ROTW ROTW: The Toyota

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After some flexing and other options, I ended up just cutting off the front shackle hangers and moving them backwards. It greatly improved the shackle angle and ride. The new Bilstein shocks helped also.

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Backing up a little, before I moved the shackle hangers, you can see how bad the shackle angle was when flexing. “Stuffing it” resulted in a vertical shackle.

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But, it didn’t stop me from taking the family out. We had a great summer in the Land Cruiser. I also built some new half doors with my limited fab skills. But they worked.

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We finally were able to go camping this summer. This was one of the main reasons why I built up this rig: camping trips with family and friends!

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I forgot to mention I added a rear seat out of a Jeep Wrangler for the kids. It is a fold and tumble seat, and it works great for the two little ones.



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And since you can’t go camping just once, here are pictures of our second camping trip this summer. This time, it was later in the summer, so I had the top on. You can see my rear shackle angle in this picture. With the top and a couple hundred pounds of camping gear, the shackle is just about vertical.


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That’s it. I’m sure there is more that I’m not remembering right now. A quick list of upgrades:

Rebuilt carb
Vac advance dizzy
SOR 2 piece header
Metal Tech roll bar
Booster and M/C from 92 mini truck
Honda Civic seats
Seat belts
Jeep rear seat
CD player and speakers
Rebuilt a ton of stuff
Steering box
Center arm
Brake cylinders
New tie rods and ends
Tires
Battery and cables
Braided SS brake lines
Braided SS oil lines
Tachometer
Oil, Temp, and Volt gauges by Auto Meter
Cobra CB
Darth Vader dash figurine
Skull shifter
Pintle hitch
Hi Lift jack
Home made roof rack with Thule mounts
Home made cooler rack as seen in my first camping trip pic

Finally, my next upgrades will be:
Front disk brakes – I already have everything I need. I’ve just been waiting for summer to end.
Front and rear lockers – I have a front Lock rite that came with my front disk stuff
Winch - I already have it, just need to mount it
Dual battery setup
Gearing change – I’m still not sure how I’m going to accomplish that – 3 on the tree and 33” tires make my crawl ratio way to low. I need to go slower. Maybe a different tranny? I’ll figure it out at some point.
Other than that, my major upgrades are done. I’ll wait till I break stuff to upgrade…Dang, I think I just jinxed myself…

Here are a couple more pics of stuff. 1st is my skull shifter and Darth. Next are my Auto Meter gauges. And finally my CB.

Finally, if you have read this far, I might as well tell you about my Mud name. It’s a simple story, really. My wife has always jokingly called me a freak. Whenever I do something stupid, I hear “Yeah, well, you’re just a freak.” When I started getting into this Land Cruiser fanaticism, she asked “what are you now, some kind of firefighter Land Cruiser freak?” It was about that time that I signed up for mud, so I kept the name.

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any questions!
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Thanks for the story/history man. Love the pics and I appreciate you sharing part of your life with all of us fellow FREAKS:). I just hope I can do a similar job on my 74 fj40. :D

Congrats on the kids too.:D
 
Fan-freakin-tastic! I enjoyed the right up! What width are the wheels? The look deeper then stock and must be to hang onto those 12.50's.
 
great story well told and written.....

A "free" cruiser is awesome.. your son will be lucky to inherit the rig

and keep it going for the next generation.
 
Thanks for all the kind words. I have had a blast working on it. I still have a lot to do on it, but at least I was able to enjoy it all summer. Now that fall has hit, I have several projects to get done. This week I'm going to start my disk brake conversion.

Hugh Heifer said:
Fan-freakin-tastic! I enjoyed the right up! What width are the wheels? The look deeper then stock and must be to hang onto those 12.50's.
Click to expand...

The wheels are wider than stock. The PO that only had it for a year put them on. They are 10" wide wheels with hub cap clips that fit the cruiser caps. I have no idea what they are off of, but obviously something pre 1972.

:cheers:
 
Great Story and glad that you kept it in the family!
I too grew up with Dad's LC but he sold it before I had a chance to get it. Found my
"72" 10 years ago and love it.
Keep the family involved and you will have a life time of memories!

Thanks for sharing, Jerry
 
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