Older than dirt - refreshing a ‘64 FJ40 FST

[nuclearlemon]

not sure when it started, but annie's seats never attached to the upper lip of the tub.

 

[oregon fj]

not sure when it started, but annie's seats never attached to the upper lip of the tub.

That makes sense. While I've seen what look like the tub holes in other '64 build threads, mine IS a rather early '64, and the jump seats are likely from a different (later) truck, just like the windshield and the top frame parts that I have.

Still doesn't explain the lack of mounting holes for the safety straps, but I'm not going to sweat those too much.

 

[63cruiser]

It does seem these 40’s are a bit of a mystery. All indications are mine is a factory soft top with Vader light and drop tailgate yet I have no holes for the door strap eyelets either which by all indications should be there. I thought maybe my P.O. removed the eyelets and welded up the holes to put hard top doors on it but when I put my hand behind dash, I can’t even feel an old captured nut that you would think would be there.

 

[HelloKitty65]

Have your cake and eat it too. A bracket was fabricated by a PO to move my jump seats (original coral painted black) inward slightly. Could send a pic but it's not that elegantly constructed. Yours could be.

 

[HelloKitty65]

Have your cake and eat it too. A bracket was fabricated by a PO to move my jump seats (original coral painted black) inward slightly. Could send a pic but it's not that elegantly constructed. Yours could be.

Always assumed your was a soft top. Doesn't the VIN tell you? Guess what, found red seat belts. And my pink color seems to largely come from a faded clear coat that can be painstakingly removed. Yeah! Can you measure the height of your vader light? Have a friend who may 3D replicate a cover.

 

[oregon fj]

Well, if I keep the jump seats rather than the roll bar (and that’s the direction I’m leaning now), I can either trim the support brackets off, or perhaps add some rivnuts to the tub to secure them. Or maybe just leave the supports in place but not attached. I don’t expect anyone to really ever use the seats since there are no belts.

I’m pretty certain mine is/was a factory soft top. There are way too many clues in place. To the best of my knowledge, the VIN plate in ‘64 did not denote whether it was an ‘L’ (LHD softie) or an ‘LV’ (LHD hardtop). I think all they stamped was the ‘L’ for any of them.

Vader’s helmet is 1.75” (44 mm) tall.

Truck is on 4 jack stands today. Planning to finish the brake system refurb over the next couple weeks. I now have 2 full sets of wheel cylinders (16 total), and new rebuild kits should be here sometime on Tuesday. I should be able to build a good set of 8 from all that.

While it is blocked up that way, I’m going to have the old tires pulled off and drop the wheels at Schwab for powder coating. Will save one old tire for my spare, and one for @HelloKitty65 for his spare. The other three tires will be trashed. If all goes as planned the wheels will be back to me in early March. Going to order 4 new tires during the same time and have those mounted as soon as the wheels return. Brakes should be done by then, and the new seatbelts should be here and in as well. That should get it ready to really drive.

 

[oregon fj]

First wheel cylinder has been rebuilt. Only 7 to go...

 

[oregon fj]

Wheels won’t be back from powder for more than a week, but the tires arrived today. Four STA Super Traxion 7.00-15 6 ply rated. These are going to look great on the rig.

 

[daner]

I had those tires on my Willys, looked great and threw a serious rooster tail in the mud...

 

[oregon fj]

Have been working my way around the truck, finishing the brakes. The fronts are done, working on the left rear now. The wheel cylinders the truck came with, that didn’t look bad on first inspection, are far worse than I thought. I’ve removed 6 of them so far, only 2 were working at all, the rest are rust blocks. Pistons are rusted solid and can’t be moved. The used set of real Toyota cylinders I got from @bb67tlc clean up nice with the new rubber bits.

I’m amazed it stopped as well as it did on the initial test drives, it is going to have BRAKES once I am done.

 

[oregon fj]

Brakes are now done, although I can’t test drive it until the wheels and tires are here and back on it. If everything goes just perfect, I MIGHT get them back later Saturday, but more likely Monday.

Final working wheel cylinder count remained at 2. The other 6 are so rusted inside that I can not pull the pistons out. Buying a spare set of used cylinders to rebuild was a really good idea.

 

[oregon fj]

New seatbelts arrived and installed. I bought lift-latch type with snap-hook ends with a gray webbing that looks pretty good with pewter seat frame paint. Since the loop eyes for belts in my truck were removed years ago, I bought new hardware as well.

The hardware fit perfectly, the belts just snap on. I have not installed the cotter pins yet, though.

The nice thing about these are that if I later decide I want red belts after all, it’s less than $60 for the pair, and only a matter of a few seconds to swap them out.

 

[oregon fj]

Cue Willie Nelson:

“On the road again...”

Got the new tires mounted on the freshly powder coated wheels today. Very happy. The old wheels cleaned up quite nicely, look good in their fresh satin black finish. Tires look totally appropriate mounted, and have the proper fat stem tubes.

Trying to resist temptation to put on my new acorns, but I don’t want to be taking them on and off repeatedly while I’m working on it.

With tires on and the fresh brakes, took it back out for a short drive. Can’t go very far yet, I haven’t registered it yet. (Probably next week, and probably as “Special Interest” so I won’t have to run the front plate.)

Thoughts after the drive, in no particular order - It is rather cold-blooded, takes quite a while to get it happy off choke. Once up to temp, runs nicely. Turn signals don’t cancel. Brakes work very well, might need to be adjusted a touch tighter in back. Steering has more play than I think it should have, will need to look into that.

All in all, quite good. Will start laying plans to go through the steering and front axle soon.

 

[oregon fj]

Couple more pics.

 

[daner]

Looks great with the new tires and the wheels came out well too

 

[HelloKitty65]

Imagine all the trouble you could get into with a 3 week Oregon trip permit...
Tires and the satin paint on the rims look good.

 

[oregon fj]

Well, one thing leads to another. In preparation for starting to test drive it a bit, I tried to straighten up and secure the hacked up wiring to the rear lights that was hanging down and dragging. I thought that went well, except now I have a short in the brake lights that pops the fuse whenever I step on the brakes. Grrr.

I have been planning to rewire the rear harness when I have the tub off for painting later, but it looks like I may need to do that now, not later. Will start tracing back to isolate the issue later today.

 

[oregon fj]

Have determined the short is in the wire that goes straight from the brake light switch to the (missing) trailer socket. The trailer brake light(s) were only brakes, did not flash with the turn signals. So this is an unused wire right now. I have temporarily unplugged the connector on the firewall to stop the fuse destruction. The only other wire in that connector is for the FD indicator light, and I can live without that for now.

Still, I think I’ll start gathering the right color wires to correct the issue soon.

 

[oregon fj]

Trying to resist temptation to put on my new acorns, but I don’t want to be taking them on and off repeatedly while I’m working on it.

I admit it, I’m weak...

 

[pardion]

You might check to see if your turn signal cancelling pin is still in your steering wheels hub?