Onesprung60: 1967 FJ40 Frame Off Restore

[onesprung60]

Thanks for the compliments all,

Been working on more body work and paint. So far the doors, top sides, bib, bezel, hood and aprons are painted. Currently working on getting the tub painted.

Last night I worked on the front bib while I was waiting for primer to dry. The plastic headlight adjusting screw inserts were toast, so I used a threadsert to get a threaded hole for the adjusting screw to thread into. It was a marson #47411, I drilled the hole out about 1/16" and it fit perfectly.



Once the buckets were all set I wet sanded the bib and got it all polished up so I could put the new lights and everything else on the bib. Pretty exciting to see that part pretty much done; still have to get some headlights but it should be done tonight.

 

[onesprung60]

Had a good long weekend to work on the Cruiser and made some decent progress. Since most of the body stuff is painted it was time to start working on the tub.

First order of business was to update the single circuit brake master cylinder with a safer dual circuit brake master. I had to be a little different than what I have seen others do. I don't like the "look" of the adapter plate setups, and it doesn't fit this resto, the geo stuff was out of the question for the same reason and anything that required cutting the firewall brace was definitely out. So I happened to be looking at some older Toyota brake master cylinders and found one that I thought would work pretty well and provide not only the correct operation, but the right look as well.

What I am using is a brake master from a '90 Toyota Camry with ABS. It has a three hole triangular mounting, has the same 1" cylinder bore and its Toyota. Unfortunately, its not quite a bolt in - but its close. The mounting pattern is slightly larger than the holes in the '67; so I modified the firewall to fit the camry brake master. I plan on painting the master cylinder black to match the clutch master and most likely will change the reservoir to the older style as well to match the vintage of the truck. A couple pics of the master cylinder and firewall mod to make it fit, best part is it will "look" factory and no adapter needed.

 

[onesprung60]

Brake master work done:

 

[onesprung60]

With the brake work done I welded up some PO drilled holes in the firewall and modified the firewall for the factory cable throttle rather then the mechanical link the '67 came with. It should look factory to anyone but a true old time cruiserhead.

 

[onesprung60]

With the firewall work all done, I moved on to the rust repair. I consider myself lucky to have a pretty rust free truck; but fully understand why a bunch of guys would pay the money for a whole new 1/2, 3/4 or full tub. So the rust I was tackling was at the front of the wheel wells. I have a large bracket to support the seat belt mounting point; and unfortunately acts as a hug mud/moisture trap that ultimately caused my rust. First I cut the brackets out and then cut out the rusted sections of sheet metal.

 

[onesprung60]

more pics of the rust repair

 

[onesprung60]

I only had one rib that was rusted, rather than spend time trying to fabricate a new rib I opted to have someone make it for me. I was in Phoenix for work this week and decided to bring my cut out sections with the ribs with me and try to find someone here to fab them up for me. I got lucky and found a great little shop. The guys at Industrial Chassis made me a couple patch plates with the rib formed in, only took about an hour and probably the best $25 I have spent on this project so far, if your in Phoenix I would check these guys out.

 

[onesprung60]

Still have some grinding and the top piece to get welded in the drivers side and then I can finish the passenger side. Hope to get that done this weekend and if things go well I hope to get the tub flipped and paint the bottom.

 

[onesprung60]

I also managed to get a bunch of the brackets and hinges painted as well. This stuff was a pain to get painted and get color even without runs; but I am really happy with how it came out:


Last but not least anyone know if these three holes are supposed to be on the drivers side rear of the tub, I circled them in sharpie and put question marks by them:

 

[onesprung60]

One last post for tonight, then hope to get more updates next week.

The rust causing brackets, I will get these blasted and primed before they go back on.

 

[Pork-n-Bean]

Very nice - Love the attention to details!

 

[LIVERUST]

nice update Will. That's going to be one sweet 40!

 

[cooney]

Will the ABS feature casue any issues?

What I am using is a brake master from a '90 Toyota Camry with ABS.

 

[Slowerthanu]

Will the ABS feature casue any issues?

Should NOT, ABS is on a separate system, if it fails, regular braking is maintained.

 

[onesprung60]

Will the ABS feature casue any issues?

Should NOT, ABS is on a separate system, if it fails, regular braking is maintained.

Correct, the ABS is a completely different system, and I will not be adding ABS components to this truck.

The only reason I mentioned it is because the Camry's with ABS had a 1" bore master cylinder, while the non-ABS cars had a 15/16" bore. I wanted to stick with the original specs, so I stuck with the same 1" bore that the single circuit master had. The internals of the master cylinder are the same piston type and construction of the single circuit stuff.

 

[onesprung60]

A little more progress. All the rust is repaired in the tub, I sandblasted the wheel well brackets and the area behind them. Got the sides all smoothed out and got the whole thing in primer again. Once that was done I flipped the tub over, had a couple small things to weld from the back side and got the bottom painted in color. I also decided to line the wheel wells in tintable raptor liner, and color matched it to the body color, this stuff is awesome. I just finished shooting the liner this morning but it turned out great; not too thick and was very easy to spray. Hope to get the tub flipped back over later this week and may be painting color this weekend.

A couple pics:

 

[Box Rocket]

Nice Will. That Raptor Liner turned out great! I liked using it on my trailer project. I need to touch up a few spots but it is pretty tough and easy to spray. Can't wait to see this 40 all buttoned up.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

... Can't wait to see this 40 all buttoned up.

x2, keep up the killer work Will

 

[onesprung60]

Been a while since I have posted progress and finally have some good stuff to share. Seems like I have been sanding and smoothing the tub forever; but last night one year to the day since I pulled the 40 home the tub went back on the frame!

I had some neighbors over and we lifted it on pretty easily, after the tub was loosely mounted I couldn't wait to start hanging all the shiny parts that have been piling up. Onto some pics:

 

[onesprung60]

More pics: