1966 FJ45 PU Build

[7schulz]

or
http://www.mastercraftdefense.com/seats.php
2x BLAST ATTENUATION 9-POSITION RECLINING SEAT for the front seats
2xBLAST ATTENUATION LOCKING JUMP SEAT for the rear seats

 

[mikeymouse]

What I'm thinking about.

Do it.

If you're not going extra-cab. I'd do the quad-120. What a cool find! Can't wait to see the progress.

 

[mikeymouse]

Those are pretty intense seats. How much are they?

 

[cult45]

Down here there's a s***load of Land Rover Defender 130's getting around and in the flesh they're too long. Nice smooth ride but so much more chance of getting hung up. That extra 10" is a LOT. IMO the 120" wheelbase is a pretty good choice. The 1HD-T will pull that along nicely.

 

[mikeymouse]

Yeah, that's a lot of truck on a trail. It would be excluded from some of the trails in the Badlands. My FJC is almost too long for some of them.

 

[7schulz]

I'm hoping to be moving to Denver soon... Or maybe Golden

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

If you have the opportunity to sit in those seats pre-purchase, I would. I had the similarly themed fixed back suspension seats in my old rig, and they were very small compared to regular suspension seats.

 

[7schulz]

I've sat in the FMTV seats and they fit pretty well, the master craft seats have similar dimensions. I'll take some measurements of my 80 seats this weekend while I'm looking at wheel base measurements so I can decide on what cab to go with.

Arya, do you have recommendations for other seats that I might fit in better. I'm 6'5" about 225 and pretty wide back and long legs. I know I didn't fit well in the mercedes amg c63 seat my back was too wide for the bolsters but the BMW 1M I fit just fine.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

All of the top end suspension seat manufacturers(PRP, Mastercraft, Twisted Stitch, etc) will make any of their seats custom sized to fit you. They can add height, width, whatever. They will ask you to take some measurements and then they will build the seat for you.

 

[7schulz]

I did a few measurements and the 80 wheel base is very close to the FJ45 wheel base so I just did some kind of messy photo work on what I think this truck will look like cut up and what I'm thinking.
Today



The cab should be stretched about 8 inches so I cut 8 inches out of the bed in front of the wheel well. I then cut about 24 inches out of the bed after the wheel well. This is what I thought would work the best for wheeling and keeping as much truck bed.



Now as an engineer I like the golden ratio and the rule of Phi and tried to use that as I stretched and cut the truck. This is what it came up with. As you can see the body line run pretty close on the horizontal and vertical lines and also with lines of the truck. The problem I'm coming up with is that the red phi lines want me to cut almost all of the bed off to make everything else line up. See the red line just past the rear wheel. If I stretch the phi grid to the end of the bed in the first picture it doesn't line up with any of the other vertical lines of the truck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

 

[7schulz]

So I cut the rest of the bed off to the line and it doesn't look right either.



I also tried a combination of the 2 matrix to see if it looked better and it doesn't

 

[subzali]

Looks like phi isn't going to work for you bud. I liked the first cut in post 30 best.

 

[7schulz]

Yea looks that way, it may help me stretch the cab, but the bed just doesn't fit. My first guess with just my eyes looks the best. It is kind of interesting that the door openings and the rear of the cab/begining of the bed do all fall on the ratio lines

 

[Sam Stewart]

I'm really digging the extended single cab like in the above pic. If I was building it, that's what I would do.

 

[SNLC]

Any way you do it, besides some hack inbreed job is going to be killer.

There is a soft spot in me for the 45 pickups that have been stretched and built up. Damn fine looking trucks! Regardless of what you do I will watch this thread....

I got an 80-series chassis here myself I am working on doing something with. It is the first 80-series chassis I have had my hands on but I got to say it is damn well built, I am willing to say it is better built then a 60-series chassis and way beyond a 40-series. The radius arms suspension and link brackets below the frame rails leave something to be desired but in terms of build quality of the chassis and strength it is top notch. I would be pretty stoked with any 45 pickup on an 80-series chassis.

 

[adrenalinefjz80]

The last gray photo looks sweet Lee. Cant wait to see what you build.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

The gray photo does look good. You might want to open up the rear wheel wells a bit to give you some more room to flex.

Subscribed to this build.

 

[LX40]

When you're ready to unload any left overs, let me know.
Especially what's left of the frame and lower cab.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[7schulz]

Dan, Will do.

 

[7schulz]

How much extra cab has anyone added or how much do you think the gray cab has been stretched?
Cruiser Concepts said theirs is extended 8". Lee, the typical stretch is about 8 inches. That's enough to insert the windwing from a later model hardtop behind the door pillar.
http://cruiser-concepts.com/CRUISER_CONCEPTS/ExtendedCabFJ45Shortbed.html




Aqualu has said they can stretch their 6" to 8" or 10" no problem.
Yes we would be able to build a custom #4502 - 1978+ older FJ45 cab that is 8-10" longer than stock, would be approx. $300 additional on top of the cost of the cab ($2,273.00). Lead time would be around 6-8 weeks and we would need a deposit to get the build going for you.