1969 FJ55 - Bentonville, AR (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jun 4, 2018
Threads
1
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9
Location
Northwest Arkansas
I picked up my FJ55 last year in Russellville from Ginzu. Found it on Craigslist, after searching for over a year to find a clean one.

Within the first week of ownership a hose blew off the radiator on the interstate, it overheated, and the head gasket blew. Or so I thought. Ended up with a cracked head. Off to the shop at Bohannon's offroad in Bentonville. Jewell has been working on LC's for a long time, and he has actually done a lot of work on mine before I owned it. The cruiser got a lot of love over the winter.

The head was repaired, along with a valve job and a new radiator to be sure it doesn't happen again. Then I decided to bite off the disk brake conversion. For any of you that own 69s, you know the issues there. New GM parts in the rear, along with a new floor mounted emergency brake. In the front, went with used FJ60 parts. There isn't room for a booster. Just running it unboosted on the original master cylinder. It stops way better than it used to, and more importantly, it stops in a straight line every time. Maybe some day I'll try to figure out the remote booster.

Axle bearings, seals, steering knuckle rebuild, and on and on. Basically, I spent a ton of money and you can't tell it from looking. Since it stops, I put some bigger tires on it, so at least it would sit a little more proud. 31x10.50 BFG/ATs with some spacers to make it stand a little wider on the stock wheels.

Next up, getting those god awful bumpers off of it. In the meantime, my kids are learning how to drive it and loving every minute of it.

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Bumper is Smittybilt. Not sure on the antenna location. Never actually noticed it before!

Moving the entire engine and drivetrain is a bit out of my league. I’ll have to do some digging to see what is possible there.

What bumper is that? It does look much better.

Whats up with that radio antenna location?

Could you update the motor and trans mounts to the later style to shift the drive train over a bit?
 
Rear window stopped working. Just grinds, so I started my search for a new gear. After a lot of digging, I had one 3D printed. Actually printed two so I could pay it forward.

After getting it torn down today, I discovered that I have one of the rare brass window gears (Thanks Ginzu!) and that my issue was with this rubber drive bracket on the motor. Anyone know where I can get one of these?

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and if anyone needs a rear window gear, I’ve got two.

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I took my spare apart and it's the same as yours, which I'm guessing that washer needs to attached to the rubber spacer in order to turn the shaft.

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I picked up my FJ55 last year in Russellville from Ginzu. Found it on Craigslist, after searching for over a year to find a clean one.

Within the first week of ownership a hose blew off the radiator on the interstate, it overheated, and the head gasket blew. Or so I thought. Ended up with a cracked head. Off to the shop at Bohannon's offroad in Bentonville. Jewell has been working on LC's for a long time, and he has actually done a lot of work on mine before I owned it. The cruiser got a lot of love over the winter.

The head was repaired, along with a valve job and a new radiator to be sure it doesn't happen again. Then I decided to bite off the disk brake conversion. For any of you that own 69s, you know the issues there. New GM parts in the rear, along with a new floor mounted emergency brake. In the front, went with used FJ60 parts. There isn't room for a booster. Just running it unboosted on the original master cylinder. It stops way better than it used to, and more importantly, it stops in a straight line every time. Maybe some day I'll try to figure out the remote booster.

Axle bearings, seals, steering knuckle rebuild, and on and on. Basically, I spent a ton of money and you can't tell it from looking. Since it stops, I put some bigger tires on it, so at least it would sit a little more proud. 31x10.50 BFG/ATs with some spacers to make it stand a little wider on the stock wheels.

Next up, getting those god awful bumpers off of it. In the meantime, my kids are learning how to drive it and loving every minute of it.

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View attachment 1938017
Think about using a hydro boost setup from a late model Chevy/GM pickup. There's room for it and as long as you have power steering already it gives plenty of boost!!!!!
 

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