Abandoned 84 FJ60 gets some love, and a 4bt! (1 Viewer)

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Thank you! I know progress is slow, but I really do want to make this thing nice again, and put the time and effort and research into doing everything as right as I can. This build is to replace my 2017 Tacoma, and as such, it needs to be reliable, comfortable, capable, and somewhat economical.
I have about $10k in it so far, including every single part I will need to build it, except for paint.
I plan to have the tires mounted next week, I guess I'll be going with BFG KM3's in a 33x10.5x15 on the stock wheels, because no tire shops are willing to try the 33x12.5 or the 35x12.5 on the stock wheels for me, and I really don't want to change the wheels.
So that puts my ideal highway cruising speed squarely at 65mph around 1800-1900 rpm, and 2200-2300 around 75 mph, which should be ok, but mileage will be affected.
To be honest the 10.5 is a pushing it a bit. A 9.5 would be perfect. The 10.5 has a bit of a bulge in the tire when you run it on the factory rims. The side walls also get a little squishy. It’s still a pretty solid setup though and you won’t regret it.
 
To be honest the 10.5 is a pushing it a bit. A 9.5 would be perfect. The 10.5 has a bit of a bulge in the tire when you run it on the factory rims. The side walls also get a little squishy. It’s still a pretty solid setup though and you won’t regret it.
I wish I could get some 10" wide stock steelies. I guess I could get some cheap wagon wheels but I want to keep the thing understated, and practical to drive across the country. I've done some trips running 5k miles a week in my old Subaru that included exploring around Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah offroad, and I want to do the same thing just better in my Cruiser.
The Subaru lacks low range, and thus struggled in some places, especially off road at altitudes over 12k ft. I'm proud of what it has done, but there were places I wanted to go and didn't trust it to make it.
I think this drivetrain with 33x10.5's will be a good combination for an actual overland expedition rig without compromising too much in any area.
 
When I bought my cruiser the spare wheel was in the cargo area mounted to a 33x12.5 tire. I definitely wouldn't attempt it or run that, but I guess it's technically possible to put a stubby 12.5" tire on a 6" rim, haha.

Build is going to be great, nice work so far!
 
Today I ordered my tires! I decided to try the General Grabber X3 this time around, in a 33x10.5x15 for the stock wheels. I'm excited! Except that they cost more than I originally paid for the FJ60 in the first place lol.
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After taxes they were nearly $1500 for all 5. Jeepers.
 
Today I ordered my tires! I decided to try the General Grabber X3 this time around, in a 33x10.5x15 for the stock wheels. I'm excited! Except that they cost more than I originally paid for the FJ60 in the first place lol.View attachment 3030939
After taxes they were nearly $1500 for all 5. Jeepers.
I see I’m too late. I was going to recommend getting some 16” wheels as they will help a lot with running a 33” tire.
 
New rubber looks pretty sweet on this thing!
She also drives much better on stuff that isn't dry rotten with flat spots.
Acceleration is a little worse, but not too bad. Highway cruising is awesome with the rubber overdrive.
I'm pretty happy so far!
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Got a wild hair and pulled my dash pad off, and started removing duct work to get at my heater core today. Got about halfway there and got pulled away to go to dinner with my in-laws. No turning back now....
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This morning I dropped my son off at daycare, and came home to dive back into this mess.
About an hour into it, I finally have the AC box and heater box out. Now to swap out the heater core, shop vac all the rodent crap I found in the dash, and begin to reassemble.
And to think I chose to fix up this old pile instead of buying something new lol...
What a pain in the ass!
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Finally got it out, and swapped, and most of the dash back together. I'll keep steadily pushing to get it back together until about 3, and hopefully be at a good stopping place until time to pull the engine out.
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Yesterday I pulled the seats and carpet out of the old wagon, and found a ton of shredded paper, rodent crap, and even a mummified rat! It was a DISGUSTING job, But I'm so glad to have that nasty crap out of my Cruiser!
Among all that nastiness, I did find a teensy bit of rust that I didn't notice before. I've got a small hole in each rear wheel hump.
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I vacuumed a whole lot of dirt and trash and rodent crap out, and scrubbed a few places clean, and hosed the front floorboards down with brake cleaner in an attempt to clean up the residue from the leaky heater core and clutch master cylinder.
That was also pretty yucky. The brake fluid leaking from the clutch master lifted some of the paint on the firewall and driver footwell. I'm gonna cover all this with sound deadening mat anyway, so I'll probably just clean it all up a little better and hit it with some good quality spray paint. Nobody will be seeing that part of the floor for a long time once I put the new carpet in.
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Last week we got the Toyota Drivetrain out, and I left for vacation. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can get the tcase swapped over, and the Cummins stuff stuck in place well enough to mark where my mounts need to go, and back out so I can weld them onto the frame.
Its all going a little slower than I'd hoped, but progress is happening.
I can't wait to get the new stuff in and working, and get the exhaust all sorted out. Once that's all good, I'll finish my cleaning and rust repair on the interior, and start soundproofing.

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60's were renowned for rust in Australia and there are not too many good ones left that remain registered. Our registration system requires a yearly inspection in most states and a bit of rust is a fail. There was a government initiative several years ago to get old cars off our roads so the rules tightened up and made it very difficult to keep some of the older cars legal. Having said that if you have the time and money to rejuvenate the old girl then good luck to you, hope it works out well.
 
Today I cleaned up my transfer case a little and removed it from the old 4 speed. Tomorrow I'll clean some more, and install new bearings and seals, and assemble it on the Advanced Adapters deal on the back of my NV4500. My buddy just bought a plasma cutter from Northern Tool, so we'll play with that some this coming week to remove the old frame side engine mounts, and work toward hanging the new stuff between the frame rails. Baby steps, but steps nonetheless.
Hopefully I'll get to drive it before winter....

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Yesterday, local Mud inmate, @120mm came to my place in his badass FJ55, and picked up the 2F to stick into '69 FJ40. It will go on to live a great life, while also funding the rest of my Cummins swap, and likely some more aspects of the build.
I'm very happy to see such a sweet running engine go to a loving home!
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Today was Transfer case day. Did lots cleaning, pulled it off the 4 speed, replaced some bearings and seals, and reassembled it on the Advance Adapters deal for the NV4500. Still have some fiddling to do for the shift linkage, but I'm just about ready to stick the whole mess in my truck!
My only complaint about the AA stuff is that they drilled and tapped every single bolt hole in the adapter to 3/8"-16, instead of using the original metric Toyota bolts. That's kinda sloppy IMHO, considering the Toyota stuff used several different sizes and whatnot.... Otherwise, it is nice quality stuff, and I'm sure it'll be fine.
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What is that new blue machine in the background? It almost looks like a Subaru Forester.
 

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