Builds Cruisermatt's FJ62 Build-up (10 Viewers)

[cruisermatt]

I’m surprised no one commented on the obvious flaw with my T-case mount! It blocks the fill plug! I had a solution for that thought

 

[cps432]

I’m surprised no one commented on the obvious flaw with my T-case mount! It blocks the fill plug! I had a solution for that thought


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Ha! Took me a minute to see where you moved it. Brilliant!

 

[cruisermatt]

Update: running four quarts of oil in the splitcase results in two quarts of oil all over the rear of the truck.

I experiment so you don’t have to!

 

[John Smith]

Hey Matt, I found this thread through some TLCA or Mud post on FB. Been reading it over a few days, and I'm happy to see you start from just out of HS to now having your own shop. You've had quite the epic journey with your 62, and you're just getting started. You're a true Cruiserhead! I look forward to meeting you on a trail, or around a campfire one day.

PS, please destroy your old NV4500 so that it never haunts anyone again.

 

[cruisermatt]

Hey Matt, I found this thread through some TLCA or Mud post on FB. Been reading it over a few days, and I'm happy to see you start from just out of HS to now having your own shop. You've had quite the epic journey with your 62, and you're just getting started. You're a true Cruiserhead! I look forward to meeting you on a trail, or around a campfire one day.

PS, please destroy your old NV4500 so that it never haunts anyone again.

Hey John. Thanks for reading. Yep, it looks like Cruisers have truly shaped my life.
I’m so thankful to have gotten mine as a hand-me-down and started modifying it before they got really expensive.
These really are magical vehicles.

I actually believe we have already meet at a Gsmtr before.
I’ll be at this year’s Stlca New Years ride at the Cove, will you?

And yes, the old NV4500 is now dissembled and the gears all turned into a friend’s backyard art.

 

[cruisermatt]

Took Tuesday off work and played around with my Cruiser all day.
Finally got the right-side rear 1/4 chop finished, I had never finished welding it. Only took me 3 and half years. Installed new filler neck grommet since mine was torn. So after fixing all the rot around the body mount last month and this I officially have no openings in the body shell besides all the roof issues (that I know of at least) Maybe the roof will happen this year. We'll see.

I also got a new clutch master put in, wired up my front line lock (works awesome), rebuilt the clutch on my winch that had completely rusted solid (smooth as butter now), and fixed a few stripped threads in one of my rear hubs. Just need to weld my 1/4 armor back on and I'm ready to go wheeling, leaving saturday for Tennessee.

I picked up another good, known working, 80 box the other day, contemplating swapping it in tomorrow before we leave to see if I can tell a difference driving around town compared to the box I have. I still feel like I am not getting the assist I should be.

 

[cruisermatt]

Well, the New Years wheeling trip was a great success. Drove up to Windrock on Saturday the 26th, wheeled Sunday with no real issues, Monday I mad a pretty bad judgment call and decided to take the group through a trail that we really shouldn't have been on - it was great up until the last 1/2 mile or so which was pretty much a complete disaster, winch fest, and all three rigs took on serious body damage. One rig blew two beads, I ran my gas tank low enough to where it wouldn't pick up on inclines and managed to kill my battery and a fusible link trying to winch without the truck running. We were on the trail till about midnight, just one of those nights where it take 6-7 hours to go 100 feet. We all drove back to camp though.

After that I wheeled solo the next day without issue, took Wednesday off and then another buddy from Florida with an 80 showed up that night and we hit the trails Thursday with plans to drive down to the new Coalmont OHV park near Jasper to meet the rest of the STLCA guys for their New Year's ride.

We did a nice hard blue trail, an hour in my clutch hose melted (replaced with the rear brake hard line), and almost at the end of the trail I accidentally left my front line lock on while trying to climb a ledge in 1st gear/double low which resulted in breaking my front carrier. Not the end of the world, but we still had two more days of wheeling ahead of us that I didn't want to miss out on, we got back to camp to pack up and head 2 hours to Coalmont, and amazingly I was able to find a complete 4.11 third member 15 minutes away in town, keep in mind it was about 4:30pm at this point on New Years Eve. I got the place to stay open just past 5pm for me, swapped the third out in the Windrock campsite, transfered my locker over which wasn't hurt besides two broken pins, and we headed out at about 8pm!

We wheeled Friday and Saturday without any other issues and had a blast. Drove 12 hours home Sunday without issue. The Coppinger's Cove trails are really cool and I can't wait to get back there and continue exploring. My winch got a serious workout this trip. Really happy with it.

 

[cruisermatt]

 

[Bama4door]

Pretty crazy that yard had a 3rd member 15 min away from Windrock...glad you got home in one piece. Looks like you got some good wheeling in!

 

[cruisermatt]

the FLCA crew at the New Year's ride.. @9780MOP @dannyp

I am usually really bad about remembering to take pictures while on the trail, Danny got a few nice ones of me doing one of the many river crossings at the Cove though.

 

[cruisermatt]

Pretty crazy that yard had a 3rd member 15 min away from Windrock...glad you got home in one piece. Looks like you got some good wheeling in!

Yeah dude. Six full days!

And the really awesome part is that my power steering pump is still fine which means my reservoir relocation worked!

 

[boots4]

Glad the relocation has solved the pump death problem. I've got a buddy doing a build on a 50's willy's that'll be on 40s and he has the same reservoir and a similar looking pump. I shared with him about the reservoir location needing to allow a downward feed hose connection because of the troubles you've shared. That should save him from experiencing the same problems. His new reservoir location will mount almost above the pump similar to yours.

 

[cruisermatt]

Glad the relocation has solved the pump death problem. I've got a buddy doing a build on a 50's willy's that'll be on 40s and he has the same reservoir and a similar looking pump. I shared with him about the reservoir location needing to allow a downward feed hose connection because of the troubles you've shared. That should save him from experiencing the same problems. His new reservoir location will mount almost above the pump similar to yours.

Yeah man, if you start to look around at others running remote reservoirs for steering pumps, especially stuff like Ultra 4 cars and serious rock buggies, you'll see they all have them mounted like that.

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Matt...how is that you break things that typically do not break. Wait...I already know the answer. I’ve been on the trail with you and spent some quality time hanging out with you. So I would say this is not a surprise . I know for a fact less than 1% of us cruiserheads could drive their rig out of these type of situations. You continue to amaze me ma man!

 

[John McVicker]

^^^

True that.

 

[White Stripe]

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Normal people have picnics on a picnic table fyi. Lol Those water crossing pics are frame on the wall quality cool.

 

[cruisermatt]

Matt...how is that you break things that typically do not break. Wait...I already know the answer. I’ve been on the trail with you and spent some quality time hanging out with you. So I would say this is not a surprise . I know for a fact less than 1% of us cruiserheads could drive their rig out of these type of situations. You continue to amaze me ma man!

Honestly, both breakages were not anything to do with my driving. The diff was really just because I forgot to turn my line lock off. It’s able to able to drive through the brakes without a lot of load on it, like enough to get the front tires up a ledge, and I thought I would just walk the line so I gave it some throttle and it just popped. It really was not dramatic at all.
The clutch hose was just neglect and being an inch away from my exhaust manifold.

 

[cruisermatt]

Anyone ever put FJ40 mirrors on a 60 before? Obviously holes need to be drilled, but thought it might look neat? Initially was thinking on the doors like the original mirrors, but what about mounting one or both on the fender like JDM mirrors? Might be neat
I broke my right-side Euro mirror on my last wheeling trip and had no idea how expensive OEM ones are, I got mine for free luckily. Might just bite the bullet on a pair of OEM 70 series mirrors since they seem to be half the cost of new Euro mirrors. Or just go back to 62 power mirrors and black them out since my electronics are all still there. Of course I sold my original ones years ago. Decisions...

 

[White Stripe]

You could mount a fj40 or jeep telescoping mirror arm to your bumper hoop with a light bar tube bracket. Then put the mirror head of your choice on the arm. Fj40s had several soft top mirror head options.

 

[cruisermatt]

37 x 12.5 r 17 test fit.
Looks like the front axle needs to go back the other direction a bit to keep it out of the front of the inner fenders and core support.
I'm not really sure how but these seem to clear my front springs at full steering lock in either direction, when 35's on wheels that are dimensionally the same rub a little bit, not sure how that's possible but I'm going to roll with it.

Hopefully this GME stock pays out and I can buy a whole set of rims and tires