Build Roma's 78 fj40 gets a refurb

[roma042987]

My wiper harness had seen better days and for some reason only the high speed setting worked and the wipers will not park. I doubt this is the cause but I figured i might as well go ahead and take care of it.

Soldered and heat shrinked.

Rewrapped.

 

[roma042987]

Got a little more done today. Windshield frame is installed. Sure does get heavy quick when your trying to install it without scratching anything.

Fuel filter back in and plumbed.

I sprayed a waxy undercoating inside the rocker panels, b pillars, and the cavity between the front and rear floors. The stuff is very slow drying but works extremely well and the spray nozzle works well in blind holes and other hard to reach areas.

Here it is inside the b pillar.

 

[roma042987]

I figured since the truck is now a 5spd it was appropriate to have the correct placard on the glove box. Thanks to atlassix

At this point I'm trying to get the cruiser driveable so I can take it back to linex for the interior floor coating. Then I'll put interior, top, and doors back on. I'm having bit of trouble getting one of the brake lines started that run from the mc to the frame. As soon as that's done il need to find someone to help me bleed the brakes. I went ahead and removed all the bleeders so I can clean them out at work tom. I replaced the mc while it was apart although the brakes were fine before tear down. At some point in the near future I will rebuild the front and rear axles as well as replace the calipers while they are still available from the dealer.

 

[roma042987]

Any ideas?

Couple of quick questions.

Im assuming this is a ground does it bolt to the fuse block?

Where does this connector go?

Also have this extra spring. The spring goes inside the sleeve. I allready have the spring on the clutch and brake pedal.
Thanks for the help in advance.[/QUOTE]

 

[roma042987]

Got some new Toyota gaskets glued to my vents and got them installed. Had one of my cruiser friends come over this evening and we got the brakes bled as well. You can see his 76 40 parked behind mine lol wish I could say this was the first time I've had 4 cruisers in the drive . I went ahead and hung the driver fender, I'm really surprised how tall this 2.5" lift really is.

Oh while I've been installing everything back on the firewall I've noticed that there are a lot of 6mm weld nuts that are no longer used smog equipment etc. So I robbed these nifty plugs that are shipped on new cars when they arrive at the dealership I work at.

I think they give it a cleaner look and will keep the drafts out of the cockpit.

 

[roma042987]

Trimmed the pass side fender for the ford shock tower and sprayed 1" inside from the cut with under coating.

Here it is fitted washer bracket also had to be trimmed slightly.

Getting closer!

Starting to look like a 40 again. I'll get the hood on tomorrow and line front clip up and tighten everything down.

 

[roma042987]

Nothing too exciting to report today but did make some more progress. When I installed the engine initially back in May I used 12volt accessories and installed 10.5v ngk glow plugs on a manual momentary push button switch. I was very happy with that setup because it was extremely simple and allowed me to glow the plugs only when needed. (Only once a day during the summer in the mornings) So I'm leaving the same setup permanently, I used a piece of construction scrap to make my bracket. Very crude but works great and very conveniently located using an existing pick up point for the steering column support. I went ahead and ran one wire to the glow bar connector plug.

In my hastiness to bolt the glove box door on the other day I broke a 5mm bolt off in cowl for the glove box door tether. I knew before I started I should have chased the threads with a tap since those particular bolts are so small but, like a kid on Christmas eve I HAD to get that glove box door installed. I know the broken bolt on such an area isn't a big deal but I loose sleep over stuff like that and its been driving me nuts for three days. The bolt was too small to use an ease out on and in too bad of a location to drill. So I put a wrench on the weld nut from the inside and simply broke the spot welds loose, installed a nut and bolt.

Put some nice household weatherstrippng on the door for that pesky rattle.

 

[roma042987]

Spaced my washer jug out a bit because it was ever so slightly contacting the shock tower. The three shiny bits in the picture are the spacers.

Made another somewhat important discovery this evening as I was extending my starter signal wire from the pass side to the driver side. Back during the summer I had roughly ten intermittent no start instances each time the engine would crank but not start, after waiting roughly 20 seconds it would fire up. These episodes were so infrequent that I didn't dwell on it too much. It happened roughly 10 times over a 3 month period while it was driven daily. My 3b has a rotary style injection pump so its a one wire deal for the engine to run. I knew that it would be easy to trouble shoot and basically waited for it to get progressively worse and knowing that in a pinch I could always run a wire from the battery to the fuel cut solenoid to get home. Well back to what I was saying....as I was extending my starter signal wire my hand brushed against the fuel cut solenoid connector and the damn thing just came apart. Apparently the wire was corroded and I'm sure had excessive resistance hence the intermittent no start! Easy fix but I'm sure glad I got that out of the way!

 

[roma042987]

Looked all over the place for a good pigtail to fix this wire, finally found one at a junk yard on a corolla ac compressor.
Soldered and shrink wraped.

Got the blower installed and hood back on.

 

[roma042987]

Well after a lot of cranking and limited tools at my house I decided to make my own testlight.

Worked great! Found a soft set connector at the glow plug bar. She fired right up! I still need to tighten the front clip up and install the tail lights before I take it to linex.

 

[roma042987]

I'll probably be in the dog house till next year for working on it today but couldn't stand to waste daylight. Got the front clip secured. Soldered the proper connectors to my tail lights and got them installed.

Will be interesting to see how these plastic rock shields will hold up.

Surprisingly this old optima cranks the 3b over nicely.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Very nice work. Plastic light shields hold up fine. Mike

 

[roma042987]

Very nice work. Plastic light shields hold up fine. Mike

Thanks!

 

[BamaPaul]

Looks good Roma.

Sent from my Droid thingy using IH8MUD

 

[roma042987]

Drove the cruiser to work last night in 30 degree weather . It's much warmer and drier than my house. Wasn't exactly legal without a seat but it was only 5 miles.

 

[78fj40mg]

Drove the cruiser to work last night in 30 degree weather . It's much warmer and drier than my house. Wasn't exactly legal without a seat but it was only 5 miles.

Great job!! She looks awesome!

 

[roma042987]

Running board supports bolted on. I had these galvanized when I did the frame.

Got the running boards on this evening after work.

I used stainless hardware with a very generous coat of antisieze.

 

[roma042987]

Looks good Roma.

Sent from my Droid thingy using IH8MUD

Thanks Mike!

Thanks man! Are you going to make it to the meeting on the 5th?

 

[firestopper]

A labor of true love, nice work man. Hot dip galvanizing the frame too awesome.

 

[roma042987]

I also resealed the seams on the cowl with this stuff. A steady hand goes a long way here lol.