My kid wanted a Jeep, she's getting a 77 FJ40 LS Swap instead

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Started on the doors and added the roll bar pads. I was hoping to harvest some of the internals for the new doors but unfortunately I will be replacing almost everything. I was able to reuse one door window and regulator only.
Normally removing and reinstalling the door window is a bit of fun, luckily the donor carcass was so bad that I was able to remove the window and regulator through the bottom. Saved my knuckles a little.

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I put the soft top back on and highly advise not doing it until its 70 degrees, not fun at all. I finished installing both doors. The passenger door went easy, to the point I thought this wasnt too bad at all. Of course the drivers side fought me the whole way. The passenger door seals were slopily installed, I attempted to do it like I did with my 74 but the design of the seals were vastly different and didnt lay down the same way. The passenger door I used my clamps and it came out ok, I will need to clean up where it slid and marked up the inner door with sealant. I tried using tape on the drivers side door to minimize the mess and with the help of my brother in law I had him tape down the seals. For the most part, it worked better but the 3M weatherstripping sealant failed to adhere in some spots. I went back and redid some of the areas a second time. I will need to recheck all of the seals and add more sealant too.
The later style doors are lighter and appear to seal up better when closing than my 74. The doors have to be forced to close as the seals are still not molded to the body yet.
I need to find some lube (guessing white lithium grease) to lube up the window mechanism. Once that is done I will install the vapor barrier (thanks again GArchitect) and then the door pulls and door cards.

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Fun stuff on the next installment of the project. My BMW heated seat switches came in, took over a month to arrive from Iceland. The price was the same as one from the states but with one exception, they had the pigtails attached and I needed them to wire the heated seats. After running all the wires and making sure there is power the passenger seat seemed to be the only one that worked. I swapped the switches and that wasn't the issue. I believe its the CanBus in the driver seat that is causing me grief from what I read online. Luckily I ordered a CanBus emulator to trick the driver seat computer. That will be a project for a latter date. In the process of running all the wires I tidied up the wires out of the auxiliary fuse box. I made the switch leads long enough I can make them usable somewhere on the dash. The current plan is to use the ash tray hole to mount the switches. I have a switch panel on order from P32 (40 Series Land Cruiser Ashtray replacement panel - https://p32manufacturing.com.au/products/40-series-land-cruiser-ashtray-delete-panel) but the wait seems really long.
I also had to make a new brake line on the passenger side inner front, I had a hairline leak and I cranked it down several times without success sealing. The new line is not OE looking but is tucked away nicely.

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JKIII FJ40 said:
Fun stuff on the next installment of the project. My BMW heated seat switches came in, took over a month to arrive from Iceland. The price was the same as one from the states but with one exception, they had the pigtails attached and I needed them to wire the heated seats. After running all the wires and making sure there is power the passenger seat seemed to be the only one that worked. I swapped the switches and that wasn't the issue. I believe its the CanBus in the driver seat that is causing me grief from what I read online. Luckily I ordered a CanBus emulator to trick the driver seat computer. That will be a project for a latter date. In the process of running all the wires I tidied up the wires out of the auxiliary fuse box. I made the switch leads long enough I can make them usable somewhere on the dash. The current plan is to use the ash tray hole to mount the switches. I have a switch panel on order from P32 (40 Series Land Cruiser Ashtray replacement panel - https://p32manufacturing.com.au/products/40-series-land-cruiser-ashtray-delete-panel) but the wait seems really long.
I also had to make a new brake line on the passenger side inner front, I had a hairline leak and I cranked it down several times without success sealing. The new line is not OE looking but is tucked away nicely.

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Cant you use the switches from a generic seat heater kit?
 
White Stripe said:
Cant you use the switches from a generic seat heater kit?
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I could I believe, I would need to wire them direct to the BMW seat heat mats. But then I wont have temp control, the BMW switches add thermotastic control (NTC) allowing set it and forget it. I have to add the CanBus emulator anyways for the power seats to work. It shouldnt take more than a couple of minutes to wire it in to know for certain. All in all not a biggy, I only paid $75 a piece and a couple of dollars for the steel for the brackets.
 
1911 said:
I bought a similar-idea switch panel from Proffits years ago; maybe they still make them?

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Thanks, I believe it’s still on their website. I can make one if needed, I just like the way the P32 one looked thats why I went that route.
 
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Glamour shots. The weather was nice enough to bring it outside. I flipped the heater valve too that's underneath the battery.

It was also a good opportunity for me to have it next to its older brother. The suspension still needs to break in, the white one stands significantly higher than the tan one. Both have 2"(ish) lifts with the same shackles. Both did a quick lap around the cul-de-sac.

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JKIII FJ40 said:
curious, are you referring to the same mirror or the OE mirrors (plastic mirror with two screws to tighten down)
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I think the same mirror?

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The passenger side wasn't problematic, the driver's side liked to misbehave. I took it off and glued it to tighten up the fit.
I've redone it once. I think I put about 20k miles on it since these were installed last spring.
 
Washer bottle installed, I used one from Amazon. Nice and cheap and it works well. I am still playing around with my Dakota digital dash, my oil pressure stopped working. Then it worked and my water sensor stopped working. Then everything worked and now Im back to the oil pressure stopped working again. Ive been emailing back and forth with Dakota, lets see what they have to say this week when they get the update email on whats been happening. I also removed the heated seat switches from the dash, basically redid the wiring moving the switches by the seats. I will install them in the console in the future, for now they are ziptied to the seat frame where they are accessible.

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sogncab said:
I think the same mirror?

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The passenger side wasn't problematic, the driver's side liked to misbehave. I took it off and glued it to tighten up the fit.
I've redone it once. I think I put about 20k miles on it since these were installed last spring.
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Here’s hoping I don’t have any issues, those are the same as what I installed. My driver side mirror did not come with the plastic insert, my passenger side did however

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White Stripe said:
You may want to consider some heat protection for that brake line near the down pipe. The down pipe can get pretty hot.
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which down pipe are you referring too. The lines from the drivers side master follow the OE routing around the back and are not near the manifold. Unless I missed something.
Thanks for letting me know, just need to know where to double check.
 
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