First a little background-
About five years, and one wife ago I bought this old rusty-crusty FJ40 for a song, form a guy with almost no time and even less fab skills. The cruiser was a rusty half built, mostly broken pile of parts that consisted of a ’77 frame, and what was left of a tub, full width Dana 44s, a 4 speed tranny, and a NP208 T-case that the PO was convinced was a 205. He had done a lot of “fab work” with whatever scrap steel he had laying around and an old stick welder. (I will post some pics tomorrow of the before and in between.) Long story slightly shorter…. The motor mounts were more than three quarters of an inch twisted from one another, and the spring out boarding that he scabbed together was already broken almost off and all this before it had driven an inch under its own power.
Let the disassembly begin. I started by cutting off what was left of the tub, pulling the drive train and grinding the frame back to as close as I could get it to stock. One really long day with a torch and several grinding wheels later and I was back to square 0. I sold off the 4” lift springs the PO was rolling on and scrapped the eight inch shackles. I liked the way it looked with the full width axles and decided that they would stay but needed to be treated to some upgrades so that the cruiser community wouldn’t laugh at me for swapping out the ‘Yota axles. I would stay with a 5.7 but get it from a more reliable source; so I hit up my good friend at the Chevy dealer and a few days later I was looking at my new G.M. Performance crate motor. For the tranny and transfer I went to the local Tranny shop and had them build a TH350 that would be as bullet proof as possible and had it mated to the NP 208 that I inherited with the cruiser. Once I had the drivetrain settled I started on the fab work. For the spring out boarding I used a piece of 4” tube boxed and machined so it would slide over the frame channels. I fully boxed the front of the frame and made a set of bolt on motor mounts. Once back on its rubber, and all situated with all the drive line bolted in I started the disassembly again. I sent the frame and pretty much everything steel, to include the Diff housings, to sandblast and powder coat. It was at this point that my wife at the time got fed up with this project and announced that it was either the cruiser or her!!!
Having made the easy choice, I packed up the rest of the parts in the trailer and as much as I could fit in the back of my Durango and looked for a new garage. After about a three year hiatus I am back at it with a new garage and a new Bride. (I knew it was love when she said “well why don’t you just finish it? I think it’s totally hot”)
So now she’s in Europe for a few weeks studying abroad and I am home with a pile of parts, enough beer to supply a frat party, and a whole bunch of time thanks to some vacation from my day job.
Tomorrow I will download some pics to make this thread a little more entertaining and bring you all up to speed on what I’ve managed to accomplish.
About five years, and one wife ago I bought this old rusty-crusty FJ40 for a song, form a guy with almost no time and even less fab skills. The cruiser was a rusty half built, mostly broken pile of parts that consisted of a ’77 frame, and what was left of a tub, full width Dana 44s, a 4 speed tranny, and a NP208 T-case that the PO was convinced was a 205. He had done a lot of “fab work” with whatever scrap steel he had laying around and an old stick welder. (I will post some pics tomorrow of the before and in between.) Long story slightly shorter…. The motor mounts were more than three quarters of an inch twisted from one another, and the spring out boarding that he scabbed together was already broken almost off and all this before it had driven an inch under its own power.
Let the disassembly begin. I started by cutting off what was left of the tub, pulling the drive train and grinding the frame back to as close as I could get it to stock. One really long day with a torch and several grinding wheels later and I was back to square 0. I sold off the 4” lift springs the PO was rolling on and scrapped the eight inch shackles. I liked the way it looked with the full width axles and decided that they would stay but needed to be treated to some upgrades so that the cruiser community wouldn’t laugh at me for swapping out the ‘Yota axles. I would stay with a 5.7 but get it from a more reliable source; so I hit up my good friend at the Chevy dealer and a few days later I was looking at my new G.M. Performance crate motor. For the tranny and transfer I went to the local Tranny shop and had them build a TH350 that would be as bullet proof as possible and had it mated to the NP 208 that I inherited with the cruiser. Once I had the drivetrain settled I started on the fab work. For the spring out boarding I used a piece of 4” tube boxed and machined so it would slide over the frame channels. I fully boxed the front of the frame and made a set of bolt on motor mounts. Once back on its rubber, and all situated with all the drive line bolted in I started the disassembly again. I sent the frame and pretty much everything steel, to include the Diff housings, to sandblast and powder coat. It was at this point that my wife at the time got fed up with this project and announced that it was either the cruiser or her!!!
Having made the easy choice, I packed up the rest of the parts in the trailer and as much as I could fit in the back of my Durango and looked for a new garage. After about a three year hiatus I am back at it with a new garage and a new Bride. (I knew it was love when she said “well why don’t you just finish it? I think it’s totally hot”)
So now she’s in Europe for a few weeks studying abroad and I am home with a pile of parts, enough beer to supply a frat party, and a whole bunch of time thanks to some vacation from my day job.
Tomorrow I will download some pics to make this thread a little more entertaining and bring you all up to speed on what I’ve managed to accomplish.
