Hey,
Newb here. Been stalking the site for the last year and decided to make an account. I acquired my 66 FJ40 last summer as a WIP. She was already named Lulu on all of the paperwork so it's pretty much sticking.
Apparently, she was sitting under about 15-20 tarps/years in NorCal when the previous owner talked his way into buying it. After some elbow grease, it came back to life for the most part. He dropped a 350 and a muncie 420 trans in it. Rear wheel wells were apparently rusting out and ended up getting replacement panels welded in and then rhino lined the interior and coated the underside as well. At the time I acquired, the rear quarter panels had only been painted and primed. His plan was to fully paint, which I might do at some point, but I opted to try my first driveway paint job and matched the paint as best as I could. Save for a bit of tiger striping, it looks pretty good.
Outside of that, I had the original axles rebuilt (not reflective of photo below), replaced some steering linkage, installed jump seats, installed new valve covers to try and manage a bit of an oil leak and had the carb rebuilt. Driving well now and use it fairly regularly, but have some projects that I need to do:
Short Term:
Thx!
Newb here. Been stalking the site for the last year and decided to make an account. I acquired my 66 FJ40 last summer as a WIP. She was already named Lulu on all of the paperwork so it's pretty much sticking.
Apparently, she was sitting under about 15-20 tarps/years in NorCal when the previous owner talked his way into buying it. After some elbow grease, it came back to life for the most part. He dropped a 350 and a muncie 420 trans in it. Rear wheel wells were apparently rusting out and ended up getting replacement panels welded in and then rhino lined the interior and coated the underside as well. At the time I acquired, the rear quarter panels had only been painted and primed. His plan was to fully paint, which I might do at some point, but I opted to try my first driveway paint job and matched the paint as best as I could. Save for a bit of tiger striping, it looks pretty good.
Outside of that, I had the original axles rebuilt (not reflective of photo below), replaced some steering linkage, installed jump seats, installed new valve covers to try and manage a bit of an oil leak and had the carb rebuilt. Driving well now and use it fairly regularly, but have some projects that I need to do:
Short Term:
- Lift - thinking OME 2.5. Current leaf springs and linkage all appear pretty aged. Hoping to improve the ride a bit. Any insight here is welcome
- Radio - installed a center console and planning to put in some audio for the longer rides
- Windshield wipers. Driver side motor is not working. Going to try and dismantle and rebuild, we'll see the OEM versions appear impossible to find replacements
- Steering box - prob needs a rebuild and thinking about power steering (this part is longer term)
- Bumper/Winch
- Heat - Currently no heater box/fan assembly. Don't need AC where I live, but would like to have a fan for defog functionality
- Update steering wheel. Mine is not OEM, but think I have the 36 spline based on the year.
- Proper Paint job
- Acquire hard top - I haven't yet seen a great guide on compatibility for different years. If anyone has one and can share, I would appreciate.
- Potentially update transmission to more modern 5 spd. The muncie is fun, but I can basically take off in 3rd and could use some more top end
Thx!
