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- #21
1972 ‘Mongrel’ FJ40 build retrospective - A quarter century of ownership
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Just thinking about it, 1998 really doesn't seem that long ago in my mind. But then you see posts like Kurt's and you realize there are no more kids buying their first Land Cruiser with paper route money, no more photos of old cruisers in photo albums, very few LEOs that let kids go after minor infractions and I haven't seen a white tube sock for decades. Most of us on here are guys who drive cool Land Cruisers. Kurt is a cool guy who also happens to drive cool Land Cruisers.
Paper Route??? Tube Socks???? By 1998, the Internet was taking over…..albeit AOL and dial up modems. I think our last local Paper Paper delivery was like Y2K…..and by then, had traded up my white tube socks (with optional blue and red stripes) for sockless Berk’s.
I miss paper papers. I miss giving the paperboy his Christmas bonus…..I don’t miss white tube socks that were ‘quitters’ (sagged around your ankles).
- Thread starter
- #24
The 1968 build/use is documented in what I consider an even faaaar more appropriate method of the era. Can you say scrapbook?
A high school girlfriend assembled a great deal of photos in a 3-ring binder scrapbook in 1998? Is scrapbooking still a thing?
Some excerpts from that masterpiece lol
- Thread starter
- #25
Paper Route??? Tube Socks???? By 1998, the Internet was taking over…..albeit AOL and dial up modems. I think our last local Paper Paper delivery was like Y2K…..and by then, had traded up my white tube socks (with optional blue and red stripes) for sockless Berk’s.
My paper route days were roughly 1992-1996. Not making a living wage, I subsidized it with a small lawn mowing operation and a business selling paint ball guns. Somehow I convinced a few wholesale BB and paintball gun distributors to give a 14 year old an account. My mom helped me setup the sales tax account and business license and I armed the neighborhood with Brass Eagle Tugershark paintball guns and Crossman 760 Pumpmasters pellet guns... all out of my parents neighborhood. Buy the time I purchased the $1500 FJ40, I was working after middle school at a small engine shop in nearby Draper, Utah, making a massive $8/hr. I'd ride my 5HP B&S mini-bike back and forth to work. I did anything from oil changes on a tiller to selling Dixon ZTR lawm mowers. Those were the days!
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- Thread starter
- #27
Crazy eh? I remember hanging at the shop with you James! Naturally there were always many Cruiserheads hanging after hours and on weekends, very fond memories! I took the reigns of Cruiser Outfitters on Jan 1, 2002 for perspective.
I'm digging this gritty story!
What happens next?
What happens next?
- Thread starter
- #29
Alright, back to the story…
(The new to me 1972 FJ40 as it sat in the field)
The newly acquired Cruiser was a basket case, no engine, a 50% complete V8 swap, Saginaw swap and shackle reversal which I thought was a plus but I later leanred they were done quite poorly. But the price was right. There was a straight but surface rust hood, a full hard top, doors and a myriad of other parts for the Cruiser (and other vehicles the seller had likely owned) in their storage shed. It took me a couple of trips to collect it all, each time dragging more and more 'stuff' to the side of my parents suburban home. A few more shots of the bounty:
Darrell let me claim a clean 1972 frame from a stack of frames out in the yard, that would be coupled with the tub I hauled home as the basis for the build. Now it needed everything else. I knew I wanted a spring-over axle setup on later model (fine spline) disc brake axles, power steering, locking differentials and a 5-speed. Boy did I covet the 5-speed found in several Cruisers belonging to several folks at the shop including Darrells’s turbo 2H powered FJ45 troopy build. Later in the build I’d sell my Honda CR250 to fund the purchase of the H55F. Darrell owned/operated Cruiser Outfitters when I started hanging out there regularly. I’m told many found him course or grumpy, perhaps even curt. But he was always great to me, extremely patient, willing to share/teach and trusting. But he didn’t hold punches and called things as they were… I appreciated that. My deal with Darrell was quite strait-forward. I would part-out a dozen or so wrecked/rolled/rusted out 40’s, 55’s and 60’s he had in the yard and in exchange, I would get all the drivetrain parts I needed for my new build. I loved the work!
(This is Darrell at Cruiser Outfitters a few years ago, we’re fortunate to have him stop by regularly. Funny story about that box he's holding, a speedy-sleeve for the output flange on a split t-case. It has his handwriting on it from over 20 years ago. I guess we don't sell many of them
. Every once in a while we get to the bottom of a parts bin or an overstock box from upstairs and find a part that has Darrel's price or application scribbled on the package. Makes me smile… and think of how we stock too many slow moving parts, “it’s a long game” I tell myself.
You can learn so much about a Land Cruiser by dismantling it down to every last part, or most of the parts anyways. I’d start by draining all the fluids, pulling the battery then carefully removing all the glass. I’d then pull doors, hood, hatch and hard-top where applicable. We would remove all of the dash parts; switches, ducts, glovebox doors, instrument clusters, columns, cylinders, etc. The interior would be stripped down to nothing, seats, belts, carpet, trim, pulled. Anything that was good or salvageable was saved in a metal building across the drive from the main shop, anything waste would be piled for the next phase. After every usable fender, bracket, bumper, bolt, nut, etc was off of the chassis, we’d lift it over a flatbed trailer and while still suspended in the air, pull the axles, suspension and any remaining steering. Really it’s amazing nobody got killed working under a Cruiser hanging from a forklift. With anything of value stripped, we’d dump it on the trailer. That was for the first Cruiser of each wave, generally a wrecked or rolled 60 Series as they had the largest interior volume.
The next 1-2 Cruisers would be parted out in a similar method but rather than lift them on the trailer, I’d get out the oxy-acetylene setup and cut the frames and trashed body parts into small enough chunks that we could jam them inside of the carcass on the trailer, it became the storage container for the other parts. We’d stuff every last nook and cranny full of random metal bits (and lots of plastic and rubber too ) and then drag it to the metal recycler behind Darrell’s FJ45 troopy. Collect a few bucks and wash, rinse, repeat with the next wave of rigs to be dismantled. Along the way, I was gathering all sorts of cool parts for my build, a FJ60 trans tunnel cover, 60 axles, late model FJ40 doors, my pile grew and grew in a corner of the shops yard.
(Darrell's FJ45 troopy, converted from a 45 SWB, deserves a mention. Not only was he a great inspiration and motivator to my build, so was his Cruiser. He'd let me drive it around town chasing parts for the shop, lunch runs, etc. I was on cloud nine ripping around town in that turbo diesel. Side story, he had one of the last new OEM Toyota drop down 4x tailgates (think 45 SWB or 40 soft top) that he had soured from our local dealer, then painted and installed it. Just a few months later it was bent in half by an unskilled forklift operator at our engine machine shop as he loaded up a freshly machined 2F block. Darrell cussed about that for a few years, maybe a dozen)
(Another shot of Darrell's FJ45, this time sporting the custom looooong hard top he built in the 90's. He still owns the Cruiser
)
In the next installment, I'll move from collecting parts to starting to build.
(The new to me 1972 FJ40 as it sat in the field)
The newly acquired Cruiser was a basket case, no engine, a 50% complete V8 swap, Saginaw swap and shackle reversal which I thought was a plus but I later leanred they were done quite poorly. But the price was right. There was a straight but surface rust hood, a full hard top, doors and a myriad of other parts for the Cruiser (and other vehicles the seller had likely owned) in their storage shed. It took me a couple of trips to collect it all, each time dragging more and more 'stuff' to the side of my parents suburban home. A few more shots of the bounty:
Darrell let me claim a clean 1972 frame from a stack of frames out in the yard, that would be coupled with the tub I hauled home as the basis for the build. Now it needed everything else. I knew I wanted a spring-over axle setup on later model (fine spline) disc brake axles, power steering, locking differentials and a 5-speed. Boy did I covet the 5-speed found in several Cruisers belonging to several folks at the shop including Darrells’s turbo 2H powered FJ45 troopy build. Later in the build I’d sell my Honda CR250 to fund the purchase of the H55F. Darrell owned/operated Cruiser Outfitters when I started hanging out there regularly. I’m told many found him course or grumpy, perhaps even curt. But he was always great to me, extremely patient, willing to share/teach and trusting. But he didn’t hold punches and called things as they were… I appreciated that. My deal with Darrell was quite strait-forward. I would part-out a dozen or so wrecked/rolled/rusted out 40’s, 55’s and 60’s he had in the yard and in exchange, I would get all the drivetrain parts I needed for my new build. I loved the work!
(This is Darrell at Cruiser Outfitters a few years ago, we’re fortunate to have him stop by regularly. Funny story about that box he's holding, a speedy-sleeve for the output flange on a split t-case. It has his handwriting on it from over 20 years ago. I guess we don't sell many of them
. Every once in a while we get to the bottom of a parts bin or an overstock box from upstairs and find a part that has Darrel's price or application scribbled on the package. Makes me smile… and think of how we stock too many slow moving parts, “it’s a long game” I tell myself.You can learn so much about a Land Cruiser by dismantling it down to every last part, or most of the parts anyways. I’d start by draining all the fluids, pulling the battery then carefully removing all the glass. I’d then pull doors, hood, hatch and hard-top where applicable. We would remove all of the dash parts; switches, ducts, glovebox doors, instrument clusters, columns, cylinders, etc. The interior would be stripped down to nothing, seats, belts, carpet, trim, pulled. Anything that was good or salvageable was saved in a metal building across the drive from the main shop, anything waste would be piled for the next phase. After every usable fender, bracket, bumper, bolt, nut, etc was off of the chassis, we’d lift it over a flatbed trailer and while still suspended in the air, pull the axles, suspension and any remaining steering. Really it’s amazing nobody got killed working under a Cruiser hanging from a forklift. With anything of value stripped, we’d dump it on the trailer. That was for the first Cruiser of each wave, generally a wrecked or rolled 60 Series as they had the largest interior volume.
The next 1-2 Cruisers would be parted out in a similar method but rather than lift them on the trailer, I’d get out the oxy-acetylene setup and cut the frames and trashed body parts into small enough chunks that we could jam them inside of the carcass on the trailer, it became the storage container for the other parts. We’d stuff every last nook and cranny full of random metal bits (and lots of plastic and rubber too
) and then drag it to the metal recycler behind Darrell’s FJ45 troopy. Collect a few bucks and wash, rinse, repeat with the next wave of rigs to be dismantled. Along the way, I was gathering all sorts of cool parts for my build, a FJ60 trans tunnel cover, 60 axles, late model FJ40 doors, my pile grew and grew in a corner of the shops yard.(Darrell's FJ45 troopy, converted from a 45 SWB, deserves a mention. Not only was he a great inspiration and motivator to my build, so was his Cruiser. He'd let me drive it around town chasing parts for the shop, lunch runs, etc. I was on cloud nine ripping around town in that turbo diesel. Side story, he had one of the last new OEM Toyota drop down 4x tailgates (think 45 SWB or 40 soft top) that he had soured from our local dealer, then painted and installed it. Just a few months later it was bent in half by an unskilled forklift operator at our engine machine shop as he loaded up a freshly machined 2F block. Darrell cussed about that for a few years, maybe a dozen)
(Another shot of Darrell's FJ45, this time sporting the custom looooong hard top he built in the 90's. He still owns the Cruiser
)In the next installment, I'll move from collecting parts to starting to build.
An engaging narrative, thanks for sharing with the Mud community!...
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Never thought of bug catcher vent windows for the back. Definitely move air in the back.
Is that a roll bar to protect the windshield in a roll over or does have another purpose?
Is that a roll bar to protect the windshield in a roll over or does have another purpose?
That 45 looks fantastic! Also re: working under a forklift, reminds me of this sticker:
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It was probably twenty five years ago had made a deal with a wrecking to buy a 69 FJ55. This was AZ rust free. Some one sold it to them because the engine was bad and was in the back in pieces. $600 and had the clean title from the person who sold to the yard. When I went to pick it up some yard guy who obviously didn't know it was being sold used a forklift with extended fork had moved it by going the windshield to lift it. I still have the odd jack handle that fit in the bottom of the back seat. That's all I got off that 55.
Following along. I love that troopy build
- Thread starter
- #35
It really deserves it's own build thread (not mine to do) as it does have an neat history. It's had a half dozen different drivetrains, F, V8, 2H, 2HT, 4BT, V8, V8. I should see if Darrell is interested in sharing a bit of story on the beast.
The rack/cage picture in the top less photo above is now on the sweet FJ45 SWB pickup that another longtime Cruiserhead and pal @hedonist owns here in SLC
More on Jason's pickup here: Im in the 45 club - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/im-in-the-45-club.1003362/
- Thread starter
- #36
I think all of the above. Protection, a sturdy front mount for the bikini and limb risers.
Didn't BoxRocket ask Darrell if he could do a write up with pictures for ToyotaTrails a long whiles ago and Darrell was rather coarse, grumpy, and/or curt about that NOT happening?It really deserves it's own build thread (not mine to do) as it does have an neat history. It's had a half dozen different drivetrains, F, V8, 2H, 2HT, 4BT, V8, V8. I should see if Darrell is interested in sharing a bit of story on the beast.
The rack/cage picture in the top less photo above is now on the sweet FJ45 SWB pickup that another longtime Cruiserhead and pal @hedonist owns here in SLC
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- Thread starter
- #38
That I don't remember. @Box Rocket could shed some light on that.
I bet if I asked nicely he'd be up to it. However, it's taken me over two decades to sit down type words out and scan my old photos. It would be another 2 decades before I could do a write up on his Cruiser.
And to be fair, many of the folks he was course with... deserved it. Pardon the re-post but it's on subject re: Darrell I shared here on Mud in 2005 (and updated for this thread)
As for asking for price-matching, etc... Reminds me of a story some of you have surely heard. Darrell Noorda was the previous owner of Cruiser Outfitters
One day a kid called regarding a used FJ40 radiator, Darrell told him we had a good pull-out in stock, $75 and he could come get it, the kid said "I can get one at the wrecking yard for $50", Darrell politely (strange for D) told the kid, "I'm not a wrecking yard, I am a Cruiser parts outlet, etc.". The kid obliged and said he would be in later that day.
Later that afternoon the kid arrives, he reminds Darrell what he is there to pick up, and Darrell heads upstairs to grab the radiator. The upstairs storage area was mostly used for misc body parts, radiators, glass, etc as there were some custom shelves built to handle these types of bulk fragile items. The upstairs area overlooked the 3 bay shop where customers usually walked first, who doesn't like looking at Cruisers of all sorts. While Darrell was grabbing the radiator, the kid hollered up "So are you willing to take the $50 for the radiator, because that is all I brought in cash" ...I then heard a giant THUD.
Darrell had tossed the radiator from the upstairs storage loft, directly down onto the shop floor, fully destroying it. He then commented, "now I'll take $50 for the radiator".
Oh the look on that kids face. He left without a radiator that day.
I am a lot more easy going on prices, I get it all the time, its human nature... I tell them my honest answer and let it be.
- Thread starter
- #40
Ha! So true!
There is a similar saying about neighbors:
"You either have one of those neighbors, or you're that neighbor"
If you've ever been to my house, you'll concede, I'm that neighbor. But there are only 12 cars and two trailers there today. I'm that neighbor. Occasionally folks as my wife "how many people live here", not because we have a large home, we dont, it's very modest and also old. But the number of random Cruisers around has them convinced we are running a boarding house.
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