My 1974 FJ40 Thread

[Snowdogyyz]

Couple more updates:

Replaced old barn doors with some rust, with some clean ones. Primed and painted with Freeborn red. Not bad, but certainly not pro quality!

Had some slight overheating issues. Remedied with new 3 Row aluminum radiator. The big 7 blade fan and this radiator were the magic combo!

The carburetor never quite worked right, so I replaced it with a remanufactured Quadrajet from Jegs. Runs much, much better now.

Needed to get the hardtop off the garage floor. Accomplished with the $125 Rancor storage lift from Amazon. Works great.

As it sits now:

 

[Snowdogyyz]

Other thing accomplished:
rebuilt center arm and added 4 degree shims. Steering is perfect now, very little wander at all.

New front wheel bearings took care of a shimmy/vibration I had at around 50-55 mph. That is now gone. Did a warn hub rebuild at that time as well (new gaskets, etc). This truck has come a long way since backing off the trailer from Vegas! Projects for the fall: install quarter panel patches, new rear sill and new rocker panels. Patch some other minor rust areas. Rust bullet the underside and paint black.

 

[Snowdogyyz]

New bumperettes, license bracket and light, and new OEM weatherstipping on the doors:

Next up: new quarter panel patches, rear sill, and new rocker panels.

 

[Snowdogyyz]

Just had the chassis and underbody steam cleaned and painted with chassis saver. Turned out nice!

 

[Snowdogyyz]

Also replaced my lamps with roundeyes and replaced dash cluster bulbs with LED's. Next up: replacing rusty rear sill, quarters, and rockers:

 

[Roboosfj40s]

nice cruiser. What part of NC do you live in. I lived in Kernersville for about 10 years. I was just up there visiting friends several weeks ago.
Red is one of my favorite cruiser colors.
Congrats on the purchase.
Gary

I was stationed at Ft. Bragg years ago and my family is originally from the Fayetteville area. Lots of Faircloths around N.C. Used to love to drive the Park way and Maggie Valley.

Rob

 

[Roboosfj40s]

Other thing accomplished:
rebuilt center arm and added 4 degree shims. Steering is perfect now, very little wander at all.

New front wheel bearings took care of a shimmy/vibration I had at around 50-55 mph. That is now gone. Did a warn hub rebuild at that time as well (new gaskets, etc). This truck has come a long way since backing off the trailer from Vegas! Projects for the fall: install quarter panel patches, new rear sill and new rocker panels. Patch some other minor rust areas. Rust bullet the underside and paint black.

I have a 4" lift with reverse shackle set up and anti-inversions via the po. He had 33 x 14.5 x 15 Super Swamper Boggers on it and it has Saginaw PS and you just could not drive straight after 25 or 30 mph. After researching I changed to 33 x 12.5s and added 4 degree caster shims too and now drives like a dream with no wander at any speed and 1 finger steering as well. However I did redo the drag link. Nice truck BTW!
Rob

 

[Snowdogyyz]

Latest update: new roundeyes! Very much improved night vision now. I've also updated all the inside bulbs to LED's (cluster, dash lights, etc), as well as, the reverse and brake lights and the side marker lights. I noticed the inner part of my tail lights are badly rusted, so I have new OEM ones on the way. Next week it's off to the body shop for the rust panel replacement.

 

[Snowdogyyz]

"Restored" jump seats. Stripped off the old covers, wire brushed some rust, primed, painted (Pewter from Cruiser Corps) and then re-covered them with the black seat covers from Cruiser Corps. These covers are very nice and easy to install. Also installed seat straps and fasteners, as well as, new bumpers on the bottom. Seats look 100% better now.

 

[jmdaniel]

Seats look great!

 

[Snowdogyyz]

Metal work has begun:

Will have new rear sill, quarter panel patches, and new rocker panels when done. The rockers have not been cut out yet. It's going to look sharp when done!

 

[Gottagoslo]

Cruiser is looking good!!!! Just ordered some Roundeyes myself.....Anything has got to be better than that beautiful dim yellow! Lol

 

[Snowdogyyz]

Updates on the metal work: panels have been cleaned, etch primered and epoxy primered. One rocker has been cut out. Going to replace some of the metal underneath and behind the rockers. Couple of places patched in the bed. Going to paint the bumper while everything is off. Slowly getting there!

 

[Snowdogyyz]

A little progress (rocker panel 1 welded in, metal replaced under the floor, bumper cleaned and painted, patchwork on rear wheel well):

 

[Snowdogyyz]

Front seats re-covered with Cruiser Corps covers (very nice!) and then a future project- new oem passenger side front fender. Also, a winch in the background is in the future as well, once the body work is done.

 

[Snowdogyyz]

Almost there! I should be getting the truck back next week. Much, much better shape now.
All panels have been etch and epoxy primed. Everything welded in and a skim coat of bondo applied. Being primed and painted this weekend. Little holes here and there patched plus some rusty areas in the bed area.

 

[Snowdogyyz]

Got my 40 back! All the rot in the rear is gone. My cousin did an excellent job... I'm very pleased! Now, if I could get the front looking like the rear.....

 

[Snowdogyyz]

I also installed my CCOT winch channel and hard top today. My hard top is beat up and s***ty, but it will do for now! My winch will be installed down the road....

Plus, newly recovered seats and jump seats installed!

 

[UZJ40]

EXCELLENT repair work! Thanks for posting pictures!

 

[Snowdogyyz]

EXCELLENT repair work! Thanks for posting pictures!

Thanks! It has been a fun project thus far. Some frustration mixed in (broken bolts are time consuming!), but mostly fun. I will probably go through the rest of the truck bit by bit and paint, put down some rust prevention, that type of stuff. I'm not 100% restoring it, but want to treat/replace rust and make it last.