Builds 1972 FJ55 - Hamilton (1 Viewer)

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There's plenty to think about while building one. I love the glove box light, reminds me of the one on my old ford tractor. Question...what a/c did you go with?
It's a Vintage air that they make for the 40 series. It has a high flow blower and cools things down well. I've put a couple in 55s now. For me this is a keep it simple option.
 
Got the AC and heater hoses hooked up after I got all the fittings in. Put a vacuum on the AC and its held for the day so far, so not expecting it to be down tomorrow.

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Spent the morning in wiring hell. When I got these seats I figured out the passenger seat wiring. The driver's seat had 10x the wiring due to the memory function and some other stuff. And I forgot these are airbag seats so will tie those wires off. Got the power seat functions sorted and the memory circuits pulled out. I'll deal with the heating and cooling later.

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Lastly, test fit one of the seats and it's going to work out just fine. I totally did not make driving noises while sitting in the seat 😆
The seat is in the highest position here, and there was enough clearance for me. It lowers quite a bit.

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Definitely going with a floor mounted parking brake lever. You can see the interference in the first picture where the linkage comes through the firewall. It's directly over the rear part of the valve cover. There's room between the door and seat for the lever. I'm using an 80 series lever that I had on hand.
 
Update time. Took the truck to my exhaust shop. He does nice work and takes time to route it and make things serviceable.

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Since I needed the exhaust routed properly in the rear I put on some Dobinsons IMS shocks. These actually fit and have the travel I need, so going to keep them on.

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I think I mentioned earlier, but I used a Painless harness due to the original being hacked up in a portion of the rear, and I was in a time crunch at the time trying to get the truck somewhere. Well that never happened and fast forward to hooking up the O2 sensors. I used the exact sensors Painless called out, and they have the same male plug that the harness has. WTF? I could have re-pinned the harness side to a female plug, but decided to build a jumper - this gave me a bit more length to route the wiring where it was out of the way.

The motor never threw a CEL until I had the exhaust done and the O2s in but not hooked up. Hooked up the sensors and cleared the codes. All good now.

Since I trailered the truck to the exhaust shop I decided to test out the suspension finally when I unloaded it.

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I'm very happy with the suspension flex with the spring sliders. Rear is a bit more stiff, but has the overload springs, so that's to be expected.

There is interference with the pitman arm on the leaf spring. I found a pitman arm with less drop and reamed it out for a 1 ton TRE and that solved the interference issue.

So when I planned the suspension setup I was going to run 35s. There's plenty of clearance for that. But after flexing it out I decided to run 37s. There is minor contact at the front fender in these photos. That trailer fender is 30inches high compressed under the weight of the truck. I could gain a bit more tire clearance by moving the axle back about an inch or trimming the fender. I'll get some bump stops in there for now to limit up travel.
 
Next up was a parking brake. The disc conversion on this truck did not have parking brake calipers. I picked up a set of Eldorado calipers and some universal cables. I was going to run an 80 parking brake lever next to the driver seat between the door. It fits, but my seats are pretty wide, so getting a hand in there is tight and I opted to figure something else out. The trans tunnel is going to get a console and I want that as big as possible, so that was out too.

So I decided to go with an E-Stopp.

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I built a quick plate that attaches to the frame cross member, an existing body bolt and bent a bracket to attach at the front to the frame.

Got it on and tested it last night. It definitely has enough force to clamp down the calipers. I need to run the wiring and switch in the dash. I think I'll also use this as an anti-theft device, since it will be fairly easy to cut the power to it with a hidden switch to keep it actuated and the rear wheels locked up. Inside is a linear actuator that stays in the last position it was switched to, so no need for constant power to keep it engaged.
 
I think I mentioned earlier, but I used a Painless harness due to the original being hacked up in a portion of the rear, and I was in a time crunch at the time trying to get the truck somewhere. Well that never happened and fast forward to hooking up the O2 sensors. I used the exact sensors Painless called out, and they have the same male plug that the harness has. WTF? I could have re-pinned the harness side to a female plug, but decided to build a jumper - this gave me a bit more length to route the wiring where it was out of the way.

The motor never threw a CEL until I had the exhaust done and the O2s in but not hooked up. Hooked up the sensors and cleared the codes. All good now.

Since I trailered the truck to the exhaust shop I decided to test out the suspension finally when I unloaded it.

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I'm very happy with the suspension flex with the spring sliders. Rear is a bit more stiff, but has the overload springs, so that's to be expected.

There is interference with the pitman arm on the leaf spring. I found a pitman arm with less drop and reamed it out for a 1 ton TRE and that solved the interference issue.

So when I planned the suspension setup I was going to run 35s. There's plenty of clearance for that. But after flexing it out I decided to run 37s. There is minor contact at the front fender in these photos. That trailer fender is 30inches high compressed under the weight of the truck. I could gain a bit more tire clearance by moving the axle back about an inch or trimming the fender. I'll get some bump stops in there for now to limit up travel.
Dam Coop…I need a trailer like that one :)
 
^^^

So you could do more of this?😁

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Got the intake figured out. Running the stock GM airbox and filter. This leaves me enough room on the passenger side for a smaller 1200 series battery to power a fridge and coms when the truck is off. I removed the duct from the inner fender and the airbox can draw cold air in through the fender vent. No need for a dorkle.

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I got 3 keys with the truck, and all of them turn the ignition fine. But the doors and tailgate switch are another issue. I pulled the door cylinders and the markings were illegible. I pulled the tailgate switch and same thing. Lastly, pulled the ignition switch and I could make out the code. So I texted my buddy @ToyotaMatt and we had a quick call to get some keys properly made. So these are in the mail now.

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I decided to get the snow version because it's very cold in Texas right now 🤣
 
Also, no pictures, but when I took it to the exhaust shop my rear window started acting up and not closing. I could hear it and figured it was the gear. Took it apart and I already had a brass gear installed from the PO. The issue was the rubber coupler between the motor and gear box. The metal had de-bonded from the rubber and allowed the motor to spin freely. I had a used motor so pulled the coupler from it and put it back together. All good for the next 51 years.
 
Got the intake figured out. Running the stock GM airbox and filter. This leaves me enough room on the passenger side for a smaller 1200 series battery to power a fridge and coms when the truck is off. I removed the duct from the inner fender and the airbox can draw cold air in through the fender vent. No need for a dorkle.

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i have just realized at this very moment 7:16 AM EST , Sunday July 2nd , 2023 .....

The ambient conditions here at the SKUNK-WORKS Laboratory compound at this parsec-moment sands of
TEq time are :

Cloudy , 72'F / 22.2' C / the humidity level is : SAIGON-STATUS-Oppressive in nature :confused:

that this is the First NON-TOYOTA V8 , conversion i have ever seen in photos installed in a FJ55 , ( i have never seen one in-person either )

- thanks for letting me share this ...
 
Also, no pictures, but when I took it to the exhaust shop my rear window started acting up and not closing. I could hear it and figured it was the gear. Took it apart and I already had a brass gear installed from the PO. The issue was the rubber coupler between the motor and gear box. The metal had de-bonded from the rubber and allowed the motor to spin freely. I had a used motor so pulled the coupler from it and put it back together. All good for the next 51 years.
Since the brass gear is unobtamioum now the 3D Printed gears are a great alternative. I recomend them and have installed several now.
 

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