Sturobertson40's FJ55 Resto Thread

[sturobertson40]

Mechanicals

I did get the whole rear end resealed and aligned. Took it apart to see how it worked and ended up taking the whole thing in pieces to a machine shop. Awesome! At least he fixed it right. The front didn't look too bad so I just cleaned up and went with it.

You'll see that I am doing the minimum on the mechanicals for now. Lots of cleaning, painting, and resealing things. Everything ran great when I took it apart so I didn't want to tear the whole engine down.

This build is about the body...which you will soon see. I am going to keep the truck forever so the engine swap will come someday. But the body could not wait.

The mechanicals will be clean, refirb'd, within spec, but stock.

Engine was resealed. New clutch. POR'd the block. New accessories (water pump, alternator, starter, etc.).

Painted springs and went back with the extended shackles/shocks that I put on in early 2008. Pretty good ride.

Had to paint the fan that awesome stock orange.

 

[sturobertson40]

Pics for that.

Oops...forgot pics.

Must also mention brakes.

Did a lot of research on this one. I finally concluded that the only way I would go discs is if I could go Landcruiser OEM. A pig just isn't meant to run w/ El Dorado calipers. I love Toyotas not Chevys. Spector has a "kit" of course but it costs an arm, leg, and a thigh by the time you get everything you need for front discs.

I just decided, it's a play car; I didn't ever mind the drums before; and new drums are going to be twenty times nicer than the rusted, rotting, mud-caked old ones.

I think the brakes were the first call I had to make on stock vs. upgrade. The more I went along, the more I continued to revert back to other stock items too. The finished product is not a show car, but it is very close to the way it drove off the Toyota line (save for the lift and tires).

Just thought I would note. And I'll continue to throw in interesting pics of earlier stages and specific parts as I go. The computer has stuff stored all over the place. Hard to find it all.

 

[1973Guppie]

looks great! keeps the pics coming!

 

[sturobertson40]

Thanks Guppie! Did a lot of drooling on your build pages before I ever turned the first wrench. Finally got motivated and lost interest in web surfing. Now that I'm close to done, I feel like this is a piece of history that has to be shared. Love thePigs!

 

[flaa1a]

Dude that is so what i want to do. My two kids and lack of space is going to keep me from it though. Oh yeah....and lack of knowledge! Hats off Broseph!

 

[PabloCruise]

Oops...forgot pics.

Must also mention brakes.

Did a lot of research on this one. I finally concluded that the only way I would go discs is if I could go Landcruiser OEM. A pig just isn't meant to run w/ El Dorado calipers. I love Toyotas not Chevys. Spector has a "kit" of course but it costs an arm, leg, and a thigh by the time you get everything you need for front discs.

I just decided, it's a play car; I didn't ever mind the drums before; and new drums are going to be twenty times nicer than the rusted, rotting, mud-caked old ones.

I think the brakes were the first call I had to make on stock vs. upgrade. The more I went along, the more I continued to revert back to other stock items too. The finished product is not a show car, but it is very close to the way it drove off the Toyota line (save for the lift and tires).

Just thought I would note. And I'll continue to throw in interesting pics of earlier stages and specific parts as I go. The computer has stuff stored all over the place. Hard to find it all.

I forget what year your Pig is - do you have Toyota discs on the front at least?

That is easy and does not cost a thigh...

 

[sturobertson40]

No went back to drums for now. I think SOR wanted like 800 bucks for the conversion parts, plus the knuckle rebuild pieces. And I messed up the rear end's rebuild so I didn't have the confidence to take apart the front. I think eventually I will buy a refirb'ed complete front axle assembly from cruiserparts.net.

Like I said for a project this size, I had to make some choices and keep moving. Went with drums. Just a fun car ya know.

 

[sturobertson40]

Ok, Back in Action

Well somehow I screwed up my jump drive on Friday so I could resize pics on the PC. Weird how it's easier on my cheapy Costco PC then the high dollar Mac. Went to WalMart, now back in action.

Not sure which pics I'm going post first. So I'll post then comment.

 

[sturobertson40]

Body on it's way to the shop

Hard to believe...but I got this body on the trailer almost 100% by myself with moving dollies and a hi-lift jack. Probably dangerous in hindsight.

 

[sturobertson40]

Rainy Day

It was a rainy day when I took the rolling chassis to the shop. My lovely wife operated the winch controls...awesome!

 

[sturobertson40]

More...

More....

 

[sturobertson40]

To the shop!

Got to love when you're wife takes pictures of the cruiser as it's driving away! I didn't have to ask her to snap these!

 

[sturobertson40]

THE BODY

I knew this would be the interesting part of the thread, that's why I glossed over the rest so far.

The Pig's body was in pretty decent shape...for a pig.

Rear quarters were gone, along with the rear body mounts. Passenger front floor pan was eaten up down to the mount and into the front pillar.

But here's the cool part: The rockers were intact, totally solid, on the outside. So we just had to replace the inner skin and some of the mounts, which also gave us an excuse to wipe out the inside of the outer rockers of any rust.

I'll show a before and after of sandblasting.

 

[sturobertson40]

More Before Sandblasting

More Before Sandblasting:

 

[sturobertson40]

Sandblasted

The next few were AFTER the sandblasting.

Let me note here that the roughness that you see on the otherwise clean metal is left over factory undercoating. We only blasted clean the areas that were in advanced stages of cancer. The areas that were solid got a good once over to clean them and break off any obvious rust.

I know, I know...you're supposed to blast down to bare metal or better yet, acid dip the whole thing! But since I live in the real world and pay for this stuff, I had to make some compromises. I decided to get the rotten metal out and take my chances with the rest. The shop still had about 250 HOURS in this thing by the time I took it home.

Anyway, take a look.

 

[sturobertson40]

More After Blasting

More After Blasting

 

[sturobertson40]

Etching Primer

After blasting, the whole body got a coat of OSPHOS rust inhibitor. Then he want to etching primer.

 

[sturobertson40]

More....

More shots of the etch primer.

 

[sturobertson40]

Front Clip

The front clip was especially rusty. Started to look pretty good after the treatment and some paint.

 

[sturobertson40]

Doors

Doors and tailgate were just about rust free...amazing that their lips were all intact. I forgot to get shots before he started the body work on them.