I purchased this 77 FJ40 in Colorado in September of 2015. This 40 is odd in that the frame is very clean, with no cancerous rust at all, while the tub, especially the rear section, is very rotted. I can’t speak to the history of this tub, but the rusting has been made worse by poorly designed, overly large, double layer patches that concealed dirt and moisture, and promoting rust.

With this, I am rebuilding the tub, with 304 stainless steel panels that I designed and will be building in my shop. I will also be redesigning the tub details to fit the tolling that I have, to make it stronger, and to avoid double layers of steel, especially when mating the stainless to the carbon steel. I also plan to use panel adhesives to help prevent rust from starting after rebuilding.

I was also planning to install the following upgrades:

  • Toyota 1HZ 6-cylinder diesel engine
  • H55F 5-speed manual transmission, with a split case (stronger) transfer case
  • A full floating rear with disc brakes and integrated emergency brake

This truck currently has the original drive train with a brand new clutch, pressure plate, pilot, thowout bearing and starter. This was all replace to get this 40 ready for a trip to Moab, but we didn’t make out deadline, so we drove out in our Dodge 2500 Cummins instead.