ROTW: RredFJ40's Crayon

[RredFJ40]

Hi, my name is Joel and I liked heeps.

Growing up in a household where vehicles were only used for transportation I knew nothing about decent vehicles or modifying them for a hobby. My first car was a '67 VW bug and it got me thinking about modification but nothing about 4 wheel drive crossed my mind until my dad bought a Heep Grand Wagoneer. I loved that FSJ and thought it was so cool, I dreamed of having one of my own.

I blame my wife for getting me hooked on Cruisers. When we were dating in college she talked about Land Cruisers and the friends she had with them. I started looking into them and liked what I heard and saw. She was more familiar with 60 series rigs but I started looking at 40's and soon after we were married I bought a 68 FJ40.

It was a cool rig but I was in way over my head. I paid far too much for a rust bucket in need of a lot of work but it got me to dreaming and researching and led me to MUD.

In January of 2004 I started looking for an FJ60 to fit my growing family. I found one in the Phoenix area that I thought was a good deal. At the time, 60's were commanding a higher price than they are now. This one looked clean and seemed like a good deal. So we flew down to Phoenix, bought it, and drove it 1100 miles back to Oregon.

It was a cold trip - the PO didn't realize the heater didn't work.
Around Sacramento we got flagged down by someone to tell us one of the rear shocks was hanging loose.
I later found tons of rust and previous body(bondo) work.

When I bought it the rig was sitting on 31's, had a no-name lift of ~2.5", and a ceramic coated header. It had 238K miles on the clock. It was in fairly bad tune for my 4200' elevation but that was soon remedied.

So Far:

33x10.5 BFG AT KO Street tires
34x10.5 SS LTB Play tires (bought well used)
Desmogged
IPF H4 headlights
Aussie Locker in the Rear
Cut down stock front bumper
Cut out rust in rear wheel arches and bobbed quarters
Rear bumper/swing-outs (in the works)
Longer shackles
4Runner calipers
U-bolt flip kit in front (need to copy it for the rear)

In the works:
Right now my long-term plan is for a 4bd1t-700r4-toybox-splitcase, sprung-over on 62 axles (long term as in: keep dreaming).

Short-term I need to finish my rear bumper, work up some rear storage ala Kevin Rowland, fix the rear shocks, and wheel a whole lot more.

Oh yeah - the name "Crayon" I was wheeling with the local club and on the drive to the trail everyone was on the CB introducing themselves. I was w/o a CB so, since there was already another blue LC in the group my BIL introduced me as the CRAYON blue LC.

PICS:

1: Original Condition 2: My cut rear quarters

[RredFJ40]

More pics:
1: My rear bumper so far - on the McGrew Trail Ride
2: The sum of my carnage from McGrew.

[landcruiserjunky]

Blue cruisers get the chicks!
Nice 60 man

[Ducks]

Did you have any problems with the desmog? I'd love to be able to move back to Oregon so I could de-smog my smurf blue 60. Could you take a pic of the engine bay? It'd be weird to see it without all that smog crap.

[CaliCruiser]

Excellent!

[RredFJ40]

Originally Posted by Ducks

Did you have any problems with the desmog? I'd love to be able to move back to Oregon so I could de-smog my smurf blue 60. Could you take a pic of the engine bay? It'd be weird to see it without all that smog crap.

It's dirty as sin but I'll get a pic of it tomorrow. I just took the desmog real slow and followed JimC's desmog diagram as closely as possible. Then, once I knew what I was supposed to keep, I eliminated the rest. I did have to make a block off plate with a port in it for the connection on the intake.

Air rail is gone. Smog pump is gutted and capped. That octopus of metal air tubes is gone. 90% of the valves that sit on the DS inner fender well are gone. you get the idea.

[GLTHFJ60]

Beautiful rig!

One question though. For the rear wheel wells, did you cut out that whole outer lip and just cap it or did you do something else? I can't really tell from the pictures.

[brokenparts]

yep, blue cruisers do get the chicks... nice ride man!

[CruisinFJ60]

nice clean looking rig.

[Goode]

Nice looking truck! That's a great shade of blue too. I like it.

[RredFJ40]

Thanks all, The blue is a repaint courtesy of Earl Schieb and a PO - it's not as clean as it looks from 20ft!

Originally Posted by GLTHFJ60

Beautiful rig!

One question though. For the rear wheel wells, did you cut out that whole outer lip and just cap it or did you do something else? I can't really tell from the pictures.

The rear wheel wells had been hackjobbed and bondoed in the pastand were rotten nearly all the way around. So I cut it back to good metal - kept the original radius - and welded the inner and outer together with some 3/16" rod inbetween.

Pics can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.com/wagons.h...RearArchesQtrs

[Dirtgypsy]

nice rig and a great story. didn't get the chance to meet you at the mcgrew trail run but I see you had fun!

cliNt

[umpqua]

I like it....looks good.

[sk8salomon]

very trail ready! any mods on the interior? looks good!

[RredFJ40]

Here are some shots of the desmogged engine bay.

Bear in mind, the camera adds 10 pounds (......of dirt.......and grease.......oh well)

I'd clean it but it's about 15 degrees here.

No interior mods yet, planning on rear tailgate and qtr storage in the future.

[Ducks]

Wow, you can actually see the engine. Very nice. Thanks.

[RredFJ40]

Oh yeah ----

MrBrown delivered these yesterday-- two of each. That spindle is BEEFY. But I think I'm going to cut down the tube to a hair over 3" since I'll be using 2x3 tube for the swing out.

I've still got to figure out a way to mount the spring pins so that they'll actually engage the bumper- the body is right a 3".

[beaufort-fj60]

are those the headers with or without the extra egr tube.... I noticed they are selling no egr ceramics now.

[Gappy]

I like your rig!

Since you do wheel it, be very happy with that cheapy paint job....no worrys!!

[RredFJ40]

Originally Posted by beaufort-fj60

are those the headers with or without the extra egr tube.... I noticed they are selling no egr ceramics now.

Honestly, I can't remember - I went out and looked and can't see one - but I think it had it and I blocked it off.

[BlueHZT60]

Originally Posted by landcruiserjunky

Blue cruisers get the chicks!
Nice 60 man

OK it's time for a blue 60 run

[RredFJ40]

Bob, right? Weren't you in Tahoe? and Bend before that? Man, you sure do get around!

[lowtideride]

Nice rig man....well traveled

[chicago]

Yeup...
Blue 60's (or 62 in my case) gets the chicks...Im thinking that is the only reason that my wife is with me!
Nice rig and great write up!

If I may...how much did you pay for the spindles?
Im in the market, but havent really checked prices.
Do you have any more pics of the rear bumper?
How about some pics of how you mounted it to the frame?

Any other plans for the rig?

Thanks for sharing!

Chicago

[RredFJ40]

IPOR - 39.95 each Springpins are 14.95 a piece

No good pictures but brackets are 1" x 4" barstock with the back portion cut down to fit inside the frame channel. I drilled out the rivets for the rear body mounts and used those four plus the 3 from the bumper bracket for a total of seven bolts in each bracket. The 2x8 tube sits on top of the bracket and over laps the frame channel by a little bit to sit as close in to the body as I can get it.

I listed my future plans in my first post - diesel (probably and isuzu), auto, 203GRB or toybox to splitcase. SOA eventually.