Build New Iron Pig owner, 1970 FJ55 project

[scrapdaddy]

J Mack,

I didn't want to deal with a stock housing and try to cut and weld disc flanges on, as I don't have the capability to straighten it after welding. I want the exact wheel to wheel width as the stock 60 axle. That means modifying a housing and paying someone to do it. 70 or 60 axles are drum and a 80 is too wide. Bottom line I'd rather pay a shop to do it. I'm happy with Front Range and the Diamond axle housing, see how it goes.

 

[JD Films]

Sorry to hear about your issues with Ruff Stuff they sound exactly like mine..

Why go aftermarket housing vs. factory Toyota?

For my front housing I went aftermarket for a few reasons. It's wider than a stock 80. The third member is on the drivers side to work with my Tundra transfercase. And it's made to use the bigger 9.5" Toyota third member.

 

[Dan Fredrickson]

I'm sorry but I cannot stand by and see my company abused for bad reason. If we do something wrong I am the first to own up to it.

This person badmouthing us never ordered an axle. He called again and again asking questions about how we would do it. When we asked for his axle specifics he never told us. It was a question we asked many times without luck. He never passed the stage of asking about it. He never paid for it and we require payment before building a custom axle however, we will not take an order until we have all the information.

That's all I need to say here, I a sure he is a nice person but we are also a nice company that is not in the business of screwing people over, ever!

 

[JD Films]

Maybe a moderator can delete the posts regarding the housing issue and you guys can message each other about it if there is even anything else to talk about. There's always two sides to every story and both sides are different in this case. All I can say is that I am very happy with my Ruff Stuff products, they are great quality, good prices and I will order from them again. Now that I have my housing and most of the parts I can't wait to build it!

 

[scrapdaddy]

JD Films,

I apologize for mucking up your great thread. I've already PMed Dan about it, they are a good company with good products, just didn't work for me. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

[Wild pig]

JD Films
Great to see someone is using a 2UZ FE to re power a pig. Im thinking of doing the same thing with my pig, these motors are pretty easy to come by in NewZealand.
Have you made any progress installing the engine?
I'll be watching this thread with great interest.

 

[JD Films]

JD Films
Great to see someone is using a 2UZ FE to re power a pig. Im thinking of doing the same thing with my pig, these motors are pretty easy to come by in NewZealand.
Have you made any progress installing the engine?
I'll be watching this thread with great interest.

I haven't had much time to work on it at all unfortunately, just collecting parts mostly. I still need to pull the 2F engine and put that up for sale along with all the engine parts and the old FJ40 axles that it's sitting on right now. Then we can start installing the V8 when the 2F is out.

My friend has my 9" rear housing and new bearing ends and is working on it when he has time. He has a jig to make sure it's all straight when the ends are welded on.

I just bought the gears, install kit and solid pinion spacer for the 9.5" third member that I'm using for the front from Nitro Gear. And I also got a new set of front wheel bearings for the FJ80 hubs.
TLC-488-NG
MKTLC-B

 

[JD Films]

I also got a new 26"x19" CBR radiator. After I get the engine in I will figure out some mounts for it.

 

[JD Films]

I got a pair of Slee Offroad FZJ80 high steer arms for the front axle this week. I also scored a pair of 93-97 FZJ80 knuckles for $50. I was going to have a friend machine the '91 knuckles I have so I could use the Slee arms with them but it turns out there's not enough material in that area compared to the later model knuckles that have the ABS sensor hole. The Slee arms are made to have the third stud using the ABS hole with a threaded insert.

Pic of the Slee arms:

Pic from the Slee website showing the double sheer setup. I already have a right hand drive lower steering arm so I can double sheer both sides.

 

[JD Films]

You might be better served getting radiator in so you can figure out optimal engine placement.

Depending upon fan setup, radiator after engine may put you down a bad path.

FWIW, my turbo engine is getting radiator and elec fans installed at same time.

Yeah I will definitely figure out the placement. I want to use the stock clutch fan that's on the Tundra V8 because I'm keeping the engine stock and it works well. But I also want the engine back as far as I can get it to clear the front axle as much as it can. We'll have to see how that all works out. Taking rough measurements it looks like the radiator and engine with the fan will sit pretty close to how they are in a Tundra/Sequoia. If it can go back farther I might have to look into electric fans.

 

[JD Films]

Not much progress to report but I just did a trade with American Powder Coat in Escondido, CA and had them do my grill, headlight bezels and fender vent pieces. They came out great. If you are in SoCal definitely check them out if you need anything powder coated. I dropped them off Thursday and they were finished Monday. American Powder Coat - Home

 

[Hank Tank]

Not much progress to report but I just did a trade with American Powder Coat in Escondido, CA and had them do my grill, headlight bezels and fender vent pieces. They came out great. If you are in SoCal definitely check them out if you need anything powder coated. I dropped them off Thursday and they were finished Monday. American Powder Coat - Home

View attachment 1439056 View attachment 1439057

Those look great! Can't wait to see them the rig.

 

[JD Films]

More parts showed up today. Windshield wiper arms, tailgate parts, gas door with lock, rear door window separator/glass run piece, door weatherstripping that attaches to the door and also the door body molding and door glass runs/felt (couldn't pass up cheaper than retail deal on the WS).
And a couple window regulators but turns out these are the same two I already have for my back doors. I need to find one drivers side front that is the early style door with a wing window (might be covered on that though).

I also bought the inner glass felt strips for all the doors and tailgate from Rock Auto. And ordered the inner tailgate glass run rubber from SLO Cruisers.

The only expensive weatherstripping I need now is the rear door fixed glass rubber...

 

[scrapdaddy]

Nice! Parts are good.

 

[wngrog]

And ordered the inner tailgate glass run rubber from SLO Cruisers.



View attachment 1449311

Shoot me the link to these.......

Glad you got that load. I hope I don't end up wishing I had it

 

[JD Films]

Shoot me the link to these.......

Glad you got that load. I hope I don't end up wishing I had it

Good thing about all of that rubber is it's not the real expensive hard to find stuff in case you do need to get some later. Here's the link to the inner lower tailgate glass run, FJ55 Lower Tailgate Glass Channel Run--Two Piece John emailed me and said he's out of town until May 11th and can't ship until then. Not like I'm in a hurry anyway...

Cruiser parts also has it but it's $40. FJ55 Lower Tailgate Glass Channel Run--Two Piece [1018] - $39.99 : CruiserParts.net, Toyota Landcruiser Parts
They have allot of the same WS as SLO Cruisers now and used allot of the same photos and descriptions so not sure what's up with that.

 

[JD Films]

I cut the FJ80 knuckle balls off of the stock housing a couple weeks ago. I borrowed a lathe fixture from a machinist I met last year that built a similar front axle with the Ruff Stuff housing like I bought. Another friend at Custom Tube Works in Vista has the knuckles right now and is going to turn down the ends for me. I would do it myself but I don't have access to a lathe like I used to when I built my T100 12+ years ago...

 

[JD Films]

More parts! MasterCraft Safety has been a long time supporter of my Dezert People off road racing video series and they just came back on as a sponsor of this years release. It looks like I found a buyer for my stock bench seats. So now I have a pair of Baja RS reclining seats on order along with their Rubicon rear bench seat and 2x2 5 point harnesses. I run the 3" harnesses in my T100 prerunner but decided to go with the 2" for the FJ55 after talking with some friends about them being more comfortable and not rubbing your neck as much as the 3". I also got a pair of their seat sliders for the front seats. I've had the MasterCraft race seats in my T100 since I built it but wished I had the reclining seats. I went with the black and gray that's pictured below since I'll be doing black and gray for the rest of the interior.

If anyone is interested I recently started a build thread for my T100 on the Off Road Action website. It starts from the beginning when I started the project 14 years ago and I'm updating it when I have time showing the full build and changes I made over the years after I got it running. Curtis Guise's 1995 Toyota T100

 

[PabloCruise]

I cut the FJ80 knuckle balls off of the stock housing a couple weeks ago. I borrowed a lathe fixture from a machinist I met last year that built a similar front axle with the Ruff Stuff housing like I bought. Another friend at Custom Tube Works in Vista has the knuckles right now and is going to turn down the ends for me. I would do it myself but I don't have access to a lathe like I used to when I built my T100 12+ years ago...
View attachment 1457891 View attachment 1457892

That is starting to get real! e-locker up front? 80 rear housing as well?

 

[JD Films]

That is starting to get real! e-locker up front? 80 rear housing as well?

The front Ruff Stuff housing I'm using is built to use the 9.5" Land Cruiser rear third member. The guy I bought the stock FJ80 front housing from is building a right hand drive FJ80 that he imported from Japan and he sold me the rear 9.5" third member that has a factory limited slip which was an option in Japan, not in the US. I already have a set of 4.88 gears from Nitro Gear and just need to have them installed. I think I got pretty lucky finding that 9.5" diff with a factory limited slip since I didn't want to spend allot for an e-locker or ARB.

For the rear I am using a Ford 9" housing with a third member that I bought from Quick Performance. It has an Eaton Tru-Trac limited slip. And the axles are Currie 35 spline. I think I posted a photo of the rear housing earlier in this thread but not sure if I posted the rear diff. My friend still has the rear housing because it needs new bearing ends welded on. I also have a rear disc brake kit with integrated parking brake that I bought from Quick Performance.