Frankie - '87 FJ-60 Refurbishment Plus a Few Mods (1 Viewer)

[60Works]

Hello All,

I've been enjoying seeing all the incredible Land Cruisers posted on Mud for years but have been hesitant to start a thread because I know so much less than most of you. Other than a few posts, I haven't had that much to offer. The amount of shared knowledge on this sight has been a lifesaver for me. Thank you.

Now I would like to share some ideas and solutions I've encountered while refurbishing a 60 I call Frankie. I hope you all will like her.

Frankie started as Stinky (Yes, I name them all. It's the only way to tell them apart when talking about them to others.) I aquired Stinky from a dealership in Denver in 2009. The truck smelled absolutly awful inside from cigarette smoke, spilled food and drinks, animal hair, and spilled lubricants in the back. You know, a typical used Land Cruiser that's been passed through several owners. Other than the disgusting interior, Stinky was pretty straight, with very little rust, and didn't have any unremovable modifications.

The intent was to replace the '87 FJ-60 (Juggernaught) I'd been driving for 20 years which was (and still is) rusting out from New England winters but still has a very nice interior. Somewhere along the way the amount of work and expense involved changed the focus of the project. Sound familiar?

There was no way I could get myself to destroy all the effort by driving in the salt. Now I have a garage queen and still no replacement daily driver.

Stinky as purchased:

Metamorphasis into Frankie:

 

[doug720]

Clean and low key!

Nice work.

Doug

 

[60Works]

My first bit of advice is:

Never trust a used car dealer.

Less than 50 miles out the left rear brake overheated.

It is possible to repair a brake with only the factory tool kit. I got lucky and the #3 phillips (assembly line) screw came out fairly easily. Then I borrowed a bolt from the hood spring to press off the brake drum. It wasn't long enough so I pulled another, it might have been the alternator tensioner bolt (I don't recall), and got the drum off.

The cylinder was leaking and the brake linings had swollen. After waiting out a brief rain shower, I loosened the shoe tensioner. This allowed the drum to rotate freely but also created the need to pump up the brakes each time. This wasn't the best feeling while driving I-70 across the mountains. It got me to a location where I could properly replace the cylinder.

 

[SteamerF18]

Juggernaught I've found your advice to always be spot on. Keep it coming!

Great looking rig, I can see why you want to keep it off the roads in the winter. That looks like a very nice hangar you have you garage queen stored in. Nice work!

Scott

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Absolutely beautiful man! My hats off to you!

J

 

[60Works]

Thank you for the compliments, guys. It's encouraging.

The hangar is wonderful as it provides lots of space to spread out. Unfortunately it isn't my space, so I have to be very careful of the floor and can only work when its empty. It's made this a slow project.

Here are some disassembly pics:

The cargo area comes apart very quickly.

Does this leak look familiar?

Pulling the carpet should have required a pressurized hazmat suit. It was disgusting.

 

[gregnash]

Looks good though, and you will be thankful when you get it out and pressurize it.

 

[FJ62 BattleCruiser]

Nice!!!!

More pics please!

 

[campcite]

I love black but have had black cars before...garage is a good idea.

 

[gregnash]

I love black but have had black cars before...garage is a good idea.

It's not black, it is the standard cruiser blue, just way it looks in the pic is black.

 

[60Works]

Yes, she's Toyota blue. I agonized for days on what color to paint her. With a frame off I could pick anything; forest green, purple, yellow. I looked through hundreds of pages of chips. Finally decided to limit the choice to only Toyota colors, picked a dark blue I liked, and didn't discover until after that it was the original Land Cruiser color code of Juggernaught, which I've owned since '91.

I had to laugh at myself and my predictability.

Pictures - For you Mudders who might be newbies to long mechanical projects; when disassembling something with more than a dozen parts, take lots and lots and lots of pictures; before, during, and after. Bag and label everything. Even things you think that there's no way you could possibly forget how it went together. Even parts you intend to replace. After a year, without detailed labels and reference photos, you will forget where it when, how it assembled, or, especially, what hardware holds it on. It's not a matter of intelligence. It's more about other aspects of life pushing out unnecessary knowledge from your forebrain. The buffer gets full and your brain purges what isn't needed for survival today.

I was extremely fortunate to have a Professional Organizer (yes, there is such a career) as a helper. She actually enjoyed labeling and bagging parts and hardware, sorting the bags in boxes, and arranging the boxes on shelves. All the things that I usually hate doing.

She was also a very careful and meticulous mechanic.

The area under the console was as foul as any carnival sidewalk. Yuck!

 

[60Works]

Because I couldn't leave the project inside for long periods of time I had to move vehicles inside and out annoyingly often. Here's a shot of Stinky, Rusty, and Jugg lined up making me happy. Rusty was a native New Hampshire 60 and, although the body was disintegrating, had a very nice interior. Most of Frankie's inside bits are donations from him.

Getting the doors off and to the painter was a priority for my schedule. I tried to save the plastic liner to reuse but it turned out to be nearly impossible. That black, tarry glue is much stronger than the plastic.

 

[60Works]

Having the doors off made it much easier to get to the dash.

Which comes apart fairly easily if you take it apart in the right order.

I can't emphasize enough how important as-you-go pictures are. Even with several hundred pics I would have been lost without another 60 to look at.

To get the lead vinyl sound block out, you have to drop the pedal bucket.

 

[gregnash]

That is some seriously diligent work there.. And good on you and the woman doing this little project together..

 

[60Works]

I haven't been able to find time to update this post, let alone get more work done. Here are some more progress pics:

Complete dash removal.

I unbolted all the smog components and brake and clutch components and bundled them to the engine with bungee cords. I didn't want to work on the engine just yet and by not unplugging the snake pit of vaccuum lines I hoped to avoid those complications until I was ready.

 

[60Works]

The interior was completely removed, every nut, bolt, and plastic clip. The emblems, lights, grill, gaskets were off. All the loose hoses, fuel lines, and wires were strapped to the engine. I left the Toyota tar and the glass for the paint shop to remove.

Stinky was ready to go to the paint shop.

The next problem was how to get it there. I was working alone and the truck was no longer running. I rented a car transport and decided that Jugg could tow it for the short distance required. I couldn't see renting a truck as being necessary. In hindsight this was a mistake. The weight of the transport trailer itself was close to the tow rating of a 60. With most of another 60 on board even sans doors and interior, well, lets just say that the handling was poor and the braking was worse.

We went slow and make it without incident.

Loading solo was a bit of a challenge.

 

[Big Cruiser Guy]

That's your shop?
Droooooolllll............................

 

[60Works]

That's your shop?
Droooooolllll............................

I wish, but, no. I do get to work on my Cruiser there when it doesn't interfer with the aircraft. For several months I was able to tuck up in an unused corner and to try to reassemble all the pieces.

This is where the project starts to get a bit more fun.

The paint shop had Stinky/Frankie for nearly 6 months. Kind of like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It was a long time but part of our mutually beneficial deal was that they could do the work around their other collision clients. It helped keep the costs down. If you've gotten a quote on a frame off paint job lately, you'll understand why I didn't mind waiting.

A few things weren't quite what I'd hoped. Little things like the old Toyota sound block not being removed and them not fully reallizing how much paint is still exposed around the doors. New cars cover almost everything with plastic so it doesn't have to be painted. We had to negotiate some rework on the rocker panels and around the A pillars too.

Overall though, the guys stuck with it and turned out a very nice product. The floor was coated with bed liner top and bottom and the insides of the doors, the roof, and the rear quarters were all sprayed with rubberized sound block.

Remember me saying that towing a Cruiser with a Cruiser was a bad idea? Well about that...

An out of the way corner with the floor protected would be her home for several months.

 

[60Works]

I wasn't completely happy with the paint coverage in the bottom of the rear quarters so I tented the back and added more coats of primer then bed liner to the pinch making sure to leave the drains clear.

I took the time to clean and inspect the wiring harness. It was in very good shape and only needed a few repairs.

Then came the Second Skin. I used 2 big boxes, covering the the doors, quarters, wheel wells, and much of the floor and roof. Covering the wheel wells was the biggest bang for the buck.

 

[maat]

wow, great build! keep the pics coming!