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[GTSSportCoupe]

Wow, you're going to town. Can you share the secret of your cruiser motivation?

Nice work man. You're going to double the value of that thing. And shifting with the right arm itself will be worth the effort.

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Very cool conversion. Appreciate you documenting this for those considering something similar down the road. Look forward to following your progress.

 

[seapotato]

Wow, you're going to town. Can you share the secret of your cruiser motivation?

Nice work man. You're going to double the value of that thing. And shifting with the right arm itself will be worth the effort.

Haha, 6 years of being pissed off at rhd all boiled into 4 days

Also, I figure it's like crying about things a previous owner did to a truck. After a certain period of ownership you lose that privilege.
If it's been years you should have fixed that s*** instead of bitching

Anyways, cruiserland.

This ate an hour, because they changed s*** for no apparent reason. Bolt pattern for the multi switch is different from right to left and then the column/tilt bracket changed too. ****ers

This "pin" holding the ign switch on is actually a bolt with a tamper proof head. You can file off a side and grab it to unscrew it, or slotting it might work too. Wasn't that savagely tight.
Yes, I replaced it with a proper ******* bolt...

And of course, the lock cylinders are different too, sheeeeyiiiit.

Worked out in the end. The discards pile is growing again...

next...

 

[seapotato]

Moved onto the wiper motor. To use the 61's 24v wiper motor I had to swap over the mounting plate, naturally it was clocked wrong with it just bolted on. End of the motor hits the flange on the front of the firewall.

Greasy finger template, rotate and redrill.

And now it sits at the same angle as the old one.

Threw some more white paint on. Not planning to paint the truck white, but you'd be amazed at the difference it makes to being able to see what you're doing in an engine bay. It's like having a light on.

And I wasn't about to make a special trip to the north end for a different colour...

Then, steering.

Minor f-u Mr Toyota moment, steering box bolt won't come out without lifting the engine an inch on that side.

And without looking for that old toyota tool thread, there's few things more useful than some small steel wedges. Just a slice off the edge of some 1/2" plate. Nasty looking in there, thanks to that bit of tin/crap collector they put around that joint.

It won't be going back on.

backing plate, sleeved the frame yada yada.

This is long as the backing plate can be, I made it so it butts up to the frame brackets at either end. I'll weld it to them when I feel like having hot s*** landing on my head.

And, waggling the wheel now makes the wheels turn.

Just need to move the steering stabilizer mount over , (there's threaded inserts on both sides thankfully) adjust the camel toe and clamp the ****er and that's that.

Next...

 

[seapotato]

Cleaned up the vac can, then realized there isn't much point in it being on this side.

So I'll move it over to this side under the clutch master. I can use that vacuum hard line as a template for the brake and clutch lines that'll have to run across there.

Mounted a bit more s***. Throttle cable is a bit awkward, just on the edge of where firewall starts to curve. I'll leave that until I have the seat back in , so I can figure out a comfortable spot for the pedal.

That's it for today. I have to go to work tomorrow....which is good.

cuz I need a fawking rest.

 

[slowandsteady BJ]

I have to go to work tomorrow....which is good.

cuz I need a fawking rest.

Awesome. (also relatable)

 

[seapotato]

Awesome. (also relatable)

I have to pretend until 330, then everyone is gone, and the chair will be reclined.

Damn light show in nanaimo made it hard to sleep last night. That was somethin.




Been thinking about my heater core tube being too close to the engine.

Apparently those tubes push into the heater core with an O-ring, not something I've ever messed with in a cruiser, but I think I'll see if I can use one of the 61's lines to get that tube in a better spot.

Lining up my night shift projects...swapping out the gauges in the clusters seems about the right speed.

 

[Rigpig]

Excellent work! You've almost peaked my interest in finishing that 4Runner/Cruiser thing for winter wheeling... almost...

 

[seapotato]

Excellent work! You've almost peaked my interest in finishing that 4Runner/Cruiser thing for winter wheeling... almost...

Haha when the covid beer finally happens we'll see if we can motivate you.
It got preempted by this project over the weekend. Had to keep the progress rolling to get over the hump on it.

Think I'm close to the hump.

Hump adjacent/curious maybe?

 

[Toshi38]

> One thing I'll have to do is get a longer power steering hose

You can get some you make yourself even for the pressure side that's what I did on the 40 with braided lines was pretty quick and easy to customize with whatever you needed just buy the ends and enough line for the middle.

 

[seapotato]

> One thing I'll have to do is get a longer power steering hose

You can get some you make yourself even for the pressure side that's what I did on the 40 with braided lines was pretty quick and easy to customize with whatever you needed just buy the ends and enough line for the middle.

I'll look into that if the hydraulic shop balks at it. Don't know why they would with so much equipment being Japanese they must deal with metric s*** all the time.
The 5 second google brought up this decent little tutorial if I go that way.

Home Made Hydraulic Hoses-How to Tutorial


I need to make a trip in to town for a few things anyways, and so far the running tab for this project is still a big fat zero so I'm not too worried about it.

 

[seapotato]

Not the most exciting of days, but I guess I got a decent amount of s*** done although it doesn't really feel like it.

Decided to deal with the hard line to the heater core that was too close to the engine.



The 61 heater core is actually about 1/2 or so thicker than the 60. Maybe an update they made when they wanted to get more heat out of that little coil in later years.

I'd hoped that between the two I'd have a hard line that'd work, but not so much. Need the hj60 one, or maybe fj, not sure about that.

BJ60 on the right.

The fittings just push into the coil with an o-ring and a little clip. All four joints showed signs of weeping, so guess what folks, yours are too. Have fun with that...

Probably a good thing I pulled the coil out

Enter mystery potion...

I'm not super thrilled with this solution, but I think it'll be ok. If it's not , I'll certainly become aware of it in a hurry

The copper union is so tight on the brass I had to flare it a tiny bit and press it on before soldering, and then added a npt adapter.
I put in new o-rings, and because these look like something that really wants to leak I put some monkey s*** on the joints before pushing them in.

Lines are in the right place at least now.

Rest of the day was me using the wire stretcher...and trying to figure out what the "up for 40 hours" version of my brain was thinking when it took this s*** apart last week

More tidying to be done of course, but I kinda need fenders soon.

I want to get some goop in the firewall joints and some fairing in the corners of the windshield tonight so that it's dry tomorrow.

Here endeth the update.

 

[Rigpig]

Couldn't find the "mind-blowing" emoji, but Roget's said this would work in a pinch.🌬
Copper to brass, copper to aluminum, steel back to brass is a nice touch though...
Keep the pics coming, i need inspiration to finish my gem!

 

[seapotato]

Couldn't find the "mind-blowing" emoji, but Roget's said this would work in a pinch.🌬
Copper to brass, copper to aluminum, steel back to brass is a nice touch though...
Keep the pics coming, i need inspiration to finish my gem!

You're turning into quite the armchair nitpicker in your old age. Any other complaints? Colour of the teflon tape maybe

I'm just amazed I had enough fittings in my plumbing drawer to make anything work.

Only other options are going all copper, which is no improvement and harder to get the angles right, or an "s" shaped heater hose and clamp it close to the coil.

Not like I can go buy a set of 2h heater core lines...NLA from what I read.

I'll keep my eye out for one of course but there's a decent chance of never finding anything.

Toyota's parts support would rather throw them in a dumpster than look them up and sell them to someone.

 

[bikersmurf]

You're turning into quite the armchair nitpicker in your old age. Any other complaints? Colour of the teflon tape maybe

I'm just amazed I had enough fittings in my plumbing drawer to make anything work.

Only other options are going all copper, which is no improvement and harder to get the angles right, or an "s" shaped heater hose and clamp it close to the coil.

Not like I can go buy a set of 2h heater core lines...NLA from what I read.

I'll keep my eye out for one of course but there's a decent chance of never finding anything.

Toyota's parts support would rather throw them in a dumpster than look them up and sell them to someone.

Don’t forget you’d need a VIN for the correct 2h heater core... I’d hate for a parts tech to have to think.
I’d be so screwed if I had to buy any parts from the stealership for any of the upgrades on my rig. I can hear it now, “Sir, your ‘74 doesn’t have disc brakes, and the computer says you don’t need cone washers for either you front or rear axles.”, “No sir, I can’t sell you a master cylinder for a JDM 80 series... or a North American one... unless you can provide me the VIN for you 80 series”.

 

[bikersmurf]

Random thought...
would you get better insurance rates if you used a ‘few’ parts from your RHD truck to rebuild the DNA encrusted blue 60? It’d likely be easier to “repair” the blue one than convince them the steering wheel on your JDM truck was on the left side all along.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Did you check how the flow was in the heater core? Since they sit with all the sludge of 30 yrs in the
bottom I wondered what you thought or didn't think to flush the core before you put it back in.
BTW, those stupid little clips on my connections still don't leak. But I might ask you to be careful with
the little plastic connector clips that hold the slider rods and cables to the plastic housing. I broke
the Heat - Cold clip so I have to open the hood to double check the valve is actually open when
I select heat.

 

[seapotato]

Random thought...
would you get better insurance rates if you used a ‘few’ parts from your RHD truck to rebuild the DNA encrusted blue 60? It’d likely be easier to “repair” the blue one than convince them the steering wheel on your JDM truck was on the left side all along.

Not sure on that. Insurance went up by close to 200 bucks this year for no apparent reason.

Blue truck needed a vi so there's that hassle.

Technically even the 61 should get one now the papers say rhd.

Did you check how the flow was in the heater core? Since they sit with all the sludge of 30 yrs in the
bottom I wondered what you thought or didn't think to flush the core before you put it back in.
BTW, those stupid little clips on my connections still don't leak. But I might ask you to be careful with
the little plastic connector clips that hold the slider rods and cables to the plastic housing. I broke
the Heat - Cold clip so I have to open the hood to double check the valve is actually open when
I select heat.

Yeah I had both coils in the sink. Filled with hot water and shook the s*** out of them till it ran clear. Then noticed the 61 coil wouldn't fit.

The heat will probably be as anemic as ever, although I do plan on adding a coolant heater to make mornings a little less unpleasant.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Mine ran clear too, but doesn’t mean I got the crap out of the bottom. it wouldn’t flow
so it only was hot as it circulated left to right along the top. When I flipped it and got the crap
stuck to bottom I have to admit my cabin heat does encourage the word hot.
have you ever used caustic cleaners or acids to scour heater core internals?

 

[stevebradford]

My insurance jumped by 200$ as well this year for no reason??

I changed my insurance paperwork when I renewed I told them it was must have been a mistake. that my papers said it was an Fj40 and that it was actually a bj42!? Weird.. -Bats my eyelashes a couple times- the girl changed the papers no hassles. I have been told my eyelashes are like butterfly kisses though