1980 FJ45 in Dubai - Saved From the Sands

[AYM707]

Wouldn't the same apply to OEM vinyl? Or are you applying this comparison just to cloth covering?

cloth seating is the only solution for the Gulf!

Haha thanks Ayman. Thankfully I have the AC installed, I am working on insulation for the floor, and as soon as it is registered in going to get all windows tinted with v-cool - colorless tint that blocks 70% of sun rays. It should be livable with them. Also, the seats are diamond stitch, same as the door panels so it is supposed to elevate you slightly and you don't touch the whole seat.

Sounds like you have thought of everything; tints and insulation will help alot to keep the heat out of that tin cabin. I did notice your drivers side ac vent. now that cool!!

 

[maxofarabia]

It has been way too long since I have been on here, but I got kinda caught up in life. The good news is my 45 is 99% there. Updates below.

New rims:

I went by the junk yard in Sharjah and spotted these white rims with when I was picking up new axles with my friend and resident FJ guru Ahmed. Returned to get them and have had them all sand blasted, and dropped them off for white powdercoat this afternoon. I should pick them up tomorrow morning and then wrap them in new rubber. Supposedly I have to go with 215 70 r15 tires, but I will double check to see what else will fit before pulling the trigger on that purchase.

New axles:

I got these from the same junkyard (they have every Toyota axle you can imagine) with the pic above being the before, and the after being below:

These are from a later 80s land cruiser, but give me front disks and all the emergency brake parts that were missing inside my original axle and diff. Also locking front diffs are a welcome addition.

If all goes well tomorrow will be my first test drive, so fingers crossed.

 

[boozewz]

Woah! Those axles are sweet! You pulled them off a later model 40? Did not know they offered factory locking diffs on a 40 series.

Loving those early model 70 series rims. I am always trying to keep an eye out for those, just because they're becoming rarer. Don't ask me where I'd mount them. Call me a hoarder.

 

[maxofarabia]

Woah! Those axles are sweet! You pulled them off a later model 40? Did not know they offered factory locking diffs on a 40 series.

Loving those early model 70 series rims. I am always trying to keep an eye out for those, just because they're becoming rarer. Don't ask me where I'd mount them. Call me a hoarder.

Haha the moment of truth is tomorrow morning when the guys at the workshop install them. They are from a 62, not a 40. I asked about 40 series, but he said they are now too rare in Japan to show up in Junk yards. Everything I saw there is right hand drive Japanese, but they have a lot from 60s and 70 series up to 100 series.

For the rims they were taken off this

(Obviously Japanese based on the front mirror on the fender). They just forklifted it up, took them off and then put new ones on that they had lying round the back. If I didn't live in an apartment I'd be more of a hoarder than you, but it's hard to fit everything I want into the lift

 

[Honger]

It has been way too long since I have been on here, but I got kinda caught up in life. The good news is my 45 is 99% there. Updates below.

New rims:
View attachment 1123918View attachment 1123919
I went by the junk yard in Sharjah and spotted these white rims with when I was picking up new axles with my friend and resident FJ guru Ahmed. Returned to get them and have had them all sand blasted, and dropped them off for white powdercoat this afternoon. I should pick them up tomorrow morning and then wrap them in new rubber. Supposedly I have to go with 215 70 r15 tires, but I will double check to see what else will fit before pulling the trigger on that purchase.

New axles:
View attachment 1123925 I got these from the same junkyard (they have every Toyota axle you can imagine) with the pic above being the before, and the after being below:
View attachment 1123926View attachment 1123927
These are from a later 80s land cruiser, but give me front disks and all the emergency brake parts that were missing inside my original axle and diff. Also locking front diffs are a welcome addition.

If all goes well tomorrow will be my first test drive, so fingers crossed.

The rims and locking axles... nice! It's a good thing you didn't buy an OME kit yet with the axle swapping you are doing. Also, with locking axles you do realize you can't just cruise JBR in this rig. It's gonna have to do some wadi and dune time. =)

(Obviously Japanese based on the front mirror on the fender). They just forklifted it up, took them off and then put new ones on that they had lying round the back. If I didn't live in an apartment I'd be more of a hoarder than you, but it's hard to fit everything I want into the lift

Yeah, it's hard to hoard in this country. But our villa has an upstairs balcony/patio that my wife never checks... so I've kinda started.
What you doing with your old split rims? =)

 

[maxofarabia]

The rims and locking axles... nice! It's a good thing you didn't buy an OME kit yet with the axle swapping you are doing. Also, with locking axles you do realize you can't just cruise JBR in this rig. It's gonna have to do some wadi and dune time. =)
We will see if she runs like I want her to then I'm fine for some gentle off-road cruises. Dune bashing I'll leave to my dune buggy. Also looking at getting some proper pictures taken, so for that we need the appropriate backdrop & the city just won't cut it.


Yeah, it's hard to hoard in this country. But our villa has an upstairs balcony/patio that my wife never checks... so I've kinda started.
What you doing with your old split rims? =)

Haha I have a storage closet that is stacked floor to ceiling with camping stuff. A balcony would do great but I would probably end up making it collapse. As for the rims I'm not sure yet, waiting to see how much I like the new look with the white rims. If they pass then I'll probably look to find an appreciative home with Ahmed and @ArabianCruisers getting first dibs since without them I'd never have been able to get this far.

 

[maxofarabia]

The bad news is my axles aren't plug and play. The good news is the guys at Performance Garage DXB are on the ball and doing everything they can to make them fit. For the rear the mounts have to be shifted, and for the front the shock mounts have to be moved.

the above shows the discrepancy. The below shows after the first one was moved

I will update tomorrow when I have new progress. As for the wheels - I haven't unwrapped them yet, but from through the plastic they look pretty good. Not perfect, but I'm happy.

I know a guy here called Sam who is a tire and rim genius and is on the hunt for the appropriate rubber for me to wrap them in. Pictures to follow when mounted

 

[Chungas Revenge]

This is one of my favorite threads...Endless possibilities.

 

[maxofarabia]

This is one of my favorite threads...Endless possibilities.

Glad you like it! Unfortunately I have become slightly lazy in documenting everything, but it's exciting for me to share my progress and get expert opinions. I've learned so much on Mud.

 

[Honger]

Really looking forward to seeing this wrapped up. Love how easily you fix obstacles in your path on this build. Oh to live closer to Sharjah...

Can you put your powdercoater contact info the Arabian Cruisers clubhouse? I'm gonna need that info soon. =)

 

[maxofarabia]

Really looking forward to seeing this wrapped up. Love how easily you fix obstacles in your path on this build. Oh to live closer to Sharjah...

Can you put your powdercoater contact info the Arabian Cruisers clubhouse? I'm gonna need that info soon. =)

I think I create more issues than I solve the powdercoater I don't have a number for but can try and describe the location.

 

[maxofarabia]

Ok so quite a few updates from today.

The rear axle has now been swapped out, fully, allowing me to have on the hub emergency brake.

This was done by moving the axle mounts, adding bump stops from the original axle to the new axle, and fanning up a bracket for the sway bar to mount to.

it still needs some finessing and smoothing out, but gives you the basic idea.

As for the front axle, to ensure alignment etc wasn't an issue we kept the stock axle and put the disk brake hubs onto the original axle. This means we didn't have to change the shock mounts or mess around with anything serious there.

this is after they were removed

this is the inside view of my new disk brakes which will hopefully allow me to stop

 

[maxofarabia]

Now I think about it I'm not sure if my diff lock will work without changing the internals of the axle. Probably not, but I think it's pretty

eventually I'll want to figure out how to make it work so I can slowly find my way everywhere without getting too stuck.

 

[AYM707]

looks good...really good!!

 

[Honger]

Ok so quite a few updates from today.
View attachment 1125049
The rear axle has now been swapped out, fully, allowing me to have on the hub emergency brake. View attachment 1125055
This was done by moving the axle mounts, adding bump stops from the original axle to the new axle, and fanning up a bracket for the sway bar to mount to.View attachment 1125050 it still needs some finessing and smoothing out, but gives you the basic idea.

As for the front axle, to ensure alignment etc wasn't an issue we kept the stock axle and put the disk brake hubs onto the original axle. This means we didn't have to change the shock mounts or mess around with anything serious there.View attachment 1125051 this is after they were removed View attachment 1125053 this is the inside view of my new disk brakes which will hopefully allow me to stop

If the other axles came off of an FJ62, then your rear axle is now going to be wider than your front. Can you tell the difference when looking at the truck?

Now I think about it I'm not sure if my diff lock will work without changing the internals of the axle. Probably not, but I think it's pretty View attachment 1125058 eventually I'll want to figure out how to make it work so I can slowly find my way everywhere without getting too stuck.

The picture shows your locking hub... but that doesn't make the axle lock. Looking at the pics above of your axles I don't see any appurtenances that would imply your axles have cable lockers (the only lockers that came on 60-series that I know of). Your locking hubs will work fine... when engaged in "free" mode it just means the axle isn't being driven by your wheels. This theoretically reduces wear on your front axle internals. It doesn't lock or unlock your diff. When engaged in lock mode it is just like normal without the locking hub (as your old axle was).

Does this make sense?

Oh, by the way, bravo! It's looking good.

 

[boozewz]

Ditto to what @Honger said. 60 axles are wider than 40s. Are you going for the dragster look? You know, rear wider than the front for late night cruising down the JBR

Love the look of the locking hubs too. Not to be confused with diff locks, but its all good.

 

[maxofarabia]

If the other axles came off of an FJ62, then your rear axle is now going to be wider than your front. Can you tell the difference when looking at the truck?



The picture shows your locking hub... but that doesn't make the axle lock. Looking at the pics above of your axles I don't see any appurtenances that would imply your axles have cable lockers (the only lockers that came on 60-series that I know of). Your locking hubs will work fine... when engaged in "free" mode it just means the axle isn't being driven by your wheels. This theoretically reduces wear on your front axle internals. It doesn't lock or unlock your diff. When engaged in lock mode it is just like normal without the locking hub (as your old axle was).

Does this make sense?

Oh, by the way, bravo! It's looking good.

Makes perfect sense but is disappointing there I was thinking I had diff lock . As always I'm happy to learn so thanks for the lesson!

To be honest I can't really tell that it is wider. As far as I can remember from what the mechanics told me the difference is something like 2 cm, so 1 cm on each side. With the original tires it's not noticeable. We will see when I put the new ones on.

 

[maxofarabia]

Ditto to what @Honger said. 60 axles are wider than 40s. Are you going for the dragster look? You know, rear wider than the front for late night cruising down the JBR

Love the look of the locking hubs too. Not to be confused with diff locks, but its all good.

Not going for dragster look by any means, but I'd love to have another one that is fast

 

[Honger]

Makes perfect sense but is disappointing there I was thinking I had diff lock . As always I'm happy to learn so thanks for the lesson!

To be honest I can't really tell that it is wider. As far as I can remember from what the mechanics told me the difference is something like 2 cm, so 1 cm on each side. With the original tires it's not noticeable. We will see when I put the new ones on.

I still have two concerns with your setup...

1. Are the differential gear ratios the same? FJ60's have 3.70's, FJ62's have 4.11's. What is your front in the FJ40? I think it's 4.11, so you should be safe.
2. From digging around on MUD it seems the 60-series axle in the rear is 3" wider... that'd be 1.5" on each side. The only issue will be that you'll want to watch the width of your tires. You don't want a big bump or any time of axle articulation in sand causing your tires to tweak that beautiful bedside fender.

To be clear, I'm not trying to rain on your parade. I'm an engineer... I can't help but overanalyze this stuff. =)

 

[maxofarabia]

I still have two concerns with your setup...

1. Are the differential gear ratios the same? FJ60's have 3.70's, FJ62's have 4.11's. What is your front in the FJ40? I think it's 4.11, so you should be safe.
2. From digging around on MUD it seems the 60-series axle in the rear is 3" wider... that'd be 1.5" on each side. The only issue will be that you'll want to watch the width of your tires. You don't want a big bump or any time of axle articulation in sand causing your tires to tweak that beautiful bedside fender.

To be clear, I'm not trying to rain on your parade. I'm an engineer... I can't help but overanalyze this stuff. =)

Not raining on my parade at all! I honestly appreciate every extra bit of knowledge. I haven't tried 4wheel drive yet so haven't yet seen if the gear ratios will sync. If they don't then I will probably have them rebuild the front with the internals of the 62 axle so it matches the rear one.

As for the rear axle, I will measure it when I'm back, to be sure. But according to the guys in the shop it is 2 cm wider. The fatter tires that I got may also make some of a difference in that so the fenders are potentially in danger, but fingers crossed all is well. As long as it has enough clearance to survive Dubais streets then I should be good as to be honest I love it too much to take it off-road and really thrash it. For that I'd rather stick to my Polaris buggy and keep the 45 pristine. If however you are right about the width (and you quite likely are) then I will look into getting an OME lift and gaining the needed clearance that way if I foresee it becoming an issue. The good thing is the suspension on these things is pretty much as heavy duty as you can get, so I'm hoping this will never be an issue. I put much wider tires on my old fj40 and thought clearance would be a problem, but even with people jumping up and down on the corners we couldn't get the car to go anywhere near the tires. I'm not sure how much articulation the suspension has, but possibly if I had one wheel up and one wheel down then it would become an issue. I will have to wait and see.

Given that I'm not an engineer and I'm an uber noob my approach leaves a lot to be desired but seems to be getting me where I want to go. Thanks for all the help, and please keep the comments coming, I'd much rather discover an issue with my setup through this than through a chewed up fender.