After being nothing but a voyeur for the past year on this board, I finally got a 1977 FJ40. I've been wanting one for years and when my wife was preoccupied with some other stuff, went out and just bought it. I figured I'd be sleeping in the garage anyway with this car. Anyway, my plans are not ambitious, it'll be a weekend driver around town and around some farm land we work on. The previous owner was pretty good about maintenance and did major replacements over the past 5 years ie: a rebuilt 2F motor with only 20k on it and differentials, axels, transfer cases, radiator etc have all been replaced etc. Interior was all redone with parts etc from SOR. The previous owner did repaint it, and as expected there are areas of rust under the paint at all the expected weak spots, but given the price and the mechanicals being pretty sound, I still jumped in. The FJ on my test drive and look over ran just peachy.
With all that said, I've attached a few photos, the rust isn't bad, but seems to be coming from the inside out and hasn't broken through the paint yet. Unfortunately, I have no experience in body work and mostly like to work on the mechanicals of the car. I don't have a big garage to do work on myself so any body work will need to be farmed out. I've read enough posts on get the best rust free FJ you can afford and blah blah blah, but I couldn't wait any longer and just grew attached to this particular FJ.
Thus, my question to all the wiser people out there is, if my intention and philosophy with this and other cars is just to enjoy them, sink money in only to a certain point to keep it fun, then at what point do I start doing something about the rust and what's the most efficient way to approach things? Should I just wait until the rust really breaks through, looks incredibly horrible, and then get some pre-stamped steel quarter panels etc, cut everything out and have them welded on and repaint the whole thing? Or do I tackle it each spot at a time a nickle and dime myself forever? Doors at some point as well as other parts will and have started to have some internal rust etc.
As far as I can tell, the tub is solid and the PO did undercoat the car well so that's not the issue. You may be able to see some of the bubbling on the photos and by all means it's NOT that bad, but given time, I'm sure things will worsen.
I'm not prissy about my cars, I believe they're meant to be driven and enjoyed. I do, however, want this FJ to keeps it's classic style and appearance and don't want to do any "modifications" to trick it out or diamond plate the whole thing. Nor am I going to let it totally rust to pieces, but do want it to look like a classic old style FJ that is treated right, but not pampered. Also, my wallet won't let me do it. I don't think I could spend $20k on a rebuild of that sort, but can spend bits of $$ at a time to keep it from being ratty. If that was the case, I would have just kept my old pick up and let it rust out completely.
So my question to all the experts is when is too much and when is too little and what's the best way to approach things given my parameters.
Sorry for the long long ranting first post, but I've waited so long to actually write something after reading all your posts over these years! You all are way too much fun and keep me up all night.
With all that said, I've attached a few photos, the rust isn't bad, but seems to be coming from the inside out and hasn't broken through the paint yet. Unfortunately, I have no experience in body work and mostly like to work on the mechanicals of the car. I don't have a big garage to do work on myself so any body work will need to be farmed out. I've read enough posts on get the best rust free FJ you can afford and blah blah blah, but I couldn't wait any longer and just grew attached to this particular FJ.
Thus, my question to all the wiser people out there is, if my intention and philosophy with this and other cars is just to enjoy them, sink money in only to a certain point to keep it fun, then at what point do I start doing something about the rust and what's the most efficient way to approach things? Should I just wait until the rust really breaks through, looks incredibly horrible, and then get some pre-stamped steel quarter panels etc, cut everything out and have them welded on and repaint the whole thing? Or do I tackle it each spot at a time a nickle and dime myself forever? Doors at some point as well as other parts will and have started to have some internal rust etc.
As far as I can tell, the tub is solid and the PO did undercoat the car well so that's not the issue. You may be able to see some of the bubbling on the photos and by all means it's NOT that bad, but given time, I'm sure things will worsen.
I'm not prissy about my cars, I believe they're meant to be driven and enjoyed. I do, however, want this FJ to keeps it's classic style and appearance and don't want to do any "modifications" to trick it out or diamond plate the whole thing. Nor am I going to let it totally rust to pieces, but do want it to look like a classic old style FJ that is treated right, but not pampered. Also, my wallet won't let me do it. I don't think I could spend $20k on a rebuild of that sort, but can spend bits of $$ at a time to keep it from being ratty. If that was the case, I would have just kept my old pick up and let it rust out completely.
So my question to all the experts is when is too much and when is too little and what's the best way to approach things given my parameters.
Sorry for the long long ranting first post, but I've waited so long to actually write something after reading all your posts over these years! You all are way too much fun and keep me up all night.
