72 FJ55 Buildup thread

[cruiserbrett]

About 3 years ago I bought a 11/'71 FJ55 that was a roller without a motor. Got sidetracked with the FJ45 pickup and this poor piggy sat for a few years. Now that the Baja 1000 project is over, I need something to work on, as the lack of wrenching/fabrication is killing me. I am kinda going about this one in reverse order of my FJ40 that I restored/mod'ed a few years ago, since I got burnt out about the time that the small details(interior stuff mainly) were the ones left. Been working on the smaller details, like heater restoration, steering column rebuild, cleaning and polishing lenses, and of course gathering parts... lots of parts.

My goals are something somewhere between a full restoration and a wheeler. Its going to get a fresh coat of paint(nebula green and cygnus white), so its going to look pretty, but be a capable wheeler for baja trips and other non-Hammers style wheeling. I love the stock interior, so with the exception of recaro front seats, its going to be stock.


Heres what its getting:
2F-carb'ed for now
H42 out of a low mileage FJ60
Toybox(4.7:1)*gotta buy it still*
Split case with e-brake *have to get the e-brake parts still*
Discs front and rear
FF rear axle
PTO winch*need the split case PTO box*
FZJ80 electric lockers*need them too*
FJ62 power steering box and 3FE pump.
4" lift, not sure what springs yet, leaning towards Alcans or custom Deavers
Recaro front seats from a BMW 320i
Early factory A/C underdash unit with new underhood components
LineX'ed floorboards
Aussie carpet set
and plenty of dynamat(actually using a knockoff called Brownbread)



I need to get some pics of the 55 as it sits now. Its going to be a long project, but I will try and document stuff as I go.


Here are a few pics:
Heater: I sand blasted the case, and painted it with a batch of a dark silver I had the local autobody supply place mix up. The color came out pretty good, a touch lighter than I would have liked, but oh well. Used Shane's heater resto kit, and it worked great. A little trimming on the foam was all I needed. The mud price for the early ones is more than worth it too me for the yellow cad plated screws and the reproduction sticker. Its going to look great next to the Factory A/C unit I have.

Choke cable.
I nearly pitched the choke cable since it looked so ratty in the dash. After a bit of work with a green scotch brite pad and a follow on assault with Brasso the black knob looks pretty damn good. the white was pretty easy to paint, just use the gloss white Testors model paint, liberally apply, and wipe out the excess with a thinner soaked rag. Dont go too crazy trying to get all the white off the non indented part until the paint in the recess dries some. You will have to re-apply a few times to build up enough white to fill the recess well. I cleaned up the trim ring and brass base with the scotch brite. Pull the inner cable and knob all the way out, clean, lube and re-insert. Works like new and looks pretty good for a 36 year old part.

 

[cruiserbrett]

More pics

Here are some more knobs. Did the same thing as the choke cable above. The vent one was a pain since the groves are wider and the thinner soaked rag wipes the white paint out alot easier. Polished the tailgate switch knob same way by starting with the green scotch brite and finishing with brasso.

Taillight lenses were in okay shape, a little oxidized, so brasso helped out here too. Still have to take a tooth brush and scrub out the cried brasso on the right hand one mostly. Both have some scratches I couldnt get out, but they will be fine for the wheeler resto. Thanks for the Left lens Paul, it looks great!


As of lately, I have been working on the doors. I built a jig to hold the various door hinges in a press to be able to press out the pins and install the nylon FJ40 door bushings that SOR.com sells. they fit perfect and with a little cleaning and wire brushing, the hinges are pretty nice. Installed a rebuild pair on the drivers door of the '73 FJ55 I have and they are great. Door closes and opens like new-well at least what I imagine new would be since I never touched a new FJ55...

Doors will also get later Fj40 mirror arms. I wanted something that folds, and offers better mirror surface so they are more useable... No pics of that yet, but in the next couple weeks I should be done...

 

[1973Guppie]

the knobs look amazing! you are going to have to show me how to shine those up when I get to that stage......

Noah

 

[n2666s]

WOW..............looking great, this is great practical info; thanks for sharing!

Lou

 

[blupaddler]

Brett,

Good to hear you are working on another piggy.
Looks REALLY good so far!

Great pics and information for those of us whom hope to one day own a pig.



















I'm not too sure where you're wrenching at, but I would love to give you a hand when you need it.

 

[Trollhole]

Very nice. Inspiring.

 

[jessewmcgregor]

wow brett, looks better than new. i just started the resto on my 76' and what you said about getting burnt out by detail time has got me thinking about following your lead. thanks

 

[dsa03cjj]

wow! impressive! looking great

 

[cruiserbrett]

Thanks for the encouragement. sometimes I get too carried away, but since its small stuff its easy, and not too much work.

I got the column done(minus the steering wheel) and it came out great. I found that the lower bearing was trashed in the column I have. Well, that proved to be a pain, the toyota one is not acutally sealed, its just shielded. Since water can find its way in at the firewall opening, I wanted a sealed bearing, the style with a rubber seal. For the future, others who need the bearing, its 22mm x 50mm x 14mm, and you can order it through a motorcycle parts dealer, I think it was part number 416222 from the tucker rocky catalog. It turns out its a motorcycle wheel bearing, and while not a common size, you can get them, and they are the rubber seal style. Not sure if its the same for the later columns, but I am going to check in the next few days.

 

[cruiserbrett]

more stuff to report...

got the rest of the dash stuff done. Finished the switch knobs, and they came out great. also wanted a heater valve on the cruiser, one that I could control from the cab to meter the heat. Since the FJ55 OEM heater valve is obsolete now, I figured I use a simple cable operated pull to open valve from napa. Since the factory warm pull cable from later FJ55's is too short to reach anything past the firewall, I swapped the "warm pull" knob onto a FJ40 "fresh pull" cable, so I have something that will reach the heater valve that will be in the engine compartment.

Also got the OEM early A/C unit cleaned up. the grille had taken a beating in a prior life, and needed some repair, that I accomplished with super glue and fiberglass mat, and I used JB weld to fill the gaps in the cracks. Touched up the gray JB weld with a black sharpie(sounds ghetto but actually looks pretty good unless you are right up close). tore it down, resealed the case, cleaned the evap and installed a new expansion valve.(kragen has them for about $30) Took the motor apart and was shocked to see that the thing has been used so little that the brushes had not even fully seated on the armature yet.

with the help of Noah(1973Guppie) we got the engine thats going in it torn down. A 2F from a 75 FJ55, that at some point in its life lost a rod bolt. bent up the rod badly, and beat up the crank, but amazingly the block still has the cross hatching in the cylinder walls, and all else looks very usable. Need to get another rod, and get the thing to the machine shop.

 

[cruiserbrett]

Some more pics

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Damn, you make it look way too nice.


Keep up the good work, checking this thread daily...


Rob

 

[1973Guppie]

looks good bro, still haven't got the compressor working, just haven't had time to get out there and rewire it, I am around this weekend and hopefully can get some shop time in if you are up this way, I need to start cutting out some metal on the 55 body and get that dent pulled.......

 

[cruiserbrett]

Noah, weekend is going to be hard for me, but the week will be better. Will let you know...

Anyway, got bored and worked on the heater blower. It was a mess, with broken bolts, non turning frozen motor, and of course the lack of low speed I discovered after getting the motor working again...

Sandblasted the case, painted with primer and semigloss black paint, and used leftover foam from Shanes heater rebuild kit to seal it up well. Had to spend way too much time getting the damn recirc door to move. I ended up drilling the spot welds in the pins and taking the thing apart, cleaning and reinstalling. Now theres a chance the fresh/recirc cable will be able to move the door.

Now I get to deal with the motor and low speed resistor. ended up pulling apart the motor, and it pulled the lower bearing out with the armature. Oops, time to find another motor. FSTmatt set me up with a good motor, so got after that. It had well worn and grooved armature commutator, but workable, and the brushes were good. Chuck the armature in the drill press and used a jewelers file to true up the grooves. following the file, I stripped W/D sandpaper into 1/4" strips and smoothed out the copper. it runs pretty true, and seems okay. I am SURE its not perfect and not the real way to do it, but after cleaning lubing and re-assembling the motor, it works amazingly well. dont forget to lube the bearings, AND the felt dealio's that surround the oillite bushings on either end. Dont be afraid of this job. If you have a soldering iron and digital camera you can easily pull it apart and get alot better heater performance. Use the camera to take a pic of the wiring inside the motor, since you will need to de-solder the connections to get the armature apart. De-soldering braid from Radio shack is well worth the investment. Toyota seemed to like solder, so getting the joints apart without will require quick and steady hands and a good chance of burning your fingers.

That left me with the damn lack of low speed resistor. the big black tube ceramic resistor on both setups I had were toast. Figured the load and age killed them, so I wanted a more modern option, IE not another ceramic tube style to eventually eat s*** again. Well, my GF Leah was feeling sick this AM, so I took the chance to get down to the junkyard. Came across an early toyota pickup(like a '73 or so-the ones with the similar side marker lights to our cruisers) and discovered it had interestingly enough, a two speed blower, and a more modern filament style low speed resistor, the ones that look like a giant light bulb filament, and are cooled by being placed in the air flow path created by the blower motor. Grabbed it and another out of another early pickup, and headed home(after finding an OEM toyota A/C underdash unit from the same Toyota pickup-which will be a rear A/C under the passenger seat.)

When I got back, I got right to modifying the wiring to work, and putting a hole in the heater blower housing to accomodate the new resistor. Be careful where you place it, it needs to be in the airflow, and you dont want the recirc door hitting it. I chose the lower chamber, near where the duct to the heater would mate. Dremel'ed a hole, drilled to holes for the sheetmetal screws, and soldered up the wiring to match. I will try to create a wiring diagram shortly, but its really simple, attach the wires in the same way you removed them from the ceramic tube resistor. Basically, the blue/black wire from the lplug attach to the same terminal that the motor blue wire attaches to. Blue and white from the plug attach to the other side of the filament.
got it all done, and tested it out with my power supply. Hi speed is amazing, I cant believe the heater blower motor can put out so much air. Not going to be a lack of heat in this thing. Lo speed is nice, a good break between Off and High.

Pics.

 

[n2666s]

awsome thread and you are hitting a lot of the heater problems I am running in to..........can you give an ID on what model pick up the heater resistor and ac came off of?

Lou

 

[cruiserbrett]

I don't know exactly what model it is. Just the run of the mill old toyota pickup truck. I think it is the 73-78 style with 4 headlights. Dead giveaway is the side marker lights, they are nearly identical to the landcruiser side markers, and about the only thing different is the angled rubber gasket in the front. I have only run across two of them with OEM A/C(grabbed both setups), and they arent good for the front, b/c the their standalone blower motor sticks right up where the heater duct is. they are good for other stuff... details to come on the rear A/C. Found a rear A/C solenoid in a toyota van so I should be able to figure out the A/c system in the next few weeks. Will post a pic of the toyota pickup A/C tomorrow after I get it all cleaned up... It was filthy!!!

 

[n2666s]

Brett; what media did you use for blasting?....that heater box looks better than I can remember they did when new

Lou

 

[cruiserbrett]

Here it is in all of its ugliness. It looked alot better before I stripped it of interior and front doors...

Anyway, floorboards are in the process of getting stripped down and zero-rust'ed. THe PO sprayed on (inside the truck) the floordoard what I think is that cheapo tar-ish rubber undercoating meant for under fenders, etc. It sucks to remove, but nothing like linex would stick to it, and it also tends to melt once it gets hot out...

Most of the rust is in the rear corners, and quarter panels. One hole in the floorboard by the front body mount like so many FJ55's have, but sound otherwise. Roof is in good shape, so thats a bonus for SoCal where so many seem to have succumbed to the rusty roof.

 

[RUSH55]

Krikey!!

 

[FineWynsFJ40]

Nice!! How do you remove the window up/down knob from the plate? Does that trim piece unscrew? I couldn't figure it out last time I was out to the barn. I'm doing the same thing you are, but for different reasons. I'm in college right now, so doing the little stuff is really all I can do!!

Brian