roma's 78 fj40 gets a 3b h55f (1 Viewer)

[roma042987]

I should start from the begining... I have always been fond of the 40 series land cruisers and for roughly two years searched around the Southeast United States looking at various ones but, never came across one that quiet tickled my fancy. I was ok with the usual tub rust but, I was scared of the rusty doors most of the cruisers i looked at had. I have always had a fear of bondo falling out and therefore I didnt want to buy one allready restored. Then when I had all but given up on finding the right specimen, while I was on a vacation road/trip leaving Yellow Stone national park I found this little gem you see below. It was priced at 3500 and had the usual rusty tub but, the doors were rock solid. Undecided I drove home. After my vacation ended I couldnt get that 40 out of my mind and desperetly wanted to go back to see the beautiful state of Wyoming. I called the guy up and sure enough he still had it. I asked him what he thought it would cost to ship it and he said "why dont you drive it" so the following Friday my girlfriend and I flew back out to Wyoming and the guy picked us up at the airport in Jackson Hole. We arrived to the guys house around 11 pm and when I opened the door of the land cruiser i was nearly knocked over by the smell of old gas. I thought to myself.....maybe this wasnt such a good idea I was almost 1800 miles from home and I had to be back at work monday morning

2 quarts of oil, many energy drinks, and several bags of sunflower seeds later we arrived home sunday evening exhausted.

Once I arrived home I decided to powder coat the entire truck instead of painting it. The plan is to get a new 3/4 tub and then take it all back apart and powder coat the tub as well as the frame. So all the yellow panels you see i had removed sand blasted and powder coated. Oh while i was taking all this stuff apart i learned that the cruiser had been zeibarted at some point in its life so thats why the doors were solid.

Fast forward to today my goal is to be able to drive this land cruiser to my yearly roadtrips across the US visiting the national parks sooo out with the 2f and in with a fuel and highway friendly 3b h55f. I am planning on driving this thing to the grand canyon sometime in may so i am in a bit of a hurry. Here is what i did today.

 

[rolladude1166]

Looks good! I like that color too, is that a factory color?

 

[roma042987]

Thanks! I was actually going for mustard but the powder coat turned out to be more yellow. In low light it looks mustard.

 

[rolladude1166]

Either way it looks really good. I'm definitely following this one! Let me know when you visit the Grand Canyon, I'll try and make it out there too!!!

 

[roma042987]

Here is my donor bj70. I will also be installing a factory Fj40 power steering box when I put the 3b in.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Here is my donor bj70. I will also be installing a factory Fj40 power steering box when I put the 3b in.

Why not 70 or 60 series PS conversion?

Not at all hard to install, and overall a much better, simpler and more reliable system than the 40 series steering. Especially since you've got a 70 series sitting right there that you look to be gutting... (or is the BJ-70 getting something new?)

Dan

 

[roma042987]

Well I had allready purchased a 40 ps box some time back and had it rebuilt by west Texas. I really like the 60 and 70 series swaps just wasn't crazy about modifying the shock tower. Plus my 70 is rhd anyway. Also I don't have a welder at my disposal I'm going to have to get the mounts placed and then call a welder over to the shop. Gotta say your 40 was probably my main inspiration for my build. I got that magazine in my stocking for Christmas and it currently resides on my toolbox at work

 

[roma042987]

Pulled 2f tranny transfer home with my trusty m416 got some crazy looks on the freeway.

 

[rolladude1166]

I need me a trailer like that one! XD

 

[TurboDiesel69]

With the 70, if you get an LHD conversion and drop a diesel in it you'll be in the money.

 

[roma042987]

With the 70, if you get an LHD conversion and drop a diesel in it you'll be in the money.

Sounds like a good project for you since you have most of the lhd parts
I'm going to try to sell it whole minus the drive train and if that doesn't work I will part it out.

 

[BC40]

A lot of work turning the 40 into what the BJ70 already is. Suprised you don't just drive that jdm 70. OTOH, I like 40's better, so

 

[roma042987]

A lot of work turning the 40 into what the BJ70 already is. Suprised you don't just drive that jdm 70. OTOH, I like 40's better, so

Yeah it def has a lot more creature comforts but my fondness for land cruisers started with the 40 series. In my opinion they are more aesethetically pleasing.

 

[rolladude1166]

I'm with you guys on that one! Although the 70 series did get all the cool stuff.

 

[roma042987]

So I removed the poly tank that was in this thing in favor of this steel oem tank. Anyone know which one of those three tubes is suppose to be the vent? Also I removed my charcoal canister from my fender so where do most people run the other end of the vent too?

 

[roma042987]

I got the new fuel tank squared away so started removing the mounts.

Ended up with this. Still need to figure something out about the throttle peddle and my clutch slave is on the wrong side as well.

 

[rolladude1166]

Hmm...could you just run a longer line to the other side of the trans? Or is that something you can just swap to the other side with like a bell housing or something?

 

[roma042987]

Hmm...could you just run a longer line to the other side of the trans? Or is that something you can just swap to the other side with like a bell housing or something?

Well I think I have a couple of options..make a new hard line (shorter) from the clutch master over to the driver side but then I would have to remove and reweld the clutch line bracket this seems easy but I don't have a welder. The other option would be for me to use a spare 3b (steel) bellhousing. Now this (I think) will clock my trans and or starter differently so then I don't think I'll be able to use my 70 cross member.

 

[roma042987]

Figured out the throttle pedal. My 78 had a rod style accelerator linkage while the 3b along with older 40s have a cable style linkage. I had a spare cable pedal laying around.

here are the two pedals side by side

now what i discovered is that the 78 firewall has mostly all of the provisions for the old syle pedal... i had to drill one hole for throttle cable it self and used one of the existing holes to mount the pedal... i may go ahead and drill the firewall for the second hole on the pedal but it is sturdy as is. Basically im trying to do all of this as non invasively as possible to the body that way someday for whatever reason it could all be undone or put back to original.

here is a picture of what i ended up with. So by drilling only one to two holes you can convert to a cable linkage. again the firewall allready had the captive nuts welded in place for the throttle cable i just needed to drill a 1/2 hole in between them to feed the actual cable through. Now i just need to find a plug for the where the old pedal had exited the firewall.

found a body plug at work that fit nearly perfectly.

 

[66 fj40]

Looks great Roma! Looking forward to watching this thing come together. I'm running the same set up in my 40. Now I'm looking for a turbo kit for it. It's kinda slow with 35's on it. Good luck and congrats on joining the 3b world!

Chad