Paint

The base coat is the green that is immediately seen when looking at the color of a car.

Epoxy

The tub is sprayed with a black epoxy to give it an even color to paint over.

PAINT

I know that I have not been posting as many new posts as I used to. The reason being is that for the past month I have been getting the body strait in preparation for paint. This entails applying bondo, then sanding, then primer, then sanding, and more, and more, and more sanding which did not make for very exciting photos. But in the end the body will not be wavy making the paint job look a lot better. Yesterday the bottom was painted. It is hard to see the color because the clear coat was still wet and very shiny but you'll get an idea of the color.

New Plates Came In

Bondo

This is the start of bondo work. Bondo is a mud like consistency that you apply to the body of the vehicle that hardens  to sand down. This fills in the low spots and makes a perfect body line after sanding flat. Once painted you will never know where the bondo is and you will have a perfectly straight and even body.

Fan Box

This is the fan that pulls fresh air from the out side into the truck (Again the one on the right is not mine but I grabbed it to to give you an idea of before and after)

Rear Heater Box

This is the heater box for the rear of the truck after being redone.

Heater Box

Here is a before and after of what my heater box looked like and now looks like. (The heater box on the right isn't mine but I grabbed one after I redid mine to give you and idea)

Hours

I calculated my first time card and I have put over 170 hours into the build.

Tub Priming

After the cowl was mated to the tub I primed to tub.

Marrige

After priming its time to mate the cowl to the tub.

Cowl Priming

Now that the floor pans have been welded in and welds grounded down it is time for primer. This stage is impotent because it is what makes a pain job last a long time.

Then I ground down the piece until perfect.

 Using the plasma cutter I roughly cut out the shape.

Then I traced out the pattern onto a sheet of metal.

First I made a stencil of the cowl plates with cardboard

Brackets

I needed to make plates that go between the cowl and the body tub before I bolt the two together.

Frame

With my frame exposed and rusting I had a problem to address if I wanted the truck to last for a long time. The absolute best way to do this is to take everything off, sand blast the frame, and then paint it. Due to a lack of time I was not able to do this. So I coated the frame with a special paint that will protect it from the elements. Now, if you’re thinking that the rust is still there and that this is still a problem you’re right, but the rust is in its very first stages and not as bad as it looks. The frame should now last about 80 years before the problem comes up again. I could have taken the time sandblast and paint it, in which case the frame would last 150 years. So in the end it’s not necessarily the best way but I think it is a good solution to the problem.

Cowl pillers

Along with the floor pans, the pillars where rotted out so I measured and cut out a square, then bent it to make a 90 degree angle. I then screwed it into place and grinded it down until it fit flush. Later it will be sand blasted and welded.

Spair Tire Carrier

All FJ40's come with a spare tire carrier but for some reason mine did not so I found one out back. Right now it looks horrible but with the magic of sandblast and paint you'd think it was brand new.