1988 FJ62; OME install, 13 speaker sound system write-up (1 Viewer)

[Njck22]

A little late on making this but figured better late than never.

Story: I purchased this 1988 from its first owner in 1995. From AZ to TX. No rust in it's whole life. 180k miles currently. In 2004 I stripped it down and had it painted. I've installed Boston acoustics speakers and amps, and some radio stuff, door locks, etc nothing big.





During Hurricane Harvey it was left out in street, and water rose to about below the signals at its worse. After it had receded I started it up and moved it from water. Inside, things were wet and nasty so I took the day removing the interior tossing out all the smelly old insulation. The carpet was ok after cleaning. For 2 months it's sat in the garage.

Stuff ordered:
-seat covers front and rear from cruiser corps,
-new front passenger cushion and vinyl wheel well covers from SOR,
-new gauge plastic panel, transmission gasket and pan from toyota,
-New amps and speakers
-Noico and Dynamat insulation
-OME Lift kit and steering Stabilizer.

So far I've started on installing an OME kit.

 

[Njck22]

Some pictures from 2004

 

[Njck22]

Interior from 2004

 

[Njck22]

Post hurricane

 

[WhompinFJ]

Did you paint it yourself?

 

[Adam Scherm]

Sorry to hear about the damage from the hurricane. Looks like it’s in good hands for yet another rebuild. Looking forward to seeing it cleaned up

 

[rrv333]

 

[Devils Paw 80]

Nice paint job.

Assuming it was originally gray, I wasn't aware that these came with brown interiors. Would have though they'd have the gray interior, like my red FJ62 has.

 

[SteveH]

Did you service the knuckles after the extended underwater soak?

 

[Njck22]

Did you service the knuckles after the extended underwater soak?

Is that something that would likley need rebuilding now?

 

[SteveH]

Toyota's closed knuckle design is hardly waterproof if exposed to water for a few days. I think if you remove the knuckle plug and stick a screwdriver in the hole, the grease that comes out on the screwdriver shaft will look like a milkshake. If so, you need to immediately service both knuckles and repack the knuckle and wheel bearings.

Note: If you have not locked your hubs and driven the truck for a few miles, the water and grease may not have mixed yet. I would do this, and then check the condition of the grease. (The truck doesn't have to be in 4WD - just lock the hubs and drive it a distance).

I would also pull both diff plugs, stick your fingers inside, and see if the oil is clean and clear, or if it, too, has gotten watery and milky.

 

[Njck22]

Toyota's closed knuckle design is hardly waterproof if exposed to water for a few days. I think if you remove the knuckle plug and stick a screwdriver in the hole, the grease that comes out on the screwdriver shaft will look like a milkshake. If so, you need to immediately service both knuckles and repack the knuckle and wheel bearings.

Note: If you have not locked your hubs and driven the truck for a few miles, the water and grease may not have mixed yet. I would do this, and then check the condition of the grease. (The truck doesn't have to be in 4WD - just lock the hubs and drive it a distance).

I would also pull both diff plugs, stick your fingers inside, and see if the oil is clean and clear, or if it, too, has gotten watery and milky.

Will check as soon as I can, thanks!

 

[Njck22]

Ok, some updates
Ordered new stuff, one of my front sway bar links was doing essentially nothing, totally loose, so I figured I may as well replace both and get extended ones for the OME lift. While I was at I got rear ones too.
Mean Green Starter and Alternator
SOR front fender-seal kit
Cruiser Outfitters:

SUS60FSWAY 6x/7x FR Sway Bar Links - Extended (Pair)
SUS60RSWAY 61/62 Rear Sway Bar Link - Extended (Pair)
TRE69065 Tie Rod End Kit - 60 Series - LHD SUS30050 OEM Toyota Sway Bar Bushing "D"
SUS20060 OEM Toyota Sway Bar Bushing "D"
FA7590TWB Knuckle Rebuild Kit With Timkens

Made some progress on the lift. There's some bare metal up front on the axle housing and brackets so I'm gonna clean them up, and just use some rust oleum primer and protective enamel spray paint.


Kit laid out

Jacked up

Old Steering stabilizer removed, new installed, had to use a tie rod end puller, learned that the best way to seat the end puller was to thread the old nut on partially to act as guide.

Shock removed, found the best way to get the top nut off the shock stud was to put a pipe wrench on the shock body and make my job easier.

U-Bolts out

u bolt plate cleaned, primed and painted

New leaf in!

 

[89BIGBLUE]

Keep the MAP gas torch on hand for the rears, if they are next! Looking great!

 

[Njck22]

For the past 2 weekends I havent had much of chance to work on my 62 but thankfully I have a few days off for thanksgiving. Where I am at now: I spray painted the axle housing, sway bar, and my new tie-rod ends from cruiser outfitters. Got the front pretty much finished.

All the stuff from cruiser outfitters is awesome. The relay rod has awesome clamps, the quality of the triple 5 tie rod ends is second to none even next to OEM, and the sway bar links look great. Plus all the other stuff is fantastic.

Old steering removed

Ready for paint

Painted

New relay rod and the previous tie rod cleaned

Tie rod ends masked and ready for paint

Painted

Right leaf installed, required a little pulling with a strap and lever to position it, nothing too hard

Shocks in

Rods in

Stabilizer In

Sway bar and links in

Front done(for now)

 

[Njck22]

As always, work gets in the way of play. Got the rear finished, and new exhaust in. Next on the plate is interior and ARB bumper.


The rear was certainly more challenging than the front, I had heard the rear leafs are tough to remove, but mine just slid out. The main difficulty was getting the new leafs seated on the rear axle. The leafs were too close to each other. I found the best way to line the leafs up with the axle was to buy a 2x4 and cut it to fit between the leafs diagonally, then hit it with a hammer. As it moved towards the axle, it would push the leafs apart allowing the axle to seat. Adding this here to help anyone else in a similar situation.



Before Photos:

Wheels and shocks off.

Cleaned and masked, ready for paint.

Painted, notice the holes in the tail pipe.

Ubolt Plates painted

Exhaust in and everything else. Done for now

 

[Chris Cahill]

Looking great, I really like the color of that truck.

 

[SteveH]

Looks like you're doing first-class work. Great photos -thanks!

 

[Njck22]

Been Awhile, work has been quite slow, but now I have some post worthy material, that perhaps could help someone doing an audio install. My final plan is for a 13 speaker setup, 4 in the cargo area along with a sub woofer, 4 in the rear doors, and 4 up front. The front and rear doors will have the tweeters mounted on the door card, with the midrange/sub mounted into the door. This means large holes in the door cards will have to be cut. The head unit is going to be a fairly generic single din alpine unit.

First thing worked on was my alarm system, some locks weren’t working, issue turned out to be bad relays. I replaced the double relays that were installed with the alpine system with an all-in-one relay.

With the locks now working, I cleaned out the doors and began laying butyl vibration dampening material. Now when I shut the doors they no longer sound like sheet metal but like modern car doors.

FRONT DOORS:
I cut some mounts for the front door speakers out of wood

For the front door brackets, I routed them, coated with spar urethane, a little foam insulation and installed the speakers. Added some nice connectors so I can remove them if the need be.

For the door cards, I put a little foam insulation on the back, covering the tweeter mount and window switch. Tweeter uses the new white connector in the photo.

New butyl tape strips, cleaning off the old stuff was a pain, wd40 seems to work the best along with a hair dryer. I cut some new vaporseals/ service hole covers out of some plastic sheeting from the Depot

All buttoned up, looks good!

I did the rear doors generally the same way, so not as many photos. I cut brackets for the speakers, the tweeters mounted into the door card, and new service hole covers.
These required brackets some testing to get all the dimensions right, as the door check requires some clearance when the door is closed.

At this point I started working on designing some brackets for my amplifiers. Previously they’ve just been lying on the carpet, but I wanted something cleaner and more sturdy. I’m no metal fabricator so tree carcass and home depot metal strips were the only way to go.

Here they are finished, the amplifiers are mounted using rubber washers, so hopefully nothing will rattle.. I found some nice carpet at lowe's that matches pretty well. These mount using the front seat mounting holes.

 

[Njck22]

With the door panels done, it was time to start putting the interior back together.

Sound deadening material was laid after a thorough cleaning.

On top of the roll on stuff, I laid some foil-type insulation, and then some carpet padding from a big roll from the Depot. This stuff is much nicer than the stringy stuff the was originally under the carpet. It doesn’t smell, leaves behind no dust or particles and has a plastic backing. It also doesn’t fall apart once you start cutting holes.

Wires for the amplifiers are ran up through a few holes.

Fits perfectly under the seat, and doesn't interfere with forwards-backwards adjustment.

The head unit is Alpine, with a usb input above and an aux in the glove box.
I also mounted an Nakamichi dual amp balancer for total control.

For now that's all, I'll be trying to get the cargo area done in the coming weeks. "Real" work always gets in the way!
Thank you for reading!