Build The Clustertruck Rides Again - Refurbishing a 1975 Chevota

[RWBeringer4x4]

That's my approach.

What's the fun in that?

 

[Trailortrash]

I must confess I cringed when you said you slid this solid metal rig into an embankment. I know these Jalopys are designed to go almost anywhere but seeing all the hard work you put into yours, plus their rarity and expense of repairing, wheeling them is both exciting and very unnerving. Mostly the latter for me.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

I must confess I cringed when you said you slid this solid metal rig into an embankment. I know these Jalopys are designed to go almost anywhere but seeing all the hard work you put into yours, plus their rarity and expense of repairing, wheeling them is both exciting and very unnerving. Mostly the latter for me.

I’m not super thrilled about it myself - but I’ve always gone back and forth as to what this rig is. The sheet metal is in good shape for its age, but as a whole the truck is also almost valueless from a collector standpoint with the engine/power steering/disc brake conversion. The quarter panels are already trimmed, dented in a couple places, and cut for an auxiliary fuel tank the truck never received. I also ascribe to the philosophy that there is no point in owning a vehicle if you don’t drive it. I never set out to build a trailer queen. I bought it to be a fun around town truck and mild off-road rig. I've got the "around town" part pretty well dialed in - but I'm still too low to the ground and too high-geared to really suffice on anything more than green/easy trails. I’m already wheeling it harder than I’d intended (thus the damage) so plans may change a bit but for now - I’ll just take my lumps as they come and wear the dents as evidence I actually drive it like it was meant to be driven!

I have not done a stitch of bodywork to the truck yet - and I always intended to do some, down the road - so any dents now are essentially "free." I was going to do some work there anyway - now I've just created more work .

 

[Honger]

What's the fun in that?

Oh, his approach is plenty fun... don't you see his fishin' pictures?

 

[Honger]

I’m not super thrilled about it myself - but I’ve always gone back and forth as to what this rig is. The sheet metal is in good shape for its age, but as a whole the truck is also almost valueless from a collector standpoint with the engine/power steering/disc brake conversion. The quarter panels are already trimmed, dented in a couple places, and cut for an auxiliary fuel tank the truck never received. I also ascribe to the philosophy that there is no point in owning a vehicle if you don’t drive it. I never set out to build a trailer queen. I bought it to be a fun around town truck and mild off-road rig. I've got the "around town" part pretty well dialed in - but I'm still too low to the ground and too high-geared to really suffice on anything more than green/easy trails. I’m already wheeling it harder than I’d intended (thus the damage) so plans may change a bit but for now - I’ll just take my lumps as they come and wear the dents as evidence I actually drive it like it was meant to be driven!

I have not done a stitch of bodywork to the truck yet - and I always intended to do some, down the road - so any dents now are essentially "free." I was going to do some work there anyway - now I've just created more work .

I love reading this kind of stuff... the musing answers to existential Cruiser questions...
"What is a Land Cruiser?"
"Why do I own a Land Cruiser?"
"How can I best use my Land Cruiser?"

 

[Stumpalama]

I've been going back and forth on this myself. The rubber flares will obviously flex out of harm's way which is nice - but I'd like something to take body damage and keep obstacles our of my quarter panels. The rubber flares would survive, but the quarter panel underneath would take the hit.

I'd like to think steel flares would be able to absorb or shrug-off an impact, particularly if I make them out of tube or sufficiently reinforced 3/16th - but my thought, like yours, is that they'd just translate a hit on the flare into the sheet metal. My only counter-argument is that in that area, the sheet metal is substantially reinforced because the flare mounts right where the wheel well mounts to the quarter panel, along with a couple of wheel well supports (except at the lower rear, exactly where I took the damage) where there's nothing structural to back-up the flare. It would be easy to install a frame tie in there if I was really concerned but then I'd have the body rigid-mounted to the frame at that point - and it probably isn't worth it.

Long story short - I don't think either style flare would offer much protection - and with the little skinny tires I run, they're basically just there to cover my hacked up quarter panels.

It would probably be best if I just avoid crashing into things - but so far in my inexperience I seem to be drawn like a magnet to trees and rocks.

I'm REALLY looking forward to the improved gearing of the H41 - as I think my 28:1 stock gear ratio is really forcing me to beat the clutch and fight hard to avoid stalls and maintain control. The truck just wants to roll really fast. The H41 will get me to around 45:1 in first gear. Still not great, but a good compromise between cost, street manners, and offroadability.

If you are really worried about your rear 1/4 panels, I don't think steel fender flares are going to help. In fact, they may cause more damage than if you installed a set of "Pitbull" flares from SOR. EDIT: they are actually called UB40 flares. I didn't pay $200 for mine, but whatever I paid, divided by 18+ years = a damn good ROI.
I usually don't tout specific products, but your post made me look back at how these have held up. I have had my SOR flares on my truck since 2001-ish and they have seen rocks and trees and are still there. Both lower 1/4 panels have been pushed in (and are stuck that way for now) and the flares don't care one bit.
If you are REALLY serious about your 1/4 panels, you'd reach out to @matzell to get a set of 3/16" steel 1/4 panels, like I did. I'm really just lazy and tired of the aluminum 1/4 panel covers, but don't want to do a bunch of nice body work if I'm just gonna scrape the body up more.

 

[Cdaniel]

+1 on the UB40 flares. The same I've been mistreating for over 20 years.

 

[RAYJON]

Ipor had some steel ones bent up a few years back that looked real good, if i remember they had 2 different widths.. always likes the fzj40 ones..

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Ipor had some steel ones bent up a few years back that looked real good, if i remember they had 2 different widths.. always likes the fzj40 ones..

Yeah, a member of my local club has them and I plan to check them out soon. IPOR, I believe, has discontinued them but I’m curious as to the design.

 

[RAYJON]

They didnt look that complicated, call/email the ipor guys and see if they will send you the cad file and you can have them cut and bent local...

or draw some out and have you local metal supplier sheer some metal to what you want.. i have taken in cardboard shapes and had them copy them in metal.. then weld it up...

 

[navydivedoc]

Great thread! Morning coffee vacation read, it's been fun, sub'd.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Great thread! Morning coffee vacation read, it's been fun, sub'd.

I am so, so sorry

Good time to subscribe though - I've got big things coming for this truck, hopefully Monday . It has been fund driving it, but not that I've started breaking things, it's time to get back to fixing it.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Had a great time at Fall Crawl this weekend in Gore, VA with the folks at Gotham City Cruiser Club and the Capital Land Cruiser Club (not to mention a few of us from Keystone).

The trip was about 400 miles in the FJ40, all told - about 50 of which were on the trails.

I will say, after a collective 4 hours or so over 60mph on interstates - I can see why this makes folks nervous...steering is dicey at 60...

Even worse at 80 (but I had to see if I could get there).

At camp:

There were about 80 trucks in total - a dozen or so FJ40 in various states of destructed.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Putting in work.

This particular tilt made me really nervous - I'm always curious how far off camber I can take this truck before "enough is enough" and it falls on its side. Pictures don't really do it justice and I don't really know what it's capable of - but I do find it amusing how little the suspension has move in that picture. Those load levelers make everything STIFF.

Played around in some stuff that made me nervous but the little 40 just keeps on ticking... with good spotters and picking my lines carefully I was able to tip toe through behind (taller, flexier) 4Runners and 80-series. Definitely more slowly with much more drama - but survived nonetheless.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

To really play at this, I will absolutely need lower gearing, and more ground clearance. My white knuckle sliders are fully earning their keep so far - and have saved me from a substantial amount of carnage.

Which is why I’m really excited this followed me home after my last business trip:

This is the “unicorn” H41 4-speed (like my H42 but with a 4.9:1-ish first gear) and a 3-speed transfer case with the rare transition-year pieces to make them work together.

Collectively this will get me a ~30-40% reduction in gearing, and bolt right in in place of my existing system.

I’ll likely spend winter cleaning it up and rebuilding them They apparently worked when pulled, with just a touch of input bearing noise. The noise is mildly concerning (thus the rebuild) but I’ve had bearing noise from my existing trans for ~6 years with no progression so a rebuild may be overkill...At the end of the day it's always a toss up between "will I sleep better knowing I rebuilt this?" vs "will my mechanical disinclination actually make this MORE of a grenade by rebuilding it?" I know I can't leave well enough alone so I'm naturally leaning toward breaking (I mean, rebuilding) it.

Not sure yet, but I’ll decide and dive in this winter.

 

[Cdaniel]

An FJ40 with a hardtop at 60 mph is in violation of some law of physics somewhere.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

An FJ40 with a hardtop at 60 mph is in violation of some law of physics somewhere.

Truer words were never spoken. I was trying to hit 88mph to see if I could open a void in the time-space continuum and travel through time like some overweight Delorean but I didn't have the nerve to push it.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Well - found one potential point of concern in terms of clearance:

Something tells me my driveshaft has been at odds with my Y-pipe off-road. I’ve been hearing a grinding noise which I thought was potentially my clutch but it only seems to occur when I’m off-camber. I’m wondering if maybe this is what I’ve been hearing. Oddly if I stuff the left wheel with a floor jack, I’m nowhere’s close - to the exhaust or the bump stop, but I suspect if I were to stuff the opposite rear tire I’d have my culprit.

Paging @Cdaniel - curious how you’ve avoided this.

 

[Cdaniel]

Well - found one potential point of concern in terms of clearance:

View attachment 2121776

Something tells me my driveshaft has been at odds with my Y-pipe off-road. I’ve been hearing a grinding noise which I thought was potentially my clutch but it only seems to occur when I’m off-camber. I’m wondering if maybe this is what I’ve been hearing. Oddly if I stuff the left wheel with a floor jack, I’m nowhere’s close - to the exhaust or the bump stop, but I suspect if I were to stuff the opposite rear tire I’d have my culprit.

Paging @Cdaniel - curious how you’ve avoided this.

I would say I don't have this issue due to more lift with the SOA. In my previous lift incarnations I had dual exhaust.

 

[reddingcruiser]

Dual exhaust. Or SOA. You know you want to do it.