Builds My First Landcruiser: 78' Frame Off Resofication (1 Viewer)

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90 Weight

90 Weight

Joined
Sep 13, 2006
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Location
Santa Monica, CA
Website
www.elirubelphotography.com
My First Landcruiser: 78' Frame Off Restofication

Hey everyone, if figured its about time I got with the program and started a buildup thread. This is my first Land Cruiser, and I am in the process of a off body resoration/modification. I got the cruiser from a friend...traded it for my Heep. Its a 78, and when I got it it was in semi running condition. The rear portion of the tub (firewall back) was full of rust, and the interior was non existant. It had allready been converted over to a chevy 350 along with; MAF lift/shackle reversal, custom driveshaft, custom shroud, and a new (1200 miles) turbo 350 tranny. The engine on the other hand was on its last leg. It had just enough steam in it to drive it to my buddy's garage, where we began to take it apart. Three days later it was all in pieces, with the frame ready to be taken down to the local sand blasting shop. I am a highschool student, and up until now I had never really worked much on cars. Sofar it has been quite the learning experience! I have a 4 month time frame in which it must be fully finished and on the road (moving for college), but in the mean time I still have school, so I find time to work on it after school and on the weekends. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures....

Here is where I am now (bout 1.5 months later)

Frame, Axles, Springs and various other parts have all been sand blasted and powder coated.

New crate 350 is sittin in the garage ready to be put in.

New poly bushings and various nuts and bolts were put in

The tub and all steel tub parts (hood, top, ambulance doors, etc.) have been media blasted (soda blasting) down to bare metal.

I just ordered and am waiting for my 3/4 Aqualu aluminum tub, which I plan to mount up to my RUST FREE cowl. :)


Before we dissasembled it:
View attachment 93477

gettin the frame ready for sandblasting
View attachment 93478

After sandblasting and powdercoating
View attachment 93481

Thanks for checkin it out


Eli
 
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DANG Eli that is one ambitious plan!! And for a high school student to boot :eek:

Good luck with it all...Oh, and you don't really need to go off to college, you got one right there in town! Pay no attention to what people call it, it's just a nick name afterall :D Think of all that $$ you'd save which you could put into the 40...
 
looks good. Non-alcoholic :beer: to you for the efforts!
 
Nice job. Keep up the good work.
 
New Pics

Alrite so here are some up to date pics.

The first one actually was taken a month back just so you would see the dash, and the rest are current. After spending all of last week putting in last minute orders to MAF and my local NAPA shop, we finally got the shackles and springs on.

The dash, before being taken fully apart. (im selling all of the pull levers and the spedo gauge in case ne one is interested)
View attachment 93609

My buddy trying to pry a rear shackle hangar open just a little bit more with a *broken* scissor jack, as I watch and laugh...It worked
View attachment 93610

All of the springs on! Yesss.
View attachment 93611
 
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Wow - great work. I have had mine longer with the same basic plan but it still hasn't been taken apart!!
BTW - what did you pay for blasting and powder coating or did you get a deal? (Curious cause I am going to have mine done.)
And...
What kinda lift you got going there?
 
Thanks. I had the blasting done at a local shop... To get the frame, axles, springs, shackles, and varioius steering stuff sandblasted and powdercoated it ran close to $750. I did get a bit of a deal.. a little off here and their, but normally I think the price was close to $850-900. (somthing like $350 for the frame and then it went up from there. If the funds are available its definately somthing I would reccomend.

Eli
 
Oh almost forgot... In terms of a lift, I have the same as the PO put on it- the MAF shackle Reversal kit, and I believe a 4" lift. It easily fits 35' 12.50's and I am planning on putting on a 1" body spacer kit just for added tire room. It appears to be a pretty solid setup.
 
MOUNTAINCRUISER said:
Oh almost forgot... In terms of a lift, I have the same as the PO put on it- the MAF shackle Reversal kit, and I believe a 4" lift. It easily fits 35' 12.50's and I am planning on putting on a 1" body spacer kit just for added tire room. It appears to be a pretty solid setup.
Click to expand...

I did the 1 inch body spacers on my 70 model frame off and wouldn't do it again. It was more of a pain than anything. Go with a new poly mount kit and save yourself some headache. The 1 inch won't yield much gain. I ran 35X12.50 BFG on an eight inch rim with a 4 inch OME lift with 2 inch anti inversion shackles. If you stuff the tires to much they will rub in the rear, of course I didn't have the reversal kit which may help with that. My fenders were not cut either factory lines.
 
Volunteer said:
I did the 1 inch body spacers on my 70 model frame off and wouldn't do it again. It was more of a pain than anything. Go with a new poly mount kit and save yourself some headache. The 1 inch won't yield much gain. I ran 35X12.50 BFG on an eight inch rim with a 4 inch OME lift with 2 inch anti inversion shackles. If you stuff the tires to much they will rub in the rear, of course I didn't have the reversal kit which may help with that. My fenders were not cut either factory lines.
Click to expand...


What about it made it a pain? I have both the spacer kit AND the poly mount kit. I figured it was as simple as putting the two together and mounting the tub?
 
Tuesday

Allrite, so today- after school we are going to attempt to get it from its current condition (with just the springs on) to rolling on wheels. So this means putting together the axles, and trying to figure out how the steering links all go together.
Ill post some pics once I'm done, with our progress.


Eli


 
MOUNTAINCRUISER said:
What about it made it a pain? I have both the spacer kit AND the poly mount kit. I figured it was as simple as putting the two together and mounting the tub?
Click to expand...

If your familiar with body lifts it 'll leave a one inch gap from the frame to you tub. Which takes some creativity to hide to look decent. Moving from the rear bumper section where you'll have 4 1 inch blocks you have to fab some support spacers under the tub cross-members from the frame to the tub to support any kind on weight you would have in the tub. At the fenders you'll have to align them and weld them to the frame or re-drill the frame to rebolt them. Then fab or cut out a custom center spacer to align the front bib at the front center point to the frame. You gain nothing for alot of headache. It was my first FJ40 fram off too. Lessons learned. You can't tell in the pick, but if I had one of the rear or rear fender wells you could see where I had to get creative.
 
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Volunteer said:
If your familiar with body lifts it 'll leave a one inch gap from the frame to you tub. Which takes some creativity to hide to look decent. Moving from the rear bumper section where you'll have 4 1 inch blocks you have to fab some support spacers under the tub cross-members from the frame to the tub to support any kind on weight you would have in the tub. At the fenders you'll have to align them and weld them to the frame or re-drill the frame to rebolt them. Then fab or cut out a custom center spacer to align the front bib at the front center point to the frame. You gain nothing for alot of headache. It was my first FJ40 fram off too. Lessons learned. You can't tell in the pick, but if I had one of the rear or rear fender wells you could see where I had to get creative.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice
Eli
 
I have done a few body lifts in my time - never on and FJ - true pain in the back side. Usually they ended up looking good but were not real functional and it was hard toget some important parts to fit just right - seats, steering, pedals. I will never do that again. Save your money and invest that in xtra suspension mods that will increase wheel travel and/or improve ride. (my 2%)
 
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