ARCHIVE FZJ40

[fourtrax]

very well done...

 

[Volcano cruiser]

So I came up with these steel fender flares. I built a sample from sheet metal then sent it off to our laser cutter and had them build a prototype for a new IPOR rock proof fender flare.

Great build.The thing that I like most about this 40/80 conversion is you really flesh out how to deal with the really thorny problems of putting a 40 body on an 80 chassis. Almost everyone decides on adding rear fender flares due to the wider wheelbase but your integrated tube fenders are both practical and slick looking. Really very nice.

Quick question, did you have to shorten the 80 frame in order for the 40 body to set down on it? I understand your reasons for doing the shortening but I was wondering for those who might want to take that particular bit of heartburn out of the build was it a "must do" or a "want to". Could the 40 body be set onto the 80 frame and the wheels match up to the wheel wells? Obviously one would still have to deal with body mount position etc but just curious if the two would fit together ...

I like that it keeps the factory speedo - the speedo in a 40 is very unique and really adds to the character of the truck. My donor 80 had an electronic speedo, but it appears to use a mechanical drive gear on the tcase so i could probably have run a cable driven speedo like a factory 40 unit. I started looking for a late model that has turn signal indicators in the speedo but kept coming back to the 80 gauges. They work well and are designed specifically for the 80 drivetrain. In fact, with this drivetrain I have a need for some lights that are not present in a 40 - CEL, CDL, Cruise, low oil, AT/TMP and hadn't yet figured out where to put them. The 80 has them in the cluster.

I did some drawings and came up with a way to do it. Here's how it turned out: first pic is the 80 cluster during disassembly, next pic is the finished FZJ40 cluster (before paint) next to a factory 40 cluster.

Lance

I'm rebuilding my 40 now, standard stuff compared to this. My mechanic has a busted up 80 laying around and we have been noodling this idea 40/80 for a while now. We always got stumped at, the wiring harness modification, the gauge cluster width and combining the 40/80 steering columns. Your disassembly and recomposition of the 80 cluster is just...breathtaking . What are you going to do for a tach now though. You've gone to alot of trouble to keep the spirit and feel of the 40 dash, it'd be a shame to drop an autometer tach in there.

Within a year or so my assignment will be up and I'll be moving back to the Warrenton area. I can see that I'm gonna have to roll down the road and check you guys out on a regular basis. Great job. I'm now officially hooked on your project.
John

 

[lndcruz]

wow! that instrument cluster looks amazing

 

[jfz80]

looking real good guys...........keep up the good work!!!

 

[Sporin]

incredible build

 

[liljlandon]

Wow, this is amazing!

 

[IPOR]

Quick question, did you have to shorten the 80 frame in order for the 40 body to set down on it? I understand your reasons for doing the shortening but I was wondering for those who might want to take that particular bit of heartburn out of the build was it a "must do" or a "want to". Could the 40 body be set onto the 80 frame and the wheels match up to the wheel wells? Obviously one would still have to deal with body mount position etc but just curious if the two would fit together ...

What are you going to do for a tach now though. You've gone to alot of trouble to keep the spirit and feel of the 40 dash, it'd be a shame to drop an autometer tach in there.

I shortened the 80 frame AND lengthened the 40 body. The 40 wheelbase is about 30 inches shorter so you'd have to add quite a bit to the body to make it fit the 80 wheelbase without cutting the frame down. Even if you do not cut the frame down you will have to relocate the engine/trans in order to fit the radiator in the grille. (or relocate it to the rear of the vehicle like Gary did with his 45)

I have the 80 tach and was thinking of putting it into a console on the trans tunnel. I haven't posted pics yet, but my HVAC is different than the stock 40 so I have some room there on the trans tunnel at the firewall. I don't really feel like I need a tach, but if I do I think I can work something out that keeps with the theme I have going.

Lance

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

This build is awesome. I had food poisoning over the weekend and this made for some good viewing while I was stuck in bed.

I can't believe you guys are only in Fredericksburg and I've never been there to visit. I'll have to make a trip one of these days.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

BTW, how hard was that gauge cluster to do(not the cosmetic stuff, but the electrical/mechanical side of things)? I've fooled around with a couple of older mini-truck gauge clusters and I have no idea how you accomplished what you did and have any chance of having it all work. Not doubting, just intrigued.

 

[IPOR]

Here are some pics of the HVAC. We've done a lot of the Vintage Air kits for the 40 but there are some things I don't like about them. The most obvious is the vent system - it reminds me of an old Dodge Dart or something. Very cheap looking and not the best quality louvers. I also don't care for the pull style controls that use the tired old factory pull knobs. The HVAC unit also hangs low in the passenger footwell.

That's not to say the vintage air FJ40 kit doesn't work well - it does, and it's a good option that is virtually bolt in. With the ability to work in the HVAC sytem so early on in the FZJ40 project I felt I could do better.

I picked their Gen V magnum unit because it's designed for a stepped firewall as in the 40, and it has fully electronic controls. It has a provision for floor, vent and defrost. I could have mounted it below the glovebox, but it would have been a compromise in terms of fit. The unit is designed to fit behind the dash (admittedly the dash of a much larger car!) and that's where I chose to mount it. I had to sacrifice about half of the glove box to make room for it, but I don't think I'll be short on space because I also have a tuffy console going in. The glovebox door is original, but the actual box itself will be only 1/2 the normal width with a blanking panel on the other side. (HVAC placement is shown in the last picture)

I chose these vents that look like carburetor venturis. Not only are they cool but they're all alumimum and sturdy enough for my sort of abuse. (You can also operate them with gloves on... which may come in handy for snow wheeling!) While the dash was torn down we also cut the defrost vents out, then re-sized the ports to 2" so they would be fully compatible with the defrost hoses on the new HVAC.

The control knobs are installed on a blank panel shaped to match the original ash tray. You can also see in the last pic the row of cole-hearse rocker switches that replace the factory radio. (I'm planning to run an ipod from the console for tunes) The rest of the dash is very clean as I carefully relocated all of the functions normally associated with the knobs to other places. (headlamp, hazard and wiper controls on column; HVAC controls relocated; etc...) I should note here that on more stock/original 40's I do love the pulls - this truck is heavily modified and the pulls just don't work with this build.

Lance

 

[soenke]

...Even if you do not cut the frame down you will have to relocate the engine/trans in order to fit the radiator in the grille. (or relocate it to the rear of the vehicle like Gary did with his 45)....

Lance

you don´t have too, we left all the mounts stock, you need a body lift of about 10cm to get enaugh space under the front fender for bigger tires. The engine bay is big enaugh for radiator and visko clutch fan. Changing to an elektrik fan would have saved some additional space to move the cab backwards. (we needed the space in the back for the cabin, so we didn´t do it)
The way Lance build it looks better though with the front axle in the right place up in the front...

 

[IPOR]

BTW, how hard was that gauge cluster to do(not the cosmetic stuff, but the electrical/mechanical side of things)? I've fooled around with a couple of older mini-truck gauge clusters and I have no idea how you accomplished what you did and have any chance of having it all work. Not doubting, just intrigued.

Easy, I'm a Va Tech grad...

I was careful to include the electronics in the portion of the gauge cluster that I retained. The printed circuit on the back of the cluster has some diodes that I will probably need to retain, but the short answer is I don't have them working yet. I do have all necessary parts accounted for and basically all that is left is re-creating the printed circuit to work with the smaller cluster. I'm not saying any of this is easy, it's complicated and incredibly time consuming... but everything else with this project has been as well! I'll post pics when I get to that part.

Lance

 

[IPOR]

you don´t have too, we left all the mounts stock, you need a body lift of about 10cm to get enaugh space under the front fender for bigger tires.

Yeah, I was shooting for putting the axle in the same place relative to the body as on the original FJ40 - hence the drivetrain relocation. Hey Soenke, do you have a pic of your truck? I would like to see how it compares with what I did.

Lance

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Easy, I'm a Va Tech grad...

Lance

Now it all makes sense

 

[soenke]

Yeah, I was shooting for putting the axle in the same place relative to the body as on the original FJ40 - hence the drivetrain relocation. Hey Soenke, do you have a pic of your truck? I would like to see how it compares with what I did.

Lance

sure:

just use the link in the signature
there are some pics, showing the axle position...having the car for travelling, we wanted to leave as much stock HDJ 80 as possible and used just a few other Toyota parts, for example the HZJ 75 radiator with copper net I mentioned before

PS the gauges don´t look as good as the original ones but a lot better then I would have imagined using the 80 instruments ...very fine work (I bet that was time consuming!)

 

[Volcano cruiser]

I shortened the 80 frame AND lengthened the 40 body. The 40 wheelbase is about 30 inches shorter so you'd have to add quite a bit to the body to make it fit the 80 wheelbase without cutting the frame down. Even if you do not cut the frame down you will have to relocate the engine/trans in order to fit the radiator in the grille. (or relocate it to the rear of the vehicle like Gary did with his 45)

I have the 80 tach and was thinking of putting it into a console on the trans tunnel. I haven't posted pics yet, but my HVAC is different than the stock 40 so I have some room there on the trans tunnel at the firewall. I don't really feel like I need a tach, but if I do I think I can work something out that keeps with the theme I have going.

Lance

Gotcha, basically you married the 80 frame and the 40 body to each other by having them meet each other 1/2 way, i.e. shorten the frame 15 inches or so and lengthen the body 15 or so. Nice. The calculation would be different if your donor body was a LWB 40 or a 45 or even a 55 if you could find one...

Now that will be interesting to see. It sounds like you have an inovative idea in mind for your center section, i.e., starting from your elbow going forward, tuffy, sticks, HVAC and tach and other gauges possibly above the HVAC but below the HVAC vents in the center of the dash. Not only will this be interesting to see but really be interesting to wire up.

BTW, how hard was that gauge cluster to do(not the cosmetic stuff, but the electrical/mechanical side of things)? I've fooled around with a couple of older mini-truck gauge clusters and I have no idea how you accomplished what you did and have any chance of having it all work. Not doubting, just intrigued.

Speaking of the wiring side of stuff two items, the normal 40 instrument cluster has the two back lights that pop through the circuit board. How are you planning on lighting the modified 80 cluster. Second, I sure hope that you guys diagrammed out what you cut out and what you kept of the 80 harness so that some day when a poor bastard like me is finally ready you can help a fella out.
Man I'm such a dang addict to this thread now.
John

 

[IPOR]

sure:

Wow. I love it. You're right about the drivetrain relocation. I did have to cut new driveshafts (more on that later) but everything else is original 80 stuff. I can see why keeping it all original would benefit you when traveling.

Lance

 

[IPOR]

The calculation would be different if your donor body was a LWB 40 or a 45 or even a 55 if you could find one...

How are you planning on lighting the modified 80 cluster. Second, I sure hope that you guys diagrammed out what you cut out and what you kept of the 80 harness so that some day when a poor bastard like me is finally ready you can help a fella out.
Man I'm such a dang addict to this thread now.
John

Actually when I first cut my frame I cut it to match my 55 buggy wheelbase because I was thinking of using the 80 chassis on that project instead. (this was before I did the 3 link and 4 link on the buggy) So the calculation would be perfect for an FJ60 (which is what my 55 started as).

Illumination - That's one of the sweet things I was able to do with the FZJ40 cluster - I was able to tie in the lighting the same way it was originally done in the 80 cluster. It should light up just like the factory 80 did, including the dimmer which I kept and will wire into the column.

While I'm certain I can help you when the time comes, I don't think my crib notes alone would be helpful to you. Every build is different with regard to what you're keeping and what you're not. If you undertake this project on your own you'll need an electrical FSM for the model year 80 you have. It has all the info you need. As you can see with Gary and Soenke's builds in comparison to mine - all three on 80 platforms, none are the same!

In the interest of having some benefit to the business, we did map out the most efficient way to do this swap and we do offer it as a build option to people looking for turnkey solutions. My FZJ40 is personalized to my tastes, hopefully you all find some of it appeals to you too. I can assure you there is an easier way to do it! LOL!

I saw the first painted panel today... awesome...

 

[concretejungle]

Man, that's a sweet build.

Looking at that wiring mess on the table scares the _____ out of me!

EDIT: also, one question, in one of those pictures it looks like the roll cage bar comes down and connects to the floor right beside the brake pedal. It looks really close. Is that just a camera angle or is that going to be a issue?

 

[ChuckB]

Just curious how does a hybrid vehicle like this get titled/registered? Is is as a 40 or 80? I guess it might vary by state.