ROTW: FL Cruisers' Diesel 60

[FL cruiser]

I’m filling in for Mel Lowe this week and taking his ROTW spot.

I was first introduced to Land Cruisers when I was a teenager and moved to Costa Rica to live with my dad. At that time 80% of the vehicles on the road were Land Cruisers. Dad gave me a beat up and dilapidated HJ45 pickup, a true rattletrap. It was my first attempt at body and paintwork. Every body panel ended up being a different color. If you ever heard the song “Piece of shit car” by Adam Sandler, it described it too a “T”. I loved that truck. Stayed in Costa a year, moved back to the US. Once back in the US, never really considered owning a Land Cruiser here.

Fast forward the clock 20 some years. I acquired an HJ60 in Costa Rica. It was still drivable, but body was way beyond repair. Early in 2004 started looking for a replacement body or vehicle to export so I could have a decent vehicle down there. Surfing the net, found an FJ60 listed for sale in the Cruizer Classifieds. It was upstate in Gainesville. Went up the next weekend, shelled out $1500 for it and towed it home. It was a one owner family vehicle with a fairly good body and nice interior. It had just sat a year or two in the guys’ back yard without being driven. Gummed up fuel lines and a frozen starter was all that ended up being wrong. It ran fine after a fuel tank and starter cleaning.

A couple of weeks later got a great deal on an 82 GMC utility truck from a junk car pickup call. The 6.2 diesel engine in it was good. I got on the net and started researching Land Cruisers and diesel conversions. Then started reading about people running vehicles on veggie. I discovered a whole new world. Up to this point I never realized IH8MUD, cruiser clubs or cruiser enthusiasts ever existed.

I pulled the diesel out of the GMC, cleaned it, changed all the seals & gaskets, painted it, and attached an NV4500 5speed transmission. Then I fabbed up a cross member and motor mount brackets and installed it into the FJ60. While doing the conversion, plumbing for a second fuel system to run veggie was done.
To save typing, a link to the build up:
LC

I went ahead and put tags on it, so it could be driven and bugs worked out. I started hanging out here on Mud, met some local cruiser heads and got bit by the cruiser bug.
The usual modifications ensued. On went an OME lift, new wheels, 33” X 12.50 Firestone MT’s and an Aussie locker.

The cruiser started to grow on my wife Terri, and she started to like it. She named it “Stinky” and it evolved into our daily driver and weekend off-roader. Needless to say we gave up on our original intentions of exporting it, and Stinky will probably be our daily driver from here on out.
Then came the purchase of another FJ60 to assume trail duties, but that’s another story.

Steve

[FL cruiser]

Upon first arrival home. Stock, faded paint and covered with tree sap.

[FL cruiser]

Very first project was the diesel conversion. Out comes the diesel from the donor truck.



Engine gets cleaned, new gaskets and paint and an NV4500 gets attached



Engine installed. Just before starting it up for the first time in its new home

[FL cruiser]

First trip out wheeling. Testing flex capabilities

[FL cruiser]

Accessorizing came next. Added an OME lift, built a roof rack, made some low budget sliders out of some old nerf bars and made some quarter panel protection out of some ¾” solid round bar.









Accessorized and buffed out.

[FL cruiser]

Last year rust started appearing in various places, especially along the roofline. It was like it appeared out of nowhere. It was time to restore the body and paint it. All the rusted areas were cut out, steel patched and mig welded. A little sandblasting, Ospho and POR15 were thrown in. The color was changed from brown to green. I did all the work myself at home including the painting.













Fresh paint and all back together

[FL cruiser]

Loaded up, ready to leave for GSMTR 2007



Nothing too hard-core, but did some wheeling in Stinky.
Tooling around the easier trails at Tellico

[Bomar]

Like the wheels what kind and where did you get them?

I like the green.

Nice rig.

[LoneRanger]

very cool. I want to go diesel in my 60.
I'm just getting a bunch of x's instead of photos.

[chappysfj40]

so it not just me, i did not see any pics either

[FL cruiser]

The wheels Cragar/Unique wheels. Got them from Jegs.

Pictures were there earlier. I guess Yahoo Geocities that's hosting my pictures is down. I'll repost the pics through another hosting service tonight if they don't come back up.
----------------------------------------------
Message received trying to access:

Sorry, this GeoCities site is currently unavailable.

The GeoCities web site you were trying to view has temporarily exceeded its data transfer limit. Please try again later.

Are you the site owner? Avoid service interruptions in the future by increasing your data transfer limit! Find out how.

Learn more about data transfer.

[FL cruiser]

Pictures fixed....I hope

[LoneRanger]

Originally Posted by FL cruiser

Pictures fixed....I hope

Looks really nice. Is there a writeup of the painting process somewhere? did you remove the doors and fenders and paint them off the truck.

Also, was any engine bay modification neccesary before you put the new motor in?

On long trips, how do you aquire and filter vegetable oil?

[RockDoc]

Looks great, I love the green.

[FL cruiser]

Thanks.
I didn't write up the painting process. Fenders did get pulled, but not the doors. All weatherstripping and trim was removed and jambs painted. No mods were needed in the engine compartment which was nice.

At one time I carried a barrel pump, strainers and filters on long trips, but usually the veggie oil acquired at strange restaurants caused more trouble than it was worth. Now the roof rack gets loaded with dozens of jerry cans of veggie before a long trip.

[fliphkd778]

Excellent job on the paint. I'd very much like to paint mine in my garage also.

[lowtideride]

Very nice rig man. Always loved seeing stinky roll into camp with all the Veggie oil up top. I love the new 60 as well, same great brown color to boot.

See you next weekend...

[urbanmtb]

that's one pretty lookin truck. I really like the green that you chose for the color.

what kind of mileage do you get off the veggie, and do you just get it free from some restaurant in town?

[incogrhino]

I also dig that color alot.

[mtb_rider]

Nice looking rig. Good write up. I have a customer at work who has a diesel Suburban he runs on veg, and he often travels on long road towing his bass boat for tournaments. Sometimes as far as Oregon to Texas and back. I guess there is some network, I'm assuming internet based, of "veggie guys", that you can plan ahead of time with to hook up and get oil, already filtered and ready to go. I don't know much about it, and haven't had a need to look into it. It's been quite awhile since he told me about it, but maybe something to look into if you do a lot of long road trips.

[FL cruiser]

Get the veggie free from a local restaurant in town. Hard to calculate exact MPG's on veggie because of the tank switching, etc. The truck gets about 16 MPG town, 18MPG hwy on diesel, so I guess it's about the same on veggie.

There is a network of people that share veggie. The Fill Up For Free GreaseCar WVO Network › News
It's a little slow to take off, and so far been unable to take advantage of it. I'm on the list and have been able to give some away to people traveling through a few times. Met some good people and learned some BS'ing with them.

[FL80ADDICT]

Great write up and pics love the color also...

See you next weekend

[mel lowe]

Looking good Steve.

[Goode]

Truck looks amazing. I love what you've done with it.

I really dig the color.

Great story and writeup.....thanks for sharing!

[landcruiserjunky]

Very Nice!! Whats your mpg with and without the veggie juice?

[GLTHFJ60]

Originally Posted by landcruiserjunky

Very Nice!! Whats your mpg with and without the veggie juice?

Originally Posted by FL cruiser

Get the veggie free from a local restaurant in town. Hard to calculate exact MPG's on veggie because of the tank switching, etc. The truck gets about 16 MPG town, 18MPG hwy on diesel, so I guess it's about the same on veggie.

My question is how is the power with that motor? Plans to bolt up a turbo or two?