Builds Rescuing a Basket Case '72 FJ40 (1 Viewer)

[diesellibrarian]

With the corners solid once again, it was finally time to weld the sill to the body. I clamped the sill in place, and plug welded it from the inside of the fender. So now the rear corners are no longer floating in space and the rear end of the car is much more rigid.

Now that I know that everything is pinned down at the back of the car, I set about removing the cargo floor. The plan here is to remove the floor, repair the lower sections of the inner fenders, then reinstall a new floor that I will fabricate from some 16g steel.

The picture shows that the frame on this rig is in surprisingly good condition: just a bit of surface rust that I will neutralize with some rust converter and then coat with Fluid Film or similar.

It looks like someone used the shock tube as a recovery point, or maybe tied a chain to it to pull out a stump. I'm not sure if this is repairable, or if I should leave it? I'm leaning toward leaving it as is, but what do you think? Looking for some advice here. Would bending it straight weaken it further? Will leaving it bent affect the ride, etc. in any way?

 

[ijonesinsp]

With the corners solid once again, it was finally time to weld the sill to the body. I clamped the sill in place, and plug welded it from the inside of the fender. So now the rear corners are no longer floating in space and the rear end of the car is much more rigid.

View attachment 3487697

Now that I know that everything is pinned down at the back of the car, I set about removing the cargo floor. The plan here is to remove the floor, repair the lower sections of the inner fenders, then reinstall a new floor that I will fabricate from some 16g steel.

View attachment 3487701

The picture shows that the frame on this rig is in surprisingly good condition: just a bit of surface rust that I will neutralize with some rust converter and then coat with Fluid Film or similar.

View attachment 3487703

It looks like someone used the shock tube as a recovery point, or maybe tied a chain to it to pull out a stump. I'm not sure if this is repairable, or if I should leave it? I'm leaning toward leaving it as is, but what do you think? Looking for some advice here. Would bending it straight weaken it further? Will leaving it bent affect the ride, etc. in any way?

The way that tube is kinked, If you mess with it just replace it. If not, it’s probably ok since it doesn’t really see much stress.

 

[diesellibrarian]

The way that tube is kinked, If you mess with it just replace it. If not, it’s probably ok since it doesn’t really see much stress.

That was my line of thinking as well, but I'm still a noob when it comes to 40 series and 4WDs in general, so I appreciate the advice.

 

[middlecalf]

Maybe cut out the bent section and weld in a straight piece if you can find one of same diameter?

I love this repair work, keeping what you can and putting in new where you can’t. Great work!

 

[diesellibrarian]

Maybe cut out the bent section and weld in a straight piece if you can find one of same diameter?

Hmm, or maybe if I can find some tubing with an inside diameter that matches the OD of the shock tube, I could slide it over the existing tubing and weld in place. That would be stronger than trying to butt weld in a new section of tubing.

 

[1969FJ]

I really cannot tell fully but that tube is solidly attached to the frame. Whatever happened there one would assume the frame itself has been affected as well. I would not feel good without putting in a new tube and measuring the frame to be in tolerance. There are frame shops that can do this.

 

[120mm]

Straighten the tube, and cut a sleeve in two of the next larger diameter tube, and weld it to the outside, being sure to drill a few holes and rosette welding on the outside brace tube.

That's how we repaired aviation tubing back in the day.

 

[diesellibrarian]

Work continues on the rust repair on this ol' 40. With the cargo floor out of the way, I've been able to do some work on these corroded inner fenders:

For this repair, I cut away the bottom three inches of the inner fender, which I then used as a guide for making the replacement panel. I used the bead roller to try to reproduce the raised beads on the panel. It was more or less successful. I made the beads a little too long, which resulted in the panel taking on a fairly significant arch over its length. To counter that, I had to cut a couple of relief slots in the bottom of the panel to get it to line up with the cut line. Was a bit of a pain, but all's well that ends well.

The new panel tacked in place:

And after welding:

It's not brilliant metalwork by any means, but it'll do the trick. I have to do the same procedure on the passenger side. The passenger side is even more far gone:

Here's my patch panel for the passenger side. I made the beads a little shorter than on the driver's side, and that dramatically reduced the panel distortion, so this one was much easier to weld in. I forgot to snap a pic of that but will do so next time I'm at the shop.

 

[diesellibrarian]

It's hard to believe, but the end is in sight for the rust repair on this truck. Just a few smaller patches on the passenger side, and some more work on the rear fenders, and I should be good to move on to the mechanical end of things.

To that end, I've been gathering the necessary parts to make this thing run. I found a guy with a small hoard of FJ40 parts, and bought a few things, including a couple of fuel tanks, seat belts, and a few other odds and sods. My fuel tank is rusted through, so I was excited to find these. I know that FJ40 tanks are still available from Toyota, but my local dealer quoted me over $900 for a new tank. I got this whole stash of parts for way less than that:

 

[ijonesinsp]

What bead roller are you using?

FWIW, I welded and brazed my rusted tank and then painted with chassis saver. I'm saving my money for a roll cage and seats!

 

[ijonesinsp]

It's hard to believe, but the end is in sight for the rust repair on this truck. Just a few smaller patches on the passenger side, and some more work on the rear fenders, and I should be good to move on to the mechanical end of things.

To that end, I've been gathering the necessary parts to make this thing run. I found a guy with a small hoard of FJ40 parts, and bought a few things, including a couple of fuel tanks, seat belts, and a few other odds and sods. My fuel tank is rusted through, so I was excited to find these. I know that FJ40 tanks are still available from Toyota, but my local dealer quoted me over $900 for a new tank. I got this whole stash of parts for way less than that:

View attachment 3498560

Nice score!

 

[diesellibrarian]

What bead roller are you using?

FWIW, I welded and brazed my rusted tank and then painted with chassis saver. I'm saving my money for a roll cage and seats!

My bead roller is the cheapest of the cheap. It's from Princess Auto, which is kind of like Harbour Freight's poor Canadian cousin. I modified it to make it more rigid, but it really is a complete piece of crap.

I did a lot of reading about welding gas tanks...just not sure I have the cojones to give it a go, haha. Plus mine is rusted along one of the seams, which I think would make for a tricky repair. I'm really glad to not have to deal with any of that.

 

[ijonesinsp]

My bead roller is the cheapest of the cheap. It's from Princess Auto, which is kind of like Harbour Freight's poor Canadian cousin. I modified it to make it more rigid, but it really is a complete piece of crap.

I did a lot of reading about welding gas tanks...just not sure I have the cojones to give it a go, haha. Plus mine is rusted along one of the seams, which I think would make for a tricky repair. I'm really glad to not have to deal with any of that.

Yeah mine didn't have fuel in it for a couple decades prior...

If you got a good replacement that's best.

 

[diesellibrarian]

If you got a good replacement that's best.

Yeah one of the tanks I picked up had clearly been boiled, blasted, and painted and then put on a shelf. All openings still covered with tape. It's mint!

 

[peesalot]

Back to the bent shock tube/cross member. Depending on what you want to end up with you could, sleeve/brace the tube and it would be fine for a shock mount.
The brackets that rivet to the frame that the tube welds to are bent/twisted and I'd bet the frame is a bit narrower at the top. You can get that piece with brackets all ready to weld/rivet in from vendors on here if you choose to actually fix it.

 

[diesellibrarian]

Back to the bent shock tube/cross member. Depending on what you want to end up with you could, sleeve/brace the tube and it would be fine for a shock mount.
The brackets that rivet to the frame that the tube welds to are bent/twisted and I'd bet the frame is a bit narrower at the top. You can get that piece with brackets all ready to weld/rivet in from vendors on here if you choose to actually fix it.

Yes, I think the brackets took the bulk of the damage. I've measured the frame top and bottom, and it doesn't seem to have been tweaked in any significant way. So, I'm just gonna leave it as is.

 

[diesellibrarian]

Spent much of the weekend grinding away (quite literally) at this project. Managed to get the right rear fender mostly fixed up. Here's some documentation of the saga.

First thing was to get the replacement panel for the lower part of the fender welded in. Turned out okay, but will need some filler to smooth the weld join.

Then I moved on to the top of the fender, which was in pretty rough shape. The state of the fender when I started:

Most of the spot welds along the quarter panel were broken, and the whole fender was pushed in and down. Not sure what might have caused this kind of damage, but it definitely added some complication to an already-tricky repair. But, that's what you sign up for when you decide to work on junk!

This pic also shows some of the damage. The front part of the fender was bent, torn, and rusted, so it had to be cut away. You can see where the spot welds tore along the top of the fender - pretty wild. Here I'm using a jack and a block of wood to try to force the fender back into shape.

Rusty spots cut away. Most of the severe rust was in areas where there's a support plate welded on underneath. I guess moisture from the tires gets flung up into the fender, where it seeps between the sheet metal and the support plate and starts to rust.

Welding the patches in. Getting good panel alignment was tricky, since nothing on this fender is straight. Did my best, filler will handle the rest. You can see that I'm using sheet metal screws to hold the fender in place as I do this work.

Working on the patch for the front of the fender. The bend is a 1" radius, for those wondering. Used a section of 2" steel pipe to form the bend. At this point I've also plug welded the fender in place. It's still ugly, but it should hold.

Fender repair nearly complete. Lot of hours into this one.

And finally, a skim of filler to make things pretty, or at least less ugly. Still have a bit more sanding to do, but this is where I left things at 11:30pm haha.

 

[diesellibrarian]

Was down and out for a week with my second flu in as many months, but got back at the 40 last night. On the docket was a repair to some previous owner butchery:

When some previous owner shortened the cab, they cut through the top rail of the tub to fit the hardtop corners. Since I'm undoing all that, this needs to be fixed.

Here I've cut away the damaged section. This makes it clear what I'm working with, and allows me to more accurately measure up the patch pieces:

I actually forgot to take photos of the patch itself: I'll try to remember to do that when I repeat this process on the other side. But anyway I cut up a section of 1/8" wall square tubing for the inner rail, to which I welded (poorly) a piece of 14ga steel for the vertical piece. I welded that part in first, then cut and shaped some 18 gauge steel to follow the profile of the outer rail. Turned out pretty good!

Not bad for an evening's work! Next will be to do the same thing on the left side.

 

[RevISK]

Was down and out for a week with my second flu in as many months, but got back at the 40 last night. On the docket was a repair to some previous owner butchery:

View attachment 3513700

When some previous owner shortened the cab, they cut through the top rail of the tub to fit the hardtop corners. Since I'm undoing all that, this needs to be fixed.

Here I've cut away the damaged section. This makes it clear what I'm working with, and allows me to more accurately measure up the patch pieces:

View attachment 3513701

I actually forgot to take photos of the patch itself: I'll try to remember to do that when I repeat this process on the other side. But anyway I cut up a section of 1/8" wall square tubing for the inner rail, to which I welded (poorly) a piece of 14ga steel for the vertical piece. I welded that part in first, then cut and shaped some 18 gauge steel to follow the profile of the outer rail. Turned out pretty good!

View attachment 3513702
View attachment 3513703

Not bad for an evening's work! Next will be to do the same thing on the left side.

Did you fold the lip over on the top?
Looks great

 

[diesellibrarian]

Did you fold the lip over on the top?
Looks great

Yes, I bent the "fold" to 90 degrees on the bench, to get a nice crisp line. Then I welded most of the "outer" patch in place, then used a hammer to fold it over the rest of the way, finally pinching it between hammer and dolly to snug it up.