Quad Cab - 4 door coil sprung shortened troopy/extended swb build

[Locked79]

To cut a long story short, I paid a guy to mount the engine and gearbox, axles and ute body (that formed the front 1/2 of my body) onto the chassis. I went there to start him off and set up the body placement in relation to the front axle. He then went about and mounted the engine inside the engine bay that was there leaving 40mm behind the x over pipe to the firewall. The gearbox mount was then located to suit the rubber mount underneath the bracket. The gearbox x member was modified to suit as well. Then when I got the car back I found he had ballsed it all up so started from scratch again. As an example I asked him to make the 1600mm rear diff out to 1630mm, he made it 1560mm for example. The steering arm and front panhard bar made an X and the engineer laughed at that,......

This time I am using the 80 series engine mounts and locating them to suit much in the same method above, come off the firewall etc..... while making sure that I have enough room for the radiator and a/c bits up front.

I hope that made sense. Guy who will be fitting it does a lot of engine swaps and is pretty confident it will all go smoothly this time. My only concern will be running the steering column somewhere and there isn't much room between the engine and the standard location of the shock towers. This was a trial fitment before the guy picked up the chassis and engine etc.... to fabricate it.

View attachment 1149629

Pic gap to firewall.

View attachment 1149625

chassis mounted engine brackets he made up. Not entirely sure why he didn't just use what was there and move it to the required location.
View attachment 1149626

gap between chassis and oil return from turbo.

View attachment 1149627

rear view looking forward showing gearbox and transfer case. comes a bit close to the output side in this pic, but all those brackets as well as suspension brackets have come off the chassis and a new front diff has been purchased.

View attachment 1149628

Thanks for the detailed reply. I will hopefully be mounting the engine/trans tomorrow. As you would have noticed also, there isn't a great deal of room to fit the engine and everything in. Getting the steering to clear might be difficult. Haha. Let the games begin.

Thanks again

 

[Sporty Forty]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I will hopefully be mounting the engine/trans tomorrow. As you would have noticed also, there isn't a great deal of room to fit the engine and everything in. Getting the steering to clear might be difficult. Haha. Let the games begin.

Thanks again

have you read this.

Toyota 1VD-FTV into 100-series LandCruiser Engine Conversion

 

[Locked79]

have you read this.

Toyota 1VD-FTV into 100-series LandCruiser Engine Conversion

Yes I have, thanks

 

[chookenz]

Any updates on this matey

 

[Sporty Forty]

Any updates on this matey

A bit of work of late. Mainly on the rear floor section. Just mounted the middle row seats after making a few brackets and floor bits and pieces.

As I have widened the body by 50mm the width of the rear wheel wells are too wide so they were cut down to suit the width of the chassis. They are about 5mm inside the outer edge of the chassis rails so wheels will rub on chassis rails rather than body work. You can see the additional room in the rear as the door frame is 50mm wider that normal and then there's a small offset of another 50mm each side to the wheel well, so overall I have gained about 150mm across the rear of the cabin. This allows me to fit the seats (that would have fitted in the std width) and gives me additional storage space when the seats are flat or taken out.

 

[Sporty Forty]

Today we set up the middle row of seats and it cam out looking pretty good. They are Discovery 4 seats, all 7 of them, and as we have a Disco 4 I have copied the mounting brackets off that. Seems to have worked out okay and we even got the same 1 degree angle on these as in the Disco.

After this has the bolt locations drilled and then nuts welded on the underside to bolt these seats down. After this is done we will then move to the front seats where we will need to make a new bracket to suit the seat sliders. These still retain the electric component of the Disco seats and I will look at wiring that up into the looms.

Trial fitment of the U shaped bracket running under the rear seat brackets. These triangular shaped brackets are now welded onto this bracket and than that is welded onto the floor frame. Both sheets of metal are 2mm thick so should give a lot of strength in the area as the seats belts are an engineered part of the frame (1/2 the reason why I choose those seats) so needed to be better than your average bear.

 

[lostmarbles]

If only the OEM seats could fold down completely like that.. (Then I wouldn't have to keep removing my passenger bench seat in order to carry long items..)

Going well there ...

 

[Sporty Forty]

While this was going on the front guards were widened 50mm each side. The indicator bracket location was also moved to give the same position across the guard as a % (40%). Was 110mm from vertical bit now 135mm. This should still keep the front looking in proportion rather than having a large amount of guard after the indicator. I will be using std 40 series indicators, not a huge fan of the 70 series ones on a 40, my personal view there.

The diff is not centralised yet and is 40mm over one side more than the other (20mm eachside to move)

 

[Sporty Forty]

If only the OEM seats could fold down completely like that.. (Then I wouldn't have to keep removing my passenger bench seat in order to carry long items..)

Going well there ...

Yep, not a fan of the 'almost flat folding down seats' hence one of the reasons for the Disco ones. With the rear seats and middle folded down as well I will have a few cubic feet of space to fill. Will be about 1.7M to the back of the front seats in 1100mm for the 3rd row seats than 700mm odd for the middle row.

 

[chookenz]

Nice going mate love the build
You're really committing to widening the cruiser haha
How do you line up the diffs correctly if you were out just a bit?

 

[Sporty Forty]

Nice going mate love the build
You're really committing to widening the cruiser haha
How do you line up the diffs correctly if you were out just a bit?

Diffs were just chucked under and roughly lined up to keep the thing rolling. Will be done when the engine gets installed and brackets will be fully welded on.

 

[chookenz]

Awesome Mate sounds fun and good luck

 

[fjgoober]

This build is inspiration for all of us who are planning something similar!

 

[Bj on roids]

Wow. Love it. I was dreaming about this last week. Today, it's here.

Personally I'd push that rear axle back a few inches. But your attention to detail is absolutely astounding.

 

[Sporty Forty]

Wow. Love it. I was dreaming about this last week. Today, it's here.

Personally I'd push that rear axle back a few inches. But your attention to detail is absolutely astounding.

Thanks, for that. Was a dream a while ago and had an itch to scratch so set about gathering parts for a while then putting it all back together. It is a tad exciting at the moment seeing all these things come together, like the seats going in.

The wheelbase is already 122" could have gone for 125" but felt that was a bit long for over ramp etc.... Rear guards still have to be cut but when it does get the proper treatment it will have the same distance as a swb from door to wheel arch.

 

[Sporty Forty]

This build is inspiration for all of us who are planning something similar!

Yep, notes for what not to do in case it all goes pear shaped. Measure twice and cut once or do it once and do it right has always been the way I try to do stuff. If you have to do it twice it usually has a cost associated with it that makes it more expensive than if you had done it correct the first time!.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

I love this build!
Another example of what the FJ Cruiser should have been.

 

[Bj on roids]

It doesn't matter what it costs, if you're happy. But my curiosity is getting the better of me.

Aluminium Aqualu tub, what $11k landed. Have you spent more than that on body work? That'll get you a tub and a front end, and a windscreen, no doors, no upper panels etc. Is that about the right numbers?!

 

[Sporty Forty]

It doesn't matter what it costs, if you're happy. But my curiosity is getting the better of me.

Aluminium Aqualu tub, what $11k landed. Have you spent more than that on body work? That'll get you a tub and a front end, and a windscreen, no doors, no upper panels etc. Is that about the right numbers?!

Yes, probably but then I would have to get it signed off by the engineer and I'm not sure how they would go with aluminium. With this body it's factory and the engineer can't really argue with that, well factory in so much as the sides, roof etc... the floor is 1/2 factory. Not much more to go for body work but the portion for the body work is probably the same maybe 20% more but not much in it, then I have doors that have been modified all 6, windscreen and the roof is still to be done at the end of the job.

I did look at the Aqualu body but went this way. Other thing is that i can weld steel better than I can weld aluminium!.

 

[Bj on roids]

Agreed mate, I was kind of saying that, plus you still would need to do a lot of custom fabrication to the aluminum tub and to the uppers anyways.

How long from start to finish is the project? 2 years? That's fairly swift to nearly build an entire custom vehicle.