My winter project FJ40 Mustard
 

All

Thought I would share what I’ve been working on since I am musclecarless for the moment. Hopefully this is appropriate, as I know this is primarily a muscle car site, but thought this might be a little diversion during the long winter many of us face near this part of the world.

I have always been into four wheelers and trucks. A bucket list item for many years has been an FJ 40. I don’t know if this has happened to many on this site, I suspect it has, but I found myself enjoying the research and history of older Toyotas, especially the Land Cruiser‘s , and as I tend to do, dove in headfirst.

I picked this up a few years ago as a two family owned vehicle in Northern California. It is a FJ40 that was made for the US. Needless to say it was a nice survivor that needed some paint restoration, general cleaning and updating.

The goal was for it to look day 2ish with appropriate period correct updates along with safety and drive ability in mind. Here is what it look like to begin with, not too shabby from 10 feet but definitely needed some paint and interior restoration, along with some deep cleaning.

Looks like a sweetheart of an FJ! These are super fun and gives you plenty of excuses to run all year round, which we seldom do in our hotrods. I'm having a blast in my just finished CJ. Like nothing else on the road.

Cool Jeep had a CJ5 in HS and four wheeled the heck out of it!

Ok so needed to correct some suspension issues. Often times when your lift these FJ’s with shackles the steering gets sketchy. You need castor shims so on they go

Also put Bilsteins to keep from losing more teeth :eek2::eek2:

Your FJ is a 90in wheelbase and that coupled with the mods you've done should make for a great ride.
The CJ, pre '72 is much shorter, 81 factory, I stretched it to 82 since virtually everything is a tossed salad. I used a '80 widetrack front and rear, the front puts my caster at around 7*, without shims....also did a reverse shackle which aids in the highway stability. Lots of guys will cut, rotate and reweld their ends so they can maintain a good caster and driveline angle with a lift over 3 inches. It's actually fairly cheap to have done.

Wanted to throw some 15” “ steelies” on to look more stock. Little did I know that it would change again!!

That's it......right there Bary!

Now that's a good look! Liked the white wagon wheels also, but these rock.

Dog dish caps on a FJ, love that bone stock look.

She is perfect just the way it is.

Paul

PS - the CJ looks very sharp as well.

Thanks for the comment so far. Tim, while I agree these wheels look good, they will be changing again but I think you’ll give me a thumbs up once you see them! Stay tuned.

So with the vehicle being 70% original paint I wanted to do what I could to revive it. Many of the tips and tricks I used came from many on this site and some other research I did.

Meguiers #7

The front end
 

I looked for and found a period correct winch. Part of the day 2 parts will be the bumper and Toyota headlight upgrade.

Before and after. I found a rebuilt 8274 Warn winch

Here are the Toyota headlight upgrade. They make quite a difference.

OEM fog lights. These were dealer installed back in the day

Engine compartment
 

Overall goal was cleaning/detailing and tyding up wires etc.. also wanted to reinstall the original air cleaner. The truck has a Howell TBI unit and the PO slapped a K&n filter on that looked hokey!
Like others on this site have done, you will see a table of parts that were disassembled, cleaned and reinstalled.

Cool project. My first truck was a FJ62...sold it with about 290k on the clock and still keep in touch with the new owner...think it has about 400k on it now.

Is this the FJ that you brought back from CA with my 71 Impala?

Yes it is. How is the impala going or one of your other 6?

I had a 60, sold it and now more into the 80 series . I’ll probably sell the 40 when I’m done and maybe grab another 60 or 80 or even an older PU.

Air cleaner
 

As mentioned the stock air cleaner was in a box. In order to make it work on the TB I needed to make a custom spacer. Mock up with plastic and blue painters tape, final spacer is metal. Throw on factory decals and presto, engine compartment just about complete

Final on engine compartment. The air cleaner intake hose and brackets were fun to find

Interior time
 

Because the vehicle is basically rust free and has original floor and sound insulation, my goal was just to clean. I also wanted to install a aftermarket console to serve as a storage for radio and other items. As you all know with vehicles of this age many OEM parts/items are no longer available so finding stuff takes on a life of its own. I was able to find an original rubber floor mat. A little cleaning and some 303, BOOM, looks like new!

Interior back together
 

New old mat came out nice

Sometimes it’s the smallest things that make the difference. These vehicles didn’t have many interior or dash lights. Finding and fixing them and bringing in some light is kind of cool. In the case of this FJ 40 there was a light literally in the switch itself as well as some under dash lights. I didn’t even know they existed and doing some research I found them. The green is pretty cool!
I also kept the stock radio in place in speaker although I have an alternative Soundsystem

The correct restored fairlead
 

Correct restored fairlead

Really diggin it Bary!

So as I eluded to in a previous post the steel”ie” wheels, while brand new , would change again. I really stepped it up with some 16” cast aluminum wheels with some “skinnies”! 16” wheels were very common on non US vehicles and make a big difference in look, ride and steering.

Ok drum rolllllllll……..
With or without caps?

----I like the caps!.....Bill S

With the caps.

Pretty cool vehicle,now I want to watch Daktari reruns..

Of course with the lift and bigger tires I need a high lift jack!
I always thought these windshield mounts were cool.

Welp…. Didn’t know I wanted one of these, and now I want one of these!:biggthumpup:

Just when you think you don’t want something else someone posts something cool on here. :eek2:

Love it!!

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Just a few more pics on the hi-lift set up. I did not drill holes in my mint original step ups!

Very cool unit! Love the look of the new wheels.

Tire mount
 

With the new larger tires I wanted to add a bumper/ frame mounted tire carrier. The factory tire mount is mint but mounted to the body. mounting the new tire/rim combo may stress it

These things are getting crazy!!!


https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...uiser-fj40-91/

I sold a 76 to a friend last year. He freshened it up and it pulled 72k last week. I thought he did well but I guess not?

I am putting mine up soon, so I can buy something else..........