1977 FJ40 Restoration

[Robinhood4x4]

After about 3 years of him-hawing around, my friend from work finally picked up a 1977 FJ40. Over the years, he was undecided and swayed from Land Rover (previous coworker was a big LR buff), to FJ40 (once I was hired at work), and then to an Early Bronco (another coworker is a big EB fan). Well, I found one on mud and forwarded it to him and he fell in love. Surprisingly, prices on these things have fallen dramatically lately and the previous owner was willing to negotiate.

So we finally picked it up today at lunch.

Here it is at the mechanics, where he made the transfer:
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/FJgarage.JPG[/img]

It ain't foggy in AZ. We'll need to work on the engine a little.
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/FJsmoke.JPG[/img]

[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/FJroad.JPG[/img]

[img width=800 height=605]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/FJmirror.jpg[/img]

We'll need to come up with a proper battery hold down.
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/FJengine.JPG[/img]

The steering rod is supposed to be straight, but it sure makes turning way more interesting.
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/FJsteeringrod.jpg[/img]

Who needs the leaf springs to be straight anyway?
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/FJ40spring.JPG[/img]

Anyway, over the next few months I'll be chronicling the restoration and build up. Right now the plans are to do a frame off restoration with mostly original or replica parts. A mild 2.5"-3"lift from OME, fix the rust, repaint, build some armor, possibly rebuild the engine, possibly lockers, and I'm pushing for 33x12.5 mud tires.

[04 Rocko Taco]

It's beautiful. I love the look of these things. I would LOVE to have one, do a resto, and ude it as my DD. After the wedding, I just might look into it.

[Good Times]

you're gonna run out of garage space in a hurry!

[DHC6twinotter]

Very cool! I would love to take a 40 or 45LWB body and mount it on a 80 series chassis.

I'll be watching this for sure!

[Robinhood4x4]

you're gonna run out of garage space in a hurry!

Nah, it's not going to be done at my place and trust me, there's no shortage of garage space at my friends shop.

We're going to start tearing it down this Sat, so there should be more pics up later.

[Lee]

My dream is to do this same thing.

Take an fj that needs some decent tlc (not a crazy rebuild), restore it to almost stock but run 33's with a fresh suspension and paint job

Please keep this thread up to date!!

[Robinhood4x4]

And the teardown begins...with a hammer!

[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/teardown/P1080651s.jpg[/img]

With a project like this, it's always hard to figure out what you're going to get until things start coming apart. From the outside it looks decent for a 34 year old truck so we didn't really know where to start. By the way, this is the first time either of us have done a restoration. So we decided to take off the top and we started with the back doors (above).

Next we took off the fiberglass roof and then got to the upper cross member and ran into some stubborn philips head screws. If I were an automotive chief engineer, I would ban all philips or slotted screws from all designs! These things required a little heat to get them out.
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/teardown/P1080681s.jpg[/img]

This would explain why.
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/teardown/P1080683s.jpg[/img]

So in the course of about 8 hours, including lunch, and after breaking many bolts and screws, we got to this stage.
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/teardown/P1080727s.jpg[/img]

So this looks pretty good, right?
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/teardown/P1080653s.jpg[/img]

Well, look what's underneath.
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/teardown/P1080709s.jpg[/img]

Such is the story of this truck.
[img width=800 height=533]http://www.robinhood4x4.com/UY/FJ40/teardown/P1080719s.jpg[/img]

The bad news is, yes, there is a lot of rust and lots of holes. We knew the rocker panels were rusted, but we also found rust at both rear quarter panels under the diamond plate, driver side floor board, rear wheel wells where the jump seats bolt down and where the roll bar bolts down, and the rear sill.

The good news is that FJ40 panels are all flat so that makes it easier to fab new panels or weld in aftermarket ones. If we were to buy all new aftermarket panels, the total would be $1600.

It's worse than we thought it would be, but not as bad as some of the restorations on Mud that have come out beautiful. I still think this is a fine truck to fix up and it'll be a fun journey.

[Bob98SR5]

oh holy mother of christ, allah, vishnu, etc! nothing on the ol' biodiesel benz could ever compare to that. that rear end is gonna be a challenge.

if you can find a good body/tub, i would just buy it. this is quite a job.

[Robinhood4x4]

The problem is that any other original FJ tub we find is still going to be a 40 year old tub that has the same problems and if not, will cost a mint. And actually, it won't be that bad to fix because you can buy almost all the panels pre-made and just weld it in, especially the rear. I'm absolutely confident that we can fix this up.

[Lee]

bah Bob's been out of the rust zone for too long over in Cali

that's not so bad!