Build Sandy the Tan FJ60

[Hokie LX]

Day 2 was Imogene. Once again we had a big but good group of trucks. Led by @Zjohnsonua we hit the trail with some side quests along to way to see some beautiful sights. Sandy did great but I could tell the altitude was weighing on her. I had kept my HAC when I did my desmog but opted to bump the timing a hair to help, which it did.

I forgot to bring a ONSC sticker with me to tag the Imogene sign so I had to sacrifice the one on my truck to mark that the east coast cruiser had made it to Colorado.

I also took the time to snap some pics on poser rock, cause obviously I had to.

 

[HemiAlex]

Good times had by all.

 

[Rockymtnreaper]

So good man!! Full Circle!!

 

[open country]

Awesome. Desperate to go to the next one

 

[Hokie LX]

Day 3 was Poughkeepsie Gulch. This was a two man team with myself and @Arya Ebrahimi. It felt like I was back home as I was wheeling with a truck on 40s haha. His buggy is a monster!

We moved quickly until we got hung up behind a group of duck lovers at the wall but we finally got past them and finished the trail with a couple offshoots to explore before heading back to camp. The wall was fun and the pick your own adventure rock garden behind it was even more so.

Excellent day!

 

[Hokie LX]

Day 4 was Black Bear. This was a trail I had ridden on my previous SAS trip but I was excited to drive it. We were a group of 5 trucks and were able to get through the trail fairly quickly. The trail is beautiful and has some pucker moments but overall I really enjoyed it!

 

[Hokie LX]

Ended up leaving a day early since the rest of camp was pretty cleared out. Headed back to Amarillo the first day but not without swinging through SE Colorado and stealing THE Colorado Cruiser (5.3 V8/H55) for a quick test drive for research purposes while @Rockymtnreaper was out of town. Once the fun was over, I was 30 minutes behind @reddog90 and rushed to catch up before we hit the monsoon looming just north of Amarillo. Ended up being a ~11-12 hour day with the weather and stops. Leaving the next morning was met with more monsoon rain leaving 12" deep massive puddles all over the side roads of Amarillo and 24"+ deep crossings under the highway overpasses which I had to cross 2 of to get out of town. I finally outran the rain by the time I got to OKC.

The rest of the drive back to NC was relatively uneventful. Day 1 was Ouray to Amarillo. Day 2 was by far the longest and logged 1,115 miles from Amarillo to Knoxville. Then day 3 was the home stretch back to Durham.

Overall the truck was great throughout the trip from start to finish. The new seat is extremely comfortable and I had zero issues even on the 16-17 hour driving days. Carnage includes a broken speedo cable I'm guessing, a pretty gnarly sound coming from the rear 3rd right when the driveline loads up or unloads, a blown front door speaker, and I tweaked by back bumper by dropping it on too many rocks. All fixable. No body damage was taken. The speedo cable or something in there broke on Stony Pass so I lived all week without a trip, odo, or speedo. I was a little nervous about taking this truck on a 4,400+ mile trip but I'm really happy I did. The 60 is surprisingly nice to drive long distance.

I hope to get back to SAS in the future but driving the 60 across country definitely won't be an annual event. Maybe in 2026. Until next time, Ouray!

 

[CruiserTrash]

Great prep work, great trip, and great to meet ya. Congrats on a job well done.

 

[reddog90]

Chris - I'm grateful we finally met in person and camped and wheeled together all week. Let's do it again.

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

It was good meeting you and camping next door to you guys.
It sure was an amazing place to hang with likeminded cruiser heads.
Good job on your cruiser.
Till next time .
Cheers

 

[Hokie LX]

Few random thoughts on my trip and list of things I need to do so I have it documented somewhere to remember.

The truck cruises surprisingly well cross country and the new Bestop TrailMax II Pro seat was incredible! Not a moment of discomfort even during the multiple 12-17hr days in the truck non stop. Even with new foam, I used to get lower back pain in the stock seats after 4-5 hours. Also, pushing the seat back 4-5" on the stock slider with the flat steel stock adapters I made had a huge impact on knee/leg comfort. I used to only be able to go 3-4 hours before getting some knee pain from the awkward leg position from being too close to the wheel but I had ZERO this whole trip. I get on the highway and kick the seat back so my leg is almost straight which is much more comfortable. Still need to purchase the matching seat for the passenger side whenever they come back in stock. All the sound deadening I did on the truck really made a huge difference for those long travel days making it not as exhausting.

To-do list:
1. Pass front door speaker cone blew. I'm just going to get new door speakers as these are ancient.
2. Chop top's old steering box from @Rockymtnreaper I installed so that I didn't have to rebuild mine before GSMTR earlier this year is now leaking worse than my factory one was. So now both will get rebuild with OEM kits.

3. Investigate speedo cable and the speedo gears themselves as it stopped working partway through the trip. Assuming cable broke from the audible wire swishing sound on the I'm assuming firewall. Pulled the cluster at a gas station and the end that goes into the cluster looks fine so I assume it broke at the firewall.
4. My rear 3rd is making a really horrible metallic noise (series of clicks) when the driveline loads up or unloads. It has been present for a little while but seems to be worse. Need to pull the 3rd out and inspect.
5. I need to replace my driver door hinges and front door seals. Lots of wind noise is coming past the seal now and the door is sagging more than ever after the long trip. I have some better condition OEM hinges that I need to install and plan to buy some new front door seals from Precision.
6. My exhaust leak at the collector on my man-a-fre header is BAD. I have new gaskets and just need to go get new hardware and replace them.
7. She needs a bath.

That's all for now, I think...

 

[CruiserTrash]

Few random thoughts on my trip and list of things I need to do so I have it documented somewhere to remember.

The truck cruises surprisingly well cross country and the new Bestop TrailMax II Pro seat was incredible! Not a moment of discomfort even during the multiple 12-17hr days in the truck non stop. Even with new foam, I used to get lower back pain in the stock seats after 4-5 hours. Also, pushing the seat back 4-5" on the stock slider with the flat steel stock adapters I made had a huge impact on knee/leg comfort. I used to only be able to go 3-4 hours before getting some knee pain from the awkward leg position from being too close to the wheel but I had ZERO this whole trip. I get on the highway and kick the seat back so my leg is almost straight which is much more comfortable. Still need to purchase the matching seat for the passenger side whenever they come back in stock. All the sound deadening I did on the truck really made a huge difference for those long travel days making it not as exhausting.

To-do list:
1. Pass front door speaker cone blew. I'm just going to get new door speakers as these are ancient.
2. Chop top's old steering box from @Rockymtnreaper I installed so that I didn't have to rebuild mine before GSMTR earlier this year is now leaking worse than my factory one was. So now both will get rebuild with OEM kits.
View attachment 3708177
3. Investigate speedo cable and the speedo gears themselves as it stopped working partway through the trip. Assuming cable broke from the audible wire swishing sound on the I'm assuming firewall. Pulled the cluster at a gas station and the end that goes into the cluster looks fine so I assume it broke at the firewall.
4. My rear 3rd is making a really horrible metallic noise (series of clicks) when the driveline loads up or unloads. It has been present for a little while but seems to be worse. Need to pull the 3rd out and inspect.
5. I need to replace my driver door hinges and front door seals. Lots of wind noise is coming past the seal now and the door is sagging more than ever after the long trip. I have some better condition OEM hinges that I need to install and plan to buy some new front door seals from Precision.
6. My exhaust leak at the collector on my man-a-fre header is BAD. I have new gaskets and just need to go get new hardware and replace them.
7. She needs a bath.

That's all for now, I think...

What year is your truck? I think the last place to have the OEM steering box rebuild kits was Amayama, and I think they’re gone. Later box kits were available last I checked. I also bought the Rock Auto Gates kit to have some spares - and there were a few pieces in there that the Toyota kit did not have, like the brass ferrules that the hoses seal against. Those look like they’re pressed into the box, but they’re actually just loose. Last, be VERY careful with the Teflon seal on the piston. I cut that on my first attempt at installing it - I think most people do. I have a write up in my build thread a few pages back. If you lose any of the ball bearings I have extra aftermarket ones. They’re like 0.001mm smaller, so I wouldn’t use all 44 of those - the fractional size difference amounts to a significant value - but replacing two hasn’t been a big deal for me. Most of the hardware is available for Toyota except the long bolts to attach the box to the frame. Get all of it!

 

[Hokie LX]

What year is your truck? I think the last place to have the OEM steering box rebuild kits was Amayama, and I think they’re gone. Later box kits were available last I checked. I also bought the Rock Auto Gates kit to have some spares - and there were a few pieces in there that the Toyota kit did not have, like the brass ferrules that the hoses seal against. Those look like they’re pressed into the box, but they’re actually just loose. Last, be VERY careful with the Teflon seal on the piston. I cut that on my first attempt at installing it - I think most people do. I have a write up in my build thread a few pages back. If you lose any of the ball bearings I have extra aftermarket ones. They’re like 0.001mm smaller, so I wouldn’t use all 44 of those - the fractional size difference amounts to a significant value - but replacing two hasn’t been a big deal for me. Most of the hardware is available for Toyota except the long bolts to attach the box to the frame. Get all of it!

It's an 84. I luckily have 3 oem kits from Toyota I bought when they went EOL so I’ll use those. I got halfway through my oem box rebuild with the RA kit before realizing it didn't have everything I needed, hence swapping in the box from chop-top. Now that I have the OEM kits I'll be able to do it properly.

 

[CruiserTrash]

It's an 84. I luckily have 3 oem kits from Toyota I bought when they went EOL so I’ll use those. I got halfway through my oem box rebuild with the RA kit before realizing it didn't have everything I needed, hence swapping in the box from chop-top. Now that I have the OEM kits I'll be able to do it properly.

Ah yeah, maybe it was you who told me about the last of the OEM kits at Amayama. My memory hurts haha.

 

[Hokie LX]

Sandy has been neglected since SAS. With life happening it has just been sitting. All the PS fluid leaked out of a failed seal in the PS box, two wires into my fuse block have decided to disintegrate and the battery was dead as a doorknob. Tried to take it for some errands the other day and after jumping it to life, I went to bleed the PS box and wasn't happening as quickly as I needed it to so that's a problem for another day as I had to leave so took another vehicle. Hopefully I'll have some time soon to get her sorted and address the list a few posts back to get her back in fighting shape.

 

[open country]

With life happening it has just been sitting.

RT

 

[Hokie LX]

Got the ONSC sticker replaced after Sandy had to donate it to the Imogene Pass sign in Colorado when I forgot to bring a spare. Also finally put on the SAS8 stickers.

In worse news I washed the truck the other day and had a lot of water in the driver floorboard. Unsure why but need to dig into it. Windshield is glued on both sides of the gasket so it's not that. Running down the firewall into the floorboard so going to look behind the fender and at that area. The driver door hinges are also sagging a lot after the long trip so could also be a gap between the door seal and body which may be contributing to part of the wetness. Will investigate as I have time.

 

[CruiserTrash]

Thanks for repping my sticker too @Hokie LX !

Is the side of your dash wet? On the tan painted metal to the left of and around the corner from the choke knob? Mine’s getting wet there now and the consensus is that the drip rail leaks and water follows down there. If it’s behind your pedals maybe water got in through one of the rubber boots at the firewall - those get torn up over time. Could be as simple as the door seal too. Good luck!

 

[Hokie LX]

Thanks for repping my sticker too @Hokie LX !

Is the side of your dash wet? On the tan painted metal to the left of and around the corner from the choke knob? Mine’s getting wet there now and the consensus is that the drip rail leaks and water follows down there. If it’s behind your pedals maybe water got in through one of the rubber boots at the firewall - those get torn up over time. Could be as simple as the door seal too. Good luck!

No water in the dash. We just cut the roof off for the rust project so I’m very confident there’s no leaks coming from up there. All freshly sealed. I’ll dig into the firewall area sometime soon. The to-do list gets longer and is competing with the track car to-do list lol.

 

[samc2447]

Did you have the fenders off? The factory seam sealer is notoriously bad/missing at the cowl seam behind the fenders. It tends to leak through there. It's easy enough to clean up and re-seal once the fenders are off.