Builds My 1972 Fj40 Build

[CBFJ]

Amazing find! Whatever you ended up paying for it, you've made money already with the work you've done to it. I can't believe a native AL 40 is that clean. What luck.

I love your faithful restoration, the thing looks badass! Try to find a true Cygnus white for the top IMHO, it'll be accurate and look great with the olive. Also it looks like there's some OG white peeking out on that bezel, you should be able to find that.

I love most that your dad is finally getting to play with a 40! What an amazing father/son project. As a dad myself, this is probably making him super happy. Make sure to let him drive every once in a while

 

[Slapshot]

Looking great!
Im considering the Skyjacker springs. What shocks did you use? How’s the ride? Does it sit level front to rear?
Id love to see a pic from the side.

 

[JustOneMore]

Amazing find! Whatever you ended up paying for it, you've made money already with the work you've done to it. I can't believe a native AL 40 is that clean. What luck.

I love your faithful restoration, the thing looks badass! Try to find a true Cygnus white for the top IMHO, it'll be accurate and look great with the olive. Also it looks like there's some OG white peeking out on that bezel, you should be able to find that.

I love most that your dad is finally getting to play with a 40! What an amazing father/son project. As a dad myself, this is probably making him super happy. Make sure to let him drive every once in a while

Thanks! I’m working on finding a good Cygnus white right now actually. I tried to get the paint off the bezel down to the original white but unfortunately it just wasn’t working. It seemed in some places like it was there but no matter how easy I took it I went from green to primer to metal so I don’t know what the deal with that was. My dad is definitely loving it too. We’re having a great time!

 

[JustOneMore]

Looking great!
Im considering the Skyjacker springs. What shocks did you use? How’s the ride? Does it sit level front to rear?
Id love to see a pic from the side.

Thanks!
I’ve only driven it about 4 or 5 miles since the lift and clutch/brake work because I’ve haven’t gotten new shocks yet so I can’t really comment on the ride. For shocks I’m pretty much set on going with bilsteins but that’s just based on what I’ve read here. No personal experience. As far the stance, with the top off I think it sits a little high in the rear but with it on it’s pretty close to level. I don’t have any great pics from the side on a level surface but I’ll put up the ones I do have. I also have no idea how it will change as they get broken in and settle.

 

[Slapshot]

Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures. I’m also running 33” tires and that’s where I’d like my ride height.
I’ll definitely have to consider the springs. I think Bilsteins would be a good combo

 

[JustOneMore]

Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures. I’m also running 33” tires and that’s where I’d like my ride height.
I’ll definitely have to consider the springs. I think Bilsteins would be a good combo

No problem. Happy to help! If I get the bilsteins and get some miles on them relatively soon I’ll report back here on how I like them

 

[Chungas Revenge]

 

[clrussell]

I have never seen those tires. And I’ve seen a lot of tires.

But I love this thread.

To verify you used steel wool and thinner to remove the spray paint? Thinner and a scotch bright blue pad on mine took about an hour for a 3” section.

 

[JustOneMore]

I have never seen those tires. And I’ve seen a lot of tires.

But I love this thread.

To verify you used steel wool and thinner to remove the spray paint? Thinner and a scotch bright blue pad on mine took about an hour for a 3” section.

Thanks. I saw someone here on mud with them and knew as soon as I got a cruiser I had to get a set. Haven’t put many miles on them at all but so far they’re surprisingly quiet for how aggressive they are.

I used lacquer thinner but no steel wool. I alternated between gray and red 3M scuff pads. No reason for the alternating besides I had some of both so when one ran out I just used the other. It definitely took a lot of time but not like what you’re saying. I don’t know if it’ll help but this is the process I followed.

I got a stainless steel bowl and poured some lacquer thinner in it. Soaked the scuff pad and then ran it lightly over the whole area I was working with to cover it with a light coat. My thought process was this would let the thinner start loosening up the spray paint. I have no idea if it really did but it made me feel better. Then I dipped the pad in the bowl again and started actually working the spray paint off. I just repeatedly worked over a small area with small circles and light pressure. The pressure was pretty important. I used too much in a few places and the spray paint came off but it scratched underneath pretty bad and it was kind of a pain to wet sand and buff it out. I would periodically dip the scuff pad back in the bowl to clean it and to keep it pretty wet with the thinner while I worked it. After a while the old paint coming off would make it kind of hard to see what I was doing. At that point I would get a blue shop towel, pour some thinner on it, and wipe the area down to clean it. This would let me see my progress and if I had missed anything. Then I’d just repeat in a new area That’s pretty much it. I’d say maybe the biggest thing that helped me was keeping plenty of thinner on the pad and the panel as I was working. I’d also clean out the bowl and put fresh thinner in it when it got pretty full of old paint. I have no idea if this will work for anyone else but it did for me. The “Preserving Patina” thread also has tons of good info on this.

Once all the spray paint was off, we wet sanded with I think 1500 or 2000 grit and buffed it.

 

[clrussell]

Thanks. I saw someone here on mud with them and knew as soon as I got a cruiser I had to get a set. Haven’t put many miles on them at all but so far they’re surprisingly quiet for how aggressive they are.

I used lacquer thinner but no steel wool. I alternated between gray and red 3M scuff pads. No reason for the alternating besides I had some of both so when one ran out I just used the other. It definitely took a lot of time but not like what you’re saying. I don’t know if it’ll help but this is the process I followed.

I got a stainless steel bowl and poured some lacquer thinner in it. Soaked the scuff pad and then ran it lightly over the whole area I was working with to cover it with a light coat. My thought process was this would let the thinner start loosening up the spray paint. I have no idea if it really did but it made me feel better. Then I dipped the pad in the bowl again and started actually working the spray paint off. I just repeatedly worked over a small area with small circles and light pressure. The pressure was pretty important. I used too much in a few places and the spray paint came off but it scratched underneath pretty bad and it was kind of a pain to wet sand and buff it out. I would periodically dip the scuff pad back in the bowl to clean it and to keep it pretty wet with the thinner while I worked it. After a while the old paint coming off would make it kind of hard to see what I was doing. At that point I would get a blue shop towel, pour some thinner on it, and wipe the area down to clean it. This would let me see my progress and if I had missed anything. Then I’d just repeat in a new area That’s pretty much it. I’d say maybe the biggest thing that helped me was keeping plenty of thinner on the pad and the panel as I was working. I’d also clean out the bowl and put fresh thinner in it when it got pretty full of old paint. I have no idea if this will work for anyone else but it did for me. The “Preserving Patina” thread also has tons of good info on this.

Once all the spray paint was off, we wet sanded with I think 1500 or 2000 grit and buffed it.

Thank you, that will be a big difference of what I did to start!

 

[JustOneMore]

Finally another update!

We’ve gotten to one of the biggest things that bothered me since I bought this cruiser. The roof and bezel not being the right color!

We started out by removing the roof and getting the old paint off. We did this by sanding with 80grit on a DA for the most part and in the drip rail where it wouldn’t really work we used a scraper and then came back and sanded it by hand. For the bezel, I stripped it down to bare metal with a stripping disk.

 

[JustOneMore]

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this part but the next thing for the roof was using a dremel with a burr on it to remove all the old seam sealer from the drip rail and then sanding where it used to be with 80 grit.

Once that was done, we flipped it and needed to do some rust treatment. Unfortunately I forgot to take good pictures of this too but I did get some.

It cleaned up pretty well. This was just wire brushing everything really good and then chipping any loose flakes out with a hammer and screw driver then spraying it with rust converter. At this point my dad also took the opportunity to clean all the old foam from the headliner off. Once it cured, we cleaned everything really well and sprayed just the bottom side with Cygnus white rattle can from cruiser corp.

 

[JustOneMore]

Then we got ready for the primer. We left the top with the 80 grit scratches and I went back over the bezel with 120. After cleaning everything really well, my dad shot a few coats of SPI epoxy primer on everything.

After the epoxy was dry, we went ahead and redid the seam sealer around the drip rail.

Once that dried, he went back and shot a few coats of SPI high build primer.

Once that dried, we blocked it out on the top and I just scuffed it with a red scuff pad on the bezel because it didn’t really need to be blocked.

While spraying the primer, my dad wasn’t super happy with how it was laying out in the middle of the roof because he was having to reach out a good bit so for the color we decided to hang it up.

 

[JustOneMore]

Then he shot the color! I ended up getting a quart of Cygnus white mixed at a local auto paint store.

This is what we ended up with. For anyone who’s wondering, the top and bezel can be painted with a quart but we used every single bit of it. It may be different for someone else but we definitely didn’t have any to waste with just one quart.

It worked out really well. My dad said it sprayed pretty easy and I really like the color. While spraying the primer, we had gotten some overspray on the underside of the roof where we had just rattle canned it so while we had it up he decided to just go ahead and respray it. Unfortunately I forgot to get pictures of that side.

 

[JustOneMore]

I was super happy with how they both came out and was ready to move on to installing it. My dad liked the bezel but there were a couple small runs on the roof he wasn’t happy with so he decided to sand them out. That turned into wet sanding the entire roof and then polishing it back out to get it how he liked. I didn’t get any pictures of that process but there’s ton of info out there on how to cut and buff paint. Once that was complete it was on to installation! I got all the pieces for the top besides the roof, cleaned them up, and put them on. I got all new weatherstripping from City racer so the next step was installing all of that. I forgot to get a picture of them but I also got the piece for the top of the windshield frame and for around the pipe that slides into the tub in addition to what’s shown here.

After it was all on and in place we set the top on, played with getting everything lined up for a while, and then tightened it all down! While doing all the paint, I also went ahead and ordered a new grille emblem since the cruiser didn’t have one when I bought it. It came in so that went on too. I also ordered new bolts for the bezel from overland metric so the last step was to put it on. It’s so nice to see it looking how it’s supposed to now!

I briefly considered just going with a stark white but I’m now that it’s done I’m so happy I went with Cygnus. It’s subtle but you can definitely tell it’s not stark white and I absolutely love it!

 

[JustOneMore]

I’ve definitely got plenty of work left to do but I’m so happy with how far it’s come up to this point.

 

[jfz80]

Fantastic progress on an amazing find.
Keep up the good work and Enjoy it

 

[JustOneMore]

Got a few small things done and finally some real miles! The body itself was pretty much done but there were a few more things to do. The side mirrors and their brackets, the license plate holder and light, and the overhead tray needed to be painted. Got all that done. Once they were all finished, I got all the doors put back on. That was a major pain until I realized there are specific driver and passenger side hinges on the rear doors. For the front doors, I also installed @SMG door pins. They’re a great product. I would highly recommend them to anyone who’s considering them.

 

[JustOneMore]

 

[JustOneMore]

The paint I used on the mirrors is interesting. I found it recommended here on mud. It’s duplicolor stainless steel ss100. After it’s been sprayed it has all kinds of flakes on it that have to be wiped off to smooth the paint out. It was really weird but I’m happy with how it came out. I also sprayed it with a satin clear. It’s rattlecan so I’m not expecting outstanding durability out of it but hopefully that will help it last a little longer.