Builds Aussie 1978 FJ40 Buildup (1 Viewer)

[Twisty]

A few quick pics from a recent weekend out at Landcruiser Mountain Park. Had a pretty good weekend. Went to Camp Rd after setting up camp on friday arve. Had a shocking run up(picked a s*** line the whole way) but with the lockers front and rear it crawled it the whole way, just constantly had wheels off the ground, as the pics show below.

After pulling up at the top but the 40 started pissing out oil....The sump gasket had been leaking for a while now (i put it on dodgy) and once i got it on the steep angles it would pour out the back and fill the bellhousing. Then once you got flat again it would all drain out. This this pretty much put an end to doing any steep tracks for the weekend.

Saturday just did Claw Gorge, Test Track, with no dramas, then Cruiser Canyon to finish it off. Ended up having a go at the rock ledge at the end after watching Guts and Boof crawl up, but didn't listen to the navvy and ended up getting stuck on it. Since the shorty was pointing straight up, the whole sump emptied into the bellhousing and onto the clutch. Guts had a little oil there, which got it back to camp, where I parked it for the rest of the weekend.

I ended up getting another 4 litres off a random guy on sunday for $20 (thanks heap mate!) which got it home fine. Clutch was slipping pretty bad but for the whole trip home, but has come good now.

Heres the few boring pics I got on the weekend.

About to leave home.

Pig Pen Stump, front end is working heaps better with the longer shocks, the springs open right up now.

Test Track

 

[Twisty]

Cruiser Canyon

 

[Twisty]

Heres the pics Celtlux took of Camp Rd.....

 

[Twisty]

Couple more pics from Crusier Canyon....this is where I lost all of what little oil I had left in the sump. Still haven't driven this bloody thing yet....next time for sure!

 

[Twisty]

Got something cool done this week. There is a guy on the coast that has bought a 3d printer, which is mainly used for for doing Architectual Display models of fancy houses. We were trying to get a model done of a industrial subdivision I designed which had a large amount of earthworks. The design program I use for civil design coudln't spit out files as a solid object, so it wouldn't print it, but then I had a chat to him about the bar I done up for the 40 in solidworks. A day later and he dropped this off, so cool! Need a RC 40 to put it on now.

Ignore the funky colours, he was just playing around with them, but each part can be done in any colour you want. The fog lights inside the bumper were built by the printer, but becuase I didn't have any brackets on them, they fell out. If I had a left a small gap between the ligth force and the cover you would have been able to take the cover off and see the lense behind it.

Its a bit fury and rough as he used old hardner on it. New hardner would leave it all perfectly smooth.

You can just make out the lightforce stickers in real life, bit hard to see in the pics but.

 

[4x4 Station Wagon]

WOW!!! Nice 40....... I have been beating around the idea of what silver would look like....... Then i have been beating myself up on white top or not........ Now i know looks sweat!!! Dammit dont dent that thing.. LOL

 

[shorty 40]

man that thing is ultra sweet just love the colour scheme that new bar is gonna look mean once it hanging from the 40 keep up the super thread

 

[Twisty]

WOW!!! Nice 40....... I have been beating around the idea of what silver would look like....... Then i have been beating myself up on white top or not........ Now i know looks sweat!!! Dammit dont dent that thing.. LOL

Thanks mate, I love the colour of it too, specially with the white bezel and roof. As for the dints, yeah, I'm trying not to LOL.

man that thing is ultra sweet just love the colour scheme that new bar is gonna look mean once it hanging from the 40 keep up the super thread

thanks...all the 3mm parts of the bar got lasercut last week. As its getting done for free I have to wait for them to be cutting the material sizes I need, hopefully not too far away but.

 

[Twisty]

I'm ordering some new custom springs for the 40 tomorrow from Dobinsons in Rocky. Heres dodgy screen pics from autocad of how they will be setup. Thats shown with 37" tyres, but I'm going to run 36x12.5 TSLs now.

Front - Diff moved forward 4 inches, and spring 3 inches longer than my current ones (total length of new spring 49.6")

Rear - Rear shackle mount moved back 4 inch, diff moved back 5 inches, and spring 8.5" longer then my current ones. (total length of new spring 53")

I wanted to check how having the diff 4" foward will effect my steering and just to see what it looks like. So yesterday I undone the u-bolts and slid the diff foward 4" and re-clamped it.
I really like the look of it, but I think I am going to have to re-drill the steering box mounts and move the box forward about 1" to stop the drag link and tie rod hitting. Heres a few pics.
s***ty picture, but show how far the diff went forward. Looks a little funny with the rear in the std. spot, but with it back 5" it should look a lot better.

First flex test was done with the trolley hack to get an idea of how bad it might be. Couldn't get full travel out of it but.

You can see the diff has travelled up past where my bumptsop would usally limit the travel and the steering arms haven't touched yet, so I may get away without having to move the steering box.

Arms end up in line with each other from above.

 

[Twisty]

With it all looking ok I took it across the road to the dirt pile for a proper flex.

All going well I'll be installing the new springs next weekend :armsup:

 

[Gib009]

good job with the build up mate, had a keen eye out for a 40 when i first saw yours in the mag! Ended getting a BJ71 instead though, which is still great! I am keen to see the new springs. If you dont mind me asking how much do custom springs set you back because i am after longer springs on mine for some more flex.

 

[Twisty]

Thanks Gib.....new spring posts coming soon! Mine ended up costing $1200 as they were a full custom pack. I believe its a fair bit cheaper (like $400) if you can work it around there std 2" lift springs with longer mains.

 

[Twisty]

Well I've had the new custom springs from Dobinsons for a couple weeks now, and as anyone who seen my other thread "can you have too flat a shackle angle" things didn't quiet go to plan. Turns out when using autocad to see how much longer your new springs need to be to get a 45 degree shackle angle there is a fine line between it working, all just collapsing till the shackles botton out.

Some pics of the progress and where its up to.

4 new shiny springs! One of the clamps on the bottom pack was on the wrong side so had to flip that leaf.

Will the help from Dave at Dixon Race Engineering I got some high clearance u-bolt plates done. They are lasercut and pressed out of one piece, then the gussets welded up. The rears also have built in lower shock mounts in roughly the same position as standard. If they all work ok on mine Dave will be selling these soon, probably as a group buy to keep costs about half of what others charge.

Heres the difference the plates make (still need to trim the u-bolts)
Std. Front setup

With the high clearance ubolt plate. Could make them even higher but the u-bolts didn't have enough thread. Am sure it would be possible to buy some that do but, and lift the nuts up higher again.

Std. Rear Setup

Highclearance ones.

 

[Twisty]

Front springs were meant to be a bolt in job, so did them first.

Old vs New Fronts

But when I went to lower it all back onto its wheels it keep dropping till this happened.

Shackles just collapsed until the hit the bumper....seems I ordered the springs too long! Even though all measurements in autocad match what is there is real life. Started looking into ways to fix it, Dobinsons were happy to shorten them if I freighted them back to Rocky. Also looked into a shackle reversal, but it doesn't seem worth the effort. Easiest fix is to relocate the fixed hanger back a little and loose a 1" of the 4" the front diff has come forward, and will be doing that this weekend. This will also have the benefit of fixing my castor finally!

Next was the rears, was meant to just flip the rear shackle mount 180 degrees (moves it back about 4") and the springs would bolt up, but once again my measurement were too long, so I had to move it another inch back, so it just sticks out past the std. rear bumper. A custom rear bumper will be done asap now to help cover it all up as it looks a little wierd at the moment.

Old vs New Rears

 

[Twisty]

Will hopefully get the front all sorted this weekend, then look into driveshafts and shock mounts, front fenders, rear quaters, flares etc...so will probably be 4 weeks or more before its on the road again.

But here what it looks like (front still bottomed out on the shackles) with 9" extra wheelbase over stock....98" total.

 

[Twisty]

Forgot to post these pics too. Jackass did the lasercutting and bending for the new front bar a few weeks ago Cheers Mate . The automatic press thing stuffed up the bends on the top piece, but that will be easy enough to fix. Just waiting on Chris to come down on his next trip south then Kane from Komited Kustoms will weld it all up, then will get Brooksy to add some tube work.

 

[Twisty]

Little bit more progress....Got the fronts rear fixed mounts out over the weekend, rivets suck :bad-words: But got there in the end. Found the easiest way is to do a heap of cuts over the head of the rivert with a cut off wheel on the grinder, then smash it off with a cold chisel. Had to drill some out as well, which a slightly smaller drill bit then the rivet seemed to work best (10mm bit)

Anyway, kane called around this arve and tacked them into the new position, then we bolted it all up.

Can see how far the mount has come back in this pic by the hole in the mount compared to the hole in the chassis. The springs were 75mm longer then my old ones, and the fixed mount has come back 50mm, but I'm not sure if its enough.

New shackle angle...which is nice, but with me lightly jumping up and down on it I can bottom them out on the bumper.

I do think it does look a little more in proportion with the front diff back 2" from before, specially with the 33s. (Diff is 2" forward from stock).

 

[Twisty]

All spring mounts now fully welded in, moved the fixed mounts at the front another 20mm back from above (70mm total), and shackle should settle to a perfect 45. Front diff is now only 1" forward from standard , which I'm going to leave for the time being. Decieded to wait and see what size tyres I end up with, and how the tube front guards turn out and move it to suit then. Saves mucking around with shock mounts and steering in the front for now, but I will need a driveshaft spacer.

This weekends progress was just cutting the remainder of the moulded in flares. So much bloody bog in the rear panels, is a pain in the arse, and the whole garage is covered in white dust. Also test fitted the TJ Flares, which I'm not really a fan of.

Bog flares!

Flare gone, but plenty of bog left.

All smoothed out, still a bit of tidying up to do....I haven't trimmed the rear of this arch to shape yet.

 

[Twisty]

Test fitting the TJ flares, which look ok from side on.

But a sh!t from front on....a wider diff might make it look in proportion.

Cant get them back far enough to be centred over wheel either.

 

[Twisty]

I definetly dont want to run the TJ flares for good now, they just dont look right. I plan to get Brooksy to make some tube ones, but wont have the $$ till next year as I wanna get tube front gaurds, rear flares, sliders, and get him to add some tube to the front and rear bars, and hopefully a cage too.

These are what I'll get done for the rear.

So not sure wether to fit the TJs as a temp thing, or just run some garden edge flares for now?????