Builds 2F Retirement/ Vortec Resto-Fresh (1 Viewer)

[cruiser enthuiser]

Finally for tonight, the exterior of the truck is back together and looks amazing. Seriously, I couldn’t be happier with it. It’s not perfect, certainly not a show truck but that’s preferable for me. I want to drive this thing. A lot.

My wife and I took a short drive up to Truckee, CA today; I’ve been dying to get it back on the road. The new door seals really made a huge difference in reducing road noise. I expected some improvement but not this much. Also, having a new windshield is freakin’ awesome! I didn’t realize how bad the old one really was.

It was a beautiful day in the Sierras and we stopped along the way and took a few pics.

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

A couple pics while in Truckee. A cool town to visit for the day. Cool shops and some great places to drink beer.

Lots of beautiful cars in this town; it’s an affluent place. Think mine was the coolest though

View attachment 1865578

 

[joebattle1]

Wow! Looks incredible. Great job. Looks like a better version of what rolled out of the dealership.

I love that little town Truckee as well. There is a place I always stop for breakfast when I'm rolling past there on 80 coming or going to Reno for work called Coffeebar. Good coffee and food and they have a nice patio.

 

[gregnash]

Looking good Ed. Soon she will be a garage queen!! LOL

 

[NCFJ]

Beautiful truck! White is growing on me.

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

Wow! Looks incredible. Great job. Looks like a better version of what rolled out of the dealership.

I love that little town Truckee as well. There is a place I always stop for breakfast when I'm rolling past there on 80 coming or going to Reno for work called Coffeebar. Good coffee and food and they have a nice patio.

Looking good Ed. Soon she will be a garage queen!! LOL

Beautiful truck! White is growing on me.

Thanks for the compliments guys!

Greg, no chance of that happening. For starters, my truck doesn’t fit in my garage

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

Interior

I’ve been working on some interior improvements. First, tore out the old interior:

I’m very lucky, no evidence of rust anywhere in the floor pan.


Next I applied Dynamat throughout:

What a cool effect this had on the truck. Even without the carpet and door panels the truck is noticeably tighter and quieter going down the road. I’m liking this!

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

Time for some new seats! As mentioned earlier in the thread the BMW seats just sat too high in the cabin. It was not a natural or comfortable position. I think this is not a problem if you have an ‘85 or later as the floor mounts are different and lower.

I shopped around a lot and finally settled on the Bestop Trailmax II seats. I like these a lot, they have decent bolsters without being overdone, nice lumbar support and the size is perfect for the cabin of a 60 IMHO. They’re Designed to bolt up to CJ Jeeps but I figured I could come up with something to fit them into my truck.

Fitting them into the cruiser was pretty straight forward. For anyone interested here’s a shot of one of the brackets I made with some dimensions:

You’ll need four of these brackets that are made of 2” flat bar that are 3/16” thick. I drilled and tapped the flat bar to take the stock seat hardware (8mm x 1.25).

The brackets attach horizontally to these holes in the seat bottoms:

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

I’m also upgrading my center console to an 8” Tuffy. This a well made product, I really like it. It requires totally different mounting points than the Smittybuilt or stock console though. Here’s my solution...

There’s two convenient bolt holes on this part of the floor. Bolt size is 10mm x 1.25.

I had some 16 gauge sheet metal that I cut 7 3/4” wide and approx. 27” long. I bent it up in my press brake to look like this:

The rear is 5 1/2” tall bent at 45 degrees. The front bend is 35 degrees which seems perfect to match the angle of the floor mount.

I added two nutserts to secure the back of the bracket to the floor. After some primer and a coat of duplicolor spray can bed liner the mounting bracket looks good and is mounted solid.

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

And finally, a shot of the new seats and the console mounted up:

These seats a really comfortable! Even my wife is a big fan. They come in tan and grey also but I picked up the black because the black color is cheaper and was in stock at my local Summit Racing store.

Besides, I think they would look better in this color anyway:

More to come on that later...

Thanks for following.

-Ed

 

[gregnash]

Nicely done Ed. Definitely been warmer lately so working with the Dynamat was probably easy-ish. Seats are looking awesome too! Gotta love having a Summit in our local area huh.

 

[MANUCHAO]

Looking sharp Ed...!!

 

[Skiutahrig]

EJust purchased a 1986 FJ60, had it inspected, changed all the fluids and was to a company that specializes in older cruisers that it was a strong runner. Promptly blew up the engine today! Not sure how bad yet, but suspect the case is terminal. I am new to this site and hope someone who has followed along for awhile can quickly steer me straight. What engine replacements are people most happy with? I have heard using a 62 series top end is good as you get Efi, but doubt you get much additional HP. Is the 5.3 Vortec seen as the best solution?

 

[Skiutahrig]

I just had a piston or rod failure and am most likely looking for a new engine. Is the 5.3 Vortec pretty much the engine of choice or are there others I should consider? I am also curious if you go with the Vortec, can you stay with the 4 speed Manuel and stock gearing?

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

I just had a piston or rod failure and am most likely looking for a new engine. Is the 5.3 Vortec pretty much the engine of choice or are there others I should consider? I am also curious if you go with the Vortec, can you stay with the 4 speed Manuel and stock gearing?

Sorry to hear about your engine troubles. The LS engines are popular with swappers for their reliabilly, power, availability, etc. The 5.3l is a great choice but I understand no longer available in the ‘connect and cruise’ package if your looking to go with a turnkey setup like that. The 4.8l and 6.0l are also great motors and popular for swaps.

You wouldn’t want to keep the stock 4 speed with an LS as you’d be missing the overdrive. Most go with the auto trans that mates to the engine for ease of programming and emissions. If you have to have a manual the nv4500 or H55 are solid choices. I kept the gearing stock in mine and have no complaints.

If I were to do it again starting today I’d be looking for a 6.0l mated to a 6l80e.

-Ed

 

[Skiutahrig]

OK, thanks for the insight. Looks like I might need to go to an automatic. 6l would be a nice upgrade as Utah has a lot of long grades that a fairly steep and evryone is doing 80MPH! I just cruise around the mountain valley I live in at about 45 but there are 2 really steep roads to the ski areas. 2nd gear starts at 35 and slowly drops to around 25 which can be a bit frustrating.
Any resources you can suggest for finding the engine and tranny?

 

[megolfer]

You are going to spend close to 10k on a 5.3 or 6.0 swap. Thats if u do it yourself an do it right. You could shave some off if u cut some corners. Things start to add up

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

OK, thanks for the insight. Looks like I might need to go to an automatic. 6l would be a nice upgrade as Utah has a lot of long grades that a fairly steep and evryone is doing 80MPH! I just cruise around the mountain valley I live in at about 45 but there are 2 really steep roads to the ski areas. 2nd gear starts at 35 and slowly drops to around 25 which can be a bit frustrating.
Any resources you can suggest for finding the engine and tranny?

I assembled the parts and pieces for my swap from many sources. Motor from EBay, trans from a local shop, adapters from Valley Hybrids, harness from Howell, etc.

Check out BD Turnkey Engines LLC. He specializes in take-out, turnkey LS setups. There are many others out there that do too.

Or if you have the cash you can spring for a brand spanking new drivetrain. How about a 6.2l with 8l90e?
Connect and Cruise Powertrain System | Chevrolet Performance

 

[Skiutahrig]

Noooo, I don’t have the cash! Looking for a good long-term solution that makes sense. I really just wanted to cruise it pretty much as is, doing smaller upgrades along the way. Well I am in with both fever now. Thanks very much for your advise and referrals. I am from Seattle originally and know quite a bit about boats marine diesels. I need help here and do appreciate it!

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

More progress on the interior this weekend.

In preparation for new upholstery I made some new door cards. The old ones are nasty.

I found some 1/8” plywood at the box store. Might be a tiny fraction thicker than stock but the door fasteners click in just fine. Certainly seems more structurally sound than the stock material.

Traced the old cards, took my time, center punched the holes and used a variety of drill bits, jig saw, chisels, etc. to replicate the originals.

The door fasteners from Amazon that everyone recommends work perfect. I bought several bags so that I could replace all of the brittle originals.

And sealed everything to minimize potential water damage in the future.