Project Ugly Duckling: 4WD Toyota Owner Magazine's 1970 FJ40 build/3B swap

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

With the Overland Werks seat mount tacked together and the seat sliders installed on the seats, we set the seats in place and had some of our 6’+ tall friends sit in place and adjust the seats left and right until they felt comfortable in their seating position both behind the wheel and in the passenger position.

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Sliders do add height to a seat, so to keep the seat position low on the frame for the taller guys, we built up some different brackets to use with the seat frame. These were built with 1.5” long sections of 1” x 1” x .120” wall square tubing that we cut the backside off to make a U-channel, drilled a hole in the face and welded a nut on the back side to run the seat mounting screws into.

View attachment 1388292

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

With the seats bolted in, we then positioned the spreader/seat belt mount bars on either side of the seat and marked their position, then with the seat out of spark’s way we lined up the spreader bars with their marks and tack welded them in place. The Miller 211 MIG welder hummed right along, giving us a nice stable arc for some real stout and good looking welds.

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

The seats were then bolted back into position and we tack welded the seat belt brackets in. We’re not sure what we will be using for seat belts on this project, however the brackets included in the Overland Werks seat frame kit look to be strong and fairly universal with what ever belts we may choose to use.

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

With everything tacked in place, the seat frame was fully welded together. Make sure your welding is up to snuff; if not, find someone to lay some solid beads for you; you do not want your seat brackets coming apart in a hard hit or an accident. With everything welded and cooled down, we bolted the seat brackets and seats back in the tub. We will paint the seat frames later when we start work on the interior of the Ugly Duckling 40. It all comes down to comfort. The more comfortable you are in your rig, the more likely you are to spend time driving it and being comfortable on the trail, getting to the trail or on the street. Comfort is a big plus in any 4x4. If you’ve been sore after a long drive, maybe it’s time to look at your seating position and the seats you are sitting in. From basic to badass Procar definitely has something to fit your needs. www.procarbyscat.com

 

[GA Architect]

Seats time! Maybe they were in good condition when you first got your ride and now many years and miles later they are broken down and uncomfortable. Or, maybe like our Project Ugly Duckling FJ40, the seats were so torn up when we got it, that there was nothing more to do other than do a full rebuild and recover or just replace them with something new. As this is not a full-blown resto job, we chose the latter of the two.


Procar has an excellent lineup of seats that satisfy almost all budget and design needs, from top dollar suspension seats to basic utilitarian seats. We’ve seen the SCAT Procar Rally DLX recliner seats (www.procarbyscat.com, around $397 each street price, $440 with adapter brackets) around in other rigs and the owners seemed real happy with them, so we figured we’d give them a try in our project and see how they handle weekend trail warrior duties along with the associated road miles to get back and forth to the trails. To mount them up in our 40 series we turned to Overland Werks (www.overlandwerks.com), for their $195 FJ40 seat frame kit designed as a weld-it-yourself kit. We figured this would be a great opportunity to get some time behind the new Millermatic 211 MIG welder we recently picked up.


The original seats in project UD40 were quite literally destroyed by age, vermin, Uncle Nestor’s bum and who knows what else. We really didn’t have any other option than to replace the seats and the mounting system; there really was no comparison to the new Procar Rally DLX seats. The Procar Rally DLX seats are 10” wide in the seat area, are a multi-position recliner design, and come bare (no covering), or vinyl or velour.

View attachment 1388275

Nice work!

 

[ryanwk628]

Looks good! I just used the Overland Werks frame kit (and a Miller 211) too with some BMW leather seats in my 40. Had to ditch the sliders for height reasons which meant I getting creative with the brackets to hard mount them. I also put a 10" Tuffy stereo console in the middle.

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Niiiiiiice. The Miller is a great little welder. Love the seats! And how are you liking the Tuffy? is it the one that holds a stereo/CB in front?

 

[ryanwk628]

Niiiiiiice. The Miller is a great little welder. Love the seats! And how are you liking the Tuffy? is it the one that holds a stereo/CB in front?

The seats are really comfortable and priced right off Craigslist but clearly were not intended to be mounted to anything but the BMW sliders so you can see where I had to make brackets. The console is great. Arm rest, stereo and cup holders... whats not to love? I got the 10" stereo one and the only downside I can see is a shorter elbow pad on top vs the no stereo one and it could be difficult to mount switches to the front of it with where it puts the stereo, but I have will cross that bridge when I come to it. I have not had it all together in my 40 since I pulled it to finish weld because Im doing some rust repair and its easier with the seats out of the way but I was very happy with it when I had it all positioned and tacked up. The Tuffy box is solidly built and is going to give me piece of mind when I have the top off this summer. Its one investment I can definitely see paying for itself!

 

[Living in the Past]

I'm curious if you dated this cruiser? A few things say 69. The aprons have both the reflector from 68/69 models but amber clearance lights from 70 to 74 which I've never seen before. Tub reflector ended with the 69 model in 9/69. Same with the parking lights in the bib, only 68/69 were amber earlier years were clear. The VIN plaque on the driver's A pillar started in 3/69. The build date should be on that plaque. I have a OCD problem and one thing I do is to try to date a cruiser by little details. As we get older need to do what you can to keep the brain sharp.

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

I'm curious if you dated this cruiser? A few things say 69. The aprons have both the reflector from 68/69 models but amber clearance lights from 70 to 74 which I've never seen before. Tub reflector ended with the 69 model in 9/69. Same with the parking lights in the bib, only 68/69 were amber earlier years were clear. The VIN plaque on the driver's A pillar started in 3/69. The build date should be on that plaque. I have a OCD problem and one thing I do is to try to date a cruiser by little details. As we get older need to do what you can to keep the brain sharp.

Awesome reply and food for thought. The title says 1970, but so what, right? It could easily be wrong accidentally or on purpose. We will check today on the VIN plaque and report back. I will say that the Cruiser is such a mish-mash of booty fab work and swapped parts and boogered welds and such that it's quite possible the PO put parts from different years on it. We ourselves chose the later-era, rectangular taillights style bumper from 4X4 Labs as an upgrade from the period-correct rounds. Thank you for the info.

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Need some input from Mud members. Who's got recommendations on aftermarket under dash heaters that include defrost vents--Maradyne, Heater Craft, Flex-A-Lite? Photos of installed units also much appreciated!

 

[UZJ40]

Need some input from Mud members. Who's got recommendations on aftermarket under dash heaters that include defrost vents--Maradyne, Heater Craft, Flex-A-Lite? Photos of installed units also much appreciated!

I'm happy with my Old Air Products heater/AC. They make a heater only as well. I mounted mine under my glove box, not where the heater is mounted from the factory. Also, it moves A LOT of air on the high setting! Check these out-

HURRICANE Heaters | Rod Heaters | Old Air Products

 

[David70FJ40]

They bolt on correctly but they need to go further down to hold the windshield in place. Here is the shot I posted in the thread I referenced. It needs to swivel further down.

View attachment 1388038

Sadly, I have the same problem. Called SOR this morning and the nice fellow on the other end said that when Toyota changed part numbers or designs, this became a problem. He suggested grinding the slot so the hook can fall further back but that will lead to rust problems. I guess I will need to scuff the stainless and apply a high quality paint to match the body color.

Looks more like an erection on the hood than a hold down hook.

 

[ryanwk628]

He suggested grinding the slot so the hook can fall further back but that will lead to rust problems.

Is it not stainless then? Or is the Chromium only in the surface?

 

[David70FJ40]

Supposed to be stainless, or as he called it stain less.

 

[ryanwk628]

Supposed to be stainless, or as he called it stain less.

OK I had to google this because I also have SOR hold downs. IF it is really stainless it should not rust, rather material deposited by the cutting tool could. Here is a good discussion on it.
Best method for cutting stainless steel? - Home Brew Forums

 

[1Fine40]

I'm happy with my Old Air Products heater/AC. They make a heater only as well. I mounted mine under my glove box, not where the heater is mounted from the factory. Also, it moves A LOT of air on the high setting! Check these out-

Got any pix of the install? How does it fit? Chop up the glovebox any?

Cheers! (Sorry for the hijack!)

 

[ginmtb]

I ended up soda blasting my original ones then primed and painted. Turned out pretty good happy with the results. You could always try to track down an old set and do the same. Of course I've never had my windshield down and if you don't ever plan on it doesn't really matter. I saw on a restoration that sold at auction for almost $150K the incorrect hooks too lol.

Old photo I swapped out to stainless screws instead of bolts.

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Got any pix of the install? How does it fit? Chop up the glovebox any?

Cheers! (Sorry for the hijack!)

Not a hijack--I'm interested too!