Troyoda Resto FJ40

[FreshSeaBass]

No more motivation. Just discipline and getting to the point of almost turning it over. I got so close this weekend. My crux was the upper rad hose.




Party time it was. Started on a. New radiator core sub assembly. Trying to be smart and mount it all together.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

I decided to try getting this coolant bottle and the FMIC on there to package. I think it will all come together nicely.


Fender fits great and when the radiator gets shifted back it should fit inside of the front core support.


My plan to shoot the power steering cooling and return lines through here looks to be coming out exactly the way we planned.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Deaeration tank lines run, I have the crank case ventilation generally where I want it, and the charge pipe is close-ish.

No heater core on this so I flipped some of the factory cummins piping around and ran a heater core bypass which was a simple 90° bend of 5/8" ID hose. Fewer red-caps on here than we started with which means more things are finally plumbed up!

Crossover pipe configuration will change slightly

 

[FreshSeaBass]

This is cool. Continental make a line of very workable cooling hoses to do stuff like this.

I will make a bracket to secure it to the frame.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Oh yeah. Very nice.



We got so close to being able to crank it over, but the upper cooling hose just didn't work out. Found shorter continental hoses to try. Time to clean up and reset the shop.

 

[Dukestaco]

This is cool. Continental make a line of very workable cooling hoses to do stuff like this.
View attachment 86118
I will make a bracket to secure it to the frame.
View attachment 86119

I was thinking the same thing. Lol. No need to have a pink mist coming out of the hood.

 

[Dukestaco]

View attachment 86120

Oh yeah. Very nice.

View attachment 86121

We got so close to being able to crank it over, but the upper cooling hose just didn't work out. Found shorter continental hoses to try. Time to clean up and reset the shop.

Man it is looking awesome.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Killer week off of work. I haven't done that in a while. Much progress

Both hubs finished. Steering preload set, and everything is in on the wheel side.


Towers welded on at 3.5° kick back to account for the shock pivoting forward at full bump.



Sitting at near ride height here.



May or may not have deleted the factory fenders

Something better coming. On another note, we also started punching holes in body panels for M6 riv-nuts.... This really helped me correct all of the body lines and standardize hardware across the board.


Everything now has a riv nut and we can very easily pull the entire front body off with a 10mm socket. My little shop is an absolute disaster now, so I need to take a pause this week and get that cleaned up.

 

[Dukestaco]

Killer week off of work. I haven't done that in a while. Much progressView attachment 86134

Both hubs finished. Steering preload set, and everything is in on the wheel side.

View attachment 86135
Towers welded on at 3.5° kick back to account for the shock pivoting forward at full bump.

View attachment 86136

Sitting at near ride height here.

View attachment 86137

May or may not have deleted the factory fenders
View attachment 86138
Something better coming. On another note, we also started punching holes in body panels for M6 riv-nuts.... This really helped me correct all of the body lines and standardize hardware across the board.


Everything now has a riv nut and we can very easily pull the entire front body off with a 10mm socket. My little shop is an absolute disaster now, so I need to take a pause this week and get that cleaned up.

View attachment 86139

I would have opted for 12 mm. They are easier to find. Beautiful work man.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

I would have opted for 12 mm. They are easier to find. Beautiful work man.

Unequivocally true. Shame on me

Thank you for the kind words. The weekend is almost here which means more fun...

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Major progress. If you can't tell, the fenders came off... And they are staying off.

Too much battling with the OEM fender mount to fit where the shock tower is and time spent making that work would exceed doing something new.


Now that the fender and side aprons have been fastened using M8 riv nuts instead of the old stuff, we have been able to really dial in the body line fitment.


Crazy to see this all package in there.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Its officially back on all 4's!



All of that work was worth it. Steering looks to really fit quite tightly. Almost too tightly

So, to address the fenders, it would be silly to buy the raw tube stock in excess and bend up some tubes to only be left with a bunch of left over material. Steel prices are crazy right now.

I made the suggestion that we could put together an extremely clean set of fenders with the Metal Tech 4x4 tube fenders.

It was well received.



Tubes are prepped, and last night I started mocking up the layout for body lines. The rear most mount is bolted in and square to the fender, main inner tube is clamped in place for fitment.



Looking sweet. Time to work some magic on notching tubes.



This shot right here showed me exactly what I need to see.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Fit up was neat



I pieced together a 'scaffolding' from stuff I had laying around the shop to make a level plane from driver to passenger & front to back. I clamped a long piece of square tube to a really nice structural chunk of the body at the rear quarter panel to give me a body line to follow when fitting and notching tubes.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Step 1.... Buy 15-20 clamps. This is almost impossible without them.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Changed where the fenders end. Looked weird how they used to stick past the front.



I used 1/2" UHMW as a solid plastic spacer to make a body line gap. To fit these up the way metal tech 4x4 tells you to, you have to cut the side apron. It was reinforced with thick diamond plate on the back side, so we opted to forego that method and live with a body gap.

I'll use a 3/4" bulb seal to close the body cap and add a buffer between the panels.

Here you can catch a glimpse of the main frame support. Instead of bolting through the frame the way all 40's do, I wanted to do a body mount, so the tube is capped, riv nut and a body mount rubber bushing to keep it from vibrating the body apart.....

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Body lines came out great! Instead of welding the outside of the sheet metal, I welded the inside and kept a clean seam on the outside.

I will probably add a diamond checker plate on top as an accent to match the sliders, lower rocker, and rear quarter panel.


You can see from the inside here and it really fits the truck well. I think they came out alright

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Here's a look at the body line from the driver's side for perspective.


Passenger side.





These look cool, I think this is definitely way better than the original fenders

 

[Stairgod]

Love the fenders!.
I bought that style for my JT.
After two years and rust everywhere I ended up weldimg that seam all along in the top and seam sealed the underside. Hopefully rust proof-ish now.

 

[FreshSeaBass]

Love the fenders!.
I bought that style for my JT.
After two years and rust everywhere I ended up weldimg that seam all along in the top and seam sealed the underside. Hopefully rust proof-ish now.

That's some good beta. I really wanted to seam seal and then paint over without having to weld the edges.

Did you have a powder coat done or just paint?

I'm curious if powder coat would do a good enough job of sealing all that up.

 

[Stairgod]

That's some good beta. I really wanted to seam seal and then paint over without having to weld the edges.

Did you have a powder coat done or just paint?

I'm curious if powder coat would do a good enough job of sealing all that up.

Just paint. The originals were also just paint. Only real way to seal without seam sealer would be to dip them. It is all because of how the flat stock lands on the tube. No real way of getting anything up in there.