My new 60, phase 1 begins. And some questions... (1 Viewer)

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i think 16 needs proper backspacing to work, but 17 should be good either way. Someone correct me if i'm wrong there.

That was my observation on my '74 '40. However, I think if anyone is going alloy (I know this truck won't be) they may need to check if the inside of the wheel get's smaller as you get closer to the webbing (mounting surface of the wheel) That said, on my 40 17's clear the steering linkage completely ...

(hijack time) Now does anyone know if there is much difference in minimum backspacing between a 40 and a 60 axle? I'm wanting to go with a 60 axle (effectively lower the CG after SOA and 35's) but the wheels I have need a 1-inch spacer to fit the 40 axle (drum brake). I think I want to avoid spacers what do you all think?
 
Nearing the end of Phase 1

So we are getting close, lots of work done in the last few weeks. In short, it's standing on its own legs. Front brakes rebuilt, steering is all buttoned up, new power steering pump is in, gear oil is in, chassis lubed, changed the engine oil, etc, etc, etc.

Here it is, completely off of jack stands for the first time in a couple months:
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I trial fit the drive shafts. The rear is in great shape, and well within tolerances. The front on the other hand, is a wee bit short:
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So, I sent the front shaft out for some lengthening, new joints and balancing. While the shop was at it, I elected to send out the rear as well, to ensure it's all balanced proper.

While waiting on the shafts, I decided to do a little grill work:
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Obviously my grill was in pretty bad shape. I would not have elected for such major surgery on a halfway decent grill. Once I had the center section out and the surround cleaned up to my liking, it was time to create a template:
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Transfer the template to the new grill material:
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Then; cut, paint and install:
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Once this thing is out of the real daylight, getting better pictures should be a little easier.

Then, the driveshafts came back:
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So the shafts are in, the grill is complete. What's left???

Well, as I mentioned before, I do need some new brake tubes. These are the tubes, on both axles, that go from the chassis/axle flex line, out to the axle ends. On the rear axle, this consists of 2 lines; from the bulkhead out to the wheel cylinders. On the front axle, this is 4 total lines; from the bulkhead out to the knuckle flex lines and from the outboard of the same flex lines out to the calipers themselves. Unfortunately, mine are all pinched, bent, tweaked, rusty, leaky and generally e'ffed up.

I tried $OR for these parts, with no luck. I talked to CruiserDan to find out that these lines are truly NLA. So, I found a spot online and ordered the line in bulk, as well as the fittings.

This coming weekend will be spent bending up all new lines and installing and bleeding brakes (and bleeding the clutch as well). After that? Ill be chasing an alignment.

Then, on to phase 2: Body, Paint and complete the interior.
:cheers:
 
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Like the grill man, you need to get a 40 series toyota logo on there asap!
 
~4 month update

So, Ive been asked by a couple people for an update.

Finished the suspension and I have about 1000 miles on the truck since. Its been on one camping/mountain biking trip and helped out in a move.

The best part of the whole thing... when I pulled the truck out for the first time, I realized that the odometer read almost exactly 250k. 250,002 to be exact. A perfect birthday present.

So, without further delay. What everyone wants... Pictures!

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So, the next step is paint and body. And, I've got some ideas in mind. I want to do a flat paint and, rather than the original root beer brown that I wanted to do, Im thinking of something a little lighter. I love the color of my Tuffy center console (tan) and the fact that its flat helps out quite a bit too. I think this color is the one to aim for...

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So, I did a rendering. I of course want to keep the white roof (homage to the old school), and I love the black window surrounds that GoldDigger did on his 60 (homage to the new school). I also mocked in the wheels I like. But, try to picture it with an ARB front bumper, a bad ass tire carrier rear bumper, a roof rack with a RTT and 33" BFG ATs...

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Biking Trip to Mt Pinos;
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Fall '11 Update

The body work has begun. Plus I've picked up a few more of the remaining items needed for mockup (anything that might require body mods), prior to paint. MAF 4+ rear bumper has been purchased and delivered, as well as the snorkel. I've also ordered a front bumper and roof rack.

Over the weekend I got the snorkel fitted, full poser mode at the moment, and started filling in trim holes that will no longer be used.

Not a lot of progress, but at least it's some.

Rear LC emblem holes being filled (only about 18 more holes to weld up);
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Riveted an silicone sealed the snorkel elbow;
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Prior to marking and cutting open the body;
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Sorry, I didn't get any pics between here and installed as I was rushing to get done before the rain started again. Although I am pretty happy with how it came out!
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14 months worth of updates

OK, so it's been a while since I have done an update, but work has been progressing.

December of '11 I got the wheels and tires mounted as well as the rear bumper.

4+ bumper installed:
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Before wheels and tires:
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After wheels and tires:
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Fully racked up:
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And loaded for a bike trip:
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Once I got that bumper on, I realized that if this truck is going to be on expo trips, the 10 gallons of fuel on the back bumper needs to be more secure than just being held down with straps. I went through a couple of iterations, before I finalized the designs and had my pieces water cut.

V1:
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V2:
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Cut and Welded - rear:
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Cut and Welded - front:
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I welded in a nice fat piano hinge as well as some lockable latches. Pics of that coming soon... Im trying to keep this in chronological order as much as I can.
 
Install WagonGear tailgate storage hatch

Obviously I am trying to get all the serious body mods complete before stripping this thing for paint...

Prepping the tailgate to be cut:
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Also found and fixed some rust on the rear hatch opening. Cut out the weatherstripping pinch weld, cleaned it and welded in some 13mm angle to mount the WS to:
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Strip it already!

Ok, the tailgate is off, might as well completely strip this thing for paint!!

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Thankfully the rust under the windshield weatherstripping wasn't bad at all. A little wire brush and some rust converter was all it took to clean it up.
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I did find a metric s*** ton of rust in the passenger side front door tho...
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At first I thought I would try to repair it. But after going through 3 doors with similar issues...
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It was at this point that I found a pretty clean door shell off of a 62. I still assumed I would have to graft the 2 together in order to make the 62 door work on an early 60. Turns out I was wrong. The 62 door bolted right up, and my early regulator and all the hardware bolted right in!! Score one for Toyota engineering.

So, at this point the truck is pretty well stripped, inside and out and ready to start seriously working on smoothing out this 30 year old sheet metal.

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Paint...

Moved it inside for paint:
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Shot the jams first. The color is a little hard to tell in here. Since the truck is parked in a tent that has an orange hue, this shows darker than the final color:
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Next to get color is the roof. Again the color is a little off here, but this is essentially a flat white:
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Next on the list was the window surrounds on the doors. I took a page from Golddiggers book on this one. His paint looked so good, I could help but use this idea:
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Then after a little more prep on the main body:
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It was time for color!!!
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Then assembly begins. I finally picked up a real grill:
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More Grill:
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Got all the door glass installed and rolled it outside for its first look in real light:
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Then it was off to the interior shop. This is about the only thing I didn't do myself. I wanted the headliner installed and looking good. So I had my dad's interior guy knock this one off for me. And while it was at his shop, I had NEW front glass installed. Man is that a joy!
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The dome light you see in this pic is out of that 94 4runner that I gutted for interior parts. This is a DIRECT bolt in and is a fraction of the price of a replacement lens for an FJ60.

You can see in this pic that I also had interior re-do my sun visors to match the headliner. I also had him take the inside returns off of them because I am running a rear view and map light housing out of the same junkyard 4runner.
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Got it home from the interior shop and loaded the rest of the glass in so that I could start the carpet:
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Interior

Got a new box in the mail! 10 points to anyone who can guess (based on the packaging) where it came from...

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YUP! It's from WagonGear! Another one of Kevin's amazing products, this time the seat box:
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Installed, with the first portion of new carpet!
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Fully insulated:
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Center section carpeted:
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That looks really sharp man. Well done. Post up some shots of the 4runner rear view and one better/ closer shot of the dome lamp. Looks very nice and a great under $50 mod!

Clint
 
Interior work continues

So, at this point we are pretty well caught up. I continue to work on the interior. I pulled the rear seat apart (it had a nasty rattle in it that I had to fix) and am ordering a new cover from CruiserCorps. I'll continue to run my 4runner seats as they are, until I save the $$ to get them redone.

I am currently building my own door panels and have selected materials that go with the leather on the 4runner seats and the cloth on the CruiserCorps rear seat cover.

I had the metal panels that make up the top of the door panels powder coated and I am building the rest of the panels out of ABS plastic boards. I've got all the holes cut in the boards and am building up speaker pods for all 4 doors.

Rear door:
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Front door:
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This is what the end product should end up looking "like". This is not 100% design complete:
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