Slow and Steady (1 Viewer)

[Ironclad]

I purchased a nice 1990 FJ62 locally in Richmond in late September last year. Since then I’ve been slowly trying to take care of deferred and routine maintenance to extend her time on the road. I am not super mechanically inclined, nor do I have my own garage or a ton of tools. But I am motivated to do what I can and rely on experts when I can.

I’ve personally refreshed the interior (Dynamat/Dynaliner, floor mats, new horn contact pin, new shifter bushings, repaired driver seat tears, added SOR cushion, and will be installing a new OEM dash pad)
and done minor things on the exterior (new wiper arms and blades, new rear hatch struts, painted a few bare spots, also replaced the PCV valve and grommet).

I was fortunate to find @matzell ’s shop and have been leaning on him for mechanical things (valve adjustment/gasket, side cover gasket, trans pan gasket/filter, oil change/gaske, belts tightened, plugs/cap/rotor, etc.). Knuckles are next on the list. They look pretty rough.

Last week I dropped off my rig and Rob removed the old corroded steel wheels and 12-year-old 33”x12.5” BFG KOs and replaced them with decent condition OEM chrome wheels and new 31”x10.5” BFG KO2s. It has made a night-and-day difference in handling and I swear it has a little more giddy-up. Those old tires wanted to track and wander everywhere, acceleration was slow even for a LC, and the brakes felt mediocre at best. Now she’s got some life, handles really well with no wandering, braking requires less effort, and I think she still looks badass.

Here are a few before-and-after pics (before on top, after on bottom):

I intend to keep her as stock as possible. No crazy 4” lift, 35” mud tires, snorkel, or massive expedition bumpers. The only “big” changes I’m considering are upgrading the headlight harness/housings/bulbs and possibly installing a 5-speed manual if/when the auto transmission dies. Hopefully that’s not for a long time. She’s currently at 143,000+ miles. Also a windows-out repaint in 045 when the time comes.

Thanks for all the great info on MUD.

 

[Ironclad]

I’m a little late with this update, but wanted to share a few upgrades I performed and some more significant worked performed by a local Land Cruiser whisperer.

About a month ago I replaced the cracked dash pad in my FJ62 with an OEM pad. I relied on the FSM and a few solid tips from @TexFJ. Overall the original pad was in really good shape with the exception of a crack forward of the steering wheel.

I sourced my replacement from City Racer shortly before Christmas and stashed it until I was ready. All in all, it went pretty well but I was slowed by lack of good light in my parking deck, a stubborn speedo cable, and the brittle nature of 31-year-old plastic. Here are a few shots during and after.

A week later, I replaced my droopy and beat-up sun visors with 70-series visors. Super simple. Not much to see in the pic below but that’s the beauty of them. They blend in as if they came with the rig.

Most recently and far more significant, I dropped off my LC with @matzell at Willow Lawn Service Center. I noticed a small leak at the top-most solder/seam of my radiator. I took that as an opportunity to not only have the radiator repaired, but also as a viable reason to have other work performed while it was in the shop. Specifically, a knuckle rebuild. They were pretty damn crusty. He also replaced the brake pads, changed the front and rear diff fluid and T-case fluid, and replaced the standard drain and fill plugs with magnetic hex plugs. I don’t have before and after knuckle pics, but they look cleeeeeeeean.

Here she is the day after, running and handling more smoothly than ever and looking bad A.

 

[davidp14]

what a beauty! congrats and keep us updated on the progress.

 

[Ironclad]

Sometimes it’s the little things that count. Today I replaced my driver’s side A-pillar grab handle and screw covers.

The original handle had seen better days. Filthy, tiny hairline cracks, some deeper than others, and the screw covers were so brittle they turned to powder when I removed them. Looks and feels a lot better now, and more secure too.

I have yet to address the tiny water leak in this area, hence the staining on the fabric adjacent to the handle. The PO mentioned it at the time I purchased it from him. Best guess is that it’s from the rain gutter that definitely needs to be stripped clean, resealed, and painted. Fortunately after a huge rain it’s only very mildly damp in that one area, but I can’t wait forever to fix it…rust and mold never sleep…

 

[Ironclad]

As I start improving or replacing various parts of my 62 grille, I notice that everything else around it looks worse. My front turn signal light assemblies function properly but the plastic is really hazed and etched from 3+ decades of sun and weather. Time for a change. I ordered Depo replacement assemblies from City Racer and installed them today.

I removed the old assemblies and disconnected the wire leads from the harness via the little plastic connector. Side by side, the difference between new and old plastic is amazing.

I started to attach the new plastic connector to the harness. That’s when I noticed a small but significant problem. The new ones are slightly different and don’t fit. The channel that accepts the lead from the vehicle isn’t shaped wide enough. It’s too narrow. The new one is on the right, the old one is on the left.

As a result, I opted to reuse the old one and insert the bulb fixture into the new plastic assembly.

Then I noticed a second issue. The holes in the black plastic backing of the assembly are misaligned with the center of the orange outer plastic cover. Fortunately they lined up with the holes in the front end of the truck, but I was concerned that the fastener heads would crack the outer plastic as I screwed them in.

That’s when I noticed that the new fasteners that came with the assembly have a smaller head diameter than the old fasteners. So much so that there was a small possibility they would pull through.

I opted to use the old ones instead. The final result turned out pretty well. The old wiring and bulbs work fine and look great behind the new assemblies. I boxed up the old assemblies with the new bulb harnesses and screws. Thinking about trying to polish/restore the originals. Maybe.

 

[Ironclad]

Prepping to install some Dynamat and Dynaliner in the front of my 62. I previously applied it beneath the passenger seat and throughout the rear. Steel is in really good condition but some of the jute stuck to the underlayment.

While looking under the driver’s side foot well, I noticed this connector dangling from the wiring harness and not connected to anything. Everything in my truck works, but I believe the PO had a CB or something like that. Wonder if this is old wiring for it. Any ideas?

 

[Ironclad]

I forgot to get a pic of each foot well with Dynamat installed, but I did remember to take some with Dynaliner installed over the Dynamat.

 

[Ironclad]

There are two tiny black threaded inserts that secure the plastic handle to the shift lever knob. One faces the passengers and one faces the dash. I lost one of them when removing the handle while pulling the front carpet.

I searched for the part number on Partsouq. It’s 9011305034. Fortunately Toyota still has them and I was able to order from McGeorge Toyota in Richmond for $3/piece. They aren’t in stock but should arrive in 3-4 business days. Not sure if they are available anywhere else. I assume any threaded insert in the right size and thread count would work, but I don’t know the specs.

 

[Ironclad]

The two threaded hex bolts used to secure the handle to the shift lever have arrived. I will pop those in after work.

I also received four new interior overhead grab handles for the front passenger, both rear passengers, and rear tailgate. My existing ones are in rough shape.

I was going to attempt to re-use the original plastic screw covers but they are extremely brittle. So I ordered 8 new screw covers from Toyota for appx. $2/piece. Those should arrive next week.

 

[Ironclad]

 

[Ironclad]

Yesterday marked one full year of ownership and today the old girl crossed 145,000 miles.

 

[Ironclad]

These ARB headlight harness upgrades just arrived from Cruiser Outfitters. The M002 harness/loom kit was on backorder when I placed the order in mid-September. They had a few M004 kits in stock. I asked them to ship once both were in stock. I was pleasantly surprised to get a shipping notice early last week.

Don’t think I’ll get around to installing for another few weeks. Anyone local (Richmond or central VA) ever install these on a 62?

 

[Ironclad]

Swapped my dome light and cargo light bulbs with LEDs. I also replaced my yellowed cracked plastic dome light lens with an OEM replacement. One of the easiest, cheapest, and most useful things I’ve done.

I went with warm white bulbs from Superbrightleds.com rather than cool white because I didn’t want to be blinded.

 

[Ironclad]

Today I experimented with what will likely be an ineffective long-term solution to chipped and/or corroded chrome on plastic and steel. My driver and passenger side mirrors have some areas of chrome that have peeled away from the base plastic. My wheels also have chrome loss from corrosion breaking through. I don’t have money to find and buy pristine wheels or drop big bucks on replacement mirrors so I tried a simple “Liquid Chrome” pen.

Primarily because I’m lazy I didn’t do any surface prep. I simply shook the pen then applied it to the plastic mirrors in areas of loss. It’s certainly not perfect and who knows how long it will last, but it passes the eye test from about 6 feet. And it definitely looks better than the bare spots did before.

It proved similarly effective on the chrome wheels.

I’m not sure what the full cure time is and I drove my FJ62 on the highway about 2 hours after I applied it. I’ll try to post an update in a few weeks.

 

[Ironclad]

Been dealing with an intermittent starting issue over the last few months. Ended up tearing out and replacing my my positive side battery-to-starter cable. The original was pretty badly corroded. Unhooked the fusible links, disconnected from the battery and starter, then fished it out.

I also tried to replace my starter to frame ground cable but could only loosen the old bolt on the frame. The one on the starter wasn’t moving. I also lost the will to replace my negative battery cable because it disappears somewhere I couldn’t figure out how to reach. Sounds like I’ll be hitting up @matzell in the next week or two.

Truck fired up right away after the cable replacement. I drove it around town a bit, shut it off, started it up again without a problem. Hopefully it was just the corroded cable giving me trouble and this is a lasting fix.

Next up? I’m getting fuel spray inside my rear passenger quarter panel when I fill up. Turns out my fuel filler neck gasket is shot.

This terrible photo just shows the gasket but fails to show the evidence of fuel spray inside the quarter panel. There is a really evident spray pattern hidden behind that dark shadow. Fortunately I didn’t find any fuel collecting at the bottom.

 

[Ironclad]

Trying to remove and replace the old negative battery cable. I’ve removed the battery and battery tray for better access but it’s still very limited. I’m not a contortionist and can barely see this fastener. It’s way too tight for a socket and my adjustable wrench is too fat.

Is this box wrench territory? If so, anybody know know what size? Pretty sure it’s bigger than 14, possibly 16 or 18? The tools I have in my original Toyota tool bag and my other wrenches aren’t doing the trick.

 

[matzell]

17mm??

 

[Ironclad]

I gave up trying to remove/replace the negative battery cable. Even tried to connect the new cable to an engine mount bolt adjacent to the original connection. PB Blaster for 48 hours, removed hoses, unplugged spark plug cables, tried to make as much room as possible. Forget it. Not enough space, patience, tolerance, or right tools. I tried a smaller socket wrench, two different breaker bars (18” and 24”), nothing moved at all.

But today I did remove and replace the ground cable from the starter motor to the frame rail. Easy peasy no job.

I’m also having difficulty finding a suitable location in the engine bay for the ARB headlight harness assembly relays and fuses. The air intake/filter assembly, some other electrical relay, and windshield washer reservoir take up about 95% of the available space on the passenger side near the battery. I’ve got lots of room on the driver’s side, but would need to cut and extend the harness wires to the battery and route a bunch of harness stuff under the front edge of the radiator support. Not sure what I’m gonna do at this point, but my headlight housings and bulbs arrived earlier this week (high beam bulbs ship next week) so I need to make a decision.

I also talked to a buddy who is an electrician and he walked me through the right way to safely modify the harness rather me performing some bootleg MacGyver electrical job that would destroy my truck. He also owns a pretty sweet ‘99 4Runner.

 

[Ironclad]

Finally made some big progress with the ARB/IPF H1/H4 headlight harness/housing/bulb upgrade over the last few days. After exploring a handful of locations to install the harness relays, I opted to place them between the air cleaner and passenger-side fender. But I didn’t want to make a bunch of new holes in the fender so I fabricated an aluminum “bracket” similar to the one posted by the OP (big thanks to @lechnito for leading the way) in this thread:

Installation Guide for ARB Headlight Harness and Hella H1/H4s

I recently upgraded the headlights and wiring harness on my FJ62 and wanted to document the steps I took in case it helps anyone in the future. This guide applies to those of us who drive four eyed vehicles and FJ60 owners will need to follow a slightly different process. Parts you will need...

forum.ih8mud.com

I used the air cleaner bracket holes/fasteners to secure my aluminum bracket and it worked pretty well.

Although it looks like the self tapping screws go through the fender, there is actually an opening there so they are free-floating. I also used the space below the opening to tuck away some of the excess relay wiring/connections. Then I ran the wires to the respective low/hi and hi-beam locations, disconnected the sealed beams, then plugged the new harness pickup into an old low beam plug. After that, I was in the clear and looking forward to a simple, trouble-free finish. Or not…

16 headlight retaining ring screws proved miserable to remove. I don’t know why Toyota used non-stainless or non-chromed fasteners here. The things were shot and fused in place by 31 years of corrosion. I ended up removing them after soaking them in PB Blaster for 48 hours along with a healthy dose of hacksaws and vice grips. I found comparable replacement fasteners.

After that, I installed the low/high housings and bulbs on the outboard side of the truck and connected them to the new harness. Unfortunately I don’t have high-beam bulbs for the H1 housings (they are back-ordered) so I opted to connect my old sealed beam high-beams to the new harness until my new bulbs arrive. Then I will install the new housings and bulbs.

I hooked up the battery and tested them prior to reattaching the headlight buckets and turn signal assemblies. It was mid-afternoon so I can’t truly say how much of a difference they made, but the lows came on, increased in brightness when I clicked on the high beams (all 4 bulbs worked at the same time) and the blue high beam dash light engaged properly, which seems to be an issue with this harness setup.

I will report back after I have installed the new H1 high beam housings and bulbs and properly adjusted the aim.

 

[Ironclad]

Tackled a few small things today. Finally cleaned up the spots and smudges by the driver’s side A-pillar grab handle. I used Folex Instant Carpet Spot Remover and it worked like a champ. Probably 95% reduction in visible staining. The results as shown in the pic (and shadows) don’t do it justice. I also used it on a bunch of other spots on my headliner and they are totally gone. I highly recommend this stuff for cleaning your headliners. I think I bought it at Lowe’s.

I also noticed while fueling up yesterday that the rubber gasket in my gas cap was brittle and starting to get small cracks. I replaced it with an OEM gas cap that I had on hand.

Finished things off with some long overdue window washing and called it a day.