all a great start to the project.

Before I started pealing the bedliner away. The PO of the guy I bought it off of added the bedliner. In his haste to get it done he did no prep work and the bedliner was pealing up. Leaving a nice gap for mud, water, and everything else to get into.

Some time with a grinder and a chisel got most of the liner up. This is where I started treating the rust. From what I have seen on here and other sites I got away clean on the rust front. I only have a few holes in my tub and they are pin holes in comparison to what I have see elsewhere.

The last of the bedliner that I had to scrape out by hand with a chisel. There are a lot of little nooks and crannies for this stuff to be stuck in.

 

[Irish11]

Here is what it looked like in October before I got stuck traveling for work and wasn't home to work on it. This is before I got to tackling most of the bad paint, and rust on the outside of the rig.

The interior completely stripped. This is where I started to get nervous about being able to put this thing back together. Note the white primer was a temporary thing since I was going to be on the road for a few months I didn't want the bare metal flashing on me.

The Passenger side fender had the usual rust spot on the turn signal. After taking off all the paint. I found out the hole was all the way through and was eating away at the mount as well. This was going to be a lost cause for my lack of welding skills, so I picked up a nice new fender from CCOT to replace it.

Once I got back from traveling I started in on the rig again. In the last few weeks I have made some serious progress. I applied chassis saver to the front of the frame and the tub. Which after all the grinding and prep turned out looking pretty good I think.

My next step is going to be painting. I have everything disassembled and prepped I just need to finish sandblasting a few parts and it should be good to go with new Rustic Green pain here in the next few weeks. After months of working on this I know I haven't made as much progress as some, but for not having any experience with body work I think I am off to a decent start.

 

[dad4x4]

Very nice 40. Your work so far looks great. I too am in the process of getting mine ready for paint. I have to replace the driver side rear quarter first and then will be waiting for a warm weekend to paint.
Looks like you are off to a great start. I look forward to seeing the rest of the build. Post plenty of pics

 

[Helipilot]

Nice start to a promising project. Keep up the good work and keep up the posts.

 

[winnie]

looking good ... its a survivor ... glad you're sticking with Rustic Green ...

 

[Irish11]

It was time for an update.

I primed the interior and got everything else ready for paint. Interior primed and ready:

Off to paint:

Back from paint. My version of "Rustic Green" due to the yellow in the original color having lead in it:

Monstralined the interior with the same tint as the exterior. It turned out lighter than I would have liked, but I can live with it for a while. If I decide I don't like it I can always re-do the interior in black. I also got my first few scratches in (ouch) and it was not that much fun after what I paid to paint it...


The liner is a little darker than in the photo, it was still drying at this time. Coat 1:

Coat 2:

 

[roma042987]

love the color. great job looks like you had a solid start.

 

[dad4x4]

Looks great. green is my favorite color and would love to paint mine green, especially after seeing yours. will likely stick with the factory red tho.
great job, it turned out really well, I bet you have been throwing on new parts like crazy trying to get it put back together. where you are on your build, is my favorite place to be.

 

[Pierps]

Looks really good.

I too have issues with both of my fenders. I've heard the CCOT (and other aftermarket) fenders often require a lot of adjustment to get them to fit. Was this your experience? If so, what did you have to do to get it to work? Was it just a matter of slotting the holes, or did you have to cut off the support and re-weld it?

 

[Irish11]

Thanks for all the kind words! I almost have it back together, just battling electrical gremlins.

Alright after two days of messing with it I cannot seem to get any electrical things to work in my 40. I recently had it apart for paint and took off the battery mount, battery ground, fuse box, all the knobs, and gauge cluster, everything else engine wise stayed attached.

As for the fenders: I had to slot a few holes, nothing too bad. The gaps aren't perfect, and you can see when you look closely that the fenders don't match, but if your not building a show truck they work fine. I got mine from Cruiser Corps. I like their customer service so I'll be going back to them in the future.

 

[ozcrusier]

Check the earth cables from battery and starter are getting a good contact on the chassis rails.

 

[Irish11]

After getting it running and driving it around for the week I thought it was rime for an update. The old seats were shot. The foam was exposed and missing, the frames were rusty looking compared to my nicely powder coated hardware. Long story short they had to go....

Old seats:

"new" seats out of another 40:

Better seats make all the difference. They look so much better and are way more comfortable. Here is an updated photo with the new seats, mirrors, and windshield. Ive never had a new windshield before. It makes everything look so much clearer and high definition on the road. Now I just need some badging so people stop calling it a jeep.

 

[Ken White]

Nice build mate it has come up well. What else you got planned for her.

 

[Irish11]

Thank! I'm enjoying it. I'm thinking 2.5" lift, not sure on who's lift yet though. 33x10.5's, and new wheels. I'm undecided if I'm going to rebuild my top for the Fall or get a soft top. Right now I'm just driving it and having fun. I've got a bunch of odds and ends I'm looking for: matching jump seats, all the emblems, tachometer, bikini top, etc. The list never stops (but at some point the budget does, haha)

 

[White Stripe]

Looks great! I do see the liner is a light color, but doesn't look bad. I really don't like black on the inside for the floor as much.

 

[Weber Sarge]

Badges won't stop the idiots calling it a *eep , I've had them stare right at the Land Cruiser emblem and call it something else more than I can count . Folks just don't get it ...
Sarge

 

[winnie]

wow, very nice work ... like how you're keeping it true to the heritage ... colour looks good and from what I've read here, I'm not sure colours entirely match anyway ... I hear you about the list never stops and budget thing ... a couple of months ago I put a 2.5" OME (ARB?) lift on mine ... plan is to put 33s on it and get rid of the wagon wheels ... there will be no problem re fit ...

 

[Irish11]

So I picked up a set of late 60's long jump seats from another member of my local cruiser club. The color is interesting to say the least. I'm going to see if I like them or not before I powder coat the frames and recover them. For the mean time its now the most awkward 6-seater out there, haha.

Here is where I located the front seatbelt retractors to make the seats fit.

 

[kcustom73]

Nice work. If you're looking at getting new rims, you might want to consider getting 16" rims. I kept my original 15" and the tire choice in 33x10.5 is very limited. When it is time to replace my current set I might look at 16" rims with 285/75R16 (this give you a 33" x 11.5ish tire). Food for tought....