"Vintaging" Elsie (1 Viewer)

[hairy_apple]

Thank you. Oddly enough, I had not seen the 4 plus bumper when I made this, just had the same basic ideas. Although, I may have seen them on cruisers over the years and not realized that's where I got the ideas. I guess there are only so many ways to make an FJ40 bumper. There are a few small changes I would make if I did it again, but overall I'm very happy.

Today I'm working on my front bumper, FINALLY! It's only been since 2006 that I haven't had a bumper on the front. I had one welded on for a while, for looks to keep the CHP happy, but there was zero function. Then the last few years I've had nothing there, just two bare frame rails and it was sad.

Nothing fancy, just a 2x4 3/16th rectangle tube. 1/4 plates are going to be welded to the back, and another 1/4 plate welded to my bumper. The plate on the bumper will have holes drilled and tapped, and the frame side will have holes. That should give almost 1/2 of metal to thread into on the bumper. and make for a nice clean install. I'll get it all done tomorrow for sure. I am hoping to get a winch soon, I wish I had one now, so I could get the bumper 100% done tomorrow, but I will have to take it off and build more on it once I have the winch. But for now, I just have a nice clean bumper and nice safe tow points on the front.

 

[hairy_apple]

Welded 1/4 plates to the back of the bumper, drilled it and taped it for 1/2 bolts. Then made matching plates with holes, welded them to the frame. Got it all bolted up today and I'm really happy. Nice clean, stockish looking but more functional. Once I have a winch I'll add on to it.

 

[hairy_apple]

Yay. Totally should have spent the money on new seats, or any number of other things, but found a killer deal on this and couldn't pass it up, even if I had to drive halfway through Nevada to get it. I am going to pull the bumper off tomorrow and start cutting holes in it and add a top plate for the winch. I think I'll be using a cherry picker to mount it though, DAMN this thing is heavy.

 

[hairy_apple]

Cut out the holes for the cable today, and welded it in, and made a new mounting plate. It's going to look awesome.

 

[hairy_apple]

Sorry for the bad photo, but it's all I've got right now. Got the winch mounted today, and a new solenoid ordered to replace the 4 old school ones. Bumper looks great, and it going to work awesome. Nice and clean and classic looking.

 

[hairy_apple]

Finished wiring it, got the cover on and everything cleaned up and routed through the engine bay. I'm very happy with how it all came out. Nice to have a good solid bumper and safe tow points on the front and back. Plus, having a winch will be sweet too.

Next I'm going to build a switch panel and wire controls to the dash so I don't have to do the winch controller out the window thing.

 

[cruiserkreutz]

That looks really sweet!

 

[hairy_apple]

Thank you, I'm very happy with how it came out. It simple, but simple looks best on Land Cruisers.

 

[hairy_apple]

Switched gears a little today, and got back to working on these. I cut the parts out for them a year ago, and never finished them. I made one, and had the parts for 3 more laying around and finally welded them up today. LOTS of work in these, but they came out great. I am very happy with how they worked out. Plus.. I doubled my range with these! Wooo.

 

[scrapdaddy]

That's some great work! I really like the APPLE cut out. Good Job!

 

[hairy_apple]

Thank you! I'm super happy with how they came out. My wife is a graphic designer, and I told her to make some kind of cool apple logo that we can cut into stuff on the plasma table and that's what she came up with. It's awesome, she's a talented women.

 

[hairy_apple]

Took a little trip today. Nothing fancy.. jut needed out of the house. Between me being sick a few weeks ago, my wife being sick last week, work, life, ect.. it's been a while since we got out and did something fun. Woke up this morning and it was pouring rain.. and my wife said screw housework lets take the cruiser somewhere. No arguments from me. Took a drive around some old mining towns, up the road these pictures are on. Massive downpour the whole time and crazy winds.. but it was better then watching it rain from the living room. Did about 20 miles on dirt, exploring back roads. 80 miles or so total. Good day.

 

[hairy_apple]

Well, my 2FE build is happening now! Due to me being a trusting idiot and getting burned, I have a 3FE out of a 91 FJ80. Here is the story if you care.. https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/cruiser-number-4-1991-fj80.838145/#post-9593219

If you don't want to read through that.. I bought an FJ80 and it has no oil pressure and a nasty rod knock. I am parting it out to try to get back my monies but keeping the engine for my 2FE.

I've already got the head and manifolds off. I've also got the engine harness out, and ECU. Right now I'm waiting on getting my computer back and hoping and praying all my bookmarked 2FE info threads I've saved over the last year are still there after a major failure yesterday. I have to say.. I was really, really intimidated by the wiring, but now that I have the engine harness out, it's really not that scary. 90% of it plugs back into the manifolds and ECU and coil.. the rest i will have to figure out as I go.

I am trying to figure out, is there anything else out of the rest of the harness I need. I know I'll need to take the fuse box inside the engine bay, and the vacuum switches and stuff that are all still on the fenders.

I will have to have the head checked out before I bolt it up, as the lack of oil pressure and possible overheating might have damaged it, but I'll get there when I get there. I kind of want to go ahead and have it rebuilt anyway.

 

[G-Cat]

Glad to hear it...sucked to read the linked thread on the 80, knowing how it ended. Good luck!

 

[hairy_apple]

Well... there it all is. the 3FE parts I have been needing to attach to my nice 2F block I have had sitting around waiting for two years.

 

[hairy_apple]

Nothing amazing lately. Just continuing to read and research the 2FE, going to start in the fall/winter. I still need a transmission and transfer case, but have all summer to find one. Don't want to rip the cruiser apart for months right before camping season.

Been doing lots of little creature comfort stuff. Put some LED lighting in the rear, with a switch behind the back hatch so I can see when I'm getting stuff out of the back... seems like we always get to our camping sites at night.

Added more LEDs up front, on the overhead console. Also made a panel and hooked up in cab winch controls. I'll add the compressor and locker switches once the 2FE is done, planning on setting up my York finally.

And... hillbilly A/C. I've mounted this fan up here before.. but it was always just screwed on and ugly and in the way... but it was awesome on the trail when you weren't moving enough to have air flow, and it was hot as Hades. Just sucked because you couldn't reach back and get stuff very easy between the seats. So I made some mounts that will swing it up flat with the roof when not in use. Going to use some spring loaded pins and it will lock up, or lock down really quickly.

Also.. hopefully ordering new seats finally this week, and going to Dynamat under the seats and the firewall and transmission tunnel. Try to kill some heat and noise.

 

[JohnnyC]

I like the fan idea... I am working on training common sense into my kids... I have a feeling that would be called the "finger remover"

We have an old school desk fan in our camper... It only goes on when the kids are already in bed lol


Btw keep up the good work... Looking good !

 

[hairy_apple]

Yeah... I will be adding a screen on the front so fingers or faces don't get up inside it while it's running. Been having major design block with it though... just sat in front of the computer for an hour this morning trying to come up with a cool design.. something that fit the cruiser and didn't look out of place.. but still looked cool.

 

[G-Cat]

Let's get a shot of that red mini truck!

 

[hairy_apple]

That's my wife's 82. It's her baby. Pretty simple... some random lift it had when we got it. 33s, we added PS, 4.7 gears. Some scrap metal rear bumper and sliders. I am going to build a plate bumper for it soon. But mostly it's a camping truck, not a hardcore wheeler. It's a great little truck.