Aka Lost Betty's Lucky 13 - My home computer is down - so it's gonna take some searcing to get most of the build pics posted here.
The story with this 40 started shortly after I sold my mustard yellow 79 FJ40 (got married with this one) due to various frame rust and mechanical problems. The following week, my now exwife, son and I spent a week up touring the Carolina's and I was looking everywhere for a good project vehicle - but nothing popped up - mind you this was around 98, so I wasn't fully up on website sales and what not. Needless to say - 14 days after selling the 79, I picked up this 76 within one mile of my house on Singer Island, Florida. Paid too much for it, towed it home, parked it in the garage and fully dissassembled everthing except the engine, tranny, t-case and diffs. and did a full frame off restoration.
The entire frame, tub and all sheetmetal was sandblasted, and then I sprayed with a PPG marine epoxy primer. Used a nice glossy two part epoxy PPG paint on the frame, and PPG Acrylic Enamel on the body. Did a small amount of rust repair to the tub, and added new fenders. Tons of new Toyota parts, tires, glass and it was looking pretty good. The rebuild included swapping in my friend Jim's 81 2F.
In the following years I ran a set of 33" M/T's on classic slots, or 33" x 9.5 M/Ts on OEM wheels with hubcaps. Added lockers, mini truck power steering, and a Ramsey 8,000 winch. Blew the engine and did a complete rebuild and generally enjoyed some mild wheeling trips and lots of daily driving.
Here's a pic of where it kinda ended up in teh first few years:
The story with this 40 started shortly after I sold my mustard yellow 79 FJ40 (got married with this one) due to various frame rust and mechanical problems. The following week, my now exwife, son and I spent a week up touring the Carolina's and I was looking everywhere for a good project vehicle - but nothing popped up - mind you this was around 98, so I wasn't fully up on website sales and what not. Needless to say - 14 days after selling the 79, I picked up this 76 within one mile of my house on Singer Island, Florida. Paid too much for it, towed it home, parked it in the garage and fully dissassembled everthing except the engine, tranny, t-case and diffs. and did a full frame off restoration.
The entire frame, tub and all sheetmetal was sandblasted, and then I sprayed with a PPG marine epoxy primer. Used a nice glossy two part epoxy PPG paint on the frame, and PPG Acrylic Enamel on the body. Did a small amount of rust repair to the tub, and added new fenders. Tons of new Toyota parts, tires, glass and it was looking pretty good. The rebuild included swapping in my friend Jim's 81 2F.
In the following years I ran a set of 33" M/T's on classic slots, or 33" x 9.5 M/Ts on OEM wheels with hubcaps. Added lockers, mini truck power steering, and a Ramsey 8,000 winch. Blew the engine and did a complete rebuild and generally enjoyed some mild wheeling trips and lots of daily driving.
Here's a pic of where it kinda ended up in teh first few years:
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