ARCHIVE FZJ40

[IPOR]

I'm sure I'm breezing past much of the thought that went into this project. I have had nights where I spend 3 or 4 hours just deciding how I want to do something, then go home with nothing but an idea to show my progress. That was mostly in the early stages of the build. These days I'm under a very tight deadline to finish the project and tend to make much quicker decisions. It also helps that I'm really down to the small stuff now.

You see, I've got only a few weeks (3/20/09) before we leave for MOAB and this truck MUST be ready to go...

Here's an example of one of the things that took way more time than made sense, but I did it that way anyway: The rear bi-fold doors look like clean originals, but they're not. They're actually made from 1/4" plate steel. Originals in good condition are nearly impossible to find, and while rusty ones can often be repaired they always rust again. These may rust, but they'll out live me.

I cut out the pattern and then welded the pieces together. Then welded some more, then ground it down, then welded some more, then ground it down, then welded some more... you get the point. This was intended to be another IPOR product, but hasn't gone full development cycle yet because I wasn't sure if there would be enough interest.

 

[IPOR]

Now, through the wonders of time lapse projectography lets fast forward several months to January 2009 and have another look at the front fenders....

 

[IPOR]

Here you can see the inner fenders and front support brace. There is also another bracket that bolts to the top of the coil tower, and another that bolts into the 2x3 rocker. As I said, I intend to drive it hard.

I know a lot of people leave the engine bay open, but here on the East Coast we have stuff called mud. It's mostly just dirt mixed with water, but it makes a real mess of the engine bay and I thought the inner fenders would help reduce this. Jack and I looked at some factory fenders, then basically re-created them using new sheet metal. This was another one of those tasks that was more difficult than it looks because we have bracketry, engine components and tire movement not present on a normal 40 to allow for.

Here are a few pics of the finished fenders. I re-welded the outter skin and ground it down until it was nearly perfect, then used all-metal to skim the edge. All-metal is like a cross between leading done in the old days and modern plastic filler. Imagine really, really hard body filler and you're there. The final skin is paper thin and used just so that when gloss paint is applied you don't see waves and other minor surface imperfections.

 

[IPOR]

I'll try using some bigger pictures here...

 

[IPOR]

Ok, better. It's like HDTV though.... you see too much!

I guess this is a good time to start talking about the radiator since it's all out there in the open now. I wanted to make sure it stayed cool so I ran one of our cross flow aluminum 24x22 radiators with 1.25" cores. Yes, it's more radiator than the engine needs, but I have a lot of components to put in front of it too so there will be some airflow restriction. I have a trans cooler in the radiator, as well as a huge auxiliary trans cooler in front of the radiator. I also have the AC condenser - which is 19x21 and covers the entire radiator. I also have a power steering cooler at the bottom.

All of this fits in the engine bay.

It's tight, and this is one of those times where the hours of planning and not getting anything done started paying off.

 

[IPOR]

close up of radiator squeeze...

 

[IPOR]

Let's see if I can preempt some questions here:


Yes, the radiator is offset to the passenger side. This was required because the fan on the 1FZFE is offset to the passenger side. Without matching it with the radiator placement the fan won't clear the lower hose. You don't see it because it's larger than the grille opening (just the tanks sit outside the grille, any more would be pointless and would interfere with the headlamps).

Another one of those planning pays off gems - this setup uses factory 80 series radiator hoses.

I also fabbed up an aluminum fan shroud. The brackets are TIG welded to the radiator. Two lower radiator supports and one on the passenger side tank that serves as part of the shroud as well as a third mounting point.

 

[IPOR]

There are several unique things incorporated in this build that I developed for my rock buggy. One is the cage design - more on that later, the other is the radiator hoop.

Knowing that I will take the truck places where a roll over is likely, I wanted to make sure I had the best chance of recovering and continuing the wheeling trip without major disruption. In my FJ55 buggy I built this radiator hoop that fits under the hood and wanted to do the same here. Initially I had an asymetrical hoop but Vince said it looked stupid. He was right. The one shown here is the replacement. It mounts to supports incorporated in the tube fenders and provides additional strength for them as well.

Radiator hoops are nothing new, but most people put them outside the body. I didn't want to take away from the classic body lines of the 40, so mine went under the hood. It is very close to the hood, in fact if I roll the hood will only crush down about 1/2". (I WILL cry when this happens, you will see why when we get to the body work part of the build)

 

[IPOR]

In this picture you can see the front of the truck with radiator, condenser, trans cooler, power steering cooler, radiator hoop, factory grille and emblem all installed. The radiator hoop isn't visible with the hood closed - it's tucked up above the opening at the bottom of the hood.

 

[Bodean]

Damn Lance, do you ever sleep? You started posting at 3:34 am! Get some rest Brother.
Lookin' good!

Later,

 

[IPOR]

Damn Lance, do you ever sleep? You started posting at 3:34 am! Get some rest Brother.
Lookin' good!

Later,

In a word, no.



there will be plenty of time to rest when they put me in the ground... right now I have other things to do...

 

[TCinVA]

Wow, Lance! The truck has come a long way since I saw it. Have fun in Moab, I hope to bring my 40 out there when I get it done (I'll be calling you for some more stuff soon).

Tony

 

[Waggoner5]

Great work Lance. What radiator did you end up using?

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Its the small stuff that makes it what it is and takes forever.

Everytime you do something, you say I would do it a little different the next time.


Looking good Lance, always fun to watch your fabrication skil.

Rob

I'm sure I'm breezing past much of the thought that went into this project. I have had nights where I spend 3 or 4 hours just deciding how I want to do something, then go home with nothing but an idea to show my progress. That was mostly in the early stages of the build. These days I'm under a very tight deadline to finish the project and tend to make much quicker decisions. It also helps that I'm really down to the small stuff now.

You see, I've got only a few weeks (3/20/09) before we leave for MOAB and this truck MUST be ready to go...

Here's an example of one of the things that took way more time than made sense, but I did it that way anyway: The rear bi-fold doors look like clean originals, but they're not. They're actually made from 1/4" plate steel. Originals in good condition are nearly impossible to find, and while rusty ones can often be repaired they always rust again. These may rust, but they'll out live me.

I cut out the pattern and then welded the pieces together. Then welded some more, then ground it down, then welded some more, then ground it down, then welded some more... you get the point. This was intended to be another IPOR product, but hasn't gone full development cycle yet because I wasn't sure if there would be enough interest.

 

[IPOR]

Great work Lance. What radiator did you end up using?

It's a custom radiator from Griffin. We use similar ones on our v8 installs. I think this one was 22"x24" cross flow with 1.25" cores. I had them put the trans cooler on the driver side because of the fan location, and of course all the bracketry and shroud work I did here.

Lance

 

[soenke]

if you want to stay TOYOTA
the HZJ 75 with copper net fits very well

 

[badmuthatrucka]

Holy crap, this is the coolest build I've seen in my short 28 years of life!! I am riveted and speechless.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

This is an incredible build.

 

[IPOR]

Today is Saturday, after about 6 or 7 weeks of seemingly endless work on the all consuming FZJ40 project. My 3 yr old asked last night if today was a school day. When I said no she says she will stay home all day with her Brother and Mommy. There's a pause, then she says, "you go to work Daddy?" Ouch, I need a day off.

I am exhausted, so lets talk about exhaust...

I'm not running a supercharger, yet. With minor modifications to the kit, I can run one. The kit includes a spacer for the fan that I would need to mill down, as well as some fan trimming - but I can make it work. For now I plan to put an on board welder there. The point is I don't need additional flow capacity, but I went with 3" tubing anyway - just in case.

I replaced everything from the manifold back with custom stainless exhaust. 2" down pipes to a collector, O2 sensor, then two back to back 3" high flow catalysts, another O2 sensor, Magnaflow muffler, flex joint (because the rear part of the exhaust is hard mounted) and then up and over the first rear crossmember, under the next rear crossmember then 90* towards passenger side, Flow Master resonator, then up and over the frame and out the rear passenger corner.

All inside the frame rail.

 

[IPOR]

More pics