Zog's FJ40 Crawler Build

[TRoss]

Any progress?

[TNRunner]

Sub'd for future droolage.

[Land Pirates Off Road]

A really nice build. 100% awesome!

[theduck911]

Awesome build!

Always wanted an older FJ to build up

[Zog]

No progress right now, neck and now back problems conspiring against me. Bear with me, I'll be back at it soon!

[sgirt]

Amazing fab work. Looks like it will really do well! Love the garage full of Toyotas. Looks like mine.

[BOVADS]

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME !!!
not sure how i missed this build till now

[BattleWagon]

Originally Posted by BOVADS

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME !!!
not sure how i missed this build till now

x2 BadAss

[Zog]

I gotta get my neck fixed so I can finish this thing and insurance doesn't cover the surgery (artificial disc) I need so I'm in a holding pattern.

[TBob]

Awsome work - very nice!

[DopuS]

That is truly some spectacular work. Its art without a doubt. Best of luck getting to a healthy state of being

[Zog]

I'm finally back working at the build. Baby steps but seems to be going pretty good. Not a huge amount of progress but I'm just so happy to have anything more done on it I thought I'd post some pics of the front tube fenders.

The fenders will be skinned with some floating panels just like the rear fenders.

The completed passenger fender except for final welding and the skin:


A couple of pics of the driver side fender in progress:


Did curved braces instead of straight to give it a little interest -- you'll see these in between the floating skins.


Hopefully I'll have some completed pics of the fenders and the front grill hoop soon.

[Wainiha]

Anxiously waiting

[Zog]

Back at it, making some real progress (for me) pretty quickly. I built the front hoop and tied it into the fenders and frame and did some of the finish welding.

Here's the front hoop in progress:


And here it is completed with the radiator protection tube:


Since the fenders and hoop aren't part of the driver & passenger roll cage, I got to use up a lot of odds and ends tubing and I think I'm going to be able to finsih this without buying more metal. Given the price of 1.75" DOM tubing that's a big deal since I still need to buy the guts for the front axle and possibly a transmission or a rebuild...

Next I need to tie the forward tube of the sliders into the frame so it won't move when I finish weld the fenders then I can skin the front fenders and the FJ will look pretty much complete.

Once the fenders are done I'll wheel it out into the driveway and get some good progress pics. Funny how you get used to only looking at it from certain angles and distances.

[Spudnic]

Dude this is turning out amazing! If I had a million dollars and a 40 to build you would be the 1st person I would call! FNG SICK!!!!

[Spudnic]

Shit If I had the money I would love to drop off the 80 and see what you come up with!

[Zog]

Originally Posted by Spudnic

Shit If I had the money I would love to drop off the 80 and see what you come up with!

Thanks I appreciate it. If I wasn't so damn slow I might be able to do this for a living.

Anyway, I cut and capped the forward ends of the sliders, built the forward brace that ties the slider to the frame. I'm going to make one more diagonal brace so that the fender couldn't be pushed in if I flop or rub it hard on a rock then I can finish weld most everything I can get to -- the rest will be done when the body comes off the frame, hopefully in a month or two... More pics soon.

[TNRunner]

Ridiculous!

[Zog]

Some more progress. Here's the triangular support for the fender and the front tie-in to the frame for the slider. Capped the forward ends of the sliders too.



And here's the front fender skins. These take a long time to do with all the spacers and tabs and getting everything cut and lined up correctly.

Here the metal for the skin is cut and the spacers that raise it up off the tabs so they aren't so noticeable are tacked on.


Then everything is clamped in place and the tabs are drilled, bolted on, and welded.


The completed first section.


The tabs welded on and ground smooth for the second (curved) section.


And here's the finished fender. One more to side to go. Before that I'm going to modify the upper panel that was above the original sheet metal fender to fill in that triangular gap between the body and tube fender.


I'm going to do the sections below the rear tub corners the same way but not right away since just like the back fenders, I am sick of these things by the time I finish both sides.

[bigarms23]

pics didnt work but sounds like good progress

[Zog]

Originally Posted by bigarms23

pics didnt work but sounds like good progress

Hmm, I was just editing the last post literally as you replied, hopefully it's working now. I just checked it from my laptop and it seems OK...

[Zog]

Taking a break from the fender skins, I modified the original upper fender panel to fit with the new location of the tube fenders.

First I made a rough cut to get the basic shape but kept the folded over portion intact to be reused.


The cut piece before some final grinding.


Bent the edge back to form the 90 degree side as I tacked it all back together.


Test fitting the new piece while I drilled the body for bolting them together. I welded the bolts onto the new panel so three nuts and washers can be easily tightened from within the engine bay to hold them together.


After some body filler, sanding and priming, the new panel in place.


Now it's time to do all of this fender work again for the driver side...

[alabamatacomaguy]

wow

how have i not seen this before, great job, documenting and doing the work, i really enjoyed seeing it

[TRoss]

Hey! Where's the pics go???

[Zog]

I have moved all the pics to a different hosting site. The one I have been using seems flakey as of late... Some people can see the pics and others can't. Please PM me if you have any issues seeing the pics now.

[69FJ-40]

Hey Darin,
Sorry man I still don't see the pics in this thread

[Zog]

Originally Posted by 69FJ-40

Hey Darin,
Sorry man I still don't see the pics in this thread

OK thanks. They seem to show up fine here and on a friend's PC but I'm not sure why there are still issues.

Any recommendations on a good picture hosting site? One where I could keep the filename in the URL so I don't lose that info in case I need to move them again would be best.

[Scuba]

I see all pics just fine.. Awesome work so far. Can't wait to see this thing "complete."

[Zog]

Yeah I'm at a loss. I also tried with IE, Chrome, and Firefox to see if it was a browser thing but they all worked fine. I can only guess it is somehow ISP related and some don't like the picture host(s) I am using.

[Zog]

Wheeled the FJ out of the garage and blew off the dust and metal grit. I'm going to start prepping and primering to get rid of the surface rust accumulating everywhere. Motivating to get to see it out in the sunshine.









Next I'm going to make final brackets for the front suspension upper link and track bar. Then it's getting stripped down for final body prep, welding all the holes in the firewall, etc for paint.