My Sisters 40

[kurtnkegger]

Since it looks like Mike will be taking a bit of a break from his 40, and the thread on his build, I thought I might as well chime in with the work I'm doing on my Sisters 40.



Here's a little back-ground...About 5 years ago, my sister bought her husband a '71 FJ40. He has always admired my '77, and liked the idea of having a classic trail rig. She had Merle trailer it down to his place in Salida for some restoration work. Her 40 had a 305 Camaro engine installed and mated to the original 3 speed transmission. With the sale came a SM465 transmission which she had Merles crew install, as well as newer axles for disc brakes in the front, a Toyota power steering set up, and an OME springs with a 2 1/2 inch lift. She had them install a roll-bar as this 40 will spend most of its life topless (which I'll post pictures later) with intent of them installing new fenders, rear quarters, and other parts...

This happened during the time when Merle's wife fell ill, and production started grinding to a halt in Salida...Then Merles horse apparently rolled over on him breaking bones, when everything stopped all together... Anyway, long story short, Merle had her Cruiser for a little over 3 years, and got a small amount of progress done on the 40. She had it towed back to my place, where I agreed to give it a little love.

on to a couple of pictures...we all love pictures...

 

[kurtnkegger]

I started by replacing the fenders. The PO had a strange fondness for resting thin galvanized sheet over the rusted out spots, and then gooping on incredibly thick amounts of Bondo over. Upon purchase, we knew the sheet body parts needed a lot of work, but the frame, and the bones or the 40 were in surprisingly good shape.

Turn signals had cracks in the housing from heat and weather. Those are getting replaced.

 

[kurtnkegger]

Fenders and rear quarters were purchased from CCOT, after reading nakmans thread about them, I relied on his insight on the quality of the parts. They are nice...

 

[kurtnkegger]

A few more for redundancy...

 

[kurtnkegger]

Merle's place was supposed to fabricate a fan shroud, as the Chevy fan is so far away from the radiator, there was no air draw through it to aid in keeping the engine from overheating. I mocked up a little drawing for myself, and started cutting and bending sheet to get a shroud working. After measuring, and drilling holes for the shroud on the radiator support, I noticed the radiator was sitting inside the support, resting on the bottom tank....after getting the radiator supported, I had to re-drill the holes in the shroud to accommodate the shift in the radiator. I had to make the shroud to where it is a two piece set up as I couldn't manage enough room to get the shroud hoop around the fan, with the "box" between the radiator and the engine fan. I haven't driven it with the new shroud attached, but it should draw the air through the radiator well.

 

[kurtnkegger]

Figured where the opening would have to be in relation to the fan, and bent my hoop to size, and cut the hole. I welded sheet pieces in the open gaps on the outside of the radiator area to keep air flow coming in through the radiator...

 

[SteveH]

Gorgeous work on the shroud, and nice work on the truck. You're doing the kind of things you almost can't effectively pay anyone to do. Keep the photos coming!

 

[simps80]

looking good Kurt!

we love pictures!!!

 

[Rezarf]

Awesome, keep it up

 

[kurtnkegger]

Thanks guys, for the encouragement, these photos are from a while ago so I could show my sister the progress I've made. Most of the work I've done isn't very sexy, meaning that while necessary and time consuming, it doesn't translate visually that much headway has been made.

For instance (and somehow the pictures were deleted from my phone camera) the engine was mounted too far back making interference from the valve cover to the passenger footboard. The PO saw a much easier solution to cut a hole in the footwell to make room, and cover with indoor/outdoor carpet. Something that was missed when we first looked at the 40, but needed attention after the carpet was removed and it was revealed. I had to cut some sheet, work and bend to seal the valve cover, and weld in to place. A corner of the transmission hump was cut out in the process, which needed repair...

Numerous holes were drilled in the tub to accommodate an old school, school buss heater that was used as a rear heater...like I said, time consuming repairs that don't look like much.

Anyway...on with more pictures of progress. The barn doors, like most, had lower cancer, and in need of repair. I tried to save as much of the original parts as I could, and replaced cancerous areas.

 

[kurtnkegger]

I welded in capture nuts on the surface to fit the license plate holder and the hinges before welding in the back of the barndoors....

Plus pictures of the rotted through sections...

 

[kurtnkegger]

More of the doors...I put a coat of primer, and paint on the insides before welding them together, as well as putting some rust treatment on any of the old metal I could get to while I had it open. Then a coat of rattle can to keep the flash rust at bay until it gets its real paint job.

 

[Dirt Claude]

Looking great Kurt, keep up the good work!

After spending more than three years on restoring my FJ40, I can truly appreciate the amount time and effort it takes to bring one of these back to life.

 

[kurtnkegger]

On to the rear sill... Had a lot of rust in the back of the 40, so ordered a rear sill to install. I didn't realize there were two pieces to the sill, and thought the corner pieces came with it. I had a little more fabricating to do than I thought.

 

[kurtnkegger]

I marked and cut out the old sill, and again found more galvanized sheet covered with bondo to hide rusted through holes. Rags were used to stuff in to rusted out pieces and then more bondo gooped in. The rear mounts were rusted out, and found out from Stevinson there weren't any in the country, and no clue if they would be produced again. After market mounts were ordered, and as it turned out, more mounts were needed anyway...

 

[kurtnkegger]

One corner piece was barely enough in tact to where I could make new and attach to the new sill. The curve of the new corners fit inside the old quarters nicely.

 

[kurtnkegger]

I cut out the rotted areas on the wheel well side, and welded in a patch plate, as well as a cover piece to help finish the wrap at the rear quarter, then attached the two pieces of the sill along with some support ribe between the two to help support the cut tub. Welded in some capture nuts to ease with the mounting of the spare tire hook when it gets installed.

 

[SteveH]

You aren't messing around! Tons of work going into this.

 

[simps80]

yes!!!!!!

 

[AdamKFarmer]

hot damn, you're killing it!