[Cruiser_Nerd]

Well I bought this thing for the five original wheels and a spare transmission. But it had a great original F motor.....but was too far gone for a resto......but was too solid to part out......and I really would like something I could actually wheel...... There is no plan, but things are moving forward.



Maybe this is is how my daughter came up with the name? What you don't see is the PO attacked all the seams with a stick welder, turning some rust into a huge mess.



Alright, off with the body and down to solid metal. It appears this 25 was originally green, note the yellow zinc primer Toyota used. And the twisted frame horn on the right.




Two coats of Rust Bullet and two black enamel.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Here's where things get a little odd. It had to stay a 25, which means a centered rear axle. FJ25 rear axle and brakes, with 10 spline axles and an early FJ40 third member. Spring packs are four original 25 leafs and one new leaf, coated with slip plate.



Front is out of a '71 FJ40. Not because I don't trust the ball and claw axles and wanted to upgrade to birfields.......but because I don't have enough stock rims to run a FJ25 front end.



This isn't so odd, a SM420. I had to throw a PTO in that hole on the side. The FJ25 bellhousing and the face of the transmission is unique, fortunately I had a stack of three speed bellhousings.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

The rest of the drivetrain......Marlin Toybox adapter to a stock minitruck reduction box and transfer case. A 25 has to have a centered output. Decided to stay with stock gears as I'm already 3x lower than the stock tranny!



In it goes! It scoots right over the crossmember, so far nothing original cut!



Well here's where no planning starts to catch up. The drivetrain was a little longer and the lift a little higher than I thought ........... time to make an appointment at Foxfab to rotate up the pinion and dig for a double cardan driveshaft. Ordered up a disc parking brake for the rear of the transfer case, because every self respecting 25 has driveshaft mounted brake!

[cruiserman]

Looks great, Jim. You might consider going with mini rear axle. Centered, stronger, and you get integrated e-brake.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

That's probably what I'll end up doing, or build a hybrid.......but I've got a lot of coarse spline shafts to go through first. I wanted to keep the driveshaft brake and hook it up to the stock 25 e-brake lever, so the tranny hump area will all look stock.

[zebrabeefj40]

VERY cool, Jim! Gonna be ready for this year's CMCC with it? I wanna researve the passenger seat for a day if so.

Nick

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Well that was the goal......I just need to build a body....and everything else.....in two months. Maybe I'll bring it unassembled to CMCC, but that's been done.

[zebrabeefj40]

Originally Posted by Cruiser_Nerd

Maybe I'll bring it unassembled to CMCC, but that's been done.

Hey! I resemble that remark!

Hopefully I can offer you a ride is said Cruiser this year.

Nick

[Junk]

Where's the update Cruiser_Nerd?

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Too busy getting ready for CMCC, figured I better stick to the stuff that's mostly complete and running. Only need to do a clutch (again) and a bunch of little stuff by midnight 6/23.

Actually rebuilt the front and brakes on Krusty and had Foxfab cut the rear axle perches and turned the pinion up toward the transfer. Stared at the driveshaft mounted parking brake for an hour or two.

[Junk]

Originally Posted by Cruiser_Nerd

Stared at the driveshaft mounted parking brake for an hour or two.

And I'm sure that helped.

So these are the 2 trucks that are 2 production numbers away from each other?

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Originally Posted by Junk

So these are the 2 trucks that are 2 production numbers away from each other?

[Junk]

If I happen upon #48, I'm going to buy it for myself just so my charm and karma can spread to your's

That's a great pic.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Wow, it really has been over two months since I did anything with this. Here's the rear after Mike cut the perches and welded up new ones with the pinion standing proud.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Transfer case disk brake from All-Pro, I'm going to have to redo the mounting bracket to make it work with the FJ25 parking brake lever.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Well, now the oil fill is too low.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Anybody else would weld in a new half coupling and put a pipe plug in it. Too easy, I cut out the old cover and flipped it over.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Wooohoo! Now this is high tech fab work. At least I got something done.

[Living in the Past]

I need to get high speed internet just waited five minutes for this tread to load with all the pictures

Nice work Jim Now you just need something special to put inside that third member That will be my main project this weekend. Now that your started again I don't want to slow you down

John

[cruiserman]

I think the relatively common way of handling that is to cut a rectangle around the fill plug, flip it around, and weld it back in place.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Originally Posted by cruiserman

I think the relatively common way of handling that is to cut a rectangle around the fill plug, flip it around, and weld it back in place.

There I go reinventing the wheel again. I figured the easiest would be to blast a hole in it, weld in a 3/4" half coupling and stick a pipe plug in it.

[Landpimp]

so the only 25 rims only fit a 25 front axle?

[QUOTE=Cruiser_Nerd]005.JPG[/IMG]

Front is out of a '71 FJ40. Not because I don't trust the ball and claw axles and wanted to upgrade to birfields.......but because I don't have enough stock rims to run a FJ25 front end.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Knuckle arms are different, so the tie rod will rub on a FJ40 rim, need something like a 2 - 2 1/2" backspacing to work. I had stock FJ40 rims on with a 1/2" spacer and it's close.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

John sent me a "good as new" 10 spline third member from an early 40 with a lock-right installed. So I commenced to rebuilding the rear last weekend.

Here's how I remove the rear wheel bearings. There's probably a right way to do it. Good news here is that everything (rear wheel bearings, seals, c-clips) is the same as the early 40.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Not peculiar to the centered rear axle.....just early ones. The third is attached with 8mm studs not 10mm common to the later diff. The PO had just stuck the later diff with the big holes on the housing with the little studs, and I found the diff rotated on the studs (should have taken a picture). I doubt the misalignment was doing it any good. Anyhow, I drilled out the holes and retapped them 10mm x 1.25.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

After fiddling around with the lock-right I finally figured out what I was doing wrong.............then I read the directions.

[89s rule]

any updates on this I know its been awhile but just wondering.

[Cruiser_Nerd]

Thanks for asking. Hasn't changed too much, got the motor set up to run, bolted up some shocks and then got distracted with another project. Hated to post a pic where the only change was a set of shocks.

Next step is to make a good body. I've got a good front 1/2 tub and a pretty good rear 1/2 tub. So I just need to splice them together and fix the rear channel. Hopefully keeping it all steel with little to no filler.

I've actually tossed around the idea of putting the stock tranny/transfer/rear end back in it and keeping it close to original ..........

[zebrabeefj40]

Originally Posted by Cruiser_Nerd

I've actually tossed around the idea of putting the stock tranny/transfer/rear end back in it and keeping it close to original ..........

NOOOO....!! You already got a nice original truck. Building a wheeling rig would be far cooler IMHO. But then I'm not a restoration kinda guy...

Cool truck either way, Jim.

Nick

[LandCruiserSteve]

Originally Posted by zebrabeefj40

NOOOO....!! You already got a nice original truck. Building a wheeling rig would be far cooler IMHO.

NOOOO....!! There's not enough original 25s still out there.

STOCK IS GOOD!!