New FJ60 owner (1 Viewer)

[kheld01]

Hey all, I'm a proud new owner of a 3/83 FJ60 and I figured I would introduce myself and more importantly the Cruiser before I ask the thousands of dumb questions that are sure to come.

The story is a bit of a romcom, but I was living in CA in 2015 when my then roommate (and still one of my best buds) impulse bought this truck on craigslist. At the time, I was casually shopping for an interesting car and when he came home with this thing, I fell in love. He let me drive it whenever I wanted, which I did, but I had to keep my true feelings to myself because that's what friends do. Fast-Forward a few years and he asks if I'm interested in buying it because he was moving and has one too many toys. F yea I do.

She's far from perfect. The owner before my buddy spent a lot of time and money building a mudding rig (which from what I can tell, he never took mudding). The interior is stripped, diamond plate for the door panels, no headliner, no carpet, rollcage with 4 point harness, tons of speakers, huge lift with aftermarket wheels and 35s. Not exactly my cup o tea, but he very smartly kept all of the interior parts worth saving. The body needs some work too but the normal rusty areas seem good, having spent most of its life in the high desert. Now that my rose tinted glasses have cleared a bit, I'm finding more imperfections, but nothing unmanageable. The big things are some rust around the cargo glass and a botched repair on one of the rear quarter panels. The original 2F has 137,000 miles and runs pretty well. It was recently desmogged by a shop who of course didn't keep any of the original parts. They installed a weber carb and an aftermarket exhaust header. I'm not thrilled with the work, but it seems to run ok for now and the desmog isn't an issue at the moment.

My ultimate goal is to restore to pretty close to OEM including a windows out repaint back to the original Light Blue Metallic. I was planning on tackling that immediately, however Covid has wrecked my financial security for the time being, so I think the immediate gameplan is to make it a nice driver and just stave off the rusty bits. My first projects are to remove the rollcage and re-install the OEM seatbelts as well as get it off of the 35s and lower the suspension. Once those things are done, I'll enjoy it through the fall and can tackle the interior this winter.

I look forward to being a more active part of this group.

Kevin

 

[kheld01]

More pics

 

[sogafarm]

That's a built rig you've got there. I like the door panels! The roll bar seems overkill. Welcome to Mud!

 

[kheld01]

Thanks, yea I kind of feel bad "unbuilting" it because everything was done very well and someone spent a TON of time and money on it. If I had a 5 car garage full of cruisers, I would leave this one as is and enjoy the s*** out of it, but, alas, I don't. I think the diamond plate door panels are love it or hate it, and I kind of hate it... Fortunately, I have all of the original panels. I was going to scrap the diamond plate, but if you (or anybody) want them, they're yours for the cost of shipping.

 

[sogafarm]

You should put them up for sale in the selling section. Somebody will want them. Unfortunately I sold my last fj60 several years ago and moved up to an fzj80. The 60's have gone sky high in value lately so a bit of resto work will make yours even more valuable. Enjoy the process!

 

[kirvesmies]

welcome to this ship of fools, mad dogs, n a couple of englishmen. sounds like you might have some idea of the rabbit hole you're entering. best of fortunes on your build. oh, good looking piece to start with

 

[MoaByte]

I like it. (Except the Webber). Maybe see about trading some Mudder who has a stock rig? I love them stock, but where I live 235's just don't cut it. If you like, I'll trade my 3.70 third members and stock steelies with Genuine LC hubcaps for your 3rds?

 

[rrv333]

Welcome to the fray. You're lucky in the sense that one of the PO's went to the trouble to build the rig the way that it was built. It appears that the work was done well. Most people buy rigs that have a whole lot of F%^$ Up's that need to be unf#$%@# before the rigs can be safely driven.

 

[kheld01]

No more roll cage. It was the first thing that had to go so I can re-install the factory seat belts (which, came in the boxes of parts). All I want for now is a truck I can comfortably drive around town, and putting on a four point harness every time I want a sandwich isn't ideal. I still have plenty of work to do removing the roll cage remnants, but for now I'm going to put the belts in and enjoy. On the plus side, I have enough steel tubing to make a hockey goal.

Thanks for the responses. When I saw the truck for the first time in a few years, I was a little turned off because I had forgotten how built it was but after checking it out further, it really is a pretty clean slate, and the fact that the PPO saved a lot of the parts is a big win. I say this fully knowing that there are plenty of parts that I don't have, and even worse, the parts that I don't know that I don't have... The good news is I have time to slowly put things together from the used market.

 

[TheNeek]

I can smell the burning metal. Maybe that's my garage . That's a ton of work, good luck. I agree with your assessment of the door panels.

 

[Big Timber]

that's some serious cash invested in that diamond plate, but it doesn't fit the truck you want to have. Plus isn't it Loud AF?

BTW, what's the story on that RS4 in the background there?

 

[Ocho77]

Nice work!

RS4 in the background???

 

[Seth S]

Was the roll cage made from proper seamless tubing or was it exhaust tubing? There are door/trim panel kits that someone was selling on here that would look a lot better than the diamond plate (IMO). The diamond plate makes me think of slaughterhouse

 

[kheld01]

Replying to all of your comments in one post.

I can also still smell it and I finished yesterday. It wasn't too terrible and I only smashed my thumb once. Unfortunately for me, the roll cage was well built with 1/8in seamless tubing. I started with Harbor Freight cutoff wheels on a 4.5in angle grinder which after one cut were 2.5in cutoff wheels. A solid metal Diablo/Freud cutoff wheel handled it much better and a sawzall with an assortment of cheapish blades got into the harder to access places. There's still plenty of grinding to be done, and some pretty heavy (maybe 1/4in) plates were welded to the floor at the bases which I think I'll push off until I'm ready to make the body right. I don't see any rust poking through so they don't seem to be doing any damage for now.

I do have a complete set of door panels (pictured) that came with the truck. That'll be a winter project getting those bad boys looking nice. Does anyone know of a good source for replacement cardboard/fiberboard backing for door and side panels?

The diamond plate is pretty loud, and vibrates like crazy. It was a fun drive from Maryland.

And yes, good eyes on the RS4. Probably the complete opposite of a 60, but hands down the best all-around vehicle I've ever owned and since NA V8s with a third pedal are extinct, I don't see myself replacing it anytime soon.

 

[kheld01]

I did get the driver's side belt in today, but not without my first (of probably many) unforseen struggles. The steel plate that the roll cage was mounted on at the B pillar are welded over the seat belt attachment on the floor. I was eventually able to get a hole drilled in the plate, but it wasn't easy because of the angle of the floor and drill access, but its in there and I feel confident that it's safe. The passenger side is the same so I'll tackle that tomorrow, although I'm not sure why since my wife wouldn't be caught dead in this thing as it is.

Next step is getting it a little closer to the ground. I'm gonna try to get it off the 35s this week and onto 31x10.5 Ko2s. As for the lift, I think a majority of the height comes from the 6in shackles all around. I ordered factory length shackles, pins and bushings from SOR. I've tried to ID the springs, and the best I can come up with is I think the fronts (pictured) are Dobinson based on googling the model number, and there's no identifying marks on the rears. For now I'm going to replace the shackles and see what I end up with with both height and ride. If I'm not happy with the results, then I'll look into replacing other suspension bits.

So if I replace just the shackles (6in to ~3.5in), am I going to have problems with other components that were probably modified to accommodate such an aggressive lift? What would have been modified to get it this high? Brake lines, drive shaft? I'm completely new to leaf springed live axles, and I've done my best studying at the University of Youtube, but I'm curious what the flaws are in my plan.