Project, 45 on the cheap.

[cruisermatt]

I have always wanted a 45. I’ve thought a pretty painted one in a flashy color would be perfect to park in front of my shop. I also need a pickup semi-regularly, I have a F350 but obviously as we all know the combo of a 7-ft bed with narrow/short FJ40 characteristics is so much nicer to drive around town.

However I could never see myself spending “nice cruiser” money on one when I can fix things up, it is my job these days after all.

And then I found out about this truck a few hours away. I’ve actually known about it for a few years but have never had time to go actually grab it. My friend @GLTHFJ60 was in town visiting in January so we decided to go grab it.

As dragged out of the woods. It had been sitting for a lot time. I’d guess +10 years.
All four tires came off rims, but all wheels turned and steering was free.
I didn’t pay much for it. Lets say I sold the full floating rear axle that needed brakes and made the rest of the truck free.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I still can't believe the bed stayed on for the whole drive when it wasn't bolted on, lol. Wish I had a pic of the DS door swinging open on the ride home too, lol.

Epic truck. Thread needs more updates.

 

[1969FJ]

What year as 1967 was last for America.

 

[cruisermatt]

What year as 1967 was last for America.

1978. It’s FJ45LP-KK Canadian market version. I have updates and will write them as I have time

 

[xtremeVA]

Congrats Matt…your saving another one!

 

[Michael B]

Congratulations!

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Congrats Matt! I’m looking forward to watching your progress.

 

[Terrax]

Congratulations!! How’s the Maryland winters rust on it? What year?

 

[cruisermatt]

Congratulations!! How’s the Maryland winters rust on it? What year?

As I wrote in the comment above it’s a 78.
Maryland, wut?

 

[Terrax]

As I wrote in the comment above it’s a 78.
Maryland, wut?

s***!! I got you confused withToyotaMatt, my apologies!!

 

[jfz80]

The Florida summers don’t look to have been any kinder

Congrats Matt. Will be following along.
Imagine that bezel got flipped by day 2 if not sooner.

 

[45Kevin]

Congrats for sure.
Canadian with the full floater rear end and there will be very little smog stuff on it.
Dash is in metric I assume.
Looks somewhat solid except for the roof. Group buy?

 

[cruisermatt]

Congrats for sure.
Canadian with the full floater rear end and there will be very little smog stuff on it.
Dash is in metric I assume.
Looks somewhat solid except for the roof. Group buy?

Correct, FF rear (already sold and swapped to SF rear), no smog at all, KPH cluster. The only thing that is solid is the bed itself really, it needs some work under the top rails but it's usable for sure. Chassis is toast, cab and all front sheetmetal is toast (haven't torn it down enough yet to see how much of the cowl is salvageable), fenders, bib, hood, roof, windshield frame, I'm sure a lot of the windshield frame and cowl are fixable but not sure if it is worth it yet vs buying good replacements. Fenders and bib for sure not worth fixing. Chassis is junk.

 

[cruisermatt]

So when I got it to the shop (this was a few months ago back in late January) one of my employees immediately fell in love with this junk pile and decided we had to see if it could run and drive off the trailer. So we quit on customer work early on a Friday and after about 45 minutes of messing around (we didn't have the key initially, so we just installed a points coil/dizzy I had), pulled plugs and turned motor over by hand with wd40 in cylinders (it was crunchy at first!), poured some brake clean in the carb and cranked it. to our surprised it fired right up into perfect 700 rpm idle after setting timing. So i have a good engine, great! (AKA, free 45 considering I paid less for the whole truck then current market value on a good running 2F, and the 2F will eventually get changed to something else away most likely)

Next up was to see if it would move, we put fluid in the clutch master and the slave cylinder blew out immediately. Threw on used slave cylinder and hose we just replaced on a customer rig the day before (working at a Cruiser shop is great!). That bled and held, next was to throw some roller tires on. Strapped a gas can to the side of the truck and then we drove it off the trailer and around the block. And then the pressure plate stuck open!

 

[cruisermatt]

I never updated what happened next.. copious amounts of WD40 and smacking the flywheel/pressure plate with a hammer got it unstuck without pulling the transmission!
After that my guys got all the lights working, we also replaced the fuel tank (which was toast) with one we pulled from a customer’s 1970 FJ40 that got a new tank to go with his Sniper install. My employee Justin (19-year old) cut the filler neck off the junk 45 tank and welded it to the early FJ40 tank to make a replica 45 tank.

And got the bed bolted down. With only four bolts but good enough for now (it will eventually get a full tear-down)

And a bath.

 

[cruisermatt]

New tires on the original rims. 235’s.. $90 each. At this point it is March and we are fully commit to making this truck drive 600 miles to North Carolina for the ONSC Relic Run

 

[cruisermatt]

The truck ended up not making it to the event.. my employee who was going to drive it ended up buying a house the same week and couldn’t make it.

So the truck sat for a few weeks.

Brakes were all completely toast.. front axle housing was in good shape though so did a disc conversion on the original front axle, went cheap with Rock Auto calipers and rotors. Had to replumb the entire truck. Sold the OEM long-body hubs to recoupe some money. Installed a set of City Racer Re-pops I had around.
You can see the huge hole in the frame in this pic

We also sold the FF rear axle and installed a random SF axle I had, and had a full set of new rear drum brakes that were takeoffs from another project.
At this point the truck is a cooling system refresh away from being completely base-lined

 

[cruisermatt]

Random pics.
At this point I have about $400 total into this truck in terms of purchase and parts.
And about 40 hours of payroll (roughly $2500).

 

[greenbeast]

Amazing the resilience of these old rigs!

 

[cruisermatt]

So far that is all the good. Here is the bad/ugly:
(We added the angle iron frame repairs ourselves)