Okay, how much work is it to swap out a FJ40 tub from the seam behind the door latches back? I heard it's not an easy job (never mind that I'm replacing it with a FJ25 tub). Anything I should know before I get started? Thanks.

Gene

Did this on my first cruiser, and it wasnt too bad. Just get ready for drilling out all the factory spot welds on the seam behind the door post and under the tub. And your gonna have to dig out all the seam sealer to help you out as well. If I had to do it again, and the back of the tub was trashed anyway, I would cut all of it off as close as you could. This makes it alot easier to get into those tight spaces. To rejoin the tub, I simply stich welded and used heavy duty rivets were the spot tacks were.

HTH good luck with it.

Originally posted by toploader
Did this on my first cruiser, and it wasnt too bad. Just get ready for drilling out all the factory spot welds on the seam behind the door post and under the tub. And your gonna have to dig out all the seam sealer to help you out as well. If I had to do it again, and the back of the tub was trashed anyway, I would cut all of it off as close as you could. This makes it alot easier to get into those tight spaces. To rejoin the tub, I simply stich welded and used heavy duty rivets were the spot tacks were.

HTH good luck with it.

That is if it still has seam sealer.

The last two cruisers I took apart the seam sealer was long gone. If you get a spot weld drill the process is a little easier. You have two spots that are welded you must cut through on the top and bottom af the rear door pillar. A sawsall or cutoff wheel work well for this. There are also, think, 4 10mm bolts per side you have to remove.

OK Gene, you got me curious enough to go out in the dark in bare feet and look at the 25. The standing seam behind the door pillar is COMPLETELY different.(spot welded down it's entire length) It's obviously gonna be a lot more work to separate than a 40 seam. I can imagine that more of the seam will tear than will separate. I have one of those spot weld drill bits if you want to borrow it, but I can tell you now, there is no kind of drill motor that will hold a 1/4 bit at a right angle to a 1/2" wide standing seam that has the side of the bed right up against it.

I am kind of inclined to think, like ranger that you would be better off sawing thru the tub just off of the standing seam on the side you don't want, just to get at the spot welds.

In the end, I just had to walk away, shaking my head!

Just looking at my 40 tub, I was planning on cutting it away to access the welds. The 25 tub however, I'm gonna take my time and try to surgically separate. With 17 years between the two, I'm expecting to run into some challenges joining the two together especially with the 25 tub being 1/4" shorter in width.
What kind of seam sealer have you used? The only thing I've seen is the stuff sold by CCOT. Thanks for the help guys.

Gene

Isnt the frame different than the Fj40 frame? I swear they are, but I only briefly looked at one at rod wiggins place a while back.

seems like alot of work for something that is still and "FJ40"-not saying it is not cool, just lots o work...

On a different note, Ed and I did this with a 45 tub on my 40 frame.

Getting the tub separated from the cowl is a bugger, but I did it by myself.

Nothing a sawzall cannot handle though.

Even if the body mounts don't line up, you can cut off the 40 ones and line them up with the ones needed on the 25.

Wow, that's going to be a ton of work at mid seam. I thought you were doing the cut in front of the doors. Did you get the whole tub or is it cut already? If it's a hard top tub, I'd think it would be easier to take it at the forward seam and chop down the B-pillar to work with the 40 top. I know where there's a 25 hardtop tank and filler neck.

I could use a section of the passenger firewall if you're scrapping the cowl. :D

Jim,

It's a whole soft top tub, uncut. Here's what I'm thinking... By joining at the mid seam I don't have to mess with the gas tank, I only have to move the filler neck behind mid seam. I can also keep my 40 half and full doors. I like the look of the 25 soft top curved door openings, But I also like my half doors and the wider access into the cab since this is my daily driver. Basically when I'm done it will look like a 25 hard top model, with the cab (except for the custom dash) and doors (which I am altering) being 40. Yes it's a ton of work, but that's the fun of it - the challenge of blending the two and making it look like it came from the factory that way. Thanks again for the info guys

Gene.

Joining at mid-seam also has internal issues, besides the external ones of the panel compatibility. Aft of midseam is the main lateral tub support, which you would be giving up from the 40. This includes ALL the seat supports for your factory buckets. I could help you cut the support open to install new nuts for the seats. I have seen others just weld the brackets down to the floor of the bed.
I would also check the height of the rise from the cab area to the bed very carefully. On 25s and early 40s, this wasn't an issue as Toyota was brazing the clamshell of the gas tank. Your 75 has a very large standing seam on the backside that I don't think will clear the bed!
The easy answer for this would be one of those poly tanks, if you can live with your gas guage constantly going up and down as the plastic swells and shrinks