Rescued aussie FJ28

[tourboy]

Hi Guys,
Just found and rescued this '58 FJ28.
Chassis # 8 FJ28-2105
Looks to have a 1960-1974 tub from the seats back on it.



Will do a full (hopefully correct) resto so has anyone in Oz got the front headlight panel, seats and steering wheel. I have a 1960's steering wheel in pristine cond to use but would prefer it to be the same as the 28 had.
At least the engine isn't siezed but it is jammed in gear and in 4wd so pulling it onto and off the trailer was a bitch.
The handbrake actually works, probably because they used the front bumper to stop with by the look of it.

What was the original colour?, the faded green looks right until you rub it and it turns medium blue....

 

[Aussie 25]

Good to see a nother one on here Dave. They did have a light blue colour. I am after a LH seat frame as well. I will give you a picture of my frount frame, that is a close as you are aloud

 

[tourboy]

The reason it wouldn't shift out of gear is the selector forks are locked tight and the gears aren't much better with a heavy coating of red mud and rust. A good soaking in molassis for a couple of weeks should see it look a lot better.

 

[tourboy]

Good to see a nother one on here Dave. They did have a light blue colour. I am after a LH seat frame as well. I will give you a picture of my frount frame, that is a close as you are aloud

Thanks Ian,
As long as the later panel is the same width I should be able to make up some bars to suit. How do they fix to the panel?

 

[tourboy]

If you look to the right of the Theiss sticker you will see where something was removed showing the darker blue colour. Does anyone recognise that colour?

 

[Aussie 25]

Number 62 and Fweds no 104 on the count are also blue. Fwed will know the colour as he has started to paint his.

 

[My wife said no FJ!]

Nice find...and great to hear that your plans are for a true restoration!!!

Not sure if you want to ship, but some of the old parts you are looking for are here, and I guess you'll get some feedback soon enough

On another note...been reading up on soaking in molasses, and I am about ready to try it myself...you have any words of advice, and pictures (we love pictures) from doing this on past projects??

Again, very cool find...looking forward to seeing more pictures of the 28 as well

 

[45Kevin]

On another note...been reading up on soaking in molasses, and I am about ready to try it myself...you have any words of advice, and pictures (we love pictures) from doing this on past projects??

Never heard of the molasses trick,but when we would pull up old bits of metal from SCUBA diving on wrecks, we would soak the items in Coke, or vinigar. Seemed to work well.

Cool find.

 

[My wife said no FJ!]

Never heard of the molasses trick,but when we would pull up old bits of metal from SCUBA diving on wrecks, we would soak the items in Coke, or vinigar. Seemed to work well.

Cool find.

I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject, and I know some guys like "Milkstone", but molasses sounds like it would be more my speed.

Couple of YouTube links I thought were interesting...especially the old 1923 Fiat video (there are plenty more videos on the subject);

Molasses cleaning on our 1923 fiat 501 - YouTube

Remove Rust from Metal and Panels the Easy Way: Video 1 - YouTube

EDIT: Sorry, I don't remember how to post a you tube video so you can see it on this page...maybe someone can re-post mine, and remind me how it's done...

 

[Living in the Past]

Nice out cruiser. That is a winker switch on dash. Just to ad the rest of the winkers on the side of the cowl aren't still there. It would be a early 58. The Toyota on the apron and the oval Toyota on the hood were gone by the time the FJ25 hit the shores here in the US in later 58. Looking at the first picture it appears this was setup for the taller rocker (panel under the door). Looks like you can see where it would have come to on the A pillar of the cowl. The seat frame that is on the left side looks very close to what my LHD FJ45 has.

 

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Very nice rescue. I was going to point out the tub.....but finally caught that you mentioned it. Interesting it still has the tall tool box under the seat? You could easily convert that to a 25 style tub by modifying the wheel wells and trimming the rear quarters.

See if someone can reproduce that Theiss sticker! The original semaphore (winker) switch is there too!

Whatever was to the right of the sticker was probably installed later so it may not be original color, under the shift pattern plate, behind the instrument cluster, or in the glove box usually survive. Here's a picture of mine showing the original green underneath.

 

[Living in the Past]

Interesting it still has the tall tool box under the seat?

Since the only ones I have with the tall tool box wre soft top models the tool box doesn't seem as tall as it does with the hard door opening. It really looks tall. Does seem odd they installed 25's tool box on the later 40 floor. Did the FJ28 come with a body all the way to the B pillar?

 

[tourboy]

I haven't tried the molassis myself yet but I was speaking to a fella that restores old stationary engines (steam and diesel) and he soaks everything and after two weeks all the rust and paint is gone back to as new with no scrubbing or scraping.

 

[tourboy]

Thanks for the replies so far.
The thing I would like to know is was the 28 ever in the same configuration as the 25 or were the 28's all utes/ cab chassis? The only pics I have seen of 28's are all utes. Maybe this is why mine has a newer body grafted on.

I think the gearbox and transfer are roached does anyone in Oz have spares? otherwise I will have to use the ones out of my very original 68 to get this on the road again. I think that shipping from the USA would cost more than the truck is worth. Thoughts?

So if I can't restore to original then a similar body for the rear end will go on unless someone has a good 25 body tub that I can lengthen by 6" to suit the wheelbase. At least it would look stock.

It was definately blue as well.

 

[My wife said no FJ!]

Thanks for the replies so far.
The thing I would like to know is was the 28 ever in the same configuration as the 25 or were the 28's all utes/ cab chassis? The only pics I have seen of 28's are all utes. Maybe this is why mine has a newer body grafted on.

I think the gearbox and transfer are roached does anyone in Oz have spares? otherwise I will have to use the ones out of my very original 68 to get this on the road again. I think that shipping from the USA would cost more than the truck is worth. Thoughts?

So if I can't restore to original then a similar body for the rear end will go on unless someone has a good 25 body tub that I can lengthen by 6" to suit the wheelbase. At least it would look stock.

It was definately blue as well.

Have you tried taking the tranny/gearbox, and the transfer case apart? I don't know much, but I would guess that unless the teeth are ruined, that with some effort, that they can be saved...I know I would do my best to save them before changing them.

You can also soak them, or lather them up with some ATF, and Acetone mixed 50/50...a lot of the hot rod guys swear by this mixture to get some heavily rusted parts apart. Then once apart you can better judge what you can do....just my 0.02

As far as the 40 body on your 28 goes...(I should mention that I can only dream of finding an early 28 like this) then I would build it as an FJ28 pick up like the pics below...love the look of that little truck

 

[tourboy]

Have you tried taking the tranny/gearbox, and the transfer case apart? I don't know much, but I would guess that unless the teeth are ruined, that with some effort, that they can be saved...I know I would do my best to save them before changing them.

You can also soak them, or lather them up with some ATF, and Acetone mixed 50/50...a lot of the hot rod guys swear by this mixture to get some heavily rusted parts apart. Then once apart you can better judge what you can do....just my 0.02

As far as the 40 body on your 28 goes...(I should mention that I can only dream of finding an early 28 like this) then I would build it as an FJ28 pick up like the pics below...love the look of that little truck

I still have them in the truck and have filled them with a molassis mix and they look better already, but I have to keep rotating the gears (still siezed to the engine) as the level drops to empty in the TC and due to leakage and about 1/2 way down in the gearbox from what may be a crack in the casing. I'm going to have to remove them and try to fully emmerse them to get the full effect.
Body wise that is why I asked if they were all utes so I can decide which way to go...ute or like a 25.

 

[tourboy]

Tried to get them apart but locked together solid.
Removed them from the truck and put in molassis to soak. I checked about 2 hrs later and the container had sprung a leak so I will have to do that later, all other parts are soaking in smaller containers.

 

[My wife said no FJ!]

Tried to get them apart but locked together solid.
Removed them from the truck and put in molassis to soak. I checked about 2 hrs later and the container had sprung a leak so I will have to do that later, all other parts are soaking in smaller containers.

Hope it works

Edit: BTW...that looks like an FJ43 or 44 tub that was mated to the original FJ28 cowl...have you measured it from the front axle to the rear axle? Curious to see what the wheel base is on it... More the reason to make it an FJ28 pick up

 

[fwed]

H i Dave The paint colour is called cruiser blue I have the number here somewhere. I have a 25 & 28 both have the chassis lengthened. The only difference is the 28 has bigger shackle pins and more chassis behind rear spring hanger. The best rust remover is Descale sold by Castle Chemicals. Keep us informed, Cheers Fred.

 

[fwed]

hi Dave. My 28 has same decal on dash as well.
check this out https://forum.ih8mud.com/fj25-owners-group/327150-fweds-25-28s-2.html Hope this works my computer skills are not the best.