Build "WY-REE-KA" A Ground Up 45LPB Restoration

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What hammer and dolly set is that?
 
Final bed pictures for the day. I was able to get it pretty darn straight and worked out a bunch on the dents in the ribbing.

Again before....
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After... still got some dents to work out. Some are under braces so not much I can do about those but overall I was surprised with the ease I was able to work the old metal back into shape.
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After about 6 straight hours of hammering I was worn out and wanted something more relaxing to do so I decide to unbox all the fun the UPS man had been delievering the last few days :D


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Ouch. I have a decade ordering most of that stuff. Amazing that all the old school stuff is now avail instead of piecemeal it one bit at a time
 
i can't wait to see how this turns out although i am a big fan of your past patina projects. You originally said you would restore it with "strict adherence to factory correctness" and when i saw your bed full of goodies, i thought i would post a few questions. I am still a rookie but slowly learning and finding issues with the following items as i go through my 63. I know some of these items are NLA new but thought i would ask all of your here on your opinions if it was better to be "similar and new" or "factory correct" with restored old parts.
1) When did the fuse box switch from metal cover 5 fuse to plastic cover 6 fuse.
2) When did the turn signals go from painted body color to pewter.
3) Are the new side mirrors sold as "original replacements" the same as originals? Mine is a 63 but i had a set that looked original but were larger see attached picture. I also found another 63 with the same mirrors but not sure these were original.
4) Is the dimmer switch a newer model that requires redrilling or is it plug and play?
5) Greasable shackles?

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Hey 63cruiser - do you have pics of your seats? If so, can you send those in a pm or do you have a build thread? I’m trying to sort out seats for my ‘63, which is a fixed top SWB. Yours?
 
Very cool. Who still sells these?

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Nolan sorry for being misleading throwing those in with all the new stuff they are NLA for decades now. I bought all the ones I could find out of the Classic Cruisers graveyards like a decade ago that's where these came from.
 
Until I got into this forum I never knew to look for them.
The amazing thing to me is both of my patina trucks still had the original head lights that worked. All 10 or so i pulled from the junk yard worked as well. Kind of amazing for 50 year old headlights. I think they switched to the more familiar Koito logo in the early 70s?
 
Hey 63cruiser - do you have pics of your seats? If so, can you send those in a pm or do you have a build thread? I’m trying to sort out seats for my ‘63, which is a fixed top SWB. Yours?

@middlecalf .... Paul was looking through my old literature this morning and came across the October 1963 SWB brochure I have. The SWB picture is likely an early-mid '63 production date. Looks like it has the later 40 style seats with pleated covers, not sure if this helps you or not but I thought I'd share.

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i can't wait to see how this turns out although i am a big fan of your past patina projects. You originally said you would restore it with "strict adherence to factory correctness" and when i saw your bed full of goodies, i thought i would post a few questions. I am still a rookie but slowly learning and finding issues with the following items as i go through my 63. I know some of these items are NLA new but thought i would ask all of your here on your opinions if it was better to be "similar and new" or "factory correct" with restored old parts.
1) When did the fuse box switch from metal cover 5 fuse to plastic cover 6 fuse.
2) When did the turn signals go from painted body color to pewter.
3) Are the new side mirrors sold as "original replacements" the same as originals? Mine is a 63 but i had a set that looked original but were larger see attached picture. I also found another 63 with the same mirrors but not sure these were original.
4) Is the dimmer switch a newer model that requires redrilling or is it plug and play?
5) Greasable shackles?

View attachment 1644940

Thanks for the questions I am happy to answer. I am trying my best to stick a close to stock as possible especially on the major items. As you said though some of these items are NLA and also some things like the dimmer switch, fuse block, etc. I have originals for that I am going to do my best to fix and repair. Though I bought the back-ups you see just in case.

1.) I can't tell you when they switch from 5 to 6. But I do know I have a fuse block out a 1963 that has the metal face plate instead of the plastic found on my LPB. I bought a back up 6 fuse block as Coolerman said my original block was in need of some work. If it can get it repaired enough to be reliable I will use it in the restoration.
2.) I will be painting my turn signals body color as they remained that way through 1967. With all the big changes 1968 brought to the 40 it is when they became pewter colored. Also I believe it was the last year they used the round style on 40s though it may have carried over into 1969 I'm not 100% sure on that. See the attached 1968 brochure below.
3.) In 1963 you would have had the smaller round mirror. They were available recently I believe. Onur had a thread in the main 40 section detailing what mirror were still available through Toyota. What you had on your 40 are aftermarket mirrors very common PO swap as the original factory mirror was about useless. See below attached pictures from all my 1963 literature they all show the small round mirror. Toyota switched to the larger square mirror around the time the LPB started production in mid '64.
4.)The dimmer switch is aftermarket from SOR. My original likely works but I have this as back-up
5.)While the FJ40 shackles are still available through Toyota sadly the rear 45 shackles aren't. My originals were mangled pretty bad during removal so I had to seek alternate sources. The SOR reproductions I have while grease able closely mirror the originals. I may try to repair the originals down the road but for now I'll likely use the SOR repos.

Hope that helps and maybe makes some sense :D

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And since we are talking turn signals how about a 40 without them?? This is my oldest 40 literature from 1961. I wonder if this was a “preproduction” model they sent over to do press releases. As I’ve seen some very low VIN40s like #100 off the line and it had turn signals. Anyways interesting, guess they used some leftover 25 fenders?

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Trying to get some out of town quotes on my yellow zinc chromate plating costs as the only shop with in 2 hours drive of me wanted $2k and 5 weeks to do the job :eek: Anyways had to document in pictures everything I had to get some long distance quotes so I thought I'd post here for documentation sake. Some of this stuff like the hinges, hooks, etc. will get painted but I want them plated for extra protection from rusting down the road. Not the most exciting pictures to look at but it should give a good perspective into the amount of effort a restoration takes. All the items were de-greased then sand blasted and about half were wire wheeled to a polished finish so the yellow chromate will really shine :D

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