Builds Kid-safe 1975 FJ40 build in Washington DC

[Kmw1]

If you’re just building a driver have you considered spraying primer yourself? If you have a pop up tent outside you’re half way there.

And don’t take any crap from the “back in my day” crowd for wanting to protect your kids from lead poisoning. They’d have you think they walked 10 miles to school up hill both ways too

Ha! My yuppie neighbors would s**t thier pants if I sprayed an epoxy primer in my driveway. Tried on my 15in steelies, you would think I was building a nuclear weapon in my back yard with the response I got.

 

[lcwizard]

Sounds like a blast, I’ve collected many rattle snakes, rabid bats, and all matter of creature in my time, I studied evolutionary biology before becoming a veterinarian and have more snake bites than i care to remember! Like anything potentially dangerous, knowledge and experience are key, when it comes to cars I have neither and plan on leaning heavily on google and the fine folks here on mud, so thanks in advance!

Never got bit by a poisonous snake but I had a lot of pet bull snakes and king snakes . The bull snakes could be temperamental. I'd carry
them around, the bigger ones around my neck. I got quite a few punctures from them. All my scorpion bites were never associated
with collection. In Globe the bark scorpions are the most common. I've been hit by those a couple times. Apparently I'm not
too sensitive to their poison. Other than general area numbness and a little anxiety nothing much more than sharp sting. In Phx
there's a lot of giant hairy scorpions . They make great bolo ties. They look impressive but their sting is like a bee sting, much
milder than the bark. I've put my hand down on one and had one hit my ankle once.

Not sure why you'd want a rabid bat. Pretty sure nothing good could come of that. They wouldn't even live long enough to get attached.

 

[red66toy]

Good for you for wanting to keep your kids away from harmful exposures.

 

[lcwizard]

I could be wrong, but I don’t think it was ever banned in auto paint, even in the USA. Lots of commercial paint products still contain >20% lead not to mention other heavy metals.

I asked my painter. You're right as far as a Federal ban but He thought that the manufacturers had steered away from lead because
of the California ban on any lead use. He noted that when Chevy and Ford started reformulating their paints in the late 70's they were
easily identifiable by the large areas of paint missing from the bodies. Who hasn't seen a mid 80s Chevy with large sheets of paint missing from doors or hoods.

 

[rkymtnflyfisher]

Or 90's Dodges.

 

[Kmw1]

Never got bit by a poisonous snake but I had a lot of pet bull snakes and king snakes . The bull snakes could be temperamental. I'd carry
them around, the bigger ones around my neck. I got quite a few punctures from them. All my scorpion bites were never associated
with collection. In Globe the bark scorpions are the most common. I've been hit by those a couple times. Apparently I'm not
too sensitive to their poison. Other than general area numbness and a little anxiety nothing much more than sharp sting. In Phx
there's a lot of giant hairy scorpions . They make great bolo ties. They look impressive but their sting is like a bee sting, much
milder than the bark. I've put my hand down on one and had one hit my ankle once.

Not sure why you'd want a rabid bat. Pretty sure nothing good could come of that. They wouldn't even live long enough to get attached.

Never bitten by a rattler, just

Never got bit by a poisonous snake but I had a lot of pet bull snakes and king snakes . The bull snakes could be temperamental. I'd carry
them around, the bigger ones around my neck. I got quite a few punctures from them. All my scorpion bites were never associated
with collection. In Globe the bark scorpions are the most common. I've been hit by those a couple times. Apparently I'm not
too sensitive to their poison. Other than general area numbness and a little anxiety nothing much more than sharp sting. In Phx
there's a lot of giant hairy scorpions . They make great bolo ties. They look impressive but their sting is like a bee sting, much
milder than the bark. I've put my hand down on one and had one hit my ankle once.

Not sure why you'd want a rabid bat. Pretty sure nothing good could come of that. They wouldn't even live long enough to get attached.

Or 90's Dodges.

Or 90's Dodges.

 

[Kmw1]

Still learning to use the post function, I guess I owe some pictures of the rig. After reading many posts on this PO’s catch a lot of s**t. The guy I bought it from seemed like a nice guy and frequent mud user, so I tried to black out some of the identifying items on the rig to protect the innocent! Don’t have many before pics, but I’ll post what I can. These are from when I picked it up.

 

[skidplate]

Or 90's Dodges.

yep, my wife drove to work one morning in her pretty '89 Dodge Spirit and returned home that afternoon with half the white paint on the hood gone . She saw it go and thought it was a sheet of paper she ran into.

 

[Kmw1]

Truck & Trailer Repair Hagerstown, MD, Commercial Truck Repairs Service

We are a complete truck & trailer repair service center in Maryland, West Virginia & Pennsylvania. We can handle your entire truck and trailer repair needs.

hsaservicecenterinc.com

Thanks for the referral rkymntflyfisher, called hsa and they remember doing your 40! I will probably drop it off in a month or two.

 

[Kmw1]

So this was an impulse buy. I Initially planned to pay someone to get it going, paint her up, and enjoy until it died. Then I drove it home from the shop, and while I know nothing, and I mean NOTHING about cars, for some reason I felt I had to make it perfect by myself. I have never been a “car guy,” but something about this solid 40 made me want to be one. As I drove home I envisioned camping trips with the kids, the majestic fj40 brought back to life and framed by a classic mountain scene... I was hooked. So I bought a welder and some wrenches and took the thing apart in preparation for the much loved and hated “frame off” restoration.

Don’t know much about this truck. Original 2f engine, possibly rebuilt carb?, rebuilt steering box? mini truck front disk brake conversion, new ss brake lines, OME suspension. Engine transmission, transfer case, and both differentials leak like crazy, rust in all the normal places, but not as bad as some.

I want to cure the cancer, fix the fixable leaks, galvanize the frame while the body is off?, power steering - thinking electric, not planing on any serious off roading, seems pretty easy. May put an air locker in, not sure if I’ll ever need it but I hope I do. Not sure what to do with the engine, may find a machine shop to check it out while it is accessible, any thoughts? I plan on keeping it looking stock as I possible. I have no timeline and no budget. I do want to spend as little as possible, not out of necessity, but because it forces people to be creative which is always more fun.

Before I had any intention of doing any work on it myself I had it towed to a local shop that specializes in land cruisers. I wanted to have it inspected, and to have a few things done to make sure it was drivable and safe-ish. I won’t mention the shop name, but was not to thrilled with them. Had the brake system checked, fluids replaced, tie rod ends replaced. The engine compression was as follows -
Cylinder 1: 130
Cylinder 2: 127
Cylinder 3: 125
Cylinder 4: 120
Cylinder 5: 120
Cylinder 6: 130
Could be better.

Had some leaky seals replaced...
Front main seal, Timing Cover Gasket, Oil Pan Gasket, Water pump Gasket, Thermostat gasket.
They found a broken cam gear and replaced it - metal bits in the oil! Damn. Maybe an engine rebuild/replace in my future!

I want to do as much as I can on my own, I want to know how it works inside and out. I’m more interested in the process than the product, but my wife and kids would be more supportive if it “looked pretty” as well.

 

[Kmw1]

In other news - starting repair on rear sill and quarter panel patches. PO sold the truck with new rear sill and quarter panel patches, he also cut out the old metal and sanded the margins to bare steel in preparation for the repair, figure I might as well get these welded up to keep the body from distorting in transport/media blasting (also no paint there to worry about). Sprayed all overlapping metal with weld through primer.

 

[Xpnsv72fj]

Glad to see you diving right in! If you plan on removing the body to have it blasted I would brace the tub just to be safe. Whatever you do take lots of pictures I have tons and still can’t remember where everything goes. The good news is everyone in the LC community will always help.

I look forward to watching your build and I’m secretly hoping you don’t finish before me!

Josh

 

[Kmw1]

Glad to see you diving right in! If you plan on removing the body to have it blasted I would brace the tub just to be safe. Whatever you do take lots of pictures I have tons and still can’t remember where everything goes. The good news is everyone in the LC community will always help.

I look forward to watching your build and I’m secretly hoping you don’t finish before me!

Josh

Done! Thanks for the advise. I have lots of pics and labeled ziplocks!

 

[Kmw1]

Got started on the rest of the metal work... rear quarter panels did not quite cover all of the damage on the drivers side, I needed to cut an additional strip of 16g to fill the gap. Replaced rusted out steel in a few other places and filled lots of holes. My first attempt at welding, not pretty but penetration seems good. Lots of grinding and sanding to do still. Will be using a lot of bondo, but at least it will be covering steel and not rust!

I can’t quite get the quarter panels to sit flush against the horns of the rear sill - they want to bow out. Dented them a bit trying to force it, thought I’d get some advice before banging on them with a mallet in frustration. Moving fast though, all said I’ve got about 10 hours in it and I feel like I’m making good progress. I don’t get a lot of time to work on it, and I’d like to get the body welded, blasted and primed before fall.
I guess I can only upload 5 images, I’ll try to pick some good ones.

 

[Kmw1]

Well, those images did not post in order, still need to figure out how to use the site better. More pics

 

[Kmw1]

I needed to cut my brace to get the panels to fit... I think the body was already distorted when I welded the brace in place. The truck came with the rear sill cut out. I’m sure I will regret it when I try to fit everything back together, but that is a worry for another day. I am planning on putting a soft top on it most of the time anyway! I am going to wait to weld the quarter panels to the sill horns until I fit the doors and hard top on, perhaps that will give me some flex if it’s needed.

 

[tls3601]

So this was an impulse buy. I Initially planned to pay someone to get it going, paint her up, and enjoy until it died. Then I drove it home from the shop, and while I know nothing, and I mean NOTHING about cars, for some reason I felt I had to make it perfect by myself. I have never been a “car guy,” but something about this solid 40 made me want to be one. As I drove home I envisioned camping trips with the kids, the majestic fj40 brought back to life and framed by a classic mountain scene... I was hooked. So I bought a welder and some wrenches and took the thing apart in preparation for the much loved and hated “frame off” restoration.

Don’t know much about this truck. Original 2f engine, possibly rebuilt carb?, rebuilt steering box? mini truck front disk brake conversion, new ss brake lines, OME suspension. Engine transmission, transfer case, and both differentials leak like crazy, rust in all the normal places, but not as bad as some.

I want to cure the cancer, fix the fixable leaks, galvanize the frame while the body is off?, power steering - thinking electric, not planing on any serious off roading, seems pretty easy. May put an air locker in, not sure if I’ll ever need it but I hope I do. Not sure what to do with the engine, may find a machine shop to check it out while it is accessible, any thoughts? I plan on keeping it looking stock as I possible. I have no timeline and no budget. I do want to spend as little as possible, not out of necessity, but because it forces people to be creative which is always more fun.

Before I had any intention of doing any work on it myself I had it towed to a local shop that specializes in land cruisers. I wanted to have it inspected, and to have a few things done to make sure it was drivable and safe-ish. I won’t mention the shop name, but was not to thrilled with them. Had the brake system checked, fluids replaced, tie rod ends replaced. The engine compression was as follows -
Cylinder 1: 130
Cylinder 2: 127
Cylinder 3: 125
Cylinder 4: 120
Cylinder 5: 120
Cylinder 6: 130
Could be better.

Had some leaky seals replaced...
Front main seal, Timing Cover Gasket, Oil Pan Gasket, Water pump Gasket, Thermostat gasket.
They found a broken cam gear and replaced it - metal bits in the oil! Damn. Maybe an engine rebuild/replace in my future!

I want to do as much as I can on my own, I want to know how it works inside and out. I’m more interested in the process than the product, but my wife and kids would be more supportive if it “looked pretty” as well.

You now officially have 40 fever, they get in your blood, your very soul! Take your time and learn. Looks like it will be a nice one!

 

[Kmw1]

Finally got around to doing the rockers. Used a spot weld breaker from amazon, worked really well, I didn’t drill any of the spot weld out which saved a s$$$ load of time.

 

[Kmw1]

Also repaired the “b” pillar. Had been crushed and filled with bondo. Cut out a ~9 inch strip of steel and bent the door jam back out. Welded in a new steel strip. Turned out better than expected.

 

[Kmw1]

Damn, pics not working! I’ll try again...
Before...