Figured I'd join in on the fun - '88 FJ62 (1 Viewer)

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Joined
May 15, 2017
Threads
16
Messages
450
Location
Charlotte, NC
Hey folks - I’ve been creeping around the 60 series forum for quite a while just waiting for the moment to post my very own 60 series build thread. Welp here I am! A little back story on my and how we got here -

I grew up wrenching on cars with my buddies probably from the time I was 15 or so. One of my good friends in high school always had the car wrenching meeting spot at his place and I can remember his brother pulling in out and of out the driveway in his FJ40 and I just thought it was the coolest vehicle I had ever seen - I knew I had to have a Land Cruiser some day! Fast forward to about two years ago when I successfully talked my wife into letting me buy an FJ40. What we ended up with was Blue (for lack of a better name), a 1982 mostly original and intact rig that spent most of its life in California. She’s up there in the mileage category, but I am always shocked and amazed at how well she drives and how strong of a rig it is for being that 36 years old with borderline 300k miles.

As many of you are fully aware, it is pretty much a given that you will become cruiser obsessed after your first, and there is no exception with my story. My wife has just given up gotten used to seeing me on Mud every evening browsing around aimlessly for hours at a time. Well a few months ago I had the bright (crazy is probably a better descriptor) idea of getting rid of my 2016 TRD OR Tacoma for an FJ62 as my daily driver. Strangely, my wife actually thought it was a cool idea especially since she’d be able to step in and drive it whenever she wanted so I took that and absolutely ran with it, spending a ton of time scouring the internet for my next cruiser. So since this would be my daily driver, I was really stuck on finding something that had been well taken care of with under 200k miles and as little rust as possible. As many of you are aware, vehicles like this are getting much harder to find than they already were in the past. To top that off, my wife really wanted me to get a Two-tone rig or something that stood out vs just having the normal paint job. Sure….that should make things much easier, right?

I scoured the internet looking for said vehicle and really did not have the easiest time as one would expect. Most everything that checked the boxes was either sold, mis-advertised, or a little too far away from original for me. I was speaking with another Mud member (thanks @thecadefire !) about his recent FJ62 purchase when he happened to remember another rig that he had inquired about when he was on the hunt months before. He set me up with the owner, a retired gentleman in Boise, who was very nice, but did things a little slower than I would have liked. It took a while, but I was finally able to seal the deal on our new prized possession. Here she is, a 1988 Dark Grey Metallic FJ62 with just under 140k miles. From what I have been able to gather so far, she is all original minus the wheels (which I will be changing), the fog lights, and the older pioneer head unit. I was also able to get a box of parts which included the OEM radio and OEM spares of the alternator, starter, ECU, and ignition cylinder. It even has a funky decal which seems to be a dealer installed item as far as I can tell. Oh and the trip from Boise to Charlotte was apparently a bit snowy/salty so within an hour of having this dirty ass thing, it was washed, the underside was pressure washed, i sprayed the entire truck down with a salt neutralizer, and then washed it again. Can't be too careful!

Well besides introducing myself and my new rig, the main purpose of this thread is honestly to document everything that I do to this

To Do -
-Replace brake master cylinder, replace brake shoes/pads, check rotors, replace wheel cylinders?
-Valve adjustment
-Check/adjust timing, Adjust Idle speed
-Rust prevention, paint and seal frame, clean and paint various parts of undercarriage
-Drop transmission pan and clean filter, new trans pan gasket, Rodney flush, add transmission cooler

Projects Completed -
-6x Denso W16EXR-U, Oil Changed, Diffs filled w/ gear oil and magnetic hex drain plugs added, flushed P/S, new air filter
-New Distributor Car, Rotor, Plug Wires, cleaned cold start injector, cleaned and calibrated TPS
-Shifter bushings replaced


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Looks great! I think we picked up very similar rigs on the same day! I am excited to see what you do with yours!
 
Welcome!
I DO like the decals.
Very nice rig!
Here’s to future “motoring” in the 62!
Congrats!
 
The interior of this thing is pretty nice overall. The seats have been covered for quite some time with some sweet seat covers and from the previous owners initial pics, I could tell that they just needed a little love to get them back to their former glory. The drivers seat had the typical side bolster wear so I was not too shocked about that, but it was a little comical to see the duct tape attempting to hold it together 🤣
A little goof off and a few passes with our steam cleaner wand got us here. I still need to get the seats cleaned a little better, but they are clean enough for now.

Before-
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Love the retro decals! Enjoy the journey. Share the madness with your family. It’s been a blessing for my fam to be around these great rigs.
 
Great find and beautiful rig. You’ll love owning a 62. Great for long road trips. It’ll do 80mph but it loves 50mph 😀
If you didn’t already know you can get OEM fabric seat fabric and foam from SOR. I think they re-sew back seat fabric from donor vehicles into font seat config.
I did mine and super happy with it.
Not cheap 😟

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Great find and beautiful rig. You’ll love owning a 62. Great for long road trips. It’ll do 80mph but it loves 50mph 😀
If you didn’t already know you can get OEM fabric seat fabric and foam from SOR. I think they re-sew back seat fabric from donor vehicles into font seat config.
I did mine and super happy with it.
Not cheap 😟

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Wow those look awesome! Probably worth the expense if you ask me. I actually bought a whole set of used covers from another 62 recently. I soaked everything in a tub filled with dish soap....man oh man was there a lot of dirt stored away in those old covers. So heres the question - Is the passenger side lower cover the same as the one on the drivers side? This one is pristine so I figured I could try to use the passenger side on the drivers
 
Nice work so far on the cleaning and acquisition of this 62. Looks like it is going to be in GREAT hands! Tell Simcoe to smile next time!
 
So heres the question - Is the passenger side lower cover the same as the one on the drivers side? This one is pristine so I figured I could try to use the passenger side on the drivers

The fabric cover is almost the same, and it’s common to swap them over from a donor truck. They fit/interchange no problem, the only difference is in the side vinyl where the seatbelt receiver sits.
 
Wow those look awesome! Probably worth the expense if you ask me. I actually bought a whole set of used covers from another 62 recently. I soaked everything in a tub filled with dish soap....man oh man was there a lot of dirt stored away in those old covers. So heres the question - Is the passenger side lower cover the same as the one on the drivers side? This one is pristine so I figured I could try to use the passenger side on the drivers
Yep, you can swap sides with no issue.
 

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