Well I thought it was about time I did a bit of a build up on my current rig - my 1972 FJ55... I've always loved the earlier pigs with the rear tail lights and full fold down tailgate...
Anyway I bought it around 2 years ago off a fellow who happened to live the next suburb over from me who had it sitting in his garage for a while but never registed it.
Even though I was heading overseas in a few days (and could've used the extra spending money) it was just too good to pass up so I bought it and it just sat under a tarp sleeping for 2 months, waiting until I got back....
Needless to say the day I got back I started tearing into it, the first thing I did was put in some 60 series knuckles, discs and 4 runner calipers on the front. Got the axle housing and knuckles powdercoated and rebuilt with all new seals and bearings too.
Also had a factory P/S box laying around from my 1980 parts pig (from which I also robbed the front axle shafts aswell) so I threw that on
My plans for the old bus were always to put a diesel in it but I just wanted to get the old 1F running well first so I could get it registered....but turns out I couldn't get the 1F running well, so the bus sat sleeping under the tarp for another couple of months due to me having the ****s...
So after rebuilding the carb, head and spending too much money only to find gouges on the cylinder walls I decided to cut my losses and I bought a 2nd hand 2H diesel out of a hj75 troopy which had 260k on the clock...the motor ran like a dream and the coolant and oil were really clean when I dropped it. only thing that needed doing on the motor were the oil pressure relief valve and the glow rail.
I ended up going with the 2H for a few reasons - main one being that its a direct bolt in....well almost, but I'll go into that later
Anyway here's a few pics of how it looked years ago shortly after I got it home (with the new shoes I bought it) and the disc swap.....
Anyway I bought it around 2 years ago off a fellow who happened to live the next suburb over from me who had it sitting in his garage for a while but never registed it.
Even though I was heading overseas in a few days (and could've used the extra spending money) it was just too good to pass up so I bought it and it just sat under a tarp sleeping for 2 months, waiting until I got back....
Needless to say the day I got back I started tearing into it, the first thing I did was put in some 60 series knuckles, discs and 4 runner calipers on the front. Got the axle housing and knuckles powdercoated and rebuilt with all new seals and bearings too.
Also had a factory P/S box laying around from my 1980 parts pig (from which I also robbed the front axle shafts aswell) so I threw that on
My plans for the old bus were always to put a diesel in it but I just wanted to get the old 1F running well first so I could get it registered....but turns out I couldn't get the 1F running well, so the bus sat sleeping under the tarp for another couple of months due to me having the ****s...
So after rebuilding the carb, head and spending too much money only to find gouges on the cylinder walls I decided to cut my losses and I bought a 2nd hand 2H diesel out of a hj75 troopy which had 260k on the clock...the motor ran like a dream and the coolant and oil were really clean when I dropped it. only thing that needed doing on the motor were the oil pressure relief valve and the glow rail.
I ended up going with the 2H for a few reasons - main one being that its a direct bolt in....well almost, but I'll go into that later
Anyway here's a few pics of how it looked years ago shortly after I got it home (with the new shoes I bought it) and the disc swap.....
)....and photo of how it now sits in the engine bay! (****py pic but you can just see the new glow rail)
) In order to run the T/case handbrake setup I swapped in the output shaft assembly off a later split case from a FJ45 which I also nabbed the handbrake assembly off....
