Builds Build: 75 Fj55 "Los Lobos" (1 Viewer)

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Been a busy last month at work a lot and nothing much to report on. Yesterday I was off work and able to take a drive down to Santa Maria and pickup the fuel tank. Not sure if I mentioned it or not in the posts above but I pulled it inspected it and it needed to be dipped. So off to Industrial Radiator it went.

Doug the owner of industrial radiator has done several radiators and fuel tanks over the years for me. He called over the weekend and said the tank looked great just needed the drain plug so he can pressure test it.


Brought down the plug and was able to wait and watch the process. It’s shops like these that I’ve seen slowly die off sadly. Regulations and residential real estate pushes a lot of these folks out. Or retirement and no one wants to keep it going.

Doug has seen a lot over the years. We have a lot of AG in our counties so heavy equipment is common for him.

I had to be the guy that opened the trip down memory lane so I go…

“Doug what’s the biggest radiator you’ve ever fu*ked with?”

Laughs

Pauses

Starts talking about a ship that was working Point Mugu, had sonar technology on it and for some reason had radiators above the deck. (Someone please chime in here and explain) anywhom… Roughly 8 feet on their side by 14 feet. 3 of them. I laughed and just love hearing things like this.

Doug comes outside after payment and shows me these awesome old photos.

“Ya they said no photos but I had to get some on my way out. Look at the size of the man door for comparison!”

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Hummm what’s new…

Grabbed a Toyota Koito light kit along with some other goodies. Going through this entire harness front to back checking everything out.

Separate fuse panel mounted for winch , cooling fan , Coil , and the interior blue sea panel with some room to spare for a future owner.

Not much else to report. Once this harness is all buttoned up the lift kit will be started on.

Ordered a set of maxxis razr mtr 33 10.5 15 from Wally World of all places… Also got 5 original wheels from Toyota and they’re at the powder coater now. Going with RAL 7036 is the color choice I went with after looking around on the forum.
 
Nice work Joe. I’m gonna follow this one and watch your progress.
 
Electrical is just about done so the suspension tear down has begun. Why not?

Wheels got done from the power coater and tires arrived via fed ex from Wally World. $100 bucks to mount and balance 5 of these things from the local tire shop. Love how they came out and love this Maxxis tire look.

Keep moving don’t stop must continue. Hopefully 3 weeks it’ll be driving around.

Los lobos got some other friends in the queue today, give a follow on Instagram and you’ll see the full sh*t storm of my life. 🙄 Worked this deal for over a year and finally the stars aligned with all parties involved. Sleep when you’re dead. 😉

Happy Monday folks.

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Busy month been gone at work most of it then took off to Monterey car week.

Front end complete finally and now moving onto the rear.

Scrolling around on Facebook groups and noticed someone post the famous FJ40 in San Francisco at 19th and Judah has been removed.

Did a rather significant amount of digging the last 48 hours and still no signs. Have several people reaching out with great information but still not sure what happened to the darn thing. Have followed it very close the past few years and had intentions to legally pursue it once this owners bankruptcy case closed. If I had gotten it was planning to donate it to the land cruiser museum if they wanted it. Sadly looks like my opportunity has passed. Here’s my Instagram post on it…




Anyways back to Los Lobos photos that’s what you are all here for right?

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Pulled the rear end today. Got the undercarriage washed down and blown out with air in all the cracks and crevices really good. Absolutely amazed how this pig is so rust free compared to what we usually see sadly.

Drilled out and removed the rear spring mounts to move them back 5 inches.

These pics are pre wash…

Also got my USPS mail notification email early this morning. Said Oregon DMV had something en route. (Nervous because we have gone back and forth on paperwork once already) Finally came home tonight to a clean Oregon title in my name and transferred done. Tomorrow I’ll transfer this to a CA title and get current registration plates and tags finally!

If you start at the beginning of the thread you’ll see this car was from Oregon but previous owners had it down here to California and never transferred it. Furthermore all I had from them sadly was a bill of sale.

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That first alignment shop couldn’t dial in the toe correct. They had claimed I needed to trim 1/8 off each tie rod to get the toe dialed in. I’m my head “did I toss the fj40 linkage and use fj55? What is going on here…”

Adjustments were maxed out.

Very odd… Still had room for adjustment but the link tubes wouldn’t turn. Figured maybe the old link tubes were so corroded with crud but had cleaned them out… ordered new tubes from Kurt and tossed those in. Had to go through photos. The 40 axle I got never came with steering tubes so I know these were fj55 ones. Kurt’s showed up and everything was the same… They just threaded a little nicer 😉

Went to a local tire shop in town and this is my final result. Also had added a 4 degree caster shim from Georg at Valley Hybrids and here we are…

I think I should be happy with those results.

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So did you leave the Tcase parking brake hardware (dash handle and drum on Tcase) in place and just bypass?
So my issue was…

It has a split case t case in it. The previous owner stuffed the v8 swap sooooo far back against the firewall they removed all of the parking brake assembly linkage components. @orangefj45 and the crew fabricated a section in the floor next to the drivers door for a parking brake setup. Tight fit but I still am able to get my hand wrapped around it with the door closed.


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