Build The Alaskan 62

[thecadefire]

Well this will be my first build thread here on mud and my first Land Cruiser. After lots of research and time on Facebook, Mud, and Craigslist I finally found the 62 I had been looking for. Been garaged in Alaska for the past 26 years, kind of neglected with 98,00 miles. It was previously a Virgin Islands Car, then owned by cool cruisers of Texas, where it was then bought, went to Alaska and then sold to me, in WA. This cars been all around the US, so kind of a cool history.
But back to the build, so I plan to eventually put a OME lift, 33s, roof rack etc. But besides that, I wanted to take care of the big stuff first that needs immediate attention. There was a little bit of hidden rust, radiator leak, tranny pan gasket leak, and a leaking exhaust manifold gasket. This thread will probably document all those repairs as I go plus more. I bought this cruiser to learn to turn a wrench. I've worked on vintage motorcycles for a while now but never done any of my own car maintenance until now.

Now it’s time to get out to the garage and pull that radiator...
P.S. how do I put the "BUILD" filter by the name? Thanks!!

 

[Samppahj]

Nice looking rig you got there. More pics would be fun to watch.

 

[php74]

Sick picture. Congrats!

 

[cruisermatt]

Welcome to Mud
I love those two-tone 62’s.

 

[Kmonty66]

Thread Tools. Right hand side top. Click on the arrow select edit title. Then edit title. I obviously did this on a for sale thread but I ASSUME it would be pretty close....

Nice rig too!

 

[thecadefire]

Thread Tools. Right hand side top. Click on the arrow select edit title. Then edit title. I obviously did this on a for sale thread but I ASSUME it would be pretty close....

Nice rig too!

Thank for the tip!! Just tried it but it didn't have any of those options. Oh well no biggie ill leave it as is for now. Ill try it again maybe on my phone...

 

[thecadefire]

Thanks guys!! I'll add more pics too a little later. Want to take some here in WA soon.

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

Yep, those 2 tone 62’s are super cool. Congrats!



Cheers!
-Ed

 

[thecadefire]

Thanks all!!

Just got the Radiator out. Was much easier than I thought. Heres a write up on it I just did. FJ62 Radiator Removal (Full Write Up)

**Flush and New Radiator at around 98,450 miles**

 

[Simcoe]

Congrats on a great looking rig Cade! Can't wait to follow more of the journey here in your thread

 

[thecadefire]

Well, yesterday I started to disassemble the right side of the engine bay to get to my leaking exhaust manifold gasket. I was a little over my head at first because that's the first time I've ever done anything like that. I was sweating bullets taking out the fuel rail and injectors today, but it went good I think. Made some new gaskets for where the Upper intake manifold meets the lower intake manifold, and have a rem flex gasket for the main manifolds. Hope to get it all done this week. Have my radiator coming back from repair this week and am going to send my injectors off for cleaning at witch hunter performance here in Bothell WA. Ive heard this is a good thing to do... Link to thread: FJ62: 3FE Exhaust Manifold Leak Advice

**Manifold and Injectors done at 98,800 miles**

 

[thecadefire]

Well ive been working on the cruiser all week, but this was a pretty cool project I did. Only took me 2 hours, took the old rusty "hub caps" off and wiper arms, bead blasted them, powder coated, and used a gold sharpie to color in the TOYOTA. They turned out way better than I expected and I think they will look amazing on the cruiser. It was easy too. I used:
The Eastwood Dual-Voltage Powder Coating System, and bought a larger sized cheap toaster oven off of Craigslist for 20$ brand new. (would have been nice to have a regular large oven but the fumes are toxic and contaminate your regular home oven so don't use that lol).
I also used a 75% Gloss Black Powder, so it doesn't show a ton of scratching when I wash the rig, and get rock chips etc.

 

[Simcoe]

Man that looks awesome Cade. Nice job indeed!

 

[Michael Hanson]

Hi, And a new hobby begins. Mike

 

[thecadefire]

Had to stop and fix a broken window motor in the snow a while back. I guess that’s just wagon life, I’m lucky for the small tool kit I carry everywhere I go or the window would have been struck down. It snowed a record amount this year and would prefer my rig didn't fill up with snow overnight
Thing handles like a dream in the snow!!

 

[thecadefire]

I've been trying to find a roof rack for a while now for the 62 and stumbled across this old rack on offer-up for 20$. Turned out it was a super nice Quick-n-Easy cast Aluminum Rack. It was in terrible shape, so after bead blasting, light polish, and re-dipping the black rubber on the bottom, they look better than new. Most of the original hardware was so rusted they broke off in the aluminum, so I had to heat, and use penetrating oil to get them out. Overall wasn't expecting to put bars on the 62 but they look so good and era correct. All new stainless hardware too so no rust I hope.

 

[thecadefire]

Did my first valve adjustment about a month back. Wasn't very tough, just a race against the clock and was a two-man job in my opinion. I ended up having my mom use the camera on my iPhone to find TDC, while I turned the crankshaft pulley with a 46mm wrench. I ended up having a ton of valve gunk on the valves, so I spent a couple hours chipping and cleaning it off. It doesn't surprise me though that they were so dirty. I think the cruiser had been neglected so I'm just catching up on maintenance.
After the adjustment, it still sounds like a sewing machine or a loud printer: Hopefully, its printing me more money so I can keep affording gas ha! The valves nearest to the cab were the loosest so I think that's where all the noise from the valves was coming from.

**Valves done around 99,500 miles**

 

[thecadefire]

Catching up on this thread a bit but I changed out the tranny pan gasket after I bought the truck. Really the worst part was getting the tranny fluid all over everything lol. I bought a new OEM cork gasket and after a recommendation from a buddy to coat it with red gasket sealer I did so and I haven't had any leakage. He said if you don't the cork gaskets can leak? Not sure but it hasn't leaked. I never changed out the filter gasket (I didn't even realize there was one), the filter was a lot beefier than I predicted and I just sprayed out the gunk with carb cleaner and reinstalled.

**Gasket done around 98,800 miles**

 

[landcruiserjunky]

Very nice!

 

[Simcoe]

Looking good man!