1967 FJ-45 Taillight Restoration

[Unimogguy]

First off I’ve got a couple questions for those of you who have restored the rear taillights. I searched for threads on taillight restorations but didn’t find anything answering the following questions. I know @Bear restored a set so I’m hoping he’ll chime in as well!

I have the opportunity to purchase a set of ‘67 Stout taillights. But they seem different than the (first pic) of the ones John @Living in the Past posted back in 2010. His have a separator between the 2 bulbs. I don’t know if that is an earlier or later version of the 45 taillights?

Does anyone know of a socket and wiring replacement for the taillights?

What are you guys using for gaskets?

What lense color is correct for ‘67? Red/Red or Orange/Red?

Do you guys have a preference on a vendor to do the plating?

Which type of plating did you use? Yellow Zinc or Zinc Chromate or something else? @Blastservices

 

[tahoe40/45]

I think yellow zinc is what they were originally.

Gaskets

Tail Light Gasket for Early Land Cruiser FJ45 FJ40 - Set of 2

Set of 2 reproduction tail / rear combination light gaskets for early Toyota Land Cruiser FJ45 and non-U.S. FJ40. Corresponds to OEM part # 81552-36010. Left side and right side gaskets are identical. Note: The gasket is slightly thicker than the original for increased longevity. It may be...

www.cityracerllc.com

 

[Bear]

Since you mentioned me--

Since I'm not a Stout enthusiast, I know little about them. Over the years some of us have heard that the Stout tail lamps were the "same" as those on the pre-1968 LWB trucks, but I personally have never had one to side-by-side compare with the FJ45 lamp. The 45 tail lamp did have a removable thin clear/blue zinc-plated sheet metal divider between the two bulbs--missing on most used lamps found nowadays. The bulb sockets use a thin round phenolic disc with either one or two wires attached with a blob(s) of solder as a contact point, and a small light-duty spring to keep pressure against the bulb--just as on later 40/45 series lamps.

The specific gaskets have been reproduced by several folks over the years, some better than others. The lens-attaching machine screws were stainless with a very tiny rubber washer under each head. Various lenses were used over the period: some were red/red, red/orange, red/orange with internal reflector, and red/white--likely from a Stout variation. Some of these have been reproduced to varying quality. The early parts catalogs show the lenses with the internal reflector; some countries specified certain colors, with or without reflectors and some trucks were imported and separate reflectors added to the rear valence at the port of entry.

The lamp bodies were yellow cad plated originally. Since cadmium is on the "danger list" in some localities, yellow zinc can substitute for replating. Two issues you didn't mention are the reversible bodies and the license plate lens. If the truck was imported to a country not requiring a lighted rear license plate, two identical lamps were installed with one simply flipped over to be used on opposite sides. If the importing country required the license plate be illuminated, a tail lamp was installed with a lower cutout and a plastic "window" allowing light from the driving lamp bulb to shine down onto the license plate.

The clear plastic lens was molded to conform with the lamp body, used a special lipped rubber gasket, three tiny nut clamp-plates with tiny machine screws. On nearly all existing lamps found nowadays the clear plastic lens has been melted by the lamp bulb and is worthless.

And as we all know, finding ANY old 45 tail lamps is difficult--which is why the later wider 40/45 series lamps are sometimes jerried-up on the pre-1968 trucks, or the rear valence is cut out and replaced with the later version with the larger inset for the lamps. As on 40 series, the tail lamps had no protection from kicked-up dirt, mud, water and consequently rusted-out in many cases. There were small rubber caps at the back-end of each socket, but these dried out quickly and shrunk and allowed water to enter the back of the lamp with inevitable results.

Considering the rarity of good existing lamps, current owners are probably taking much better care of all the rare specific items on their trucks. Looks like you are fortunate to have a workable set. BTW any standard plating shop should be able to help you (I would bead-blast the bare bodies first).

HTH

 

[Blastservices]

First off I’ve got a couple questions for those of you who have restored the rear taillights. I searched for threads on taillight restorations but didn’t find anything answering the following questions. I know @Bear restored a set so I’m hoping he’ll chime in as well!

I have the opportunity to purchase a set of ‘67 Stout taillights. But they seem different than the (first pic) of the ones John @Living in the Past posted back in 2010. His have a separator between the 2 bulbs. I don’t know if that is an earlier or later version of the 45 taillights?

Does anyone know of a socket and wiring replacement for the taillights?

What are you guys using for gaskets?

What lense color is correct for ‘67? Red/Red or Orange/Red?

Do you guys have a preference on a vendor to do the plating?

Which type of plating did you use? Yellow Zinc or Zinc Chromate or something else? @Blastservices

View attachment 3847097

View attachment 3847098

View attachment 3847099

Yellow zinc w/chromate gives you the durability and the rainbow hue. With out chromate isn’t durable enough in my opinion.

 

[MDH33]

Here's a pic of the ps tail lamp on my '67 Stout. It has the window to light the license plate Bear talked about. Also has the divider behind the gasket.

That pic is first time I opened them. They cleaned up nice and work well!

 

[Unimogguy]

Couple questions….

I found these taillight housings for my ‘67. Has anyone ever seen a 2 piece lense for the Stout or FJ45 taillight housing?

Do you think these Stout taillight housings are direct replacements for the FJ45? Apparently they’re OEM Stout and supposed to fit the RK100 and RK101.

@Bear @Living in the Past @whitey45 @3_puppies
@cppilot

 

[Living in the Past]

The left tail light housing has a cutout with a lense to light the license plate. I have a set of Stout red/clear lenses. They fit the FJ45 LWB housings. Not sure if the width but Australian early FJ40s amber red lenses. Australia required amber turn signals in the rear. Very early Toyota added a amber light hung off the rear crossmember. Believe it was 62 or 63 Australia had a different rear crossmember similar to our 9/73+ with a narrower openings for the tail lights.

Do the lenses have SAE with a year or DOT cast into them? Here is a tail light on my 72 FJ40. I know the amber reflectors on the 68/69 have SAE 67.

 

[cppilot]

I’m not sure that the cutouts in the rear valance are the same but they well might be. I’ll bet these are closer than any 40 series light… The left light on the 45LPB with the cutout for the license plate light isn’t a big deal to unless you are going a complete period correct restoration. Those 45 lights are almost impossible to find…these Stout lights may be worth getting…..

 

[Bear]

If you look very carefully at the two-color OEM FJ45 tail lenses that are pictured in the very early parts books--the lenses with the built-in reflectors--you can see that each color section was molded to fit with its partner and then they were either melted together or glued. This allowed for countries to specify red/red, red/orange, or red/white (as in the early Stouts). The two part lenses did not have any casketing between the two sections, and once snapped together would look as if a one-piece multicolor tail lens. This is one way to verify OEM vs repro tail lenses, as the color differentiations are distinct not just "spray-on" blurring between the sections.

The NOS Stout lenses I have are one-piece red/clear, where the clear section has internal ribbing to cast the light in a wide pattern, not just focused entirely to the direct rear. A fellow I have purchased parts from in Cyprus, has been advertising for sale one or more of the split halves such as you have pictured--I believe for $89 per half--but the manufacturer is not Koito. He claims it is nonetheless OEM and that Toyota in this case utilized two suppliers.

The tail lamp "buckets" for the Stouts seem to be dimensionally the same as for the FJ45. Not sure if the Stout parts use the same part numbers as the FJ45. And not having a Stout, I can't say if the Stout used a cut-out to illuminate the rear license plate. At this point in the rehab of early vehicles, finding ANY of these old parts is a lucky day. Congrats.

Lastly, it seems despite the early catalog featuring illustrations with the tail lenses that included reflectors and red/orange colors, the USA received only red/red or red/orange WITHOUT the built-in reflector. Certainly manufacturing a single color complete lens (red/red) should be easier than joining together two different color halves, but different jurisdictions, such as DOT, specify their own safety-related specs, whether it be tires, bulb brightness, seat belt anchoring, or in this case-- lens colors. Really, how much difference has it made to widen the original headlight bezels--for ostensibly "safety" reasons. Design is a different story.

My two cents.

 

[Unimogguy]

@Living in the Past @cppilot @Bear

Thank you guys for the sharing your knowledge and info. I really appreciate it! I’m going to move forward with the purchase.

I can confirm that the Stout and FJ45 taillight buckets are identical and I’ve included a pic comparing the 2. The bottom one is off of a ‘67 Stout and the top one (white) is off a ‘67 FJ45.
But having never seen a snap together 2 piece lense I wasn’t sure if it was correct or even for a Stout for that matter.

@Living in the Past the lenses don’t have a SAE or DOT stamp that I can see from the pics.

@Bear from the pics you can see that the Stout did have the same cut out for the license plate light just like the FJ45.

 

[dogfishlake]

This is great news! I need to source at least one for my truck

 

[Unimogguy]

As I seem to have found myself down a rabbit hole…

Here’s some more info:

The tail light lenses that I got from a ‘67 FJ45 have the following markings on them:

ORANGE SIDE
S7948 KOITO
MADE IN JAPAN

RED SIDE
SAE DST 64

I believe these to be original lenses due the complete separation of colors between the lenses. As @Bear mentioned previously.

The Stout tail light lenses that I just got (from overseas) that has the red circle reflector in it have the following markings on them:

ORANGE SIDE

S8899 KOITO
MADE IN JAPAN

RED SIDE

R-24 KOITO
L1383
MADE IN JAPAN


Now for the housings…

So there must have been 2 different variations of the Stout housings. Which I’m led to believe is potentially based on the difference in countries and/or years of manufacture.

The main differences are the mounting brackets for the lenses, the light separator between the bulbs, the mounting screws for the housing to the body and the license plate illumination lense mounted on the inside or outside the housing.

Pics for reference. The Non-US Stout housing is the newer maybe unused(?) housing with bulb separator and the second US Stout housing is the 2 tone nickel/rust housing. The US FJ45 housing is in white/rust. The US Stout and US FJ45 appear to me to be identical.

I hope this info helps someone in the future as I have been the beneficiary of knowledge from those who’ve been in the hobby a long time. For those that have shared and continue to share their knowledge with me and this forum. I sincerely thank you.

 

[Bear]

The interesting question is why Toyota, the manufacturer of both vehicles, would send different design specs to Koito to produce essentially the same product with a different part number to stockpile. Many other parts were carried over from earlier vehicles, often across product lines. The lens with the inset reflector would be an improvement, since some of the earliest FJ45 longbed pickup trucks had a metal half-moon shaped addition to the bottom of the rear valence on each side to mount a circular reflector. But that specific tail lens with built-in reflector shows up illustrated in the early 45 catalogs, not just at the end of production in October 1967. As a geek, I would be interested in which came first: the chicken or the egg.

No matter, your success in locating any survivor tail lens buckets, or original sets of lenses, either whole or in sections, is a feat in itself. Lacking a rear bumper on the longbed trucks likely resulted in smashed rear valences and their taillamp assemblies, and probably led to early depletion of spare part stocks of them in all markets. I highly doubt verrrrry few folks would ever recognize the correctness of the proper tail lamp buckets, as only the lenses are outwardly ever seen.

My experience indicates that your one tail lamp bucket with the license plate window held outside the housing by a single screw, was not installed on any of the 45 pickups exported to the US in the batch of trucks we received up to October 1967. Also interesting is the location of the color separation between sections of your lenses. At the moment I cannot easily access any of my tail lens examples to report on the numberings imprinted on them. I do remember differences in numbering between the USA-sent red/red and red/orange(without the reflectors), and have wondered whether there ever was produced a red/red version WITH an inset reflector, which might point to the USA not being the cause of the reflector to meet some jurisdictional safety requirement.

And for those fortunate to have the relatively rare half-moon pieces to hold their rear reflectors, their scarcity is probably due to removing a pickup bed with them still installed, and setting it down on the ground crushing that small metal piece. Oh how nerdy some of us get noticing first, and then spending countless hours searching for holy grail little widgets ! Present company excepted, of course !!

Carry on.

Ha.