How my Fj62 bought me an HJ61 (1 Viewer)

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Great write up

sorry to hear of accident. Glad you are alright. Did insurance salvage your 62 on the title ? Any accident pics?

congrats on new JDM purchase. She’s a beauty. How did you get AZ registration? Home there?

i am local. Wish I was in movie business.

Hope to meet you in person.

One can never have enough land cruisers

stay safe
 
Beautiful rigs - I am a proud HJ61 owner myself! I am interested in what rack you are using on your HJ. I currently have the factory aluminum rack that looks nice but would like a lower profile rack in the end I think.

I would also endorse the 5 speed - its amazing and shifting with left hand is a breeze! I held out until I could find the 5 speed and glad I did. Now if, like you, I could keep it out of the shop I would be a super happy camper.

thanks for sharing - look forward to following along as you are steps ahead of me but we are on the same journey.

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Thanks man, that’s a great looking rig. Is yours also from Japan? Would be interested to hear what you have planned for your truck. Still haven’t been able to get much done with mine. She’s running good now, but I’ve been back on a show and haven’t had any free time.

I actually really like the factory roof rack. Mine is from Front Runner, the Slimline 2 if I recall correctly.

I looked into upgrading to the 5 speed when I had to get my transmission rebuilt. But got some really high quotes for doing it. I ended up just having the A440 rebuilt, but with the Nomad Valve body from Wholesale. It’s a huge upgrade and doesn’t even require you to drop the trans. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone with an auto. It makes a huge different, it shifts so much faster and smoother now.
 
Awesome write up and can’t believe I’ve not seen it until now. If you go 5-speed (like everyone else...I highly recommend it) you’ll need to source a cross member, bell housing and flywheel. There’s a few smaller items that can be sourced from a late 60 part out. I don’t have an extra flywheel but may be able to help out with a bell housing if you go down this path. You mentioned having factory lockers. Excellent option if so. Please share more pics of the truck. Love those stripes :).
Thanks for the advise, it ended up being cheaper to just rebuildexisting trans, but if I ever get the itch to make the switch I’ll keep this in mind.

Need to get some pics off my dang camera! Stay tuned
 
Great write up

sorry to hear of accident. Glad you are alright. Did insurance salvage your 62 on the title ? Any accident pics?

congrats on new JDM purchase. She’s a beauty. How did you get AZ registration? Home there?

i am local. Wish I was in movie business.

Hope to meet you in person.

One can never have enough land cruisers

stay safe
I’m actually still just rocking the dealer tag. Will hopefully get her registered at the end of the month. I have a friend in AZ, who I sometimes stay with and help out on his ranch. I plan on changing both my DL and my Registration to that address.

It’s actually quite an easy process if what the DMV people are saying is true. Since I’m not applying for a Real ID I only need to provide an address. If you want the Real ID I’m told you need proof of residency.

I also won’t need a VIN Inspection or Emission tests since I’ll be registering outside of Phoenix. The taxes are also 3% less hen CA and I can register her for 5 years at a time.

If you got any recommendations for trails in LA it’d be much appreciated. I’m from Kansas, so the whole trail scene is kinda new to me. Trying to get stuck in a muddy corn field was more my speed growing up. Maybe we could meet up and hit the trails sometime. The film biz is fun, pays the bills, but man working 70 hrs a week really kills your motivation to work on your truck.
 
I’m actually still just rocking the dealer tag. Will hopefully get her registered at the end of the month. I have a friend in AZ, who I sometimes stay with and help out on his ranch. I plan on changing both my DL and my Registration to that address.

It’s actually quite an easy process if what the DMV people are saying is true. Since I’m not applying for a Real ID I only need to provide an address. If you want the Real ID I’m told you need proof of residency.

I also won’t need a VIN Inspection or Emission tests since I’ll be registering outside of Phoenix. The taxes are also 3% less hen CA and I can register her for 5 years at a time.

If you got any recommendations for trails in LA it’d be much appreciated. I’m from Kansas, so the whole trail scene is kinda new to me. Trying to get stuck in a muddy corn field was more my speed growing up. Maybe we could meet up and hit the trails sometime. The film biz is fun, pays the bills, but man working 70 hrs a week really kills your motivation to work on your truck.
I dont need a real ID. I can carry my passport. I see, makes sense if you have AZ address and can change your DL.

Sure PM me, I go once a week to LA trails. I am born and raised local. I did spent a few hours in Missouri - so do feel the "kansas" corn field life as well. Would love to hit up trails, we do everything from sand, to fire road, to trails with 60/62/FJC/Dodge 2500 / Sand buggies.
 
Beautiful rigs - I am a proud HJ61 owner myself! I am interested in what rack you are using on your HJ. I currently have the factory aluminum rack that looks nice but would like a lower profile rack in the end I think.

I would also endorse the 5 speed - its amazing and shifting with left hand is a breeze! I held out until I could find the 5 speed and glad I did. Now if, like you, I could keep it out of the shop I would be a super happy camper.

thanks for sharing - look forward to following along as you are steps ahead of me but we are on the same journey.

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I dig that aluminum rack! reach out if you ever end up finding one to your liking and get rid of that one
 
Okay, little update. The trip to AZ was a success. The truck made the 9 hr drive there and back without any hiccups. Was the first longer trip since the transmission was rebuilt.

Cost me just under $200 total and now the truck is registered for the next 5 years.
 
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Couple of photos from the AZ trip, Title and plates have arrived at my friends house and are on their way now.
 
So been doing a terrible job updating this thread. I wanted to document everything each step of the way, but got behind and have been holding off from posting to wait to post about things that happened months ago.

so I’m gonna go in new direction and just post things as they happen and as I remember.

2 months ago I wrapped the show that I had been working on for the last 5 months. It was a tough season with all the extra Covid protocols, PPE & daily brain swabs in addition to our normal 70 hr weeks.

So we rented a cabin up in Lake Arrowhead for the month so I could take some time off to relax and get out of the city for awhile. A day after pulling the trigger on the cabin I get a call for another 2 month show.

I take it as an opportunity to drive the truck up into the mountains every weekend. I’ve had her back from a transmission rebuild for a few months now, but haven’t had any opportunities to push her at all just driving to work & back.

The wife works from home and sets up shop at the cabin with the dogs. It’s beautiful, here the view.
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Fast Forward a few weeks. It’s Friday evening, I just finished up a 12hr day at the end of a long week. It’s dumped about 12” of snow up in the mountains earlier in the week, and there’s another storm rolling in.

But it’s been a week since I’ve seen my lady & the pups and there’s a good chance that if I don’t make it in tonight I won’t be able to get in till Sat afternoon. I check caltrans & the weather and by my calculations I should of been able to sneak in right before the snow hit, so I decided to roll the dice.

I make it through all the heavy traffic and start my decent up the 18 right as the sun starts to set. As the temp starts to drop a heavy fog blankets the mountain and I notice my driver side headlight is out.

Visibility in the fog is about 5’, I can kinda see the white line marking the edge of the road and that’s about it. The truck is climbing the mountain like a champ though, my foot is barely on the pedal and she’s keeping a nice steady pace. I think back to how slow this drive used to be in my FJ62.

I’m wishing I had set up the fog lights that are sitting unwired on my bumper and that I had noticed the dead headlight at any point before right now.

I will say that I was very impressed with how well Gaia GPS worked with my iPad mini. I’m essentially blind in this fog, but the GPS was accurate enough that I could almost steer just following the map. That and making sure I’m hugging that white line that keeps appearing out of the abyss about a 1’ in front of my bumper.

I pull into the gas station in Crestline and release the death grip that I had on the steering wheel and let some of the blood flow back into my knuckles. I top the tank off for good measure in case I end up spending the night in the back of the truck.

I switch my working headlight into the driver side to help me see, but with the factory wiring harness it’s a hardly noticeable improvement. I get the idea to adjust my brights to point down, but find that the adjustment screws are rusted out. With a little bit of elbow grease I get them pointed down enough for me to see the road and pull back into the abyss with my truck looking a little cross eyed.

The storm finally hits and as the snow starts to come down, the fog finally dissipates. I make my last push through the meandering hills between Crestline and Lake Arrowhead, passing a few other vehicles here there.
 

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