Builds Found an Arabian FJ40

[Arabian Cruiser]

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[Honger]

Compression looks good.

As for PS, I noticed that in the beginning as well. The steering seemed flightily. But trust me, it beats no PS when the weather is hot and you have to make a U turn from a standing start. You'll be very glad to have it.

Will keep the power steering for awhile... and likely next time I'm out in the sand I'll be sold on keeping it for good.

Great find and great start - good luck and will be following your build

Ps - could you post contact info of Al Aswar - any idea if they have a shop in Dubai? Need a few 100 series parts and futtaim is a rip off.

Al Aswar doesn't have a shop in Dubai.
You can reach them at 050 628 4110
Also, email aswaraut -at- gmail.com

I typically e-mail them my parts and quantities... give them a phone call to "remind" them about my e-mail... and get pricing the same day. Parts, if available, are in the next day.

Regarding Al Futtaim, the parts department itself isn't that bad on pricing actually. If you go directly to the parts shop you can get a pretty good discount. I've developed a rapport with one of the guys at the local parts department and he hooks me up quite nicely. The other thing is that Al Futtaim will order parts from Japan whereas Aswar will not. Aswar will get you parts that are in stock in the region only, at least in my experience.

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Thanks!

 

[Honger]

Post up more pics. Thats all we care about!

Lol @boozewz comments! Pics pics pics!

I'm noticing a trend here... and happy to oblige.

A quick GoPro shot I took while doing Thanksgiving in the desert back in November.

 

[UAEFJ43]

Truck is looking sweet......i'm only a little bit jealousI will need to get down and see it in the flesh. Maybe see if that soft top 40 is still at Motorworld and get your 2 cents on it.

 

[Weber Sarge]

I just wish you guys would start exporting them all here . Well , maybe keep a few for yourselves .
Sarge

 

[AYM707]

Lol @boozewz comments! Pics pics pics!

Great find and great start - good luck and will be following your build

Ps - could you post contact info of Al Aswar - any idea if they have a shop in Dubai? Need a few 100 series parts and futtaim is a rip off.

@ navadv

Al Aswar, Al Dhaid, Sharjah contact details are :
Cell : +971-50-6284110
Tel : +971-6-8823967
Cell : +971-55-3696600
e-mail : aswaraut@gmail.com

I know there is another supplier in Al Ain; but don't know their contact details.

 

[navadv]

Thank you @AYM707 !!!

 

[Honger]

Truck is looking sweet......i'm only a little bit jealousI will need to get down and see it in the flesh. Maybe see if that soft top 40 is still at Motorworld and get your 2 cents on it.

Don't be too jealous... it's sitting idle with the battery disconnected til I get a short figured out.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/short-on-my-engine-circuit-help.831050/

I just wish you guys would start exporting them all here . Well , maybe keep a few for yourselves .
Sarge

Don't think I haven't thought about this. Once I've got the contacts and resources in place from restoring mine I've got a mind to fix up and flip a few of them over to the States. We'll see... don't hold your breath.

 

[Honger]

Amidst the tinkering with my electrical gremlins, I managed to do some other small tasks.

Pulled the old headliner. The accumulated dirt from the past 37 years was NASTY! Note this headliner was about 1/3 of the way down already, torn in several places, and had two holes smack in the middle. A new one is in the plans.

I also pulled the factory floor mat. It's in great condition and I can't wait to see how well it cleans up.

While tinkering my boy was riding his bike and then showed some interest in what I was doing. He wanted to play in the back...

...before I knew it I found him like this.

He even buckled himself in. I didn't have to coach him at all.

THIS is one of the reasons I bought this thing. =)

 

[Honger]

I've been doing some electrical housekeeping. This was instigated by some shorting issues I had on my engine circuit.

Cleaned my fuse block...

My starter cable was a bit old... and the battery lead for the wiring harness was in horrible condition.

Thanks to @Coolerman's slick Toyota connectors, terminal covers, and fusible link (I'm sure the stock one burnt up a looooonnnnng time ago) I was able to clean things up a bit.

@GA Architect provided some inspiration as well and I redid my starter/ground cables.

My boys have been constant companions throughout my tinkering... they love the 40.

 

[Honger]

Put new shoes on recently. The tall/skinny tires that it came with looked great. They were about 3 years old and had plenty of tread. However, they were light truck tires and were hard as rock. The first time I took the truck out to the desert I aired down to around 12 psi and the sidewalls remained rigid. Not only that but they rode like rocks as well... speed bumps were jarring.

Tires are a bit of an issue over here. I gave my shop about 5 different sizes I'd accept and 3 different makes... and got one match. I managed to snag passenger-rated Yokohama Geolander H/T-S in 245/70 R16 (since I've got the split 16's). They are a just a tad smaller than the 7.0R16's that were on there.

I'm actually quite pleased with the overall look of the tires. More importantly the ride of the rig has dramatically changed. It's way more comfortable and not nearly as jarring on bumps. Not only that but I can drive the car up to 100 kph now without massive vibration and rattling (I imagine the balancing helped with that).

My end-game is a 2" lift with BFG Mud Terrains in 255/85 R16. But when one of the tires/tubes went flat I decided to go ahead and just get some passenger-rated placeholders in place now. I'm happy I did.

 

[Bear]

Very nice clean-up work.

Do your two little ones share who gets to sit in the driver's seat?

A question for you: I have admired all the pavers in Saudi Arabia, where we here simply use asphalt or concrete.
I should think at least asphalt would be plentiful and cheap there. What's the story?

 

[Aijaz]

Once I inserted a running water hose in the radiator with engine running until clean water comes out !

 

[BU5H P1G]

A question for you: I have admired all the pavers in Saudi Arabia, where we here simply use asphalt or concrete.
I should think at least asphalt would be plentiful and cheap there. What's the story?

...Cheap labour...

 

[Honger]

A question for you: I have admired all the pavers in Saudi Arabia, where we here simply use asphalt or concrete.
I should think at least asphalt would be plentiful and cheap there. What's the story?

Asphalt is available here, but concrete and quarry products are actually more readily available believe it or not. See more below...

...Cheap labour...

Cheap labor is definitely part of it.

The thing about the Gulf Oil-Exporting countries is that while they have boatloads of crude they don't have all the refining technology readily available. I believe they refine gas/petrol here in the UAE which keeps it nice and cheap... but I'm pretty sure diesel is actually imported. And they may actually import bitumen for asphalt as well. I'm not completely familiar with the refining capability here in the UAE, but I've been told certain oil products are actually imported from Iran even.

Economically, a barrel of crude is worth the global market rate. Using their own product may give them cheap gas or other products but there is the opportunity cost of not selling it for the market rate. If they can export that barrel (and it's subsequent products), charge the full price, and then spend less on concrete and install it for cheaper than it costs to buy-back a refined product then that's what they'll do.

 

[Bear]

I realize this is off-topic, so thank-you for the insight. Is it cheaper to pay for manpower to create the pavers and then to prepare the ground and then have them laid vs. just pouring a concrete slab, or do you know if it is a cultural tradition to have tiles or pavers no matter the cost?

 

[Honger]

Very nice clean-up work.

Do your two little ones share who gets to sit in the driver's seat?

Thanks for the compliment btw.

Believe it or not the boys share pretty well. Generally the eldest takes the driver's seat but he lets the youngest swap in as well. At least they haven't argued over it yet. =)

 

[BU5H P1G]

I realize this is off-topic, so thank-you for the insight. Is it cheaper to pay for manpower to create the pavers and then to prepare the ground and then have them laid vs. just pouring a concrete slab, or do you know if it is a cultural tradition to have tiles or pavers no matter the cost?

When i worked in Construction over there, labour was so cheap we would throw hundreds of people at a task and just wait - even if there was a faster and better (but not cheaper!!) method

You a right to say that the cultural (we have always had pavers) may come into it

 

[Bear]

Thanks for the info about cheap labor costs.
Funny how thousands of years ago the Romans had cobblestones; Europe, too, for hundreds of years.
And in some places to this day, still working the same way.

 

[Honger]

I realize this is off-topic, so thank-you for the insight. Is it cheaper to pay for manpower to create the pavers and then to prepare the ground and then have them laid vs. just pouring a concrete slab, or do you know if it is a cultural tradition to have tiles or pavers no matter the cost?

So I work in construction here... albeit mostly on the airfield. But we've got lots of solid records from procurement of previous projects. So I had our quantity estimating folks give me a quick/dirty comparison of asphalt vs. pavers for a parking lot type of situation... and the pavers are much cheaper. For some reason they do much more sub-grade prep for asphalt paving vs. pavers and that adds up. Also, in parking lots and sidewalk areas you often loose the efficiency of using asphalt paving machines. I know that pavers are generally regarded as "nicer" as well.

Thanks for the info about cheap labor costs.
Funny how thousands of years ago the Romans had cobblestones; Europe, too, for hundreds of years.
And in some places to this day, still working the same way.

But keep in mind those old cobblestones are actual stones. Most of them were cut from solid stone and hence their longevity/integrity. The concrete paver blocks here in this country vary in quality... I've seen some that are only a few years old and the top surface is flaking off.

Also, there are some sidewalks here in Abu Dhabi that are concrete with tile on them... so a similar geometric look to the pavers. There is a cultural bent toward geometric patterns in the native architecture here.

I think it's a two part thing... cultural preference as well cheap labor combine to make it prevalent.