ROTW-1222 nuclearlemon's 68 v8j40

[nuclearlemon]

I've been wheeling cruisers since the late 80s and I've always had mildly built rigs, but, because of my lack of fundage, never any really built rigs. Money got the worst of me and eventually, I sold off all my cruisers and parts and the only truck I had was my daily driver 79 GMC heavy half ton on 35"s. It was a great truck, but I was miserable without my cruisers.

After three years, my "dad" (he was actually my best friend's dad, but he kind of adopted me since I don't have family in this section of the country), who was also into cruisers (he put his first Chevy engine in a 65 cruiser in 1968) pulled me aside and said he had a solution. A guy had called and asked him to do some work on his cruiser in exchange for another fj40. Dad didn't want to do the work, but told me to call the guy, I could probably get a good deal. Then he made the mistake of saying we'd build it in his driveway.

On Valentine's Day 1999, I brought home my 68/74 fj40. It's titled as a 68 and does have a few 68 parts, but the tubs a 74 and the rest is a mutt. When dad got home from work, the first words out of his mouth were "What the hell is that?"

Within the first weekend, it was stripped and the buildup began. V8, power steering, soa, shackle reversal, spring flip, discs all the way around, lockout hubs all the way around (so i could flattow it), dc driveshaft.....

More to come later......

 

[alkarich]

Looking forward to the upcoming pics.

 

[romegadave]

Me too. Always interested in yer history with the 40

 

[nuclearlemon]

Now that it was stripped, it was time to deal with the suspension.

I new i wanted shackle reversal for streetability, spring over for lift, and reversed springs front and rear for a longer wheelbase. the rear was easy, but the shackle reversal up front meant either buying a rock grabber kit from aa or btb, or creating one. so we created one. we cut off both hangers, then the stock rear hanger was relocated up front and the tube section was cut from the front hanger and frenched into the frame in the rear.

 

[nuclearlemon]

while doing the spring over, we also mounted up the saginaw. we did a bit of clearancing of the frame to get the shaft through, which i still need to deal with, but in the meantime, dad built a rather stout bumper to act as a crossmember
I also spent a LOT of time wire brushing and grinding on the frame to clean it up. I got most of the inside of the frame, but that wore thin, so i never did do the outside. I just painted over rust

 

[nuclearlemon]

Dad also figured that now would be a good time to clean up the only real rust the tub had, the rear corners. Both were cut out, new metal cut to match and he tacked it all in. I'm not patient enough for body work, so (and I know many will cringe) I put diamond plate corners on. I went to the scrap yard for the aluminum and paid half of what the produced corners cost, got a lot more aluminum and it's a heck of a lot thicker, so my corners actually serve a purpose. also, I primed the corners, then undercoated them before putting the corners on to help prevent rust.

 

[nuclearlemon]

I also managed to score a rollcage from a guy who was going to use it, but decided he wanted to use his jumpseats and a later oem bar. His price...a good used left fender if I ever found one. I bought him a brand new one.

One thing I learned not to do...after cleaning the tub under the fuel tank, I decided to undercoat that also so the tank would be sitting on a slightly rubbery surface and to protect the tub. Never minding what petroleum products do to undercoating...think about what the sun does. Not an issue except that dad thought it would be good to blow out the filler neck and hose, but he didnt' have the right chuck for his blower nozzle, so he was gently holding it with a rag wrapped around to prevent air leakage when I hear him say "oops". He didn't have a good enough grip on the nozzle and it shot into the tank. I figured I could just dump the tank upside down and get it to fall out, but it ain't budging, so until I get annoyed enough to pull the sender, everytime I turn a corner, I hear "tink...tink...tink...tink" as it rolls across the bottom of the tank

More tomorrow.....

 

[Josie'sLandCruiser]

Hi All:

Cool Inge! I'm looking forward to hearing more about your build of this rig!



Regards,

Alan

 

[MDH33]

Right on Ige, hope to see your 40 on the trail sometime.

 

[nuclearlemon]

Right on Ige, hope to see your 40 on the trail sometime.

the snow run is coming up...the last few years, it's seen most of its use during the snowy months.

 

[AKcruiserfreak]

Looks like a fun build! I wish I had your fab skills.

TK

 

[mcwinery]

Great posting. I love the snow pictures. We dont get too much snow in Napa Valley.

 

[singletrackjunkie]

nice rig and nice write up, looking forward to more.

 

[D'Animal]

Looking forward to the rest of the build pics and specs.


Great Job!

 

[nuclearlemon]

For the front end, an early mini truck front end was robbed for it's disc setup and bigger birfs and wide pattern knuckles. Later on, the rotors and calipers were swapped out for fj60. The rear axle received a Warn full floater kit with Chevy disc brakes.

A Saginaw gearbox was picked up from a local shop, rebuilt to a 3 turn spec and mounted up front and connected with a homemade shaft to a Pontiac Firebird tilt column. The pitman arm was connected to a mini truck tre and half the shaft that went with it. That was connected to half a cruiser shaft with a cruiser tre. I wouldn't recommend that the average guy build a shaft like this. Dad was an extremely competant welder and we used a healthy head bolt where the two halves were joined.

 

[nuclearlemon]

Years later, the stress of the tires caused the rod to bend, right about where the end of the head bolt was, so the weld never failed. Way to go, dad!! Dad had also built the double arm (yep, old school, but that's all that was around back them). Problem was, he built it without having the cruiser around and it was a tad short, so we had to bend it to fit. That's since been replaced with All Pro histeer arms and custom Ricebilt rods, which will soon be replaced with 4x4Labs steering.

During the build, the apartment went through various parts stages

 

[nuclearlemon]

Since I had just put the motor in the GMC the year before, I decided I was going to keep it, so we stripped that and the sm465 to swap into the Cruiser. We mounted it low and forward for cooling and to help keep the center of gravity down a bit. It sounded good at the time .

In addition to the v8 was a Permacool fan and a Griffin radiator. Unfortunately, at the time, Griffin didn't have a wide variety of radiators and what they did have had the lower hose pointing up and in, which didnt' work well with my lower mount engine, so a custom 90 degree s pipe was made.

A Classic Cruisers adapter was ordered and while waiting for it to ship, I had the sm465 drilled at a local machine shop and I tapped it for the bolt. Once the powertrain was in, a 4Runner front shaft was lengthened and used in the rear and a front shaft was lengthened for the front.

 

[cruiserjunkie]

THis is great to show how they did old school. Cannt wait to see the rest you have some great freinds

 

[ocdbeetle]

Wow...Lots of work and dedication to lots of these rigs....Looks great.

 

[Ralph]

Great looking rig!! I have the same steering setup. Any problems with it on the highway??