[Custom] FJ40 Hard Top Removal

Sorry all you residing in the northern hemisphere but it’s bloody hot down here so it’s time to get the top off an FJ40. It’s something I’ve wanted to do from the first time I had an FJ40 from MBX. I mean how hard can it be? The cut lines are already present right? Ok then....

Still plenty of stuff to happen on this cast yet but this is it so far. Now here’s how it got to this stage.

Dremels are awesome. Here I placed masking tape on the cast and used a ball point pen to trace the cut lines. As the full scale vehicle has a bolt on top Matchbox have faithfully represented the lines to perfection on the cast, don’t mention the botch job they did recently when they made a drastic and detrimental change to this once brilliant cast but let’s stay positive. This custom was mainly an attempt to polish this turd into a silk purse or turn this sow’s ear into a gleaming turd or something, may have got my metaphors mixed up...

So to get a clean tight finish it was necessary to destroy a second cast to get the new roof. Each cast was roughly cut to opposing sides of the cut line. It was then just a simple matter of sanding/grinding/cursing/filing & more abrasive type stuff.

First test fit confirmed my suspicions that I’d need to do a little grinding. (Ref previous sentence)

After a little bit longer than it took to get from the last sentence to this one I was happy with the fit.

Next I decided as the stupid plastic front needed to be colour matched to the body it was best to repaint the entire cast. Went with a dark green to help disguise the split lines. So BRG it is!

I’ll be adding plenty of extras on this custom over the next few weeks so stay tuned if this kind of thing floats your boat.

Thanks for looking and I hope everyone enjoyed the recent festivities!