My '77 BJ40 (1 Viewer)

[rockcrawler]

Here's a pic of the BJ40 I bought recently. Took me a while to find one with a good body and minor rust issues. All the rust you see is just surface where the PO has started but never finished the repairs. The motor still goes but oil pressure is so low it doesn't register on the gauge anymore so I will have to reco it.
The project is to do a frame up restoration and I have been busily collecting all the parts I need. It started off with "do the engine and give it a spray job" minimalist approach but then quickly turned into "I should really do that too, oh yeah and that... oh damn, why not just pull the whole truck to bits and take it from there."

 

[crushers]

sucker, so many guys end up in your boat...
if you want to drive it then rebuild the engine and drive the bloody thing.
if you want a project then tear it down but take your estimate of costs and tripple it...

 

[rockcrawler]

I kind of want both. The other thing is that I will be doing some trips to the red center in it and I don't want any surprises out there. Having seen some of the repairs and mods the PO has done in the past doesn't inspire much confidence.

 

[Eric Winkworth]

If you want a perfect truck or if your frame is swiss cheese then yes you need a frame off restoration... if you wanna drive it... oil the s*** out of it with some good oil (krown, rust check, or the napa or carquest stuff) and replace parts as they break....

I think she's got character... just clean up the bad spots... and drive.... is it a mechnical oil pressure gauge giving you a low reading?

 

[rockcrawler]

Just the standard dash oil pressure gauge. The motor is definitely gone, EDIC controller has been bypassed. He did the rings a while back but of course that isn't going to cure low oil pressure.

 

[lostmarbles]

Nice.

I'm guessing that's a used-import rather than Australian-new. Am I correct?

 

[Aussie FJ40]

lostmarbles,that is just one sold here,not an import,we had thousands sold in oz,the snowy river scheme put toyota on the map here,leslie thiess was the man who started it all with thiess toyota,dont know how many tojos have been sold here but it would be astronomical numbers

 

[lostmarbles]

lostmarbles,that is just one sold here,not an import,we had thousands sold in oz,the snowy river scheme put toyota on the map here,leslie thiess was the man who started it all with thiess toyota,dont know how many tojos have been sold here but it would be astronomical numbers

That's interesting.

I lived in Perth for a few years around 1980 and I didn't notice any BJ40s older than 1978.

But I'm always learning about details such as this.

Often viewpoints I've held for years and years turn out to be completely wrong. Such as - I had thought BJ40s were completely replaced by BJ42s but it turns out that the BJ40s continued in production till at least 1983 - which is just 1 year short of the demise of the BJ42!)

(Pretty sure the BJ41 was never imported by either Toyota Australia or Toyota NZ, but like everything else, I could be wrong there too.)

Yeah. I LOVE Oz and could easily live there. It's cruiser paradise and I WILL be back. (but in our OLD age the missus isn't so keen on "roughing it" so it could see a divorce ------ Who knows?)

 

[pilotmike]

Oil Pressure

My 77 BJ40 oil pressure guage is way off.
Hook up a mechinal guage, mine reads 60-70 cold, 30-40 hot.