Rapovt's HZ60 build

[rapovt]

I bought my first FJ40 in 1976. Ran it for 5 years, sold it, raised a family, kids at college, need a project, back to cruisers. I have a 75 that I put a 2H in and another 75 built for wheelin. So I have been dreamin over the last 10 or so years about my ultimate rig. So I started to collect parts and this is what I have;
1987 FJ60
1HZ with a Toyota 1HDT turbo
H55 and split case
and a bunch of other goodies to make it into my expedition rig.
I have been working on it for about a year and today I drove it for the first time.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

Ooh, me likey! How did her maiden voyage feel?

 

[rapovt]

BODY
Living here in Vermont, everything rusts really bad. Most cars that are 8-10 years old in Vermont have significant rust on them. I had to have a rust free body as the basis for my build. I looked for about a year before I bought this advertised on mud. It spent almost of its' life in Louisiana with a short stay in Missouri before I bought it in July of 2011. I paid $4000 for it and it cost another $1100 to ship it to Vermont. I must say that it is so nice to unscrew bolts without them breaking off.

 

[rapovt]

Ooh, me likey! How did her maiden voyage feel?

about 100 feet. The best part was just hearing the 1HZ purr.

 

[Dpcruiser]

Bravo,

I am also in VT, drove my HZ for first time about a month ago. Fun. Now waiting for body repair to be done after a delivery truck forgot to set a parking brake.

Did you put on the turbo yet? That is my next step.

Nice tire, wheel combo.

Sean

 

[rapovt]

ENGINE
When I got back into cruisers about 2000, I had no idea that Toyota made diesels. I found IH8MUD and read for hours. I have a diesel truck and tractors, had diesel Volkswagens. I was hooked. I bought my 2H in Canada. It is in my 75 FJ40 and I really like it. I started searching for my 1HZ. I ended up buying it in 2004 from Dave at Japan 4X4 and had it shipped to me. I think I paid $2500 or 3000 for it with a H55 and split case transfer. That was before they got pricey. I yanked the 2F out and put in the 1HZ. I used motor mounts from Georg (Orange45) at Valley Hybrids in California. I must say that Georg has been extremely helpful in this build with parts and advice. You will hear his name many times. I used the transfer case out of the 87 so I would have a mechanical 4wd linkage. The motor is in and running, the wiring is temporary to make sure everything works, I have 2 batteries and am going to put in a dual system. More on that later.
I bought the turbo and parts from Cruiserparts.net in New Hampshire. I want to make this look like the engine was supposed to be in it.

 

[rapovt]

Bravo,

I am also in VT, drove my HZ for first time about a month ago. Fun. Now waiting for body repair to be done after a delivery truck forgot to set a parking brake.

Did you put on the turbo yet? That is my next step.

Nice tire, wheel combo.

Sean

Yes, Turbo is on. Where in Vermont are you?

 

[rapovt]

AXLES
I have a set of 60 axles that are totally rebuilt with Detroit lockers front and rear. Everything is new, bearings ,seals, gears, calipers, rotors, all Toyota parts. I bought them on mud about 6 years ago.

 

[rapovt]

SUSPENSION
OME springs with Man-a-fre shackle reversal and inverted ubolts with skid plate. Have not decided about shocks yet

 

[rapovt]

TIRES AND RIMS
I really wanted to use 16"rubber and use cruiser hubcaps. I bought as set of 15" disc brake cruiser wheels from Georg at Valley Hybrids. He dropped them off at Stockton Wheel, they rebuit them with 16" wheels, powder coated them and shipped them to me. Thanks Georg!
Tires are the old style Goodyear MTR, 3.15 x75 x16

 

[The Tank]

That looks awesome. Is the bottom end of the 1hz standard?

 

[robustbambi]

That thing is the ultimate! I am immensely jealous and i sort loathe you for creating such a beast

Did you design that rear bumper yourself? i really like the quarter panel guard. Nice work

 

[co1859]

Truck Looks GREAT - Please consider using the fifth bolt that is grade 8 in the your reverse shackle bracket, to secure it to the bottom of your frame. There should be a hole in the top of the bracket and bottom of the frame that line up. (I think I had to drill the frame hole a little larger for a bigger bolt)

Using just four bumper holes on the frame side. The bracket bends outward and cracks along the lower holes. causing a very dangerous driving situation.

My drivers side bracket cracked completely off. I found the previous owner never used the 5th bolt to hold the bracket to the bottom of the frame.

 

[Joe_E]

Looks great Gary!
My build is nearly complete as well. Hopefully i'll take you up on the invite to the fall gathering this year or next.

Georg is a good dude. Got some parts as well as did some work for me as well.

 

[fogblanket]

Gary nice work makes me nostalgic for my old fj62 ! Small world the tires ride again

Jason

 

[shmukster]

Awesome 60

Gary- the 60 looks great!!!! I can only imagine what the green and white 55 would have looked like with those axles, drivetrain, and wheels. Can't wait to get a ride in the 60. Gary S

 

[rapovt]

That looks awesome. Is the bottom end of the 1hz standard?

engine has about 60k miles on it. Bottom end is original. BEB's are on the list of things to do

 

[rapovt]

Truck Looks GREAT - Please consider using the fifth bolt that is grade 8 in the your reverse shackle bracket, to secure it to the bottom of your frame. There should be a hole in the top of the bracket and bottom of the frame that line up. (I think I had to drill the frame hole a little larger for a bigger bolt)

Using just four bumper holes on the frame side. The bracket bends outward and cracks along the lower holes. causing a very dangerous driving situation.

My drivers side bracket cracked completely off. I found the previous owner never used the 5th bolt to hold the bracket to the bottom of the frame.

They are going to get welded on once I get everything put together and road tested

 

[rapovt]

Gary nice work makes me nostalgic for my old fj62 ! Small world the tires ride again

Jason

Funny story on the tires, I got 3 almost new from Jason. Goodyear was changing over to the new ones, the old style were all over the place, in stores and on ebay. I waited a couple of months and decided to get the other 2. Bad move- they were sold out!! I called Goodyear and they found one in a warehouse in New Hampshire and that was it. I put the word out on mud and someone in Idaho had one. Now I have 5 -I was sweating on that one

 

[rapovt]

REAR BUMPER
I have been looking at rear bumpers for a while now and came up with this design. I took the best of a lot of bumpers and combined them. It is made of 1/4" steel that I had bent up. The quarter protection is also 1/4". I need to cut about 2 1/2" off the top of the quarters to show more of the body line. The square tube that comes out from the center of where the tire mounts is a receiver tube. I will make a bike rack for that and It can be used for other stuff. Need to put on a couple of pull points, a receiver, CB antenna mount, license plate bracket and off to the powder coaters