Update time! Sorry I am throwing this all in at once, I'll try to do a better job of providing updates as they come.
I've had the truck in to my buddy's shop for the past 3 weeks or so, tidying up some items.
Rear bumper is taking shape, still kind of in the mock up stage now. Will go to powder coat when we get it to a place we are happy with.
We took everything out of the dash for a repaint, and filled some of the holes that had been cut in over the years, as well as the 2 holes from the original 4WD shifter on the dash (remember mine was converted to a 4spd on the floor). I've got all the correct pull knobs that will go in probably as the last step when we put it all back together.
Also sent off a smorgasbord of parts to powder coat, re-chromed the few chrome parts, got the new door
weatherstripping in (thanks to
@c2dfj45) and my doors finally shut right!
The interior panels were in a bit of rough shape, lots of fiberglass patching and a bunch of textured paint to cover up the imperfections so we media blasted it and repainted, along with the inside of the rear tailgate and back of the rear seat. Found a bunch of grounds just soldered to interior panels too so we're cleaning up some of the wiring, as well as putting in an OEM fuse panel.
My rear tailgate latch is in a bit of rough shape so we're trying to refurb that pot metal, hopeful we can get it looking like new it was cracked all over the place.
Got the SOR carpet kit as well as the cowl insulator, pretty impressed with both actually. it makes a big difference giving it a finished look inside.
Also making some progress on those rear seat brackets, separate thread
here. That piece along with the bottle jack "dish" below the front seat that we're missing are the two biggest challenges for sure.
Had a piece of flat stock as a radiator support bracket so we fab'd a more correct version and installed. Also fab'd the correct diamond shaped spare tire "washer".
Other little things left to do - hood prop and mounts, finishing up mud flap mounts, installing the rear reflectors (non-OEM but found something close enough), the 55 series rear view mirrors, some better matching sun visors, and patching some of the upholstery wear. I'm going to also put in a little motorcycle bluetooth stereo system below the front seat. Something small, hidden, that I can mount without making any new holes. Working on general detailing some of the surface rust too that had started to show itself after 8 years on the coast.
FJ Co's restore has been a huge help just from the fact that they took so many photos. There's been a lot of "what should that look like?" situations where I quickly referred to their gallery and figured it out. In other cases some forum members have been super helpful, and in particular getting to see
@tahoe40/45 gorgeous rig last year really helped a lot.