First off I want to just state that I do plan on doing a frame off resto of this Landcruiser in the future, when funds are more prevalent and I have access to a proper garage to tear this thing down for a complete rebuild.
So I ended up with my brother in laws FJ40 last week.
Note the awesome camo paint job.
It spend the last 5 years as a DD after my bil picked it up off of his uncle. The rig was used as a woods buggy at his uncles hunting camp for god knows how long.
Just last week I posted a new member thread in the chit chat forum and had a warm welcome, thanks. After posting the photo above, the bezel police notified me immediately....
The first think I did when I actually took ownership of the rig was to flip the bezel.
After a close inspection of the rig, it's going to need pretty much every single body panel replaced along with the entire tub and roof. Apparently someone though it would be a good idea to cut a runroof into the Fiberglass top. The side panels on top are from an older FJ I am guessing because it has hinges at the top of the roof behind the rear doors. It's pretty solid mechanically though and most everything works except the rear lights.
After getting it home, I felt quite embarrassed having a camo rust bucket in my driveway, so I decided to patch some the plethora of rust the cheapest way I could for now. I thought about using bondo but to hell with that. Too messy and too much prep work. I was stumped.
A few days later, I was messing around the brewery that my family runs and had a
moment. The brewery recently started a canning operation and the empty cans come in on plastic pallets. Between each layer of cans is a 1.5-2 mil sheet of flexible plastic. I had found my new patch panel material. Yeah it's kinda ghetto but right now my main goal is to be able to pass inspection so I can simply drive between trail heads.
I headed to lowes and picked up a rivet gun and started work the next day. I cut a cardboard template from the rear qp and cut the plastic to match. I fired up the drill and started popping away.
Before:
After:
If actually worked out much better than anticipated. After the major rust holes were covered, I just couldn't hardly bear with the camo paint so I picked up a few cans of primer and some dark forest rustoleum.
After scraping all of the loose rust and moss/mold off the vehicle, I hit it with a scotch brute pad so the primer would have something to hold on to. I blew most of the residue off with a compressor then wiped it down with some mineral spirits.
Once I had the windows taped off it was time to spray.
I ended up running out of automotive primer. Had 4 cans but luckily I had two extra cans of self etching primer and was able to finish it off with that.
One the primer was dry, I hit it with the rustoleum. I had 6 cans of rustoleum and ended up being about 2 cans short. I was only able to get one coat in a few spots. I pulled the bezel and gave it a few coats of black.
Sh!t...that ain't half bad. Much better than the gaping rust holes and the crappy camo paint job. I started at 7:30 am and didn't stop until 7 pm. Not bad for a days work. I didn't have time to paint the bumper/frame/roof before it started to get dark on me, but it will come in time.
Now to get it road legal..some of the wires to the rear lights were disconnected so I thought a simple re-wire would fix the problem...wrong. The didn't light up so I pulled the covers and all of the light sockets are completely corroded. I didn't put a tester on it to see if it was getting juice, but I would assume this is the issue. Oh well, baby steps. I'll post some more pictures of the condition of the rest of the FJ in days to come.
Damn I need a garage....
So I ended up with my brother in laws FJ40 last week.
Note the awesome camo paint job.
It spend the last 5 years as a DD after my bil picked it up off of his uncle. The rig was used as a woods buggy at his uncles hunting camp for god knows how long.
Just last week I posted a new member thread in the chit chat forum and had a warm welcome, thanks. After posting the photo above, the bezel police notified me immediately....
The first think I did when I actually took ownership of the rig was to flip the bezel.
After a close inspection of the rig, it's going to need pretty much every single body panel replaced along with the entire tub and roof. Apparently someone though it would be a good idea to cut a runroof into the Fiberglass top. The side panels on top are from an older FJ I am guessing because it has hinges at the top of the roof behind the rear doors. It's pretty solid mechanically though and most everything works except the rear lights.
After getting it home, I felt quite embarrassed having a camo rust bucket in my driveway, so I decided to patch some the plethora of rust the cheapest way I could for now. I thought about using bondo but to hell with that. Too messy and too much prep work. I was stumped.
A few days later, I was messing around the brewery that my family runs and had a
moment. The brewery recently started a canning operation and the empty cans come in on plastic pallets. Between each layer of cans is a 1.5-2 mil sheet of flexible plastic. I had found my new patch panel material. Yeah it's kinda ghetto but right now my main goal is to be able to pass inspection so I can simply drive between trail heads. I headed to lowes and picked up a rivet gun and started work the next day. I cut a cardboard template from the rear qp and cut the plastic to match. I fired up the drill and started popping away.
Before:
After:
If actually worked out much better than anticipated. After the major rust holes were covered, I just couldn't hardly bear with the camo paint so I picked up a few cans of primer and some dark forest rustoleum.
After scraping all of the loose rust and moss/mold off the vehicle, I hit it with a scotch brute pad so the primer would have something to hold on to. I blew most of the residue off with a compressor then wiped it down with some mineral spirits.
Once I had the windows taped off it was time to spray.
I ended up running out of automotive primer. Had 4 cans but luckily I had two extra cans of self etching primer and was able to finish it off with that.
One the primer was dry, I hit it with the rustoleum. I had 6 cans of rustoleum and ended up being about 2 cans short. I was only able to get one coat in a few spots. I pulled the bezel and gave it a few coats of black.
Sh!t...that ain't half bad. Much better than the gaping rust holes and the crappy camo paint job. I started at 7:30 am and didn't stop until 7 pm. Not bad for a days work. I didn't have time to paint the bumper/frame/roof before it started to get dark on me, but it will come in time.
Now to get it road legal..some of the wires to the rear lights were disconnected so I thought a simple re-wire would fix the problem...wrong. The didn't light up so I pulled the covers and all of the light sockets are completely corroded. I didn't put a tester on it to see if it was getting juice, but I would assume this is the issue. Oh well, baby steps. I'll post some more pictures of the condition of the rest of the FJ in days to come.
Damn I need a garage....
