Builds 67 R2.8 Restomod Build (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

I was not aware of this. Thank you for clarification.
I missed the cam driven vacuum pump.
 
Why did you go with the Hydraboost vs vacuum booster? size? Does it run off the PS pump?

Early 40's don't accomodate vacuum boosters well. They had manual brakes so the firewall wasn't designed to accomodate the booster. The stiffening rib is straight up and down which leaves no room for a booster where the master comes out. Take a look at a later truck and you'll see the rib angles outward to accommodate the booster (and the pedal box was moved over a bit).

In addition to all that, on this truck the R2.8 EGR pipe is really close to the brake master. By my measurements even the smallest dual diaphragm booster I could find was going to hit the EGR pipe. So for that reason as well, it made sense to make the adapters and run the hydroboost.

The R2.8 comes with a factory installed vacuum pump so you can easily run a booster if your vehicle is set up for one. They also have a saginaw style power steering pump which is what we'll use to power the hydroboost. It's pretty easy to tap in to that system, especially if you're not doing anything crazy in terms of wheel/tire and assist cylinders.
 
Cool, @ddelong6767 I figured there would be a reason. I have been reading your saga in separate chunks. Your trials with the tunnel for the NV4500 is one of the reasons I decided to go with the H55. I know it isn't as strong but it should fit easier and apparently shifts nicer, we'll see!

The Vac booster on my 2 donors are quite big. Axis moved the batteries back towards the firewall on their mock up but on the heater side. I think they must have deleted the heater. Space will be at a premium but your Wilwood isn't exactly tiny either.

I am thinking vintage air for the heater/AC but I would like to retain the rear heater (that thing is just cool NPI). I have saved the plumbing for it, I wonder if I could rig up a valve to control it.
 
This is beautiful work.
 

I'm way past due for an update on this, thanks for the ping.

So we left off early in the summer with suspension parts arriving. We used those to do some initial mockup and were thinking of changing things around so while we worked out a suspension plan we moved on to some interior projects. The original plan was to keep a very stock interior but the owner decided to change that up and go for a more custom (and comfortable) solution and asked us to install bucket seats. He chose a set of Corbeau buckets with integrated heaters to replace the factory split bench. In later model trucks you can get all the adapters and brackets you need to make them a direct bolt-in but in these early trucks it's not so simple. The tool box was the original seat mount but doesn't really work for a bucket. We set on in place just to play around with seating height and position.

IMG_20190517_150418 (1).jpg


Sitting on the storage box resulted in the height being too low so we knew we'd need to fab a custom mount. Lots of ideas were considered, but most all of them required deleting the box so that was the first thing to go. With that out, we set the seat on wood blocks to refine the height and angle. We found that the optimal position was a bit above the rear floor height and considerably farther back than the stock seat. With the travel in the slider it allowed for both tall and short drivers to find comfortable seating positions (especially when combined with the tilt aftermarket whee). There was only one problem...

IMG_20190602_100854 (1).jpg


The early factory jump seats are quite large and certainly weren't intended to accommodate a seating position so far back. Adding in the desire for shoulder harness and a roll bar meant we needed to find another custom solution. The answer seemed pretty obvious, though the purists will consider this blasphemy...

IMG_20190602_112211 (1).jpg


We took 7" out of the jump seats on each side. This doesn't really affect the usability of these (does anyone ever really sit in them) and maintains a stock appearance similar to a later model truck. The narrower width makes it possible to now fit in the new rearward seating position and have room for a roll bar.

IMG_20190602_125430.jpg
IMG_20190602_125516.jpg


We have a local upholstery shop making custom cushions for these in the new width using extra vinyl from Corbeau so that they match the front seats. We had to move the mounting hole locations in the side rail to account for the new width and we also shifted them a tad bit forward to leave room for a roll bar in the rear.

Next up was to tackle the bucket seat mounts...
 
Will the hard top clear the handles on the rear benches?

It makes me a little sad that a pretty nice '67 is getting chopped up, but you guys look to be doing a nice job at least.
 

Yeah, that pic above doesn't show them in the final position. They are mounted forward a couple inches to clear the roll bar which drops down back there.
 
Man, I just can't seem to keep this thread going. Let's call it a late New Year's resolution to catch up on this build. Progress has been slow (per owner request) but we're still chipping away at it. I'll try to get us caught up over the next few weeks, descriptions will probably be brief so chime in if you have questions. Back to the seats....

With the rear jump seats sorted out we moved on to the fronts. After some debate about seat mounts and the best design we settled on a tube structure (there are no off-the-shelf options for the early trucks). We used 1" OD tubing to create a subframe which carries both seats and a Tuffy center console. It bolts through the floor on both sides and the console has a small pedestal which supports it in the rear.

IMG_20190730_122331.jpg


IMG_20190731_073515.jpg

IMG_20190731_073932.jpg


Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I must say this is one of the most comfortable 40's I've ever been in. The seating position (and extra legroom) are just miles better than the original split bench setup. There's still the usual concerns of wind noise and such, but with the nice seats, better positioning, and Vintage Air system to keep you warm/cool this may be a 40 you can actually road trip in without discomfort.
 
After wrapping up the seats we dove in on the coil spring conversion. We mocked up the spring buckets first to check clearances to all the critical suspension and engine components. I was most worried about the steering box with our FJ60 box conversion already done and not wanting to have to redo that work. Thankfully all looked good, it's tight in a couple spots but everything clears.

IMG_20190522_131244.jpg


With that initial check done, it was time to get down to business. I won't rehash the layout process but suffice it to say there's a lot of measuring and double checking things to get the spring buckets in place, the axle squared up and the rear mounts in position. Our floor is remarkably flat and works well for this sort of thing by putting down tape for marking and using plumb bobs to check locations of critical features. There's a more thorough description of the process in my FJ60 build thread for anyone interested.

After the layout work we laid down some tacks and set her down on coils for the first time...

IMG_20190905_171756.jpg


In the photo above you can see the rear brackets land in almost the ideal spot. They're very well centered under the frame rails and just ahead of the body mounts. Using the 70-series axle almost makes this seem too easy.

Arguably, putting the buckets on frame rail is the easiest part of this job. The next step is figuring out how to put the fenders back on and make it look factory. The OEM fender brace holes are right behind the coil buckets so it was clear we weren't going to be able to bolt the fender back on in the same manner. We started with making the clearance cuts to allow room for the new suspension components. Here's an in-process shot while we were doing layout to give you an idea of the size of the cut.

IMG_20190919_171048.jpg


Many test-fits later we had both sides cut out to clear the new spring buckets and shock towers...

IMG_20190920_101658.jpg


Next up we'll fill these open areas back in for a more contoured look and then add in a replacement support to recreate the factory piece we cut out.
 
As I mentioned, getting the suspension brackets on the frame is sort of the easy part, from there we move on to the fender work. I'll start with a view from the underside showing the clearance cutout. Notice that the factory fender brace is in a weird spot sort of between the spring bucket and shock tower.

IMG_20190920_103205.jpg


After a little bit of debate on how to mount and support the fender we decided the best approach was to relocate the brace. First we made the filler panel to close out the hole.

IMG_20190924_151146.jpg


To move the brace we first drilled all the spot welds attaching it to the fender and removed it completely. We had saved the cutoff section from earlier so we welded those two back together to make it one whole piece again. We then picked a location directly over the spring bucket with the idea that we'd put a mount on top of the bucket itself. After a bit of cutting, trimming, and putting in new spot welds we've got a nicely braced fender that looks pretty true to the original design. You can see a small tab on top of the bucket where two M8 bolts mount it with captured nuts inside the brace, everything is nice and solid now.

IMG_20191008_091706.jpg


We pulled the fender off to finish the metal work (rounding corners, grinding welds, etc). We're pretty happy with the finished product, I think it looks about as close to a factory install as possible considering the changes we've made.

IMG_20191028_132514.jpg


After that, wash/rinse/repeat on the passenger side...

IMG_20191028_132522.jpg
 
This looks like quality work! Almost looks like a factory layout with the steering box and those suspension mounts positioned where they are
 
This looks like quality work! Almost looks like a factory layout with the steering box and those suspension mounts positioned where they are

Thanks Scott! That's what we're going for - an OEM look despite all the major changes. Of course the R2.8 is never going to look exactly like a Toyota motor but we're doing our best to make it where someone who's not a Toyota enthusiast would have to stop and ask what's new and what's not.
 
With the fenders done we circled back to integrating underhood components. There's a lot going on with an intercooled turbodiesel in the engine bay and then we've got some accessories to deal with as well. We reassembled the major bits and took some time to review and plan for component locations.

IMG_20191028_184458.jpg


In the shot above you can see the two main air connections between the engine and intercooler on the left and right side of the engine. These are large space claims so routing other items around them is pretty much a necessity. I didn't love the look of the angled pipe on the left so decided to redo it as an S bend which I fabricated from two 45deg bent pipes. That still left me with the challenge of putting in the air box shown earlier in this thread. I reinstalled that box (FZJ80 with mods) and just couldn't quite get things to come together. After fussing around with it I finally decided it was time for a reboot. We had another early FJ40 in the shop so I borrowed the airbox from that one and did some test fits. The early units have the down facing connection which was looking appealing.

IMG_20191028_173948.jpg


After a few test fits and temporary mockups we decided to procure another of these airboxes and run with it. These are the tough calls, all the labor in the prior box goes out the window and we end up absorbing most of the cost of this rework but it's going to come out as a much nicer finished product and I just had to do it. We mounted the new box in a very similar matter and hooked everything up.

IMG_20191101_115826.jpg


Much better.

We moved on to another rework challenge - the ARB compressor. In the leaf spring setup we had it mounted on the inner side of the driver's fender, but now we had a shock tower where it used to reside. We were running out of real estate fast but found a spot to put it that seems like it will work well.

IMG_20191101_120232.jpg


It's going to be tight in there between the AC and heater lines, air box, and air ducts but it seems like it will work. We'll put a remote quick connect for tire filling somewhere nearby but keep the compressor down here somewhat out of sight.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom