Builds 1960 FJ28L - Project Lara (1 Viewer)

[tahoe40/45]

25 Master Cylinders

I'm in the process of rebuilding the wheel cylinders. Most were stuck. I'm working 12 hour nights so its a slow process in between sleep, family, and work :) I swapped on a known good master cylinder and I still had the pedal go to the floor so its gotta be adjustment and stuck wheel cylinders...

forum.ih8mud.com

Good info on wheel cylinders and master cylinders

 

[scoobiedubes]

Going to be transporting the body across town in a few weeks, hopefully on a rolling chassis so I’m on the lookout for some body mounts. Anybody have any good suggestions for 20 series body mounts? Being a longer wheelbase I’ll probably need more than a 25, but wasn’t sure if they should be the same as a 40 or not. Lara had NO body mounts left when I got her!

 

[Land Cruiser Junky]

The body work on Lara looks great Nathan. The body shop that restored my LV did not do that same quality work when it came to the floors. It's solid but it's not pretty. Before I knew it they were rhinolined and when I asked about the finish they said, "Well it's going to be under the carpet and you'll never see it." I had to choose my battles. Where I was disappointed in the finish of my floors it was made up for with the finish of the body but it's still cool knowing that even though you can't see it no corners were cut. Really great work on Lara so far. I can already see she gonna be awesome when finished.

And most of us are familiar with all of the details of the body of the LV but I am always taken when looking at pics of Lara. It's like looking at the earliest of rare Toyota history each time.

 

[scoobiedubes]

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all are enjoying your holiday with loved ones, and maybe even getting some cruiser toys

Have been making some progress on the chassis the past few weeks. After looking at the frame again I decided to send it back to sandblast for the THIRD time and Powdercoat it. It didn’t get prepped well enough previously and some of it still wasn’t as straightened as it needed to be. Unfortunately with how 2020 has gone I just haven’t been able to be on top of this stuff as I would have liked to be. But this time it was prepped right, and looks great. Photos to come.

after sending the leaf springs off to get them re-sprung, the shop got them apart and it is as I feared - lots of replacement leafs in there, welds, repairs, etc. so they are being used as a template to make a completely new set that will match what should have been originally. These should be ready this week.

Axles I got from @whitey45 should be finished with the rebuilds shortly (finally) after the holiday as well, then we can mount those shiny 25 wheels on and get that chassis rolling. Many thanks to @Cruiserhiggs for helping get the mechanical moving forward. Engine and transmission to follow.

will have some more updates next week. I’m optimistic for a more productive 2021!

 

[Indygbd]

I have spare fj25 metal body pieces if you still need any patches for your body.

 

[scoobiedubes]

I have spare fj25 metal body pieces if you still need any patches for your body.

Thanks Gabe, I think the big pieces are taken care of now, now we just need to clean it up and take care of some of the areas around the door jams, windows etc. should be good now but I’ll let you know if I need anything. Unfortunately most of the 28 body wasn’t shared with the 25 so it had to be made.

 

[scoobiedubes]

Well, yesterday I moved Lara's body down to a different shop down in mesa to finish the metal and body work. I've been pretty humbled with this process and learned a lot, unfortunately the hard way. I think I was in some bit of denial about the body work the other shop was doing for a while, I didn't think it looked the way that it should based on the other work I'd seen done before, but they kept reassuring me that it would all clean up later on and how "great" they thought it was looking. I didn't really get to stop by much during most of this pandemic due to the family situation so I had to rely on pictures more than I would like, but past few months tried to stop by more and the conversations were not going the way that a business/customer conversation should go. Basically, they kept just telling me to be happy with things I wasn't happy with, I can't tell you how many times they said "it is what it is". Eventually the shop owner, who I had previously considered a friend, wouldn't even talk to me. He was almost never at the shop anyway, and had someone else - who really is just a welder not a fab/body guy - doing most of the work for him off and on. They kept telling me how much work it is, and that I didn't really know what I was asking for with a lot of the requests. Lots of complaining about how bad the body was, and me saying that shouldn't be any surprise - all Lara's scars have been there staring us in the face since the day she got back from sandblast. I started to wonder if perhaps I was being unreasonable, until I talking to a couple of other body guys in the valley, showing them photos, etc and they confirmed what I had been concerned about all along. So I had to take a deep breath and prepare to do what needed to be done, and take it someplace that would do it right. This was a tough pill to swallow, as I fear a lot of their work will need to be redone to make it look right. Lots of areas warped from excessive heat, bad welds, etc. A lot of time and money wasted in 2020. Time will help me cope with this I'm sure, but its brought a lot of stress and anxiety over the last few months. I have learned a lot of lessons from this process. I'm confident in the end I'll make sure this project is done right though, and a correctly finished product is the only thing that is going to make me feel better about the mistakes that have been made along the way. I'm partnering now with Avid Cruisers for pretty much the entire remaining project, so now I have fellow cruiser fans on my side helping me make sure we do this FJ28 justice.

I probably shouldn't complain, many have had it much worse this year! I knew this was a massive project, I thought it was going to take a long time but I wasn't expecting to have to switch shops. I'll be meeting with the new body guy next week sometime to go over it, what needs to be fixed/corrected, and get a timeframe but I think the expectation is that the body will finish this spring. Maybe if we are lucky we finally have a finished truck this summer. I feel a lot better today than I did last week though, so I know we're getting back on track with the project. Hope to provide better, cheerier updates throughout 2021!

 

[scoobiedubes]

Spent a lot of time going over the body with the new body guy last night and I have a lot more confidence in his ability to make things right. I hope I've got the funds to see it to the end, but seeing his other work I have no worries at all about his skill. He's really excited about it too, which makes me feel excited about the results.

Also found last night that thanks to @Cruiserhiggs that the LCHM has a lot of pictures of their 28L on the website now - maybe they did a year ago and I just didn't notice it but its pretty helpful actually. Found that it appears that ash tray is original where its currently located, AND that battery compartment on the passenger side is original. That's going to be tricky with the LV seats but now I'm hoping we can somehow hinge the bench for access. Lots of good photos here, thank you LCHM!

Land Cruiser Heritage Museum - 1960 FJ28LV

ToyotaLand Cruiser

landcruiserhm.com

 

[scoobiedubes]

While i am waiting to get the body work moving again, here’s a happier little update. I Found this in Japan recently - a NOS tail light / license plate light for the 28! Lara had her original one surprisingly but it’s a little bit mangled and the lens has been replaced. Could have restored it certainly (and probably still will) but what are the odds of something like this popping up? Pretty amazing, couldn’t pass it up!

 

[Bear]

Beautiful lamp--great find ! Was it ever used on any other vehicles?

 

[scoobiedubes]

Beautiful lamp--great find ! Was it ever used on any other vehicles?

Not completely sure but the 28 parts manual just shows it as a 28 part number.

Edit: thanks Bear, I was only paying attention to the far right column but looks like this is shared with the FA trucks too, based on the PN.

 

[Bear]

So then, off a FA70 if that's a vehicle?

 

[scoobiedubes]

So then, off a FA70 if that's a vehicle?

FA70 is one of the big work trucks Toyota made, so maybe it shared this part?

 

[Bear]

Must have, somewhere. Was my understanding that the old part number system indicates the first vehicle in the Toyota stable to use a specific part.

In your case, probably more difficult to find any parts for that old hauler, than for a 28. So congrats on your find !

 

[scoobiedubes]

Found a pretty cool JDM catalog for the FJ28 in Japan way back in September, finally received it today! Probably been stuck in a container at the port for months. Scanned the whole thing in, here's some of the 28 photos. I've seen most of them before online but pretty cool to find an original.

JDM FJ28 Brochure.jpg

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[Indygbd]

Did you ever get the new Cocker Super Traxion tires mounted? If so, do you have a photo? I have been trying to decide what to go with on the 1958 FJ25 and I think those might be the ones I want.

 

[scoobiedubes]

Did you ever get the new Cocker Super Traxion tires mounted? If so, do you have a photo? I have been trying to decide what to go with on the 1958 FJ25 and I think those might be the ones I want.

I did. I really like the look but it’s of course personal preference...

 

[Indygbd]

I did. I really like the look but it’s of course personal preference...

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Those look great! I love the old school style of them.

 

[Indygbd]

Those look great! I love the old school style of them.

Did you go with the 650 or 750 tires? I saw they had both. The 6.5 appeared to be about 80.00 less per tire.

 

[scoobiedubes]

Those look great! I love the old school style of them.

Me too, they're skinny but not TOO skinny. Here's the exact ones I ordered.