Reed 78 FJ40 Rebuild

[RockinKees]

Really nice Mark!!
It's all in the details!

[reaper71]

Thank's Kees!
Me and John worked on it today installing the side panels for the roof and the rear tall doors. almost done!

Mark

[reaper71]

Pic #1. We finally were able to get the rear doors and the roof installed, And this was a task!!
The side panels were not to bad but getting the Top on sucked pretty bad.

Pic #2. A look from the back with the Doors on.

Pic #3. With it all closed up.
The funny thing is the weather is starting to change and the top will need to come back off soon!

Pic #4. This last one is of the Door and the new panel going together.

Mark...

[Zoomin]

Boy, that looks awesome! Great job.

[RockinKees]

Beauty!!

[reaper71]

Steve and Kees, Thank's Guys!!

Wheels and tires are ordered and should be here next week.

Pic #1. The Door panel all finished up and the seals were all installed.

Pic #2. Then I made some custom fit mats.

Pic #3. Windows all installed and it is ready to go (after some miles driven)

Pic #4. These are the tires (wheel not being used) Nitto ridge grappler 33x12.5x18

Pic #5. The wheels: Fuel (vapor) 18x8

[reaper71]

Hey Guy's back for an update..
Since the last post I ended up having to completely rebuild the "birfield" joints on the front end. This is the large Knuckle on the front wheel/hub area. They are a ball and joint style unit and a Huge mess to work on anyways...the truck went home and all was good.
The new wheels finally showed up so I mounted those yesterday.

On a side note: I found out a really cool fact on this FJ as well as the new one that is in the shop now (Bargers 78) Bargers was built in 2/78 Reeds was built in 4/78 and they are exactly 7100 units apart and from the same factory! (A11)were shipped from Japan to the U.S. and ended up not only in west plains but also in this shop! Pretty damn cool..

Mark

[RockinKees]

Well done Mark!!
It's a really nice "Jeep" , it shows your quality of work, respect!!!

It is a small world to get those cars in your shop from so far away!

[reaper71]

Thank's Kees!
It was a fun project, it came out pretty nice and is not to bad to drive
On another note we did find out that the front springs and shackle have been "reversed" so this makes the front axle centerline move forward and when this happens it changes the height a bit. If you notice the front sits higher than the rear!
The owner also bought the lift kit 4" and 4" front and rear and it should have been 2" and 4" this would make it level (turns out this very common) with these fj40 models when lifted, so the fix is I will change the front spring to a shorter one to make level rather than lift the back up (making it more unstable)

Mark