1976 Rustic Green FJ40

Let's see. I acquired this truck in a deal way back when I was still down at Issue Boy's place. The PO has started a few things at my shop but ran out of money and needed to sell most of his stuff. I don't think I have any starter photos but I may have it in the background of a few pics. I'll try and dig some up so you guys can see how it started. It traveled with my entourage for about 3.5 years before I even touched it.

The truck has some rust issues to deal with in the usual areas. Rear lower quarters, up around the rear fenders, the rockers and the hard top pieces all had some cancerous stuff we had to cut out and replace. Anyways here is the project as it unfolded.

Heh, these are the only pics I have of the chassis and frame stuff. Apparently I forgot to take any pics of the front and rear axle refreshings, the all new brakes going on, the new steering links, retrofiting a factory power steering gear and shaft, or the suspension going on. OOPs

Powdercoating has started to arrive and Im still a dummy for not taking more pics.

Cutting out and getting this piece back to factory shape takes a bit of fill welding and skillfull finish grinding. It seems to take forever when you are doing it because you keep thinking, "it can be just a bit better"

Get in meh belly. Damn Im fat, although they do say that the camera adds 20 pounds. On me it added 35.... bastage. Oh and I'm epoxy priming these parts.

Interior is coming together and I re-whited the dash knobs. Learned a cool little trick with white out and very fine sand paper. We took the top completely apart and repaired all the threaded holes, rust holes and cracks. Removing and repairing some rain gutter rot.

The oh so lovely grey primer coat is on everything and then we prep the shop for painting and the finish coat is applied.

I used a small buffer on the small parts b/f assembling the body parts. Here you can see where we sanded and painted some of the small parts with a silver trim color. I'm not sure but I think I painted Jim Knight's front bib for my truck here and had to redo 2 of them later. We went thru the TCase....FREAKING TWICE.....one of my "check every fluid level" commands was apparently ignored. By the way, FYI, an extremely low filled Tcase will amazingly last for about 15 miles before it boils every bearing and ruins every gear!

The tub has begun to take shape and its looking to me like this is coming along nicely. We cleaned, sanded and painted every small part we didn't powder coat

Starting to look like a FJ now. Once again Acey's Tim and Terry did my interior. I added an extra touch this time...my rear seat pans were abit too rusted so when they got back from the powder coater the pits on the bottom panel left small little dents in the finish. So Tim fabbed me up some trick little covers out of the interior fabric. Also you can see the sanding of the seat frame, later we painted them and the reason we did this was because on Kem Merrill's project we PC'd some frames and they ended up being a chore to get unstuck as the melted paint sealed slider to housing. Lesson learned... we had to carefully cut the paint away with a sharp exacto to free it up. In the end we decided cleaning, sanding, chem clean and painting was the best option.

The top ended up being quite a job. We completely disassemble it from the rain gutter, filled in small fiberglass cracks and pits, repair lots of nagging cracks along the weld seams, repaired a few small rust holes, riveted the fiberglass back to the drip rail, resealed the lip, then primed and base/cleared it. Afterwards we installed a very trick sunroof.

Here are some of the finished up (for the most part) pics. I got a small list of detail stuff that needs to be done, but nothing major. Since the retrofit AC unit came from a 79 40 and since I wanted to use the factory wiring for the AC equipment I fabbed up this drop bracket where the emergency brake is for the controller. Driving this cruiser compared to other cruisers is like driving a Caddy. Seriously its the best driving and riding cruiser I have ever been in. Its comfortable, responsive, light steering requirement and the OME suspension is marvelous.

Hmm where to begin. Frame off nearly complete restoration (few things are still Og), Motor is a fresh rebuild that is balanced and has 200 miles on it. The engine has a Weber Carb, Header, Factory P/S retrofit, an Idler Pulley for the Smog Pump and a Factory A/C retrofit, a custom battery box. The driveline is the original 4spd with new clutch components, and a rebuilt tcase, rebuilt front and rear driveshafts, refreshed rear end, and a refreshed front end excluding 3rd member. Every brake system component on the truck is new. Every piece of metal on the truck was either powdercoated or primed/painted. Most every fastener is a new replacement or stainless steel. The exterior was done completely piecemeal, with epoxy primer, finish primer, and 5 coats of Dupont single stage and is assembled exclusively with stainless steel fasteners. The wiring harness is completely redone with all the wiring for accessories, stereo and speakers, and the A/C wired as if it where factory then loomed appropriately. Most every electical component was taken apart, cleaned and reassembled, and if it was questionable it was replaced. Every light on the truck is new OEM. The suspension system is an Old Man Emu Dakar Series 2" kit with anti inversion greasable shackles and pins, new bushings, and Rs5000 shocks. The meats are brand new 33" Mtx's with gloss black powder coated spoke rims. The custom interior is a faux leather marine grade vinyl in a saddle motif with a matching headliner. The rear seats have an extra cover. The truck has a full front cage assembly with windshield bar, grab handles and is wired and supports the rear speakers. Every weatherstip on the truck was replaced and all glass is tinted to trim out the truck. The windshield is new OEM. The underside and the inside of the truck are polyurethance lined with about 1/4" of material. The front fendes are 3M bodyshultzd. The tub is attached with a polyurethane body mount kit.

1976 Rustic Green FJ40, by Me.