Haikili the 62 Build

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TwinPine

TwinPine

Joined
Apr 25, 2016
Threads
3
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39
Location
Sacramento
Website
www.twinpinemedia.com
Alright guys, I'm really excited that my dad and I have finally pickup up our own 1988 FJ62. My dad had a blue 1986 FJ60 and then a 1997 locked 80 series. Those have been long gone, but we have always wanted to get another, and we finally did. This is where the 1988 FJ62 comes in.

We picked it up off of a gentleman in Chico this past weekend with around 322,000 miles on the clock (speedo hasn't been working the last few weeks I guess) The previous owner built front and rear bumpers for it (janky and coming off when I have time to get new ones built) added some 33" Toyo MT's wrapped around some black steelies and a 12,000b winch.

I'm keeping it as is for now and just cleaning it up, going through it all and making sure that it's nice and reliable and enjoying it. The end goal is to do a spring over on 37's locked front and rear. There's plenty of little things to do on it right now that I'm slowly chipping away at with my dad when I'm home from school.

Originally, we wanted to get a 60, but fuel injection and the automatic tranny for crawling were worth the sacrifice of the square headlights. I'll be doing a grill swap eventually, but can deal with them for now.

Anyway, here's a couple photos that I got this weekend after we picked it up.

IMG_3781 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

LR4A9580 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr
 
Looks like a great start! All you really need is a refresh on the suspension and I think you'll be set, unless you really have your heart set on having a small monster truck. Grow with the truck and learn what it can do before getting crazy with the mods.
 
olija said:
Looks like a great start! All you really need is a refresh on the suspension and I think you'll be set, unless you really have your heart set on having a small monster truck. Grow with the truck and learn what it can do before getting crazy with the mods.
Click to expand...

Thanks olija, the focus of the build is to be a solid crawler, so a mini monster truck it is! I'm relatively new to cruisers, but I have a solid group of buddies with plenty of knowledge to help me along the way with the build and I'm around crawling as much as I can be. I'm excited for the challenge!
 
Welcome to Mud. Nice rig. I'm looking forward to following your build. Good luck bud. :steer:
 
Welcome, enjoy building your rig with your Dad. Those days are special times.
 
So far I've just been cleaning up the cruiser and fixing little odds and ends. I cleaned and lubed the rear hatch and tailgate locks and hinges, bought and installed new transmission shift linkage bushings and cleaned up the paint a bit. With a good amount of work I think I can bring some good life back into it. Its not in the worst condition, but from what I did today I know it can be better.

I pulled off the spare tire carrier last week since it's not exactly the nicest fab work. The bearings inside were toast and hadn't been touched in what seemed like years. Along with that I ripped out the random speaker wires the the previous owner had run for a sub in the back. My better judgement and lack of a replacement saved me from cutting off the whole rear bumper today. The fab work on it is piss poor and it doesn't look very good either.

The leaf spring bushings are almost non existent, so I got new ones ordered from Specter and they arrived today. Hopefully I'll get those on this week, I should have some time.

My friend from San Jose rented a plane for a few days this week and flew up to Cameron Park today where I met him with my coworker Edward and we took the cameras up to film. It was really cool seeing where I grew up for 18 years from a new perspective. Seeing everything from that view really helped me see just how small this place really is. Afterwards I went for a quick drive down Latrobe with the dog and shot some photos of Haikili.

Here's my buddy Daniel:

LR4A7619 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

Flying over Folsom Lake was too cool, its so nice to see it so full;

LR4A7626 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr


LR4A7671 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

Here's Edward with the Red Dragon;

LR4A7622 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

Haikili lurking in the grass;

LR4A7683 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

LR4A7690 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

And finally, here's Coco

LR4A7703 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr
 
I had plenty of time this week to work on the cruiser and I got the shackles all pulled and swapped in all the new bushings. Everything came apart really easily, no burning out bushings or trying to loosen the hanger bolts for a week. Unfortunately, the shackle pins are in really bad shape and I need to get new shackles. Along with that, while I was doing my best to smooth out the corrosion on shackle pins until I can get all new shackles, I buzzed the top of the threads on last one I had to put back on, and ended up wrecking the shackle bolt trying to thread it on. So, until my friends at ARB are back and I can call and get some shackles ordered, Haikili is going to be sitting on the jack stands. I borrowed a friends thread chasing kit but he didn't have the proper size die to try and fix the threads. I figured it isn't worth my time or money to buy a die and try and fix the threads for now and go and get a bolt when I need to replace the shackles as a whole anyways.

I'm bummed that I can't drive it for a week or two, but it could be worse. In the mean time while its immobile, it'll force me to get some of the interior things done that need to get fixed or cleaned up. I finally got around to filling out the whiteboard in the garage with goals, parts lists and other things that need to get accomplished with the rig.

Here's a few photos of the bushings and shackles;

LR4A7717 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

I didn't have much trouble at all getting the bushings out, they were pretty well destroyed and just fell out.

LR4A7722 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

Due to the bushings being more than worn out, the elements were able to get to the shackle pin and wear it away.

LR4A7726 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr
 
This afternoon I went ahead and pulled the rear carpet out along with the driver side rear interior panel. I'm going to be rebuilding the rear interior panels, I just haven't decided how I want to go about that yet. The carpet is in good shape, I only had a little bit of carpet cleaner left but from what I did get clean, I'm happy with how well it cleaned up.

The interior was re done by one of the previous owners, and they did a rather good job with it. I did however find the rear cargo hooks rusted underneath the carpet when I pulled it up. They never slit the carpet for them to pop through and just left it as is. I'll either try sand blasting them or just get new ones, not sure which one yet.

I do need to clean up a few spots of surface rust that I found underneath the carpet. I'm going to pickup a wire wheel this week to get rid of it and then I'll decide how I want to seal it up. I have been thinking about getting the floor line x'd to get it all sealed up and add some strength to it but thats probably overkill and I do like having carpet back there. I need to pickup some new speakers for the rear as well. The factory enclosures are in relatively good shape. I'm going to clean up and re-paint the cages that go over the speakers and it should be good to go.

I'll swing by home depot either tomorrow or Tuesday and hopefully find material to build some new interior panels out of. If anybody has any suggestions, feel free to chime in.

As usual, here's some photos;

LR4A7728 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

The bottom left corner of the carpet is what has been cleaned, kind of hard to tell in the photo but it's definitely an improvement

LR4A7742 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

The is the worst of the 4 cargo hooks I found underneath the carpet

LR4A7730 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

These are the two worst spots of surface rust. Some time with a wire wheel sanding and some paint to seal it up and it should do just fine for me

LR4A7735 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

LR4A7737 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr
 
I've gotten quite a bit done while the cruiser has been sitting on the jack stands. I wire wheeled and sealed up the small bits of surface rust that were underneath the carpet. Also, I got the rear carpet all cleaned up and it looks almost new now. I was really impressed with how well it cleaned up. I got a set of front shackles ordered from Old Man Emu, but unfortunately they won't have any rears in stock for quite a while. Plenty of other places have them available, but I just wasn't ready to pay full price for a set. So I went with a set of basic ones from Specter.

Also, I found a set of 33x10.5x15 BFG All Terrains in Reno that one of my buddies was kind enough to pick up for me. Along with that, I got a set of oem wheels from a gentleman that is selling a 60 that I looked at but ended up passing on. Last night I cut off the swing out mount from the rear bumper since I'll be either buying a whole new bumper or building one, and it was just too janky to leave on there.

The shackles got here today so I'll finally be able to drive it again! I didn't mind it sitting on the stands for the first week or so but after that I've just been getting more and more anxious to drive it again.

Heres the wheels after I cleaned them up, they have some rust but they cleaned up extremely well.


IMG_1085 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr

Here's my Tacoma on my way to Tahoe to film a wedding, tires and wheels all stuffed into the little short bed!

LR4A9297 by Zach Youngberg, on Flickr
 
Wheels look great
 
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