78' FJ55 Rebuild. What have we gotten ourselves into.

[J Mack]

The owner of the Cruiser would like to put a diesel in it at some point

You might want to spend some time looking into exactly what he wants at this point and come up with a plan for the long game.
For my diesel swap 55 I'm using a NV4500 5 speed trans and a Toyota split case transfer.


I documented most of the parts for the diesel swap here, Target carrier


And another with some good info, Mort's 76 FJ55

 

[ColinGreene]

Hey thanks for the links about the diesel conversion.
Hes decided it needs to be able to tow around 5500 pounds.
so i need to research what its going to take to make that happen.
it may be a long term goal.
so far in the short term.
I talked to bob about patch panels. unfortunately nothing really worked out there but its no fault of bobs.
that leaves me with needing to come up with a solution to replace the rockers and some other areas of the truck.
due to the extreme wear on the output splines and the destroyed bearing i found in the transfer case we opted to have a local shop that was recommended to us by our friends at TLC.
A complete overall of the t case and transmission was completed to the tune of about 2400$
I am ordering from specter today a clutch kit and some other odds and ends because it seems stupid to not change it while its all out of there.
We also wire wheeled the floors off and coated them with a rust prevention agent (coroseal) he plans on having the floor rinolined or something to that effect for durability and to attempt to keep the panels from ringing when being driven.
We also completed a compression test and the numbers were as follows 150-100-150-120-145-120
Maybe not perfect but I'm sure it will certainly work. We also got the motor to fire on some fuel and run for about a minute.
Going forward id like to get the fuel tank back in and the lines hooked up. and the cooling system so we can run the motor for a longer period of time to assess any other potential needs. Only thing i have to really solve on the cooling front is what fan clutch to use.
and now everones fave pictures.

 

[ColinGreene]

in addition here is some pictures of my rocker issue and the floors
oh and these seats he decided to use. Personally i think the embroidery is a bit much

 

[wngrog]

Personally i think the embroidery is a bit much


View attachment 1574742

Woa....

 

[ColinGreene]

Made some more progress, the rear bench seat is half done, the interior guy had no idea how to fasten the back to the metal back of the seat so that was fun. However the bottom is done as pictured
we quickly shot the panel under the front grill as a test panel for color. the cuiser will be painted two tone matte red and cream white.
A little bit of refreshing the gauges goes a long way and as it turns out the insides of these gauges were spotless, someone clearly has been in here before.
We also made some progress straightening the drivers side front door, needs a bit more work but its getting there.
And it seems like a motor choice has been made. should be interesting. its a 1998 Dodge Ram 2500 24V Cummins with a 5speed manual behind it.

Now what everyone wants, Pictures.

 

[ColinGreene]

Who is Fc187?

 

[ColinGreene]

I was just trying to figure out the correlation between him and this truck.
the metal work is being done by a local in Costa Mesa as a friend deal, normally hes working on European Classics.

 

[joestewart]

4BT! Not 6BT!

 

[Pighead]

Who is Fc187?

He did my SOA/power steering/front discs/shock hoops...back before he was famous. An artist and a Pig lover. I was very fortunate to get him to work on my Pig.

 

[ColinGreene]

We have a free 6BT as in the Company already owns it and does not use it.
Lil'John, sorry I just get confused easy. to be fair, all good work comes at a price. It might not cost the same but it will in time/money has been my experience. Ill post a picture of some of the other work our metal guy has done.
and Pighead, that is awesome. Though i do think this cruiser will stay more stock looking from the outside.