My 1975 FJ40 to be expedition rig, lots of potential

[forestderp]

Did I do it right?

First I removed the bezel, and sand blasted it.

Then I got a can of this stuff.

I really need to just remove all the easily removed body panels and sand blast em and repaint stuff....

Misc more pics from today/tonight.

 

[Assassin]

looks nice with the white bezel!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[forestderp]

And went kayaking today in the ice.....

 

[skidplate]

Wow! cold! This is my shot from last week, when it was in the high 70's here! Your truck is looking good!

 

[forestderp]

Picked up this bad boy today, along with an air cleaner assembly,and a spare tire time for my 70, from some guys up in Duluth.
The carb has a build date of march 7 1979, I will try to get a carb rebuild kit for it from toyota ordered when I pick up a few small things today that have been waiting at the dealership for me for a week or so.

I am hoping to have this rebuilt and ready for install sometime next week. Anyone want a weber?

 

[toyotalandfj40]

On my 1975 land cruiser, I hid my speakers under the jumper seats in the back, put a cd changer under my driver seat, and the unit was put where it's supposed to, but it's real outdated, worth like $30 now, when before it was close to $300 for what my dad bought it for.

Hope that helps!

 

[Trollhole]

You did really good on those knobs. Good job it's really coming along.

 

[forestderp]

Pulled the carb apart for rebuild, kinda irritated with the main jets not wanting to come out, hoping that soaking the carb in some carb dip tomorrow will help to loosed em up, totally not wanting to have to drill em out.

Also replacing all the little hardware with stainless while it is apart.

The current bane of my existence(over exaggeration).

The other project is coming along nicely also, lots of plumbing done now. Building a wiring harness from scratch for it tomorrow, and going to get a bunch more done on the cruiser also, *cough* carb....

 

[forestderp]

Intake manifold has a big crack in it, who would have guessed? I will be pulling it off the truck next week media blasting it and having it tig welded up, really hoping it doesn't warp too much.
Also finished the carb rebuild, just have to make a spacer to make it work tomorrow...

 

[toyotalandfj40]

Ah, that is quite a crack on the intake manifold.....yet it didn't give up on you. It's but a flesh wound

 

[forestderp]

Well, I have been really bad about any sort of updates on this project, and honestly I haven't really done much to it other than enjoy it. I did take off the thermostat housing and media blasted it and reassembled it with new toyota gaskets, and I did end up media blasting and welding up the intake manifold which then had to be surfaced along with the exhaust manifold to seal back up (no biggie). Still running the weber carburetor(switched it over to a manual choke and that helped), but have plans to switch to the aisin sometime this fall/winter (truck is parked until spring).
After putting on several hundred off the road miles I no longer am thinking I want a 4" lift, seems there are enough trees and branches to get hung up at the height it is already at, so a 2.5" lift for the simple reason some new springs will be the new plan., and instead of 33" tires I am thinking 31 or 32 should be just fine for everything I will need it to do.
Anyway heres a bunch of pics from a couple trips I took this summer with some friends through some minnesota forests.

Here is a poor quality short video just driving through a little water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSV1SEtrrnE&feature=plcp
Camping I noticed how nice the removable rear seat is for lounging.

and road out of and into the area we setup camp.

Back on pavement the defenders, I must admit are pretty badass.

Gotta love some charity car wash action.

 

[forestderp]

The previous trip was through central minnesota, this next trip was through the arrowhead part of Mn north of duluth and went up to the grand portage area....Canadian trip is in the plans....

First obstacle, sadly we didn't break the edge with our shovels and carry on as I wanted to and instead turned around and went around it (I know the FJ40 would have easily done it).

Soon the road disappeared...

We ended up going down this narrow little trail for some ways and had to bust out the chainsaw and clear it a bit to get everyone through, but then it was getting late and we still had a long ways to go to break through the trail and turned the convoy around after having cleared about 600 yards of trail (personally I wanted to setup camp there on the trail and continue on bushwhacking the next day, but alas guys were damaging their trucks trying to follow...)

Had to take a picture of this on a friends land rover.

On my way home from this last trip, I finally caught my neighbor outside and stopped to ask about this little yellow 40 he had sitting out back that I have been eyeing up for sometime....Well $200 later I now have a 1968 to add to the list of projects...

Loading it onto the trailer was easy with help from the 75.

I will try to be better about pictures and stuff in the future, this winter should be pretty interesting with 3 FJ40 projects, if I can finish my 1970 restoration and get the lift and tires on the 1975 I should consider myself accomplished....
-Sean

 

[ed76FJ40]

I live in south Minneapolis, would like to compare rigs

 

[forestderp]

I live in south Minneapolis, would like to compare rigs

I am pretty busy until november with harvest and such, then I will be able to come to the cities sometime.

 

[forestderp]

Well Harvest is all over and I can now again work on the Fj40's.
I just started making a new rear bumper for dual swing outs, I had made a bracket to carry two Jerry cans on the factory spare tire carrier which resulted in a bent tire carrier after a few hundred miles, therefore the only reasonable thing to do was either build or buy a new rear tire/Jerry can carrier system. With the current cost of available replacement rear bumpers with dual swing outs building was the best option.
Here are the pictures of what I have so far.

And here is what doesn't work.

 

[subzali]

$200 '68 - nice.

Regarding the lift/tires, my 31s and a rear locker have gotten me through a lot of trails just as well as any other rig for the past 6 years. Plus I feel less tippy doing it. Still (always) have plans to go bigger some day, but with essentially no other modifications needed I've been pretty happy.

 

[Hogan]

I live in south Minneapolis, would like to compare rigs

I am pretty busy until november with harvest and such, then I will be able to come to the cities sometime.

I would be interested in doing that also, but I'm getting close to putting mine away for the winter.

 

[78fj40mg]

Did I do it right?
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg540/forrestderp/P3150302.jpg

First I removed the bezel, and sand blasted it.

Then I got a can of this stuff.

I really need to just remove all the easily removed body panels and sand blast em and repaint stuff....
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg540/forrestderp/P3150311.jpg
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg540/forrestderp/P3150310.jpg
Misc more pics from today/tonight.
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg540/forrestderp/P3150309.jpg
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg540/forrestderp/P3150307.jpg

Great paint job on the bezel!!

 

[Butch1979]

Nice

Truck is moving along well. How did the stereo turn out?

 

[myquestoyota]

Great paint job on the bezel!!

Get the spacer kit for the bezel, found on the "parts you don't see every day thread".