- Joined
- Feb 26, 2003
- Threads
- 195
- Messages
- 1,782
- Location
- Sherwood Park, Alberta
- Website
- fawcusfitness.com
First a bit of history.
February 2012 I celebrated 10 years as a Landcruiser owner. It all started back in February of 2002. A friend of mine from high school bought an 82 BJ60 Landcruiser and I thought it was the coolest thing ever! I really liked it because it reminded me of the tractors on my Grandparents farm, especially the 4 cylinder diesel Massey Ferguson. I had to get one of these trucks, then I could have my own tractor in the city.
Anyways, I convinced my brother to buy one as I had no money at the time, I said I would take care of the maintenance etc… Soon enough we found a local 81 BJ60 with 330,000kms on it, according to my friend it was barely broken in! The 81 had a 4 speed, no power steering and had vinyl seats. To make a long story short we bought it.
One of my first tasks was to clean all the windows, I was surprised at how much dirt there was on the inside rear cargo-area windows. A couple days later I was driving in the rain with my brother in the back seat and he said there was water spraying up on him (wonder why the windows were dirty).
After that outing I decided to strip the rear cargo-area mat. I found some serious rust holes! My friend said you better buy a welder, it is not worth paying someone to fix that. So we bought a used 220 volt Century mig welder (still have it). I then proceeded to fix all the rust with new sheet metal, I had never done anything like this before, so it was a learn as you go affair. I ended up cutting off the rear rockers since they were so bad. Also, I cut out a lot of the rusty frame and boxed in the rear of it. Two months later I had finished.
That summer I had to get suspension so I bought a brand new Belton lift from EBI cruiser parts complete with all hardware including anti-inversion shackles and greaseable pins etc… Then I got 33inch tires, I went with a used set of 33x12.5 mounted on some 15x8 used rims that I bought separately.
The following is a list of mods I did over the next few years, not quite sure if the order is correct or not…
-Made a front and rear bumper out of ¼ inch steel pipe
-Installed seats from a Nissan Axxess Van -Built a swing out tire carrier with two tractor lights on it -added a 5 speed (my friend rebuilt it with all new bearings for his cruiser but ended up selling his truck so he did not need it) -Flipped the manifold and added a turbo from a Toyota Celica
-Added a 3 inch exhaust
-Added an intercooler from a Volvo 740 (just hacked a bunch of rust out from the front rad support and stuck it in) -cb radio
-bosch H4 lights -made some rear cargo panels out of steel -built a snorkel from scrap 3 inch exhaust (used the safari snorkel top)
-added 4.11’s -made a steel tool box for the back that could be padlocked
-added LED markers (used the LED lots of pics thread on MUD for that one) -added FJ62 grey rear bench seat with headrests -new 33x10.5 bfg all terrains
Many road-trips have been taken over the years. A couple larger trips that I went on included these:
2003 or 2004? drove to Alaska as far as the Arctic circle, 2005 across Canada to Quebec and Southern Ontario, 2008 or so went to Whitehorse (in the Yukon), made several trips to Alberta. Last summer I drove to Edmonton Alberta, while there I did some wheeling with KingSpence.
In February of 2011 I started looking for a rust free FJ60, my poor old 81 BJ60 was rusty when it was purchased, all of my repairs were starting to rust out, things were getting pretty bad. I had always dreamed of finding a rust free 60, but I never had the means to buy one. Well now it was time, sooner or later the frame on my truck was going to fail and there were holes in the body all over.
I looked on craigslist for a month or two and finally found a basically mint 84 FJ60 in Fresno California. In May of 2011 I drove down with my brother and dad, bought it and then drove it home.
Once I had it home the fun began! Swapped the 3B and tranny/transfer, suspension, seats, wiring harness from my 81 into it, it was not that simple though! I had to paint everything and make it all perfect! For all the details please see Jzilla's FJ60 to BJ60 conversion.
In March of 2011 in preparation for the engine swap into the FJ60 I started working on redoing the turbo set-up, there were several big changes that needed to be made.
Here is what I changed: Put on a 13bt manifold (I had bought it new a few years back in preparation for this) that I had ceramic coated along with the supra turbo exhaust housing, took the turbo exhaust housing from a supra ct-26 and mated it to the celica turbo so that it was a direct bolt-on to the manifold, made a manifold support bracket similar to the factory 13bt one, all new stainless braided oil return and feed lines, new crossover pipe, moved return fitting on oilpan, had oil pan powder coated and then rhinolined, redid water lines to turbo (much cleaner look, but actually was not a simple process).
Also in March of 2011 I came across an ad for an 84 BJ60 that was near me for $1500, I went to look at it, it was a rust heap, but the engine, tranny and powersteering all worked great! So now I have a spare drivetrain as well
A few things I have done lately to my cruiser:
-Installed 4.11 in the rear with new rear axle seals and new gaskets for the diff and diff cover
-Sandblasted rear diff cover, primed and painted it with plastikote flat black enamel
-Installed 4.11 in the front with marlin crawler inner axle seals, and all new gaskets, and wiper set
-Sandblasted and painted front knuckle and rotor dust shield with primer and semi gloss plastikote wheel paint
-Sandblasted the rims my 33’s were on, primed them and painted them with semi gloss plastikote wheel paint, mounted 33’s on rims
-Made new rear cargo mat from rubber diamond plate I ordered on Amazon.com (thanks to a mudder for this idea!), painted the trim that holds the carpet (now the rubber mat) on the rear seat black
-Did the rear hatch lift support upgrade with the Mcmaster Carr ones
-Sanded the crustiness from the rear view mirror and painted it flat black
-Presently I am working on building a center console
Next I have to get the A/C installed and running, build new bumpers for the front and rear, build a new swing out tire carrier, install the old cb radio, get some driving lights, tint the windows, install tractor lights on the rear tire carrier and there will be more I am sure but those are the large things.
Plan on driving across Canada this summer so I am trying to have it all done asap, it is hard though as I am also working, so I do bits and pieces here and there.
One thing I can say is the last 10 years has been a great learning experience, I have learned so much because of this truck and I have met many great cruiserheads, many of them here on MUD. I appreciate all the help that is on this site.
Anyways I think that is about it for now, I promise lots of pics will come soon.
Be sure to check out the swap thread if you want to see some pics now
February 2012 I celebrated 10 years as a Landcruiser owner. It all started back in February of 2002. A friend of mine from high school bought an 82 BJ60 Landcruiser and I thought it was the coolest thing ever! I really liked it because it reminded me of the tractors on my Grandparents farm, especially the 4 cylinder diesel Massey Ferguson. I had to get one of these trucks, then I could have my own tractor in the city.
Anyways, I convinced my brother to buy one as I had no money at the time, I said I would take care of the maintenance etc… Soon enough we found a local 81 BJ60 with 330,000kms on it, according to my friend it was barely broken in! The 81 had a 4 speed, no power steering and had vinyl seats. To make a long story short we bought it.
One of my first tasks was to clean all the windows, I was surprised at how much dirt there was on the inside rear cargo-area windows. A couple days later I was driving in the rain with my brother in the back seat and he said there was water spraying up on him (wonder why the windows were dirty).
After that outing I decided to strip the rear cargo-area mat. I found some serious rust holes! My friend said you better buy a welder, it is not worth paying someone to fix that. So we bought a used 220 volt Century mig welder (still have it). I then proceeded to fix all the rust with new sheet metal, I had never done anything like this before, so it was a learn as you go affair. I ended up cutting off the rear rockers since they were so bad. Also, I cut out a lot of the rusty frame and boxed in the rear of it. Two months later I had finished.
That summer I had to get suspension so I bought a brand new Belton lift from EBI cruiser parts complete with all hardware including anti-inversion shackles and greaseable pins etc… Then I got 33inch tires, I went with a used set of 33x12.5 mounted on some 15x8 used rims that I bought separately.
The following is a list of mods I did over the next few years, not quite sure if the order is correct or not…
-Made a front and rear bumper out of ¼ inch steel pipe
-Installed seats from a Nissan Axxess Van -Built a swing out tire carrier with two tractor lights on it -added a 5 speed (my friend rebuilt it with all new bearings for his cruiser but ended up selling his truck so he did not need it) -Flipped the manifold and added a turbo from a Toyota Celica
-Added a 3 inch exhaust
-Added an intercooler from a Volvo 740 (just hacked a bunch of rust out from the front rad support and stuck it in) -cb radio
-bosch H4 lights -made some rear cargo panels out of steel -built a snorkel from scrap 3 inch exhaust (used the safari snorkel top)
-added 4.11’s -made a steel tool box for the back that could be padlocked
-added LED markers (used the LED lots of pics thread on MUD for that one) -added FJ62 grey rear bench seat with headrests -new 33x10.5 bfg all terrains
Many road-trips have been taken over the years. A couple larger trips that I went on included these:
2003 or 2004? drove to Alaska as far as the Arctic circle, 2005 across Canada to Quebec and Southern Ontario, 2008 or so went to Whitehorse (in the Yukon), made several trips to Alberta. Last summer I drove to Edmonton Alberta, while there I did some wheeling with KingSpence.
In February of 2011 I started looking for a rust free FJ60, my poor old 81 BJ60 was rusty when it was purchased, all of my repairs were starting to rust out, things were getting pretty bad. I had always dreamed of finding a rust free 60, but I never had the means to buy one. Well now it was time, sooner or later the frame on my truck was going to fail and there were holes in the body all over.
I looked on craigslist for a month or two and finally found a basically mint 84 FJ60 in Fresno California. In May of 2011 I drove down with my brother and dad, bought it and then drove it home.
Once I had it home the fun began! Swapped the 3B and tranny/transfer, suspension, seats, wiring harness from my 81 into it, it was not that simple though! I had to paint everything and make it all perfect! For all the details please see Jzilla's FJ60 to BJ60 conversion.
In March of 2011 in preparation for the engine swap into the FJ60 I started working on redoing the turbo set-up, there were several big changes that needed to be made.
Here is what I changed: Put on a 13bt manifold (I had bought it new a few years back in preparation for this) that I had ceramic coated along with the supra turbo exhaust housing, took the turbo exhaust housing from a supra ct-26 and mated it to the celica turbo so that it was a direct bolt-on to the manifold, made a manifold support bracket similar to the factory 13bt one, all new stainless braided oil return and feed lines, new crossover pipe, moved return fitting on oilpan, had oil pan powder coated and then rhinolined, redid water lines to turbo (much cleaner look, but actually was not a simple process).
Also in March of 2011 I came across an ad for an 84 BJ60 that was near me for $1500, I went to look at it, it was a rust heap, but the engine, tranny and powersteering all worked great! So now I have a spare drivetrain as well
A few things I have done lately to my cruiser:
-Installed 4.11 in the rear with new rear axle seals and new gaskets for the diff and diff cover
-Sandblasted rear diff cover, primed and painted it with plastikote flat black enamel
-Installed 4.11 in the front with marlin crawler inner axle seals, and all new gaskets, and wiper set
-Sandblasted and painted front knuckle and rotor dust shield with primer and semi gloss plastikote wheel paint
-Sandblasted the rims my 33’s were on, primed them and painted them with semi gloss plastikote wheel paint, mounted 33’s on rims
-Made new rear cargo mat from rubber diamond plate I ordered on Amazon.com (thanks to a mudder for this idea!), painted the trim that holds the carpet (now the rubber mat) on the rear seat black
-Did the rear hatch lift support upgrade with the Mcmaster Carr ones
-Sanded the crustiness from the rear view mirror and painted it flat black
-Presently I am working on building a center console
Next I have to get the A/C installed and running, build new bumpers for the front and rear, build a new swing out tire carrier, install the old cb radio, get some driving lights, tint the windows, install tractor lights on the rear tire carrier and there will be more I am sure but those are the large things.
Plan on driving across Canada this summer so I am trying to have it all done asap, it is hard though as I am also working, so I do bits and pieces here and there.
One thing I can say is the last 10 years has been a great learning experience, I have learned so much because of this truck and I have met many great cruiserheads, many of them here on MUD. I appreciate all the help that is on this site.
Anyways I think that is about it for now, I promise lots of pics will come soon.
Be sure to check out the swap thread if you want to see some pics now
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