Builds Scraps, My Slow 45/80 Build (1 Viewer)

[Tank5]

I have not updated this for a while but I have been working on it. I decided to remove the H151F and replace it with an automatic A750F automatic. What I found that was really cool about this was that the two transmissions were the exact same length. I did not have to change any of the motor mounts or the cab mounts. Everything I had already done stayed the same.

I bought the A750f off ebay, it came out of a 2003 Land Cruiser.

 

[Tank5]

Since I decided to go with the A750f transmission I had to source a different ecu and harness. I followed jetranger's lead and sourced these parts from a 4runner. I ended up buying a complete donor 4runner to pull the parts from at auction. It had been hit on the driver's side at the A-post. I was able to drive it of the trailer and confirm everything in the 4runner was working properly prior to parting it out. This gave me a lot of confidence I would have everything I needed and in good working order prior to starting. This is the best way to do a swap like this in my opinion.

I pulled the ECU and everything harness related from it to have on hand for my project. I also took the shifter, gas pedal and throttle body to convert my 2uz to the drive by wire to work with the harness and ecu. I kept a number of other parts that I thought my be useful.

 

[Tank5]

I bought another fj45 cab off ebay. It is an Australian model but I have a perfect cowl that came off of a 1965 fj45 to swap on the tub to make it left hand drive. I sold the other 45 cab to a friend who is building a similar project. I switched because I thought the Aussie cab was in better condition than what I had and it saved me a little money.

I had worked a deal with Classic Cruisers to get some original fenders widened 3 inches. I tried to keep them as narrow as I could but still cover the tread of the tire. The side wall of the tire sticks out past the the fender edge about an inch. Perfect I think.

With the fenders on hand I started mocking up the front end and trying to determine where I want the cross member to sit that would support the front bib. I am using an original fj40 cross member to do this. I have it resting where I expect it to end up but have not tacked it in yet because I am still playing with the body mount bushing heights. I cut the 80 series cross member out to fit the 40 cross member. I really like the way the 40 cross member is working out.

I had to cut the inner fender walls to fit them around the spring and shock mounts. I plan to build a mounting point that will allow me to bolt the fenders in place through the fender support main beam. I have not figured that out yet.

 

[Tank5]

When I started this project I really wanted the look of the SWB model 45s. I had found an original but bobbed style side 45 bed early on and picked it up to use in the event I could not make or find a SWB bed. I couldn't get away, in my mind, from the SWB look so when I found a fixed top fj45 in a local junk yard I bought it. Originally my plan was to take the bed for my project but after getting it home I started going back and forth with what to do with the 45. It was a decision that I had a hard time making.

The previous owner had wrapped the entire bed sides in 11 gauge flat steel sheet and welded in 3/8 inch diamond plate steel in the bad floor over the fender wells and across the bulkhead. I finally decided to at least remove all the diamond plate and sheet metal. It was a sad day and took about 9 hours and 27 4.5 inch metal cutting disks with a grinder. What a pain in the A$$. Never do this to a bed you care about. The bed was rusted really bad. the floor all the way around the bed at the bed wall was gone. The only solid metal that was connecting the bed floor to the side walls was the fender wells. All the bed wall support beam bottom 2 inches are gone. The rest of the cab was cancer rust free but had some surface rust. The only solid parts of the bed were the top 4 inches all the way around. I decided the bed was so bad I was going to keep it and reconstruct it for my project. I am using it as it to do the mock up.

I really like the way it looks with the SWB now, definitely going to keep it this way. The style side bed is for sale if any one is looking for one.

I had purchased the Aqualu Large rear fender flares and cut the fender wells open more to accommodate the the 40" tires.

So I upgraded my tire and rim combo. I had always fancied the Hutchinson Beadlocks and originally thought 37" tires were the ideal size for my project. Well when joekatana put a set of them up for sale with 40" Toyo MTs I couldn't pass them up and they were in the right place for me to be able to make a deal. Thanks Again Joe! So I bought them as the story goes.

The pictures with the jacks show how they would fit with a 2.5 inch lift over stock. I have 3" lift springs so we will have to see how it looks after I get them installed. I am building this rig for overlanding type use, so I don't need crazy articulation just enough that the tires won't tear the rig apart off road. I am not sure what this means I will end up with for a lift but I guess I will figure that out.

 

[SMG]

I like the look of those rear fender flares. Nice Work! Looking good.....

 

[Tapage]

I was after those tires .. but shipping was killing for me .. glad they made to a better place !

 

[Tank5]

made

I understand they are heavy. I was lucky and had a friend collect them for me. I am happy to have gotten them.

 

[Tapage]

I understand they are heavy. I was lucky and had a friend collect them for me. I am happy to have gotten them.

they are indeed .. but IMHO, the best MT tire out there ..

 

[nicka]

Nice build mate keep us updated

 

[Mieser]

What about raising the fenders to allow dropping the lift off the 80 series chassis?

 

[Tank5]

What about raising the fenders to allow dropping the lift off the 80 series chassis?

The rear fender flares will get raised a little but that is because the bed has to come down so the bottom front is the same level as the back of the cab. I am trying to keep the body as stock looking as possible so I don't really want to raise the front fenders.

I am planning to run a 2.5 - 3 inch lift hoping the body would allow for the larger tires. I installed 3 inch tough dog springs last night and as it sits I have right at 6.5 inches between the top of the tire and bottom of the fender well for both the front and rear fenders. I have 7.5 inches before the bump stops hit. I am considering extending the bump stops to prevent the contact or getting 37 inch tires to replace the 40s.

The pictures below are how it sits with the 3 inch springs installed.

 

[Mieser]

Looking at the side view, I am guessing that with the reduced weight of the new body you are getting more lift than normal. I'd see if you could find a stock 80 to pull a few measurements from to compare. I believe the closer to true stock height you can get the happier the suspension will be. Once the 80 suspension has more than 3 inches of real height change, the geometry seems to get pretty out of wack.

I'm building something pretty similar and I am worried the stock springs are going to be too tall, especially on the rear suspension.

I think there is some wiggle room with moving the fenders and keeping it stok looking, but that is your call in the end.

Cheers. Neat project.

 

[Tank5]

Looking at the side view, I am guessing that with the reduced weight of the new body you are getting more lift than normal. I'd see if you could find a stock 80 to pull a few measurements from to compare. I believe the closer to true stock height you can get the happier the suspension will be. Once the 80 suspension has more than 3 inches of real height change, the geometry seems to get pretty out of wack.

I'm building something pretty similar and I am worried the stock springs are going to be too tall, especially on the rear suspension.

I think there is some wiggle room with moving the fenders and keeping it stok looking, but that is your call in the end.

Cheers. Neat project.

I agree it probably sits higher with the lighter body. I don't want to go above a 3 inch lift for the same reasons you suggested. I plan to add some pretty stout bumpers, a front winch, roll bar/rack in the bed and a drawer system in the bed for gear, with a roof top rent on the rack. I am not sure how much weight all that will add but I hope it will get it closer to the 80 weight.

I already bought my shocks which are for a 2.5 lift. They were pricy for my budget so I don't want to replace them. So 2.5 to 3 inch lift is the most I want. I may just end up buy 37s and selling the 40s. That would get me another 1.5 inches to the fenders.

I really like the look of the front the way it is. I don't plan on raising the fenders unless I run into more issues.

 

[Mieser]

Looking back through my notes. A stock 80 series front suspension has about 4.13" from the metal bump pad on the axle to the lip on the bump stop cup. That might be a good reference for lift amounts. The 80 also has about 1.5 inches of rake typically comparing the front and rear suspension.

 

[Tank5]

Looking back through my notes. A stock 80 series front suspension has about 4.13" from the metal bump pad on the axle to the lip on the bump stop cup. That might be a good reference for lift amounts. The 80 also has about 1.5 inches of rake typically comparing the front and rear suspension.

Thanks for sharing those measurements I wish I had done that before I removed the body. I just measured the distance between the bump stop contact surfaces, metal pad to leading lip of the rubber stop. The front measured 6 7/8 inches and the rear measured right at 7 inches. So comparing my measurements to your stock measurement, I got less than 3 inches inches of lift with my 3 inch springs. I would expect to loose some more of that height by the time the build is complete. Hopefully I end up with about 2.5 inches of lift which is what I was aiming for.

If I add 1.5 inch spacers to the bump stops it should be enough to keep the 40's from contacting the fender wells and I would have about 1 inch more of travel over what the stock suspension would have had. I feel like I should be happy with that. Having ended with only 2.5 inches of lift the suspension should be pretty easy to keep happy.

Seems like this is too easy, tell me what I have missed.

 

[Mieser]

I don't think we are using the same measurement points....



-This is what I would call 0" between the lip of the front metal bump cup and the metal pad on the axle where the bumpstop contacts.
-The stock 80 I measured had 4.13" from the metal cup lip to the pad on the axle ( add 4.13" of space from the picture above )
-The factory front rubber bumpstop sticks out of the cup about 2.38" when installed. Under a hard hit the bumpstop can basically compress all the way into the cup.
-This would be about 1.75" from end of the rubber stop to the axle pad.

If you have 6.88" from the end of the rubber stop to the pad you would have ~5.13" of lift compared to my stock reference point.
Can you get a measurement from the metal cup lip to the pad that is more reliable when comparing things.

 

[Tank5]

You are right I was not using the same measuring points. Using the measuring points you used my front bump stop pad to metal bump stop lip is 9 3/4 inches, so yeah I am looking at over 5 inches of lift. That is a good bit more than I was planning to do. I don't think I will be investing in anymore lift parts until I have more of the rig assembled so I can see where it sits with the added weight. I may put the stock springs back in and take another measurement. I would be interested to see where it sits with the stock springs. I measure the distance gained from the top of the tire to the fender well and is was right at 3 inches so if I saw the same gain at the bump stops then the stock springs gave me just over 2 inches of lift as it sat.

I really need to get more of the rig built before messing with the suspension too much. This was good to brig up though so I know where I am at as I move forward.

 

[Mieser]

Yup. I am building mine at metal to metal bump in front and on the hard rubber outer stop on the rear. I just about have mine ready to pull off the blocks now. I leveled the entire chassis at hard bump to the belly plane of the frame. That allowed me to have some reference planes to keep everything straight while building.

I know some other people doing similar builds with 40 based bodies on 80 chassis and most all have ended up using stock front springs. With the weight reduction they give an inch or two of lift.

The other interesting thing about the 80 series chassis is that with the frame level, the front suspension has about 1.5" more uptravel ( or the rear has 1.5" less uptravel. Most 80s had some decent rake even with stock springs too. On my build I am pretty worried the stock rear springs are going to be WAY too tall for what I want. My hope is that I might be able to find another set of beat up stock coils to play with. There is a long and short side coil typically. I might end trying to make a set of short/short coil pairs or something.

Any idea what your shock lengths are? The front suspension seems pretty tollerant of longer shocks. There is a decent amount of 'extra' room with the stock shocks to play with. The rear is a bit worse, I would make sure you can install your rear shocks and still be able to get the axle to touch the hard outer bumpstops.

Cheers. Keep building.

 

[Tank5]

I am going to keep the stock springs until it is all done. I had stock springs on it with 35 inch tires and I thought it looked like I needed bigger tires or less lift.

The shocks I purchased measure 26 inches extended and 16 inches collapsed for the front. The rears measure 25 inches extended and 15 inches collapse. I bought these shocks from Redline Land Cruisers. They are the 2.5 inch radflo shocks that they had installed on there 80 series platform 4 door fj45 ute. They used a 2.5 inch spring and ran 37" tires. I am hoping that my build is similar enough to there ute build that a 2.5 to 3" lift will work. The springs I have I traded for so I had something to use for mock up that is pretty close to what I have in mind. Aside from this I have not really put a lot of thought into the lift at all. Only that I want to keep it as low as possible and still have it work the way it should with out rubbing. All this has me thinking 37 inch tires might be better and a shorter spring. I will keep this part of the build on the back burner as I move forward.

I know I will end up with a fair amount of gear and build weight in the rear so I am not worried about bringing it down some. The front will get a bumper and winch and that is about it. I am not worried about building it heavy as I hope it will offset some of what was lost by removing the 80 body.

This is the first rig I have built like this so I am sure I will have some trial and and error but so far I am happy with how things have been turning out.

 

[Vossie]

looking good! this is exactly what im planning to do to my 45