New 60 Owner Intro (1 Viewer)

[ebelly]

It feels weird signing up for a forum and writing an intro thread in 2024, but I greatly appreciate the vast amount of communal knowledge that y'all have preserved here!

My name is Evan and I'm based out of Houston, just picked up a white FJ60 from Colorado thanks to @HemiAlex for the encouragement and sharing the truck.

(Saturday 8/10)

I had been looking for a project that would be easier to work on and have more available parts than my current project car (bonus points if you can figure out whats lurking in the garage), and after a few other things fell through, this made the most sense. Luckily the previous owner had a trip planned for Houston this week, so a small deposit later he had the 60 loaded onto a trailer and on it way down with him.

(Wednesday 8/14)

Few days later the 60 was down in Houston and in its new home!

Body is in good shape, a few dents and dings but no rust and truck runs well.
Details provided from the previous owner:
Originally sold in ABQ by American Toyota, then lived in Taos, NM until he purchased the car in 2022 as poor runner/non-driver.
180k miles on the clock, and under his ownership recently replaced the following:
Starter, clutch , brake master cylinder, clutch slave cylinder, belts, and tires
Interior of the truck is pretty worn, so that will be on the to-do list, but for now I've ordered a handful of OEM parts to address some of the broken exterior parts.

Looking forward to many years with this truck and slowly making it mine!

Bonus pictures:

completely stock (minus cat), including smog equipment

well loved interior

still rockin' the American Toyota sticker

 

[HemiAlex]

you’re just like @Hokie LX and a few others that I’ve corrupted into this.

I love it.

 

[HemiAlex]

We need more updates

 

[onemanarmy]

following

 

[MrMacdugal]

this pleases me

 

[diesellibrarian]

(bonus points if you can figure out whats lurking in the garage)

If that's not a Stagea, I'll eat my hat.

 

[dbbowen]

forums > facebook all day long. The amount of knowledge just completely lost when moving to facebook is crazy. In the drifting world, once all the forums got bought out and died so did like most of the tech unfortunatley.

Great pickup by the way!

 

[ebelly]

We need more updates

Ask and you shall receive -
Upon putting a deposit down on the truck @HemiAlex recommended a couple must-do upgrades: koito OEM headlight upgrade, CruiserTrashParts Fusible Link upgrade kit and rear seat bumpers. Put in the order for the headlights and bumpers, but the fusible link kit was out of stock. A few minutes later Alex reached out to Jim at CruiserTrashParts and the fusible link was available to order, so added that to the list.

Started pulling the old headlight out and in doing so noticed all the old plastic yellow clips were either well worn or just straight broken, so decided to order some new clips and wait to install the headlights. When I got the truck started looking it over and nearly every exterior light on the truck was busted, so put in a few more orders online.

First to arrive were the front side markers, reproduction euro spec mirror gaskets, and OEM transfer lever knob, from City Racer, thoroughly inspected by my parts manager.
Unbolted the one side marker that was still on the truck (but not connected to anything) and the plastic underneath crumbled away

quick plug and a couple bolts later we were back in business. Now waiting on front corner lights and rear tail light lenses.

Wiper arms were in the back seat when I got the truck, so started to address that by going to my local hardware store in search of a nut to attach the arms, then to get wiper blades. Successfully got the nut and blades, but they did not have the adapter to attach the J-hook blades to the OEM arms, so I hopped online and put in another order to City Racer for the OEM 4runner wiper arm upgrade kit and Cruiser Corps for the OEM pivot cover.

Parts manager hard at work inspecting.

 

[CruiserTrash]

@ebelly I hadn't seen this thread going yet. Congrats Evan, and thanks for the order(s). I think you got some good bones here. These things demand our love and affection over a long period. This isn't a project that will go quickly or smoothly, but it will be worthwhile. Sounds like it's not your first rodeo with a project vehicle, so you likely already know all this. Anyway, good luck. I'll be following along.

 

[ebelly]

Quick trip out to the garage and we went from this:

to this

quick test and the wipers don't actually work, so that's a fix for another day.
Fusible link replacement kit from CruiserTrashParts arrived, so went to take care of that and finish up the headlight install. I'm extremely glad Alex suggested this as an immediate upgrade and thankful to Jim for the great customer service in allowing me to order one before the official restock. I was especially glad when I went to replace the original fusible link only to find it wasn't a fusible link at all, it was just a wire going straight from the battery crimped to a factory connector and plugged into the truck.

 

[ebelly]

The fusible link kit from @CruiserTrash was a breeze to install and even left the perfect amount of space to mount the koito headlight relays next toe the fuse box.

Still need to clean up the cabling a little bit, but this is with the fusible link kit with upgraded charging cable and koito harness installed.

and the perfect cleared behind the fusible link fuse for the relay to sit.

Old crusty plastic retainers out, fresh ones in and we're ready to reassemble the headlights.

 

[ebelly]

last update for now, took the truck to my normal Sunday coffee spot to show it to some friends. Waiting on my coffee and talking to a buddy he asks if the AC is running well? I tell him it works, but isn't currently because I need to diagnose and fix why the compressor doesn't kick on automatically. He responds 'So I guess that puddle underneath isn't condensation'. It indeed was not, it was fuel, leaking heavily from the fuel filter, so I've got a few of those on order as well as a charcoal cannister.

drove the truck home, when I parked it, I opened the gas cap to relieve pressure from the system and no fuel leaks on the driveway. So I'll look into vented gas cap options as well if it remains an issue after the filter and charcoal cannister change. While waiting on the fuel filter and charcoal cannister I decided to clean up part of the well loved interior and removed the rear carpet.
Started here:

had already pulled up about half the carpet chasing a non-working fuel gauge issue, so went ahead and undid the rear seat trim holding the carpet in place and out it came. Did some light scraping and vacuumed up what felt like several pounds of dirt and pebbles

and ended up with a pretty clean area for future sound deadening and new carpet

and found a nice bonus along the way

If that's not a Stagea, I'll eat my hat.

Yep, a 260rs I bought while living in Japan back in 2016, it sat in storage from 2018 until it was old enough to come over earlier this year

 

[CruiserTrash]

I changed my evap canister out for the AC Delco and plumbed it properly. I still get the “woosh” when taking my gas cap off. It fixes the problem for some people - hopefully you included - but it did not for me.

 

[onemanarmy]

That sure looks like rusty gas leaking out of that filter.

Hows the gas tank looking inside? has the recall been done?

 

[MrMacdugal]

This thread is that itch we all needed scratched

 

[ebelly]

That sure looks like rusty gas leaking out of that filter.

Hows the gas tank looking inside? has the recall been done?

Unsure if recall has been done, but previous owner did mention the gas tank was plastic, so its been replaced at some point?

Fuel sender and screws looks relatively fresh