1977 FJ40 Restoration

[DHC6twinotter]

Any updates on this?

[Robinhood4x4]

Not right now, it's the off season with 114 deg weather and relatively high humidity making the swamp cooler almost useless.

However, Clayton has a fresh injection of cash so he's going to start buying the maintenance stuff he needs, like axle seals and engine stuff. We'll probably start back on the project in a couple weeks.

[DHC6twinotter]

Cool...I look forward to any further updates.

[TeckniX]

Since it's been a few months, I figured I'd bump this up and see if any progress had been made on the restoration.

[Robinhood4x4]

Not yet, we've both been pretty busy at work and haven't had a chance to work on it since it's cooled down. It's really only cooled down enough for a few weeks now anyway.

Plus, the owner has changed his mind of the direction a few times now. At first, it was going to be a full on renovation and update, including injection, power steering, AC, lift, tires, and good paint job, then it got downgraded to just a quality budget rebuild, and now it's back to full on extreme make over.

The plans now are a Toyota V6 or V8, modern manual or auto tranny, AC, extremely nice body work and paint job.

We'll see, he'll probably change his mind again.

[DHC6twinotter]

Cool! I vote for a 2uz mated to a H151 5spd tranny, or a 1hd-fte diesel with a H151 tranny.

[Robinhood4x4]

We finally got a chance to work on it again over this holiday break. It doesn't look like we made too much progress, but it was a full day of just cleaning the frame. The day started with taking off the shocks, which came off surprisingly easily, and all the remaining electrical, fuel and brake lines.

To show what we were dealing with, here's a shot of the inside frame before we got to work. Unfortunately, we both forgot our cameras so I had to resort to my iphone camera.

[img width=800 height=600]http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff380/antinode4x4/1977%20FJ40%20rebuild/12-28-11/IMG_0095.jpg[/img]

[img width=800 height=600]http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff380/antinode4x4/1977%20FJ40%20rebuild/12-28-11/IMG_0111.jpg[/img]

We started off by scrapping off as much as we could with a paint scrapper then we rolled it outside to hit it with a couple angle grinders with wire brushes.

At the end of the day, this is how it turned out, which we think looks pretty good.

[img width=800 height=600]http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff380/antinode4x4/1977%20FJ40%20rebuild/12-28-11/IMG_0113.jpg[/img]

[img width=800 height=600]http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff380/antinode4x4/1977%20FJ40%20rebuild/12-28-11/IMG_0120.jpg[/img]

[img width=800 height=600]http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff380/antinode4x4/1977%20FJ40%20rebuild/12-28-11/IMG_0118.jpg[/img]

The back bumper/frame area needs a little work because of rust, but it's nothing we can't fix. I think the fix will be pretty simple, actually.

[img width=800 height=600]http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff380/antinode4x4/1977%20FJ40%20rebuild/12-28-11/IMG_0116.jpg[/img]

BTW, the plan has now gone back to a more simple restoration, rework the engine and keep most things looking stock. I'm taking bets on how many more times the plan changes.