First foray into a vintage Cruiser....1987 FJ60 (1 Viewer)

[zachbass02]

I'm extremely glad that I found this site. My wife and I have decided to jump in head first into owning an FJ60. This is really my first time owning a vintage truck and intend it to be my daily driver. We bought the truck a few weeks ago and since I've been trying to learn all I can about it. I absolutely love this truck. We bought it from a vintage car reseller in Brentwood, TN that had cared and repaired on the truck for the previous owner. Here's a list of the recent services and add-ons that had already been done to the truck. (I will be getting the rest of the maintenance records when we get the title.)

What major things do I need to keep up on maintenance wise and how hard are these to wrench on if you have limited mechanical knowledge and even less tool availability?

• H55 5-Speed Transmission
• Long Range Automotive 40 gallon fuel tank
• Weber Carburetor
• ARB Winch Bumper
• Smittybuilt Winch
• Old Man Emu Full suspension & Steering Stabilizer
• Bluetooth equipped factory Toyota Radio
• 33-inch Toyo Open Country Tires
• recent replacement of the fuel pump
• fuel filter
• A/C compressor
• rear brake drums
• rear brake shoes
• master cylinders
• tie rod ends

155K miles on the 2f engine. There is a little bit of rust over the driver side rear tire area and on the back bumper. I'm looking to get a replacement rear bumper with a tire swing to carry my spare.

 

[OSS]

Nice looking cruiser.
Your vehicle is the easiest car on the road to work on. It's the last of its kind. Get copies of the Toyota factory manuals and a few metric wrenches and you'll be set. The manuals are excellent even for first timers.

 

[sogafarm]

Congratulations on your new landcruiser! The 5-speed is a great addition. With only 155k miles, your not going to have to do too much. Keep the valves adjusted and the filters and fluids changed regularly and that's about it, just drive it. What was the asking price? Prices have gone through the roof the past few years on these old 60's series cruisers.

 

[MDH33]

Looks like a nice 60. Its been desmogged, so will be even easier to wrench on. Get used to the slow lane and visiting the gas pump if you're going daily drive it. Mine is built pretty similar to yours, top speed 70 and 12 mpg. Enjoy!

 

[zachbass02]

Nice looking cruiser.
Your vehicle is the easiest car on the road to work on. It's the last of its kind. Get copies of the Toyota factory manuals and a few metric wrenches and you'll be set. The manuals are excellent even for first timers.

Thanks for the response. That's great to hear. I started rabbit trailing through a lot of the repair and build threads on here and it was a little intimidating. Oil changes, greasing parts and such are doable, but I'm not sure I could do a full font axle rebuild.

Congratulations on your new landcruiser! The 5-speed is a great addition. With only 155k miles, your not going to have to do too much. Keep the valves adjusted and the filters and fluids changed regularly and that's about it, just drive it. What was the asking price? Prices have gone through the roof the past few years on these old 60's series cruisers.

I'm a little embarrassed to say what we paid for it. But after buying it and seeing some of comparable ones sell on bringatrailer.com, I feel like we were in the ball park. My wife has vintage furniture rental company and is into all things vintage. She REALLY wanted 60s/70s era Bronco, but talk about crazy prices. This one came up and checked all the boxes for her "cool car" check list....so she gave me the go ahead to get it.

Looks like a nice 60. Its been desmogged, so will be even easier to wrench on. Get used to the slow lane and visiting the gas pump if you're going daily drive it. Mine is built pretty similar to yours, top speed 70 and 12 mpg. Enjoy!

Ya, I about crapped on my first fill up. The 40 gal tank is no joke (and I only put in 30 gal). I test drove it on the interstate when we bought it and we were cruising about 75-ish (speedo is off a bit due to the tires) but she didn't have much more left in her. I don't mind being in the slow lane. This truck if very reminiscent of being on my motorcycle, it's stripped back to only the essentials and I'll get there when I get there. This is not a truck to take if you're in a hurry and I'm just fine with that. =)

 

[zachbass02]

@MDH33 what roof rack and rear bumper setup do you have on your 60?

 

[WSOPgold2012]

nice rig....welcome to the insantiy

 

[Gretsch]

This is not a truck to take if you're in a hurry and I'm just fine with that.

Love this attitude. Off to a great start here for owning one of these Dino's. Congrats on the rig and welcome to the madness. Gonna be tons of fun.

 

[Gretsch]

Might I suggest downloading the FSMs and start your reading. You'll go broke getting others to work on these trucks for you. Read through those manuals and start wrenching.

Have a romp through here if you need some courage and insight as to what's possible with these trucks:

Builds - Work In Progress aka: Badass

Female enthusiast off and on mud since '10 but first cruiser in hand was in 5/'08 thanks to a young guy I was dating who had a wealth of mechanical know how... that truck became my DD in 6/'10 after my little kermit the frog green kia rio threw a piston in her second engine (first went just...

forum.ih8mud.com

Might I suggest contact Cruiser Outfitters for some of your parts needs:

Cruiser Outfitters

They stock most of what's in your list. Great guys and super helpful.

Again welcome to the fun

 

[TheNeek]

Good lookin truck, congratulations.

 

[Seth S]

Check to see if the oil galley plug has been replaced on the cylinder head.

My First Galley Plug Fix

So I dove in yesterday, after reading, and re-reading tons of posts on here. I will share my successful method, and add it to the pile: It was time to adjust my valves, so I figured since I was in up to my elbows, why not fix the galley plug, too? Total time was about 2.5 hours. That...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Chris Cahill]

Very nice! Congratulations on getting a great truck.

I also have a silver '87.

I noticed your clutch pedal cover (and maybe also brake pedal cover) is gone, I think Cool Cruisers of Texas has them for about $8.

 

[zachbass02]

Very nice! Congratulations on getting a great truck.

I also have a silver '87.

I noticed your clutch pedal cover (and maybe also brake pedal cover) is gone, I think Cool Cruisers of Texas has them for about $8.

View attachment 2593166

Love it! Yes, I need to get those pedal covers. My boots were slick on the pedals after walking through the snow this past week. Thanks for the heads up on those.

 

[zachbass02]

Check to see if the oil galley plug has been replaced on the cylinder head.

My First Galley Plug Fix

So I dove in yesterday, after reading, and re-reading tons of posts on here. I will share my successful method, and add it to the pile: It was time to adjust my valves, so I figured since I was in up to my elbows, why not fix the galley plug, too? Total time was about 2.5 hours. That...

forum.ih8mud.com

10-4. Will check on that. One of the things I do know I need to get after is my brights seem to have a bad contact/ground. I did find a thread on that fix that I book marked to get after. Hopefully starting small will boost the ol' confidence on getting after some of the other things.

 

[Chris Cahill]

Cruiser outfitters can also hook you up with a nice headlight upgrade for reasonable cost. Very easy to install. The new setup connects directly to the battery and you will notice a big difference in brightness. One of the better upgrades I have done.

 

[Seth S]

@ToyotaMatt has a nice upgrade too. You really can’t go wrong with cruiser outfitters or Matt. Both are top notch forum vendors and supporters.

 

[zachbass02]

Might I suggest downloading the FSMs and start your reading. You'll go broke getting others to work on these trucks for you. Read through those manuals and start wrenching.

Have a romp through here if you need some courage and insight as to what's possible with these trucks:

Builds - Work In Progress aka: Badass

Female enthusiast off and on mud since '10 but first cruiser in hand was in 5/'08 thanks to a young guy I was dating who had a wealth of mechanical know how... that truck became my DD in 6/'10 after my little kermit the frog green kia rio threw a piston in her second engine (first went just...

forum.ih8mud.com

Might I suggest contact Cruiser Outfitters for some of your parts needs:

Cruiser Outfitters

They stock most of what's in your list. Great guys and super helpful.

Again welcome to the fun

Awesome. Thanks for the thread link and site info. I've found the body/chasis manual. Any good places to find the 2f engine manual?

Have you ever used TPI. I see that they're based in Nashville. TPI 4x4 Landcruiser Parts - http://tpi4x4.com/

 

[zachbass02]

Cruiser outfitters can also hook you up with a nice headlight upgrade for reasonable cost. Very easy to install. The new setup connects directly to the battery and you will notice a big difference in brightness. One of the better upgrades I have done.

@ToyotaMatt has a nice upgrade too. You really can’t go wrong with cruiser outfitters or Matt. Both are top notch forum vendors and supporters.

Will look into both of those for the headlight upgrade.

 

[Gretsch]

Awesome. Thanks for the thread link and site info. I've found the body/chasis manual. Any good places to find the 2f engine manual?

Have you ever used TPI. I see that they're based in Nashville. TPI 4x4 Landcruiser Parts - http://tpi4x4.com/

Gas / Petrol

forum.ih8mud.com

They are in my parts bookmarks but have never used them myself.

 

[Chris Cahill]

You mentioned that you want a new rear bumper. I have the 4Plus rear bumper with tire and jerry can carriers. Super happy with it, the quality is excellent and Dave is great to deal with. I liked it so much I got a second one (and a front) from Dave for my hunting rig.

4PlusProducts | FJ60 | Tire Carriers | Classic Rear Bumper

Our 60 series Land Cruiser Classic Rear Bumper features two easy to use swing-outs and is practically indestructable.

www.4plusproducts.com