I thought I would post up a short synopsis of my recent build. A very good and talented friend lead the way and I was the helper, grunt and parts buyer. And hopefully learned enough to do some of these things on my own in the future.
I started with my 40 that already had a 350 V8, 700r4 and a toybox to Cruiser t-case. I had 35” boggers on it and without lockers, it was pretty capable and a ton of fun. I then installed lunchbox lockers and promptly broke a front shaft in my stock axle. After pricing out axle upgrades, I decided to go the 1 ton route. I found a great deal on a GM Dana 60 front and a 14 bolt rear, 4:56 gears and a Detroit locker in the rear. I wheeled like that for a year with a crazy short rear driveshaft going from an offset t case to a centered rear.
Although it looks pretty good in photos, there was a lot of rot and rust in the tub covered up by black rustoleum. I bought a used blackbox from a friend and an NP 205 and decided to upgrade and make a center output to center axle improvement. After installing them, I realized that my driveshaft would be too short and at too steep of an angle. That’s when my friend agreed to let me bring it to his shop and see what I should do.
After much discussion, crawling around with tape measures and weighing different options, the decision was made to stretch the tub and frame to accommodate a longer driveshaft and increase the wheelbase for a better all around wheeler.
It was crazy how easy it was to just go for it. No going back now. My frame was in amazingly good shape for an east coast cruiser so we left a tab sticking out on the bottom and cut the rest of the frame out at a spot where an old crossmember had been hacked out by a previous owner. We removed 3 3/4 inches and added a 24” piece of 2x5 square tube for a net stretch of 20 1/4 inches.
All welded and fish plated, after checking diagonal measurements and keeping it square. At first, the tapered frame seemed like a big complication, but we just put the stretch pieces in parallel and it worked out great.
Next fix was in the rear. A previous owner had hacked up the rear crossmember to install a trailer hitch, that was fixed by designing a new rear bumper.
Now that we got that done, we spent some time sorting out the drivetrain and figuring out what to do with the body. I’ve never liked how a comp cut looked on an FJ40, I wanted the rear wheel wells to look somewhat close to factory and the truck to look like an FJ40 more than a buggy. I called Bud at Budbuilt and asked him if he’s could make a set of his 3/16 quarter panels longer to accommodate the stretch. He happily agreed for a very reasonable up charge. He is a great guy. We started mocking up how it would look and figure out how to do it.
We cut the cowl and door frames from an old rusty parts truck and came up with a plan. I wanted to have a rear seat for my kids and grandkids to be able to ride along. We also decided to box in the rear of the frame behind the stretch.
We used 2x3 square tube on the bottom edge of the tub to finish it off and function as rock sliders. We also started the tub crossmembers out of 1x3 square tube to tie in to the body mounts.
We stacked 2 pieces of tube to make a roomy footwell for rear seat passengers. Installed the front end pieces to continue mock up and to keep motivated by seeing the vision. My Cruiser was originally red, and I like red cruisers, so we painted the bib and grille to see how it would look. I loved it, rustoleum gloss cherry spray paint, applied by a master spray bomb painter (not me).
A lot of work getting the wiring straitened out, getting it running, the dash details etc. We also used an old FJ40 horn button on the wheel that was in the truck originally a first gen pickup wheel I believe. We started designing and building the roll cage.
We installed the winters shifter and the JB fab triple shifters on the brackets that tie into the seat cradle and the dash bar. And we got it to move under it’s own power for the first time in a long time. I used an F250 front CV shaft for the rear shortened 5”. We pointed the rear yoke at the t case output with wedge shims of 6 degrees.
More odds and ends, painting, etc. I planned on going to the 20th annual Coal miner Cruiser classic, so we came up with a critical path list and got to work doing what had to be done to get it there and functioning.
More progress. I bought a Toyota flange for the front output of the NP205 (I already had a Toyota flange on the Dana 60) and had a Toyota drive shaft lengthened and balanced for the front. And it’s going home with just a few things to do yet.
It worked out beautifully on 2 days at the CMCC at Rauschenberg Creek and AAOC. I did mild trails to make sure everything was going to work as planned.
