- Thread starter
- #61
Yes, I’ve got a GT2056 vgt to put on it. Going to break in the engine and spend some time dialling in and enjoying the truck before I do that. Maybe next winter or the following.
1983 BJ42 Aqualu Restomod (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter vanisle3b42
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #62
Roll bar is back from powder coating and installed this weekend. Only had a couple hours or so to work on it, so did what I could. Ran the engine up for the first time since building the harness and am pretty happy with it. Cycled the thermostat and got the Danhard heater bled out.. Wow is it ever great! Throws off a ridiculous amount of heat. Biggest drag is that my alternator regulator is dead, so I'll pull the alternator back off and convert it to internal reg. I'm also going to add a tach pickup while I'm at it.
One of the strange mysteries of this truck is that it came with a factory tach and wiring, but no hall effect on the bell housing..? Weird stuff. Instead of messing with the factory setup I'm going to just install a Stewart Warner tach in the factory location and run it off the alternator like a normal person. We're already no where near stock, so lets not kid ourselves.
Here's a crappy picture of my progress.
One of the strange mysteries of this truck is that it came with a factory tach and wiring, but no hall effect on the bell housing..? Weird stuff. Instead of messing with the factory setup I'm going to just install a Stewart Warner tach in the factory location and run it off the alternator like a normal person. We're already no where near stock, so lets not kid ourselves.
Here's a crappy picture of my progress.
- Thread starter
- #63
Things are looking up in the Landcruiser department! I fortunately/unfortunately bought a house so my January was totally eaten up with general household renovations. The good news is that the house has an enormous landcruiser-ready shop so my baby will be there soon.
I did, however, make some time at the end of the month to jump ahead of some of the little things I had been neglecting. I finally replaced all the flex lines in the brake system that I had installed a couple years ago with stainless steel and secured all the hard lines to the frame. I had been putting this off because brakes are boring. The hardtop, unfortunately, just isn't going to work. I'm mating a used first gen Aqualu tub with a second gen cowl and the whole body is 3/4" out of square. Door gaps against the top were horrendous and I got tired of screwing around with it, so I bought a Bestop soft top to get me through until I feel like putting a shim between the cowl and tub on the passenger side to correct the issue.
Since I was missing the windshield wiper linkage, I bought a 74 FJ40 windshield frame. The 83 wiper motor has a tapered splined output shaft and the 74 12v motor has a straight spline. Since the 74 motor was dead, I cut the end of the output shaft out, tack welded it on to the arm and drilled the shaft out with a unibit to create the taper. Works pretty well!
I also took some time to install seat belts from Cool Cruisers. They look nice and do all the seat belty stuff.
Now, I need a windshield and an exhaust. I'll be building the exhaust in my new shop as I have 200 amp service to run a decent mig, so I'm planning to stick a little stub on there to keep the exhaust out of the engine hole and road tripping the truck down to Sidney to continue finish it up. We're on the home stretch now!
I did, however, make some time at the end of the month to jump ahead of some of the little things I had been neglecting. I finally replaced all the flex lines in the brake system that I had installed a couple years ago with stainless steel and secured all the hard lines to the frame. I had been putting this off because brakes are boring. The hardtop, unfortunately, just isn't going to work. I'm mating a used first gen Aqualu tub with a second gen cowl and the whole body is 3/4" out of square. Door gaps against the top were horrendous and I got tired of screwing around with it, so I bought a Bestop soft top to get me through until I feel like putting a shim between the cowl and tub on the passenger side to correct the issue.
Since I was missing the windshield wiper linkage, I bought a 74 FJ40 windshield frame. The 83 wiper motor has a tapered splined output shaft and the 74 12v motor has a straight spline. Since the 74 motor was dead, I cut the end of the output shaft out, tack welded it on to the arm and drilled the shaft out with a unibit to create the taper. Works pretty well!
I also took some time to install seat belts from Cool Cruisers. They look nice and do all the seat belty stuff.
Now, I need a windshield and an exhaust. I'll be building the exhaust in my new shop as I have 200 amp service to run a decent mig, so I'm planning to stick a little stub on there to keep the exhaust out of the engine hole and road tripping the truck down to Sidney to continue finish it up. We're on the home stretch now!
Nice work man!
Congrats on the new house. Im sure that was pretty spendy out there on the island!
Top looks great ive been trying to convince myself to pony up for some real stell bows and go OEM'ish soft top.(Just cant bring myself to drop 3k US yet) Might be full time soft top as i really only drive it a few times in teh winter and the heater pumps out enough to keep you semi warm on those really cold days.
Congrats on the new house. Im sure that was pretty spendy out there on the island!
Top looks great ive been trying to convince myself to pony up for some real stell bows and go OEM'ish soft top.(Just cant bring myself to drop 3k US yet) Might be full time soft top as i really only drive it a few times in teh winter and the heater pumps out enough to keep you semi warm on those really cold days.
- Thread starter
- #65
Yeah, those are cool. I’ve bought the bestop version as a stop gap while I doctor the hard top/body to fit.
- Thread starter
- #66
More photos.
- Thread starter
- #67
She's on the road for the first time in 13 years.
jim land
SILVER Star
Just ready for the zombie apocalypse 
joestewart
SILVER Star
Vanisle, What is the brand and size of those "Tru-Trac" style tires that were on your FJ40 in your very first post on page 1 of this thread?
Looks awesome man!!!
- Thread starter
- #71
Those were legitimate tru-trac tires- my understanding is that pirelli makes them now... ?? Not sure where to buy them or anything. They were 12.50-15 bias ply.
- Thread starter
- #72
Ha! Yea. No Covid-19 can get me in this thing. Unless a stranger coughs in it.Just ready for the zombie apocalypse
joestewart
SILVER Star
Can you post a photo of the tire sidewall so I can read the details? I'm interested in getting a set of those tires for my FJ40. Thanks
- Thread starter
- #74
Sorry, I got rid of those years ago. I’m not into the bias ply life! Plus, too wide for my taste.
- Thread starter
- #75
Well, she's been on the road a couple weeks now. Super glad to have a running-driving cruiser back in my life. Still tons of little things left to do, but some more major milestones are knocked off.
- Had an exhaust made... I dont own a tube bender and with work, Covid19 and renovating my new house I just wanted to knock this off. I drove the truck from Nanaimo to the Victoria area with a stub sticking out under the passenger front wheel and the noise was a bit nuts. I understand your perspective now, Varty!
The exhaust on this guy is 2.5" through a 6x14" magnaflow pass style through muffler with a 4" magnaflow rolled tip. I wasn't really into the tip at first, but the exhaust shop guys did a pretty sweet job and I think it sounds great.
- Got the speedometer working, ten promptly not working again. I made a speedo cable using a stock cable for a 1970 chev blazer as it has 5/8-18 speedo threads and 7/8-18 on the trans (same as H55F-ish). I pulled the keyed end off the original cable and crimped it on the blazer square drive end with a bit of solder and it worked great.. for 10km.. and my speedometer broke. Got a warranty claim in with Stewart Warner and a replacement metric unit on the way, along with a tach.
- I gave up on the factory tach. A 24v factory unit came with the truck, but was probably not original as the flywheel housing is missing the hall effect sender. Unfortunately, I cut a bigass hole in the Aqualu dash without checking the housing for the sender first... So I'll make a bezel to match the Metaltech one to accommodate a stewart warner tach and will pull a signal off a winding of the alternator.
Issues so far:
- I keep blowing out LED bulbs that are supposed to be rated for 36V. I put standard 24v bulbs in the tail lights and that seems to have solved the problem.
- I've got a vibration at 90km/h in the driveline. Engine and trans start shaking pretty bad and nothing shows up in the wheel at all. I suspect a driveshaft balance or universal joint.. These are all new, but the truck has been sitting for a million years so who knows. I'll dig into that ASAP. If anyone has any thoughts, that'd be cool!
Here's a video of the exhaust. Please forgive my generally poor photos/videos.
Hope everyone is staying safe out there.
Video LINK:
- Had an exhaust made... I dont own a tube bender and with work, Covid19 and renovating my new house I just wanted to knock this off. I drove the truck from Nanaimo to the Victoria area with a stub sticking out under the passenger front wheel and the noise was a bit nuts. I understand your perspective now, Varty!
The exhaust on this guy is 2.5" through a 6x14" magnaflow pass style through muffler with a 4" magnaflow rolled tip. I wasn't really into the tip at first, but the exhaust shop guys did a pretty sweet job and I think it sounds great.
- Got the speedometer working, ten promptly not working again. I made a speedo cable using a stock cable for a 1970 chev blazer as it has 5/8-18 speedo threads and 7/8-18 on the trans (same as H55F-ish). I pulled the keyed end off the original cable and crimped it on the blazer square drive end with a bit of solder and it worked great.. for 10km.. and my speedometer broke. Got a warranty claim in with Stewart Warner and a replacement metric unit on the way, along with a tach.
- I gave up on the factory tach. A 24v factory unit came with the truck, but was probably not original as the flywheel housing is missing the hall effect sender. Unfortunately, I cut a bigass hole in the Aqualu dash without checking the housing for the sender first... So I'll make a bezel to match the Metaltech one to accommodate a stewart warner tach and will pull a signal off a winding of the alternator.
Issues so far:
- I keep blowing out LED bulbs that are supposed to be rated for 36V. I put standard 24v bulbs in the tail lights and that seems to have solved the problem.
- I've got a vibration at 90km/h in the driveline. Engine and trans start shaking pretty bad and nothing shows up in the wheel at all. I suspect a driveshaft balance or universal joint.. These are all new, but the truck has been sitting for a million years so who knows. I'll dig into that ASAP. If anyone has any thoughts, that'd be cool!
Here's a video of the exhaust. Please forgive my generally poor photos/videos.
Hope everyone is staying safe out there.
Video LINK:
Right on man!
- Thread starter
- #77
I’ve been shutting the truck off with a piece of string through a pulley tied to the steering column. I’m a bit over that, so pulled the EDIC relay apart and found a small section of circuit board was broken.. since nothing appeared melted so I casually soldered this small section of wire on there to bypass the broken bit and now it works! Ive got some more work to do on my homemade harness so will integrate this system in there.
I must say, owning a Power Probe has made my life at work and on my cruise project so much easier.
I must say, owning a Power Probe has made my life at work and on my cruise project so much easier.
- Thread starter
- #78
Finished up some of the last bits of my homemade wiring harness today. Installed three watertight relays in the engine compartment- one for cabin loads, one for the EDIC motor system (THAT WORKS!) and another to switch the power for the ARB air compressor.
