Build Fergytoy's 1965 FJ45

[john657]

This thread will document the repair, maintenance, modification and restoration of my recently purchased 1965 FJ45.

 

[john657]

Found the brass tag to be in its proper place.

 

[john657]

 

[john657]

My goal with this truck is to keep it as close to stock as possible while making sure it is all in proper order as far as maintenance and proper road worthiness. A prior owner had an FJ60 drive-train swapped into it and it was done rather well. Runs and drives well.

 

[john657]

The original FJ45 tank had been swapped out for an FJ40 tank with the expected homemade fill tube in place to allow the fuel to be properly introduced into the tank. Also discovered a recently added electric fuel pump plumbed in under the seat.

 

[john657]

A friend had given me this old FJ45 tank over 20 yrs ago. It came out of my parts stash and was reburbished to go into my new truck. It had a few seeps of gas at the upper seams. Fresh PC7 was used to seal those along with a POR15 kit of gas tank sealer. I think the tank is galvanized and it was not rusted but appears that a few of the seams lacked good workmanship when it was made many years ago.

 

[john657]

I was a bit too careless with the POR15 tank sealant and allowed it to get into and clog the internal fuel supply tube inside the tank. Had to drill out the spot welds that held the supply tube in place, ream it out with a drill bit and then weld it back onto the tank.

 

[john657]

Some of the sending unit mounting threads were stripped, Decided to install new 4mm X .70 nutserts. Worked well. Awaiting delivery of a new sending unit now. Installed the old one temporarily to check for leaks.

 

[john657]

Discovered someone had shortened the steel fuel inlet tube which was most likely when the FJ40 tank was installed many years ago. Decided to source some 2" exhaust tube which was a nice size and weld it on to extend it as needed to allow the new 2" rubber fuel hose to connect securely.

 

[john657]

 

[john657]

Fill tube modified to a good length. Pic of the mechanical fuel pump spacer I removed. I have been running the OEM style fuel pumps on my other FJ40's which call for no spacer due to the thicker mounting flange. So, with the new style fuel pump for this truck, I mounted it up with the spacer as the flange is a bit thinner, however no fuel was being pulled from the tank. Keep in mind I had removed the electric fuel pump from under the seat to go back to a more original setup. Then I decided to remove the spacer and remount the new fuel pump. Works perfectly now.

 

[john657]

Installed and gas added. No leaks and runs fine.

 

[john657]

Been jumping around to different tasks on this truck. Onto the seat-belt issue. Since this truck is a 1965 model and just missed the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 mandating minimal seat-belts to a certain degree, I decided that the previously added 2 point old school lap harnesses that were added by a previous owner were not gonna cut it. Toyota had installed the 4 eye-bolts at the rear box section of the cab so that the old style harness clips could be quickly installed back in the day. These old harnesses were of the GM variety and had to go in favor of a more modern 3 point style seatbelt. More to come...........

 

[john657]

Been looking around the internet to see what others had done on their older FJ40/45's that pre-date the seat-belt issue and decided to fab up some simple brackets to weld onto the top and tub with 10mm nutserts to securely hold the seat-belt harnesses, Worked well.

 

[Bear]

John,

Really like your ideas for the seat belts. Could you take a few more shots of your cut-outs on the cab for the anchor plates; and maybe a part number for the belt/retractor you used? !
Thx.

 

[john657]

I like the CCOT belts. Have used them on other restorations and have worked well.

 

[john657]

1/8" plate fully welded to the B pillar box section. I had drilled a hole thru the interior side of the B pillar just big enough to allow the back side of the nutsert to sit thru. Auto manufacturers do a similar mount however the reinforcing plate is usually spot welded inside the box section or under the floor sheet metal depending on the location. The mounting nut is then welded onto the reinforcing plate as well. These nutserts work very well for these applications. Also found a similar color spray can of paint at Walmart to the Muleta Red color of the truck. At least I think its Muleta Red.

 

[john657]

Utilizing the factory eye-bolts is where these CCOT harnesses will bolt to. It appears that if I use the 4" bracket, this end of the harness will be able to extend thru the seat and be accessible to the driver and passenger for proper buckling. Haven't had time to fully install these just yet. Will send more pics when I get to that point.

 

[john657]

More 1/8" plate cut into a triangle. The plate is radiused/curved a bit toward the rear corner of the tub before being fully welded. Held the retractor part of the harness up to it to determine where best to drill and install the nutsert. I wanted the retractor to not interfere with the hardtop latch. I am not concerned about the upper harness mount being bolted further up on the B pillar and not having it available for when the hardtop comes off. I don't plan on removing the hardtop on this truck after its all taken apart, restored and put back together.

 

[john657]

New Aisin clutch master cylinder. What appeared to be the original one was leaking badly and falling apart. Still shifted fine though. Appears that 9mm brake/clutch steel lines had already been swapped out for the more modern 10mm lines. Firewall brace had been cut and moved over to allow for the brake booster. Thats probably when they swapped all the 9mm lines for 10mm.