Builds Mad Max - Another 60 on 80 (plus diesel goodness)

[lelandEOD]

So it begins.

About five years ago a close friend of mine gave me his old FJ60 he had owned since the late 80s. Let's just say he's added some of his personal touches which led me to refer to it as Mad Max. This year, with my diesel 40 and diesel 80 conversion projects completed, it was time for the 60 to go under the knife for something fun and exciting.

If you choose to continue reading this, be warned this truck is in rough shape; as a consequence, I feel no moral obligation to bring it back to original condition. Much like my 40, it had a backyard small block conversion in the early '90s (and many post-apocalyptic Burning Man'esque homebrewed additions to boot). Instead, I decided to have some fun with it and do something a little more contemporary and interesting while retaining vital elements of vintage Toyota DNA.

Here's the rough sketch of the project:

- 1984 FJ60 body going on a 1994 FZJ80 frame and running gear.
- Power plant will be an PDI intercooled 1HDT spinning a Green Wheel paired to a H151 five-speed with HF2AV transfer case with 3:1 gears
- The rig will be armored for moderate trail duty but this will definitely be more of a weekend street crawler than a hard-core trail buggy.
- Special emphasis will be placed on updating the interior making it comfortable (heated seats, A/C retrofit); convenient (keyless entry, etc.); and classy (full retro leather, headliner, door cards, carpet, etc.).
- I will convert the dash and front clip to FJ62; Speed Hut gauges will be on order soon as well.
- I will modify the B-pillars to accept three-point seatbelt retractors
- I hoping to reuse many of the 80 series components like brake booster, MC, central locking differential, light retainer function, etc.
- This week I'll start playing with the 80-series wiring harness to see how much of it fits in the 60s body and what would need to be integrated to get the best of both worlds.
- Me and buddy have been playing with some stainless steel extended range tanks we're making in-house. This truck will definitely be getting tanks of some configuration.
- We've ordered a rotisserie which should be here soon. This body is damn near completely rust free but it does have plenty of dents, dings, and a very unfortunate JC Whitney catalog sunroof which needs to go bye-bye.




Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado I give you Mad Max.

 

[lelandEOD]

Here's the poor unfortunate 80 that fell into my lap last week. This truck is a sh!t show in its own way but it's actually quite straight and rust free. After I hosed out the 15 to 20 pounds of mud from the undercarriage, I was happy to see it was in good shape, never wheeled on the rocks, and relatively free of corrosion. The 1FZ will come out tomorrow to begin its new life on boat anchor duty.

 

[lelandEOD]

These two are dying to gt to know one another.

 

[cruisermatt]

have you considered using one of the available axle swap kits and keeping the 60 frame?

 

[lelandEOD]

have you considered using one of the available axle swap kits and keeping the 60 frame?

Yup, sure did. For a long time I figured that's what I'd do. But as the decision points came into focus, that equation no longer seemed to make sense.


-This body must come off the frame anyway for the restoration work; no benefit there.
-The donor truck cost me $500 which is much much cheaper than the coil bucket kits I've seen.
- By using the 80 parts vehicle, I get to use a lot of other 80-Series systems which came with the truck so it was a no brainer for me. Shortening/adjusting the frame and fab'ing the body mounts should not be too terribly hard.

 

[Devils Paw 80]

Here's the rough sketch of the project:

- 1984 FJ60 body going on a 1994 FZJ80 frame and running gear.
- Power plant will be an PDI intercooled 1HDT spinning a Green Wheel paired to a H151 five-speed with HF2AV transfer case with 3:1 gears
- The rig will be armored for moderate trail duty but this will definitely be more of a weekend street crawler than a hard-core trail buggy.
- Special emphasis will be placed on updating the interior making it comfortable (heated seats, A/C retrofit); convenient (keyless entry, power windows, etc.); and classy (full retro leather, headliner, door cards, carpet, etc.).
- It might sound silly but I'm pretty sure at this point I want to convert the dash and front clip to FJ62. Speed Hut gauges will be on order soon as well.
- If I manage to find a suitable donor, I'd like to change out the second row seats with 62 seats and modify the B-pillar to accept three-point seatbelt retractors
- I hoping to reuse many of the 80 series components like brake booster, MC, ABS system, central locking differential, power windows, light retainer function, etc.
- This week I'll start playing with the 80-series wiring harness to see how much of it fits in the 60s body and what would need to be integrated to get the best of both worlds.

Aren't the dash and front clip of the 60 narrower than an 80? The rear seats on an 80 are nicer than a 62's and also fold up individually, so I'm wondering why you want to avoid them. How about front seats, and where does the HDT come from? The outgoing FZ could be useful for someone.

 

[D21FJ60]

LS swap it


just kidding.
Shaping up to be a fun thread to follow along with

 

[lelandEOD]

Aren't the dash and front clip of the 60 narrower than an 80? The rear seats on an 80 are nicer than a 62's and also fold up individually, so I'm wondering why you want to avoid them. How about front seats, and where does the HDT come from? The outgoing FZ could be useful for someone.

I'll be using a 62 dash, not an 80. I've got the 60's interior pretty much gutted but I need to get it taken to a local pressure washer to hose out thirty years of black rock desert playa dust from every nook and cranny. You bring up an interesting idea about using the 80's seats; I'll have to toy with that more once I get it all clean.
I bought the 1HDT from a local friend who was upgrading to a 24V diesel. I'm just waiting on valve shims to finish the cylinder head and for the rotating mass to come back from dynamic balancing and I can start reassembly.


...and that old 1FZ is definitely shot. It may be good for a few parts here and there but peeking in the filler cap I could see rust on the distributor shaft and cam. I will post photos of the inevitable carnage when I get it broke down to go in the dumpster.




....speaking of carnage. I have to say Mad Max's former owner is like family to me and the the closest thing I have to a father... but an auto electrician, he ain't:

I face palmed so hard when disassembling the interior and dash. Good thing I won't be needing this harness.

 

[lelandEOD]

I've been playing with the wiring harness periodically while I wait for diesel parts to be delivered from the UAE for the engine rebuild.

Because I am a parts hoarder, I have several 80-series harnesses I keep as donors/spares. I also keep bundles of harvested factory wire so when I play with a harness like this I grab the correct wire color and gauge from my spares box. Keeping everything the correct color makes future troubleshooting sooooo much easier.

I've already cut out all of the 80-series circuits from the harness which will not be needed on the 60. I took out all of the A/T and A/C circuits since I will be running a manual and an aftermarket A/C system which will be significantly simpler than the 80's climate control.

I also keep a lot of factory terminals and connectors on hand which makes work so much easier to keep everything Toyota.

The 80 Series relay panel is pretty close to the 60 series in terms of shape and location so adapting it should be pretty simple.

In the photo above you can see I added a relay labeled "Diff 4L Switch". I'm adding F/R Eaton e-lockers and wanted to use the factory e-locker circuits already in the cowl and body harness to the greatest extent possible. However, without the factory diff lock ECU controlling the locker engagement, I realized there was the potential to engage the lockers in High Range (like driving down the highway). I wanted to make sure I had a 4L switch in the locker circuit for safety. Luckily, the 80-series has a 4L switch in the transfer case so I was able to use the empty relay socket to create a 4L power trigger for the Eaton e-Locker locker circuit. Win.

 

[lelandEOD]

Ok, time to get caught up on the work done in the month of November. I pretty much have the engine assembled now. I won't add a lot of text but here is some Toyota diesel engine assembly porn:

 

[lelandEOD]

Pretty much done now; just waiting on a set of injectors from Japan.

I was going for a burnt bronze look on the valve cover which didn't turn out as I had hoped. I painted both of these at the same time and you can see how the [plastic] 1HDT valve cover has a very different look to the cerakote over the [aluminum] FT valve cover I did at the same time. Weird.

Not sure if it's worth re-doing.

 

[franklin40]

i think that looks great. i’d drop that in my truck in a heart beat!!

 

[chelo]

Me too! Time to refresh my 1hdt. Who are you using for machining?

 

[lelandEOD]

Me too! Time to refresh my 1hdt. Who are you using for machining?

I have a local machinist I used. He's just a single guy with a shop behind his house, but he seems to do good work!

 

[chelo]

I have a local machinist I used. He's just a single guy with a shop behind his house, but he seems to do good work!

If he knows the 1hd-t then I'm game.

 

[lelandEOD]

Shoot me a DM and I'll share his contact info.

 

[reklund5]

If he knows the 1hd-t then I'm game.

He did my 1FZ as well and did beautiful work. @lelandEOD will share his info...he's worth the trip.

 

[dbleon]

Sweeeeet

Where did you source the engine?

 

[lelandEOD]

Sweeeeet

Where did you source the engine?

Kind of a hodge podge of sources. This particular 1HDT came out of a buddy's JDM 80-series. It had a hole in one piston so it was definitely a project engine.

Ok, so the 1HDT will sit on the engine stand to keep it clean but I do need a stand-in for mockup.

Luckily, I have a FT sitting here waiting for rebuild. I'm going to use this to make sure I have adequate firewall clearance and to work out the radiator, shroud, and intercooler piping.

 

[lelandEOD]

Got the bodies removed from the frames:

Slowly getting the frame prepped. I got the old body mounts removed and the engine/transmission placed for repositioning of the transmission cross member mounts.

I found more damage on the firewall from the V8 install. Apparently someone hammered it to clear the valve covers. I cut patch panels from another donor body to repair. Getting all the asphalt sound deadening off will be a lot of fun.