Builds 1972 fj40 build-up thread (2 Viewers)

[mattcrandle]

i have actually had this cruiser for almost two years now, and i started rebuilding it almost a year ago, but progress was slow and i have not gotten very far. thanks to becoming recently unemployed (by choice), i am finally progressing on the build so i decided to post up.

From the time I learned to drive in a cruiser on the dirt roads in eastern Washington, I always knew that I wanted one of my own. I searched off and on for many years, looking for a cruiser that was perfect for me. Finally, in the fall of 2003, I took the plunge. I found this 1972 cruiser for sale by a guy in Avondale, AZ. He said he had bought it hoping to rebuild it as well, but just didnt have the time to even start the project.

The cruiser was in in what I would call 'OK' shape. It had the typical rust in the rear quarter panels, but amazingly, none in the rear sill. It had some rust under both doors, and the rear swing-out doors were completely rusted out on the inside.

The driver's side floorpan was rusted completely through, with a hole about 4" completely missing. The previous owner had covered up the hole and rust with a fiberglass panel riveted in place.

The front fenders had numerous small dents and dings, and there were a few small dents and deep scratches over pretty much the whole rear of the tub. The lower portion of the cowl was also dented up on the driver's side. Several of the exterior lights and reflectors were broken or missing, and there were no mirrors.

The good news was that the cruiser started right up and ran well. The dash was not butchered up, and the rear wheel wells were not cutout either. The stock motor had seen a lot of miles, but seemed like it still had life left in it. The four-wheel drive worked perfectly. The steering was typical cruiser - wandering all over the place. The brakes were almost non-existent. The cruiser had not been registered in many years and only had a salvage title.

After several hours of trying to find a notary on a sunday, I was finally the proud owner of the light blue beast. Originally, I only planned on tuning up the motor and rebuilding the brakes so that I could drive the cruiser to work everyday. Little did I know that in a few months, the landcruiser would be nothing more than a frame and a million parts scattered in my garage.

 

[mattcrandle]

RE: 1972 fj40 build up thread

although the landcruiser started and ran ok, it drove horribly and didnt hardly stop at all. i limped it home and only drove it probably 20 miles in the next few months. i was living in an apartment at the time (no garage), so major mechanical work was out of the question.

i finally moved into a house with a big garage and so i finally got around to the landruiser. after failing emissions, tuning everything up, and failing again, i decided that this cruiser was in for a bigger overhaul. the old F engine had some burnt valves and who knows how many miles. i had always wanted a v8 cruiser, so now was my chance. but why stop at a new motor? i decided to tear the thing down to the frame and rebuild it from the ground up.

Well, what is the first thing you need to do to do a complete rebuild? Take everything apart, of course. Armed with a few metric sockets, tearing down an FJ40 goes much faster than I had thought. Soon, the parts are scattered througout my garage.

Using the hardtop as a make-shift workbench, I soon had about a 100 little ziplock bags filled with all kinds of nuts and bolts and miscellaneous parts. Hopefully when it comes time to put everything back together, I can remember where all of this stuff goes.

Once most of the small stuff was removed and the front end was disassembled, all that remained was the tub. I had never removed the body off of any vehicle before, but since the rest of the cruiser disassembly was going so smooth, I decided to tackle it. Using a poor combination of a floor jack, 4x4 lumber, two motorcycle tie-downs, and the rollbar out of the cruiser, i was able to get the body practically all the way off by myself (however, I do not recommend this approach to anyone else).

Jason came by to help me finish lifting the body off of the frame. Next up was to pull the engine, transmission, and transfer case. Since the tub was off, pulling the whole setup at once proved to be pretty easy. Once again leveraging the versatility of the motorcycle tie-downs, Jason, James, and I were able to pull everything out in about 15 minutes.

One more shot of the cruiser before she loses her motor.

And one more...

Fifteen minutes later...the whole setup is out.

 

[Horsehead]

Lookin good man!

 

[mattcrandle]

RE: 1972 fj40 buildup thread

After the disassembly went so quickly, I began to falsely believe this was going to be a fast project. Funny though, it seems to take much longer to but things back together again once you have them apart. Add to that taking a few months off from working on the Landcruiser at all, and not much progress gets made. However, I am happy to report that the Landcruiser is back to being a (mostly) rolling chassis again, which i think makes it officially a vehicle again instead of just a pile of parts.

Once the frame was entirely stripped of all other parts, I had it sandblasted at a local shop. It was amazing how the frame looked when it came back. Just two days before, the frame rails had literally been filled completely solid with decades of hardened mud. After priming and several coats of high-temperature engine enamel paint, the frame looked like it was brand new. I hope the rest of the vehicle turns out as nice as the frame did.

My chassis went from 4-wheel drum brakes to 4-wheel disc brakes. The rear disk brake conversion was super duper easy (the hardest part was removing the old drum backing plates). Once the old drums were off, the new disc brakes were installed in probably an hour. I completed the conversion with some nice stainless steel braided brake lines.
The front conversion was only slightly harder, mostly just because there were more parts to disassemble. Again, the hardest part was the removal of the old drums. The conversion kit was a straight-forward kit, using the same calipers and rotors as the rear conversion. Before the rebuild, the drum brakes I had were almost completely incapable of stopping the vehicle. Now with my new disc brakes all the way around, I shouldn't have any trouble stopping at all.
(The bad news is that when installing the front disc brakes, it became abundantly clear that I am in desperate need of a complete knuckle rebuild. To get the Landcruiser back into a rolling chassis form, I am putting that job off for now, but I will have to tackle it sooner or later.)

 

[mattcrandle]

RE: 1972 fj40 buildup thread

just a couple of shots of the body sitting back on the frame (temporarily). with no weight on the frame and the new stiff springs and the 35's, the ride height is a little bit higher than i was hoping it would be.

 

[mattcrandle]

RE: 1972 fj40 buildup thread

here is my new drivetrain pretending that it is all installed. it is a chevy 350 v8 built by a local guy here in town. behind that is a th350 transmission and the stock 3-speed transfer case.

 

[Horsehead]

I notice you have rough country springs, probably 4in. of lift? i have those on my rig, and you have no idea how stiff they are... bout want to bounce you out of the freakin rig... good flex tho.

 

[Varty Yo]

looks good man keep it goin.......gonna turn out sweet

 

[mattcrandle]

Re:

yeah, i was sort of regretting getting those springs because they are SUPER stiff right now, and the shackle angle leaves a lot to be desired. but, i am gonna give them a chance and see if they break in at all before i pass judgement on them.

 

[Franky40]

Just curious Matt, with the vehicle torn down that far, is there any reason you elected to go with lift springs rather than a spring over?

 

[pbgbottle]

nice can you please take some closer pics of where you welded your motormounts and of the adapter you used for your turbo 350 auto conversion , i am going to start the same project using auto ,would like to see the lenght of everything and how close to the crossmember the t-case is . looks good keep the pics coming

is that the downey adapter

 

[desertdude]

Real nice work! Keep those photos coming

 

[mattcrandle]

Just curious Matt, with the vehicle torn down that far, is there any reason you elected to go with lift springs rather than a spring over?

well, there were a couple of reasons:

1. i dont have the mechanical apptitude required for the spring over. i know the folks that have done it say it is a piece of cake, but nothing is easier than bolting up the new springs.

2. i dont have the equipment needed for fabrication. i dont even have a welder (i just had a fellow cruiserhead come over to weld up my motor mounts), so the cut-n-turn and what not was just going to be a pain for me.

again, nothing that i couldnt have overcome and i am sure some would say that in the long run i would have been better off. but each cruiser build is specific to the builder and this particular one used lift springs.

 

[mattcrandle]

nice can you please take some closer pics of where you welded your motormounts and of the adapter you used for your turbo 350 auto conversion , i am going to start the same project using auto ,would like to see the lenght of everything and how close to the crossmember the t-case is . looks good keep the pics coming

is that the downey adapter

yes, that is the downey adapter. it is just over 1" thick. with that short adapter, i was able to keep the stock rear tubular crossmember in its original location AND put the front motor mounts right where i wanted them.

here is a picture of where the rear mounts are. when the drivetrain is in, the rear of the parking brake drum is only about 1/2" from the round crossmember.

here are the front mounts, with the distance shown from the rear of the front shock tower. according to the advance adapters instructions, the center of the mount should be 8-12 inches from the back of the shock tower. the downey instructions suggest 19 1/2" from the rear of the front crossmember, and i ended up at about 19", so i am real happy with it.

here is a shot of how high the front mounts are above the frame. with this height. the engine sat at about a -4 degree slope (front to back), which about matched the angle of my rear pinion.

just got the mounts welded up and so i need to clean up the welds and get them primed and painted. i also have to finish rebuilding the parking brake before i can install the whole thing (once it is in, there is not enough room to remove the parking brake or transfer case without lowering it down from the rear mounts). the only other consideration with this setup is that the transmission pan will have to be modified to clear the front driveshaft output on the transfer case. i got the smaller diameter front flange, but i still had to do some grinding and pounding and i am not sure it will fit yet.

 

[pbgbottle]

thanks for the info and pics .i've always wanted to see how the downey 1 inch adapter conversion worked out , i will be doing this exact same conversion . awsome , keep the pics coming would like to see how everything lines up and fit's (driveshafts) thanks when you get it all in

 

[REZARF]

Looks SWEET!

Great job so far. I always wished I could afford the down time and restore my rig the right way like you are.

I was wondering, what kit for the rear brakes did you use?

Also, I bet the springs will break in as you put a little weight on it and flex it up a bit. I put a couple hundred pounds of sand in the back of mine for a few after new springs and it loosened everything up a lot.

Keep up the great work!

Rezarf <><

 

[mattcrandle]

well, my parking brake cable and parts came today, so once that was complete, i was ready to install the drivetrain permanently.

The transfer case adapter I used was the short style from Downey. It is just barely over 1" in length. I was worried that with the added length of the transmission, my drivetrain would be too long and I would have to relocate the rear crossmember and have a really short rear drive shaft. With this adapter, I was able to keep the rear crossmember in the stock location (see next picture).

With the front engine mounts positioned about where I wanted them, I was still able to clear the rear crossmember. I would say there is about 1/2" of clearance between the top/back of the parking brake drum and the crossmember, just enough to stick my fingers in between.

The downside to the short Downey adapter is that the transmission pan interferes with the front driveshaft. To rememdy this, I had to get a smaller front output flange (not shown). Even with the smaller flange, some minor pan 'modification' was still necessary.

With the rear of the drivetrain just clearing the crossmember, the front of the engine has just enough room for the water pump and fan. I figured that if space got tight, I could use the short water pump style, but I think that with the electric Taurus fan I am using, the long pump will just fit.

Following the advice of both Advance Adapters and Downey, I offset my engine slightly to toward the driver's side. Right in front of the engine, I measured the distance between the frame rails to be 24 1/2". Half way would have put the centerline at 12 1/4". I offset the engine 3/4" toward the driver's side, making the distance from the passenger side frame rail exactly 13".

Just some more shots of the whole works all installed. Notice the new ($$$) parking brake cable and speedometer cable. I hope that they are long enough with the added length of the new transmission.

 

[pbgbottle]

awsome! those where the pics i was waiting for thanks ,keep them coming

 

[McClaskey]

if you dont mind me asking, how much did it cost for them to sand blast the fram?

 

[mattcrandle]

if you dont mind me asking, how much did it cost for them to sand blast the fram?

i had it done by a guy in mesa, http://www.azprostrip.com/home.php

i called about 8 or 10 places before i settled on this guy. he ended up charging me right around $100 (cant find the receipt at the moment). that wasnt the cheapest price i got quoted (i think $85 was), but this guy really knew what he was doing and did it the same day. i would recommend him and i plan to use him again when i get on to the body panels, etc.