the unjustifiable acquisition of a 1998 FZJ70 named 'Chick' (2 Viewers)

[John Young]

First impression from the drive was that the brakes need work. Leaning towards installing an 80-series brake booster and special 70-series adapter clevis from @cruisermatt The little truck has plenty of pep. At 490k km 300+k miles that's pretty good. 2nd gear synchro is about gone, other than it shifts fine. I also desperately want a tachometer on the thing. Steering is a little vague. I think the steering box may be to blame and that means sourcing an expensive new one. My days of buying used steering boxes are behind me.

Thinking about the engine, I can get a JDM-domestic market low mileage 1FZ-FE for about 12k AED (3300 USD). It would be a nice upgrade although not really needed. It will be interesting to open up the bottom end and see how this engine looks after 300k miles. And likely will pull the head too, to inspect and then replace the head gasket. I'm hoping this engine is still in good shape given how light this little car is. At least we will do a compression test.

This thing is a hoot to drive! Most fun I've had in a Land Cruiser in a long time!

What I am saying in the video is that it is not quite as much fun in traffic. And that Chick does not have quite the presence as Mr. Blue the 105 with 40mm lifts.

 

[prwillard2]

I spent much of the day sorting out the registration of Chick. After a couple of false starts I succeeded.
View attachment 3777065
Even got a pretty good number plate.

Man I miss UAE!

 

[RHINO]

i bet a shorty with a 1fz moves right along. congrats on the new debutant

 

[Greek Cruiserhead]

Man I miss UAE!

Me too, I think most of Middle East expats do so!...

 

[JuanJ]

Me too, I think most of Middle East expats do so!...

Hello,

There are places you miss long after you have returned home (whatever being at home means...)

How hard is it to set up camp there? I mean, a place to stay for nostalgia-driven, extended visits.






Juan

 

[John Young]

Hello,

There are places you miss long after you have returned home (whatever being at home means...)

How hard is it to set up camp there? I mean, a place to stay for nostalgia-driven, extended visits.

It is not hard. And most passports will give you a 30 day visa. Hotels are pretty reasonable. And if I am here I am happy to show Mudders around. I'm 'retired' now so don't have a fixed schedule. This is the right time of year to do it too. The weather is just lovely. Round trip flights to Dubai from Chicago, for example, are only about 1k USD

 

[John Young]

We started solving problems today.

The guys figured out why the brakes sucked:

I went to the closest large parts store and was offered either Indian motor mounts, which looked good, honestly, or Mr. Toyoda's motor mounts for double the price to be delivered the next day. Initially I said yes to the Indian parts but then pulled back from that slippery slope and paid full freight for OEM. Ran me about 180 USD for the two front and one rear.

 

[John Young]

The accordion hose from the air cleaner to the carb intake was also toast.

But the good news was that we had just cleaned out a bunch of stuff and among the items was another accordion hose. I think this might have come from the Omani diesel 80, but honestly, I'm not sure. It might also have come from Mr. Blue the 105 from when we switched the 1HZ for a 1HD-T. All I know is that it fit.

I get on the plane for the US tomorrow night (along with a few 80 trim items for the daily back in Florida), so the guys in the garage will be using the Shorty for a month or so and will get a much better sense of it's overall condition. But so far things are looking good.

Interestingly, a started hearing from a lot of guys here that they had known about the truck and had passed because the seller was asking too much initially. I'm quite happy with the purchase of Chick.

 

[John Young]

Today I took my first ride in the back of a 70 while a friend who has driven shorties had a go.

 

[Bardiya]

Today I took my first ride in the back of a 70 while a friend who has driven shorties had a go.

Never a dull moment with John.

This 71 is a perfect candidate for a “one of everything” restoration. It doesn’t drive too bad as is but the body is rough.

Best of luck! I’ll be following this closely throughout the resto.

 

[John Young]

Thanks @Bardiya. Demigod @cruiserdan corrected me in the other thread that this is an FZJ70.

It was really good to have you run it though its paces in the 'before' state.

Vehicle characteristics
GRADE: STD: STANDARD TYPE
DESTINATION: GCC: GULF CORPORATION COUNCIL
BODY: HT: HARDTOP
DRIVER'S POSITION: LHD: LEFT-HAND DRIVE
ENGINE: 1FZF: 4500CC
FUEL SYSTEM: CBR: CARBURETOR (GASOLINE)
TRANSMISSION: MTM: MANUAL TRANSMISSION
GEAR SHIFT TYPE: 5F: MTM, 5-SPEED FLOOR SHIFT
BUILDING CONDITION: CBU: COMPLETELY BUILT UNIT
COLOR CODE: 045
TRIM CODE: LB10

Here is tonight's beauty shot.

 

[John Young]

I'm way behind on posting about this project. After a careful assessment I made the decision to replace the body. The rollover damage was just too severe. Chassis looks a bit of alright tho.

Engine was running fine (until a fire) and it still looks ok

I will be taking apart the transmission to inspect and clean it, and give it a taller 5th.

The only evidence in the frame of the rollover was a twist to both front body mounts

I"m thinking this should be pretty easy to correct.

 

[John Young]

While the shorty was still drivable the rear diff grenaded. The guys partly rebuilt but I am going to take another hard look at it. It is apart anyways.

Front diff was in terrible shape with lots of metal shavings. I considered converting to spring front suspension and getting a new OEM front diff but ultimately I decided to just refub the front diff.

Get a load of the gear debris on the drain plug from the front diff:

There were some pretty big shreds in the bottom of the front diff.

Pretty common to see this here.

Big unknown is the steering box. I can't remember if there was a lot of play in it. I'd like to just replace it and may still do that.

 

[John Young]

Front lug studs had obviously seen some pretty hard duty.

That wear pattern is way off from what I have been learning.
Not sure what this was:

As it happens the troopy front and rear diffs are being rebuilt too (a schoolbus in a former life), and the Ancient Swede has been teaching me how to set a proper backlash on the new ring and pinion.

Armed with some new knowledge I will give rebuilding the shorty diffs myself, most likely.

 

[John Young]

Getting back to the shorty front diff tube, the guys scraped off the gunk and most of the paint to reveal:

At first I thought it had been welded up and repaired but looking closer maybe it was factory?

 

[John Young]

Anyways I took the tube over to the Ancient Swede and he was kind enough to look it over and his feeling was that it could use a bit of freshening but could be reused.

It has definitely hit some rocks over the years.

I decided I wanted to do the freshening myself, never having done this before.

Just call me John the Welder!

Yeah. Pretty awful.

 

[John Young]

But I persevered.

And I wanted to do something about all the gouges. And maybe also protect the pumpkin on other side of the drain plug.

I took a section out of a handy Prado frame using a plasma cutter for the first time, and ground it into submission, starting with the easier side.

And after a while I had more or lest 'welded' and ground it into submission

Then it was time for the more challenging other side--the side with all the gouges.

This is another chunk of Prado frame.

 

[John Young]

Took me a lot of trial and error

More "welding" and grinding

 

[John Young]

Gradually it started looking like something I might actually want on my Shorty


Today I finished it up. I am pretty pleased with the result

 

[John Young]

On to the next job... leaf springs front and rear. Had some broken leaves.

I took a close look at them today and took some measurements. No telling if these are original or even Toyota.

Front spring was 55cm from center in one direction and 61 in the other

Rear spring was 63cm in one direction and 60 in the other.

Given the damage, I think the springs have reached the end of their useful life. I'm contemplating trying the Terrain Tamer parabolic springs on the Shorty instead of hunting up something from the scrapyard or seeing if I can buy new OEM.