After wheeling with a bunch of the Gotham City Land Cruisers I got the itch to build up a wagon. The fact that I wanted fuel injection and an auto tranny made the choice really simple. I started looking for a 62 that was relatively cheap that I could tear down and restore/rebuild. On 4/6/2010 I found this on Craigslist:
A 1988 FJ 62 with 180k on the clock. The engine and tranny ran nicely but the body needed some work. It was being sold by a guy who specialized in Land Rovers and wanted to get rid of the LandCruiser quickly. He had the truck on Ebay as well as Craigslist for $3k. I went to see it with Singha ( fellow FJNE member) and while it had a good interior and everything worked on it I didn’t like the price tag and was about to walk away from it when the seller told me to make an offer on it. Long story short, I was the new owner of a $1600 Land Cruiser. Once it was at our shop we started looking into the price of body panels and calculating time and materials to get the body in tip top shape. I posted up on Gotham’s mailing list the fact that I was looking for some body panels when I got a call from another wheeling buddy (Ordoman) mentioning that a friend of his had seen a 62 in really good shape but with engine problems for sale not too far from me. $1200 later I now had two Land Cruisers. The latest one was in great shape with almost no rust at all. It had spent most of its life in Texas and the owner had really pampered this truck.
My goal was to have a wagon running on 33’s for daily use with the ability to run 35’s off road. It would be locked front and rear and with the ability to go on a long trip wheeling out west and be capable on the rocky tree laden trails of the NE as well. I wanted to have a truck that would not give me headaches and would be low maintenance for at least a couple of years. I decided to build up the Texas rig and to drop the other engine and transmission into it as well as regearing and installing the lockers. All of this would be easier if the frame was off the body so off it went.
I was able to pull the body off thanks to the info on this board and our ghetto engineering at the Bronx FJNE Annex . A highlift , a couple of bottle jacks, some cinderblocks and some pallet racking crossbeams later and the frame had rolled out from under the body.
Once all the drivetrain was out I started looking at the frame and decided that it wouldn’t be that much more work to strip it down to bare metal by pressure blasting it.
While the frame was getting cleaned up the third members went out to East Coast Gear Supply for some Arb lockers and some 4.56’s. Chase at ECGS was a ton of help with my gearing questions and got the thirds back to my hands in less than one week. While they were gone we cleaned up the axle housings and got them ready for a complete rebuild, knuckles, seals and bearings.
Once the axles were built up the new tires – 33x12.5.15 firestone destination MT’s went on the OEM wheels. A new OME suspension also went on as well.
Here is a picture of the frame with the suspension and axles. The frame was primed with Eastwood’s self etching primer on the outside and their zinc oxide internal frame paint. Once this had dried I coated everything visible with a phenolic resin paint. This is a thick coating that suffocates rust and protects the metal from scratches and trail rash. Finally a couple of coats of Eastwood Chassis black was sprayed on to finish the frame up.
Now we had a platform to put the engine on and start working on it. A new main seal, new fuel pump, oil pan gasket, side cover gasket, valve cover gasket, Idler pulley bearings, and a new paint job went on the engine. As well as a galley plug mod and a full desmog thanks to the mud members who have done this before.
Here is my twist on the desmog ( I hope it works as the engine has not been fired up yet) - I decided to plug up the exhaust manifold with a Canadian quarter and the nut that held the corrugated metal hose (egr hose) to the exhaust manifold. I sealed it up with some exhaust gasket putty. It looks like it will hold but only time will tell.
While the motor and frame were off the body we stripped down and degreased the engine bay and then had a friend come by afterwork and spray it using the color code off the engine plaque.
Here is how it looks after some stuff went back on it. The master cylinder was rebuilt with new seals from www.rockauto.com and the pressure booster was repainted while it was out. All the hoses were inspected and most were changed out. All the harnesses were cleaned up with simple green and the heat shields were sprayed with rustoleum high heat spray.
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While I was waiting for engine belts to come in I drilled the holes for the snorkel. I wanted to get the holes in before it went to the spraybooth so all the raw edges would get a good coat of paint on them.
A 1988 FJ 62 with 180k on the clock. The engine and tranny ran nicely but the body needed some work. It was being sold by a guy who specialized in Land Rovers and wanted to get rid of the LandCruiser quickly. He had the truck on Ebay as well as Craigslist for $3k. I went to see it with Singha ( fellow FJNE member) and while it had a good interior and everything worked on it I didn’t like the price tag and was about to walk away from it when the seller told me to make an offer on it. Long story short, I was the new owner of a $1600 Land Cruiser. Once it was at our shop we started looking into the price of body panels and calculating time and materials to get the body in tip top shape. I posted up on Gotham’s mailing list the fact that I was looking for some body panels when I got a call from another wheeling buddy (Ordoman) mentioning that a friend of his had seen a 62 in really good shape but with engine problems for sale not too far from me. $1200 later I now had two Land Cruisers. The latest one was in great shape with almost no rust at all. It had spent most of its life in Texas and the owner had really pampered this truck.
My goal was to have a wagon running on 33’s for daily use with the ability to run 35’s off road. It would be locked front and rear and with the ability to go on a long trip wheeling out west and be capable on the rocky tree laden trails of the NE as well. I wanted to have a truck that would not give me headaches and would be low maintenance for at least a couple of years. I decided to build up the Texas rig and to drop the other engine and transmission into it as well as regearing and installing the lockers. All of this would be easier if the frame was off the body so off it went.
I was able to pull the body off thanks to the info on this board and our ghetto engineering at the Bronx FJNE Annex . A highlift , a couple of bottle jacks, some cinderblocks and some pallet racking crossbeams later and the frame had rolled out from under the body.
Once all the drivetrain was out I started looking at the frame and decided that it wouldn’t be that much more work to strip it down to bare metal by pressure blasting it.
While the frame was getting cleaned up the third members went out to East Coast Gear Supply for some Arb lockers and some 4.56’s. Chase at ECGS was a ton of help with my gearing questions and got the thirds back to my hands in less than one week. While they were gone we cleaned up the axle housings and got them ready for a complete rebuild, knuckles, seals and bearings.
Once the axles were built up the new tires – 33x12.5.15 firestone destination MT’s went on the OEM wheels. A new OME suspension also went on as well.
Here is a picture of the frame with the suspension and axles. The frame was primed with Eastwood’s self etching primer on the outside and their zinc oxide internal frame paint. Once this had dried I coated everything visible with a phenolic resin paint. This is a thick coating that suffocates rust and protects the metal from scratches and trail rash. Finally a couple of coats of Eastwood Chassis black was sprayed on to finish the frame up.
Now we had a platform to put the engine on and start working on it. A new main seal, new fuel pump, oil pan gasket, side cover gasket, valve cover gasket, Idler pulley bearings, and a new paint job went on the engine. As well as a galley plug mod and a full desmog thanks to the mud members who have done this before.
Here is my twist on the desmog ( I hope it works as the engine has not been fired up yet) - I decided to plug up the exhaust manifold with a Canadian quarter and the nut that held the corrugated metal hose (egr hose) to the exhaust manifold. I sealed it up with some exhaust gasket putty. It looks like it will hold but only time will tell.
While the motor and frame were off the body we stripped down and degreased the engine bay and then had a friend come by afterwork and spray it using the color code off the engine plaque.
Here is how it looks after some stuff went back on it. The master cylinder was rebuilt with new seals from www.rockauto.com and the pressure booster was repainted while it was out. All the hoses were inspected and most were changed out. All the harnesses were cleaned up with simple green and the heat shields were sprayed with rustoleum high heat spray.
[
While I was waiting for engine belts to come in I drilled the holes for the snorkel. I wanted to get the holes in before it went to the spraybooth so all the raw edges would get a good coat of paint on them.
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