Builds Sentimental Restoration of Family 1990 FJ62 (1 Viewer)

[LCnAZ]

Thank you for the kind words. It's coming along.

Good progress today. A used steering wheel switch assembly was cannibalized to overcome intermittent wiper short/fuse blowing and headlight failures. Also swapped out OEM wiper relay with used one. Each step resulted in improvement in wiper movement. Wiper linkages accessed for care. I've never opened them up, so this is the first clean and lube they have gotten since the factory.

Powering up the driver seat was slowed down when the necessary power switch location would not fit. Re-worked that.

"Permanent" door lock fix as described in the FAQ underway.

I get to restore the OEM rims tomorrow or the next day. Pulling all the rims from vehicle and old tires. When rims are ready, the new hub ornaments and 31 x 10.5s go on.

 

[LCnAZ]

Just a day of elbow grease today. My help had the day off today, but will be back all weekend to help finish up on the seat power, door lock fix, and various other things.

My task was to get the vehicle up on a rack and do some undercarriage detail work to reveal that there is actually an OME suspension under there. Also cleaned up visible frame in the wheel wells so that the @TRAIL TAILOR splash skirts weren't the only black things under there, and other visible items front and back.

Spent a good hour cleaning/restoring the OEM rims. I used Barkeeper's Friend, Bon Ami, and the scouring side of a kitchen sponge. When I started they had that look that had me thinking that they were corroded. Not so. Hard to believe they are 30 years old. New lug nuts, valve stems, hub ornaments, and new tires next.

 

[LCnAZ]

A bit of disappointment today. I went in to have the ARB front bumper installed...only to find it damaged in shipping. The retailer (who provided a nice military discount) and ARB came to an agreement (along with me). This bumper came from a distributor. The replacement will come directly from ARB. Upside is same price. Downside, is three extra weeks wait.

Here are some photos anyway made at magic hour this evening. Note the completed BMW seat installation with @torfab brackets. Note the power switch necessary to manage the driver seat timer issue. Works like a champ.

This makes my restoration 95% complete. In the ARB wait, I'll probably get the needed knuckle job done.

 

[LCnAZ]

Note the Tong Yang aftermarket front grille and bezels. Also @Cruiser Corps reproduction electric mirrors.

 

[LCnAZ]

Here is a close up shot of the BMW seat installation with the Torfab brackets. The power switch is a Toyota fog light switch. Couldn't make the light work, but the switch has some beef, and is very convenient.

 

[tucson_sailors]

Looking good. Shame about the ARB but at least you got a good resolution.

Glenn in Marana

 

[86aggie]

Did you mount that switch with mounting tape?

 

[LCnAZ]

Did you mount that switch with mounting tape?

Yep. That did the job.

 

[LCnAZ]

Here's a couple of photos of the condenser fan I added. I've posted elsewhere on how I got there, but here you can see the 12" fan behind the grille and the 140 degree t-stat probe attached to the EGR hose. Works like a champ. I suspect that the auto tranny is accounting for a good amount of heat in the OEM-style radiator, but I'm running at mid-scale plus or minus a needle width, even in mountainous roads at 40mph (35mph speed limit).

I just ran it on a test up the nearby mountain highway to get a feel for the engine and tranny strength and the 31" tires. It was extremely impressive! I did have a fuel system cleaning done recently and changed to 91 octane fuel. In fact, it so impressive as to make me reconsider the H55 conversion. As fun as shifting again would be, it's not like I'm now particularly motivated to do so by a lack of power with the auto tranny. It also really seems to like the 31" tires.

I'm probably wise to see if tranny temps benefit from the fan. If not, maybe a change to a transmission cooler then evaluate operating temperature again is in order.

 

[Willard]

Those rims came out very nice.
A good trick on any corroded spots is to use aluminum foil and water and scrub. But does not look like you needed it.

 

[LCnAZ]

Those rims came out very nice.
A good trick on any corroded spots is to use aluminum foil and water and scrub. But does not look like you needed it.

I was hoping I wouldn't. I did save some time with a 4" diameter buffer wheel on a drill to knock off the bulk of the crud, then scrub by hand.

 

[LCnAZ]

This afternoon I tackled swapping out all the dash lights to LEDs. I had bought both white and green. I tried the white for green, but decided to stick to green for green and white for white.

Points worth providing for the gallery: LED bulbs can be polarity specific. These are (took me a little while to figure that one out). They dim quite nicely. They fit too loosely in the sockets. It's very easy to pull the bulb loose while wrestling to get it secured back in place on the back of the instruments. I dropped two inside the speedo before I got the socket secure on the bulb and in place. Hope it doesn't cause a problem.

I must say that that was the most miserable task! Pretty much feeling your way back into the locked in position on the back of the cluster...is a cluster f***. Before it was over I was swearing and ranting like LT Dan in Forrest Gump!

I have LED replacements coming for the back up lights hoping to get a lot more lumens out of them.

 

[LCnAZ]

Here are some photos of the LED dash bulb swap out. The LED green bulbs are really green! I've tweaked the exposure on these so that their relative brightness is fairly true to the eye.

#1 Dimmest
#2 Brightest
#3 Mid-level dash with key-on lights. You can see that the brake and check engine lights are quite bright now.

 

[TheNeek]

It's gorgeous!

 

[LCnAZ]

Thanks to @TheNeek and his door adapter rings I can start working on speaker replacements. The biggest unknown is clearance from the window mechanisms on the door. Believe it or else, I still have the OEM door speakers and they work about as well as they ever did. What has changed is the 2-din control head I put in a couple of years ago. Yesterday while I had the dash out, I dropped down the pre-outs including the subwoofer. As soon as I get TheNeek's adapters and measure what kind of depth room I have in there I can order speakers.

 

[cruisermatt]

I know you were all wound up about the grille before, but the truck looks gorgeous. Nice job.
I’m surprised you’re putting an ARB on it.

 

[LCnAZ]

I know you were all wound up about the grille before, but the truck looks gorgeous. Nice job.
I’m surprised you’re putting an ARB on it.

Thank you for the kind words. Yeah, with that one bad post on the grille you cannot tell how bad the rest might be...since that is such a colossal manufacturing mistake. Sorry, one of my careers was in military aviation...where such mistakes can be highly unforgiving if not caught. My career in movie cinematography was also highly demanding. It all adds up to make one a bit obsessive about details...but good at managing them. Woe unto those who are not so. lol

Yes, I was not initially planning on the ARB. Surprisingly, my wifey drove that decision. We had a deer strike a few years back in one of our Sequoias. Mule deer roam around us a lot here in our semi-rural locale and travels. Daughter and I...and the vehicle were fine, but it got our attention. I was able to brake hard enough that some of the 50mph was gone by impact. That strike would have totaled the Cruiser with the same level of front end damage (only about $2K worth for the Sequoia, but with the scarcity of Cruiser parts, it would have been likely fatal for it).

Upon the decision to restore the Cruiser, I was showing the wifey images of different front bumpers. She saw the ARB and said it has to be that one for the higher profile and extra layer of protection. Yes ma'am. The OEM bumper will be put in storage.

 

[LCnAZ]

Rodney Flush! What did you do with your 60 this weekend?

 

[Joa]

Just a day of elbow grease today. My help had the day off today, but will be back all weekend to help finish up on the seat power, door lock fix, and various other things.

My task was to get the vehicle up on a rack and do some undercarriage detail work to reveal that there is actually an OME suspension under there. Also cleaned up visible frame in the wheel wells so that the @TRAIL TAILOR splash skirts weren't the only black things under there, and other visible items front and back.

Spent a good hour cleaning/restoring the OEM rims. I used Barkeeper's Friend, Bon Ami, and the scouring side of a kitchen sponge. When I started they had that look that had me thinking that they were corroded. Not so. Hard to believe they are 30 years old. New lug nuts, valve stems, hub ornaments, and new tires next.

View attachment 1882695

Congratulations on the awesome build! Those rims look amazing! Just Bar Keepers friend, Bon ami and a scouring pad?! Wow. Tried that on mine to no avail. Guess the steel on mine is really rusty.

Congrats again! looking forward to seeing what is next!

Cheers,
J

 

[LCnAZ]

Congratulations on the awesome build! Those rims look amazing! Just Bar Keepers friend, Bon ami and a scouring pad?! Wow. Tried that on mine to no avail. Guess the steel on mine is really rusty.

Congrats again! looking forward to seeing what is next!

Cheers,
J

Thank you, sir. I'm glad folks are enjoying seeing the progress. I have to give our dry climate most of the credit for the condition of the rims. I did cheat a bit and used a 4" diameter buffer wheel on a drill to speed up the initial clean up. After a couple minutes of that, it was just the scouring pad. I've heard that aluminum foil is good for bad cases. I'm no metallurgist, but that approach sounds interesting.

Attention has turned to more mechanical things for a while. We've decided to keep the auto transmission (at least for now), so effort is going into taking the best care of that. The Rodney Flush was done over the weekend swapping out to synthetic ATF. Also changed to synthetic in the transfer case. This week I'll be installing a B&M 70268 transmission cooler, but with a custom twist. I'll install a fan on it that will utilize an in-line fluid thermostat and relay. I will also have a kill switch for the fan on the dash. I'm not sure why I think the switch is a good idea. Maybe I'm just a control freak. lol

Anyway, I'll post photos of that progress.

Greetings to you in sunny San Juan. I have some great memories of some PR Air Guard guys I flew with way back in '78. Also had a few come through our unit for training in the late 80s/early 90s. Some from that era also joined us here in Tucson last April for a reunion of A-7 drivers. Fun times.