Tornado takes the top off 1964 SWB FJ-45

[3_puppies]

waiting to see some more.

Erik, were you making vroom, vroom, sounds sitting in the cab. Paul

 

[2fpower]

Looking great Erik. Love the history of the rig. Any hair left on the guys hand after the starting fluid lit up?

 

[mwalls54]

Awesome Erik. Cant wait to see how it turns out.

 

[weejub]

Great story!

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

It sat in SPI epoxy primer on a small rolling cart in the garage awaiting another chunk of time. Our club had a wrenching weekend at 2fpower's house.. GREAT BBQ and Kelly brews his own beer.. Colin aka CrowleyFJ40 and I had a pass from the girls for a free weekend. Kelly had spare rooms. REad between the lines here, WE Prepared to not have the need to drive home, BEER, BUDS and BBQ..
Long story short I had helped Colin's Father build the truck that Colin now has. Which is amazing that Colin and i now hang out all the time.
We started by taking the firewall section out of a salvaged 77FJ40 that I along with some others in the club had gutted.

Then comes the fun part of Drilling out the spotwelds in the 45 cab to remove the firewall and pedal bucket.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

SUccess is a wonderful thing..
I know it's not the prettiest thing but.. I'm not as skilled as Chef's bodyman..
Chef's FJ45 Firewall swap - Pirate4x4.Com Bulletin Board

Nothing some more time and effort can't fix..
Besides, had to move onto the Floor fix and quarter panel fix..

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

The old firewall is going to Killerpee, His is all sorts of chopped up. he needed the pedal buckets and a clean firewall to go into his so I did my best to remove it cleanly.
Like I said, recycle..

Further along into the weekend.. Rob AKA KCChevota had been working on grafting some scrap steel into bracing the tub while i worked on drilling off the old quarter panel.
Once the quarterpanel is off we work on test fitting it in place and make a template for the floor.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Forgot to mention you can get a whole firewall out of an FJ40 in the back of a toyota matrix.. Fun pre-weekend shot..

Awesome template to repair the floor, now adorns my garage wall.. and Rob brought over the spotwelder the last day while we were there to put the quarter on and the floor..

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Back home with new quarter panel, firewall and floor. Awaiting cleanup and primer. New firewall will allow correct ratio of pedal throw for brakes and newer clutch etc. Allows booster to go directly on firewall saving some space for the motor etc..

 

[Waggoner5]

Cool build Erik. Still have your window rubber for the doors when you are ready for it. Its really no big deal to store it for you for another 5 or so years

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Gary when I have the cash for ac ill holler definitely need your help on that and will pm address

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Got her delivered to the house last weekend, she had been sitting in a spare garage waiting. Proceeded to strip the front clip off
We pulled the rear bed before it came over.

 

[whitey45]

Nice project, not sure if you know,but the removable top cab is about 3 inches longer and the 45 swb removable bed is shorter than the fixed bed.you will need to lengthen the wheelbase,You could just drill new holes in the spring perches and get about 3 inches,but your bed mounts are going to be off a little.keep the pics coming!

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Was probably going to cut out front of bed and roll a new floor to fit. Have a body guy with the tools to roll the floor that loves weird projects and has had chefs 45 for about ten years.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Steering out for shane

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Pulled cab today and loaded it to go to spare garage

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Then pulled drivetrain for Shane got them on some small pallets for transport to texas
Now to.continue on my cleaning of the frame. Its filthy couldn't find half the bolts to pull.the motor due to gunk

 

[KillerPea]

Erik......Looking good man. Thanks again for taking the time to pull all of that stuff! The parts will have a good home.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Shane, I'm not done yet.. Need to powerwash the frame yet again and grind off the steering box mount for you. I think I have most everything you needed pulled.

Amazing that toyota used a rod cap for the steering box mount.. parts were on the shelf i guess..
Imagine, call the dealer..
Uh I need 7 rod caps for a 64 landcruiser..
But you only have a 6 cylinder!,
Oh i need one for the steering box..
That must be one heck of a steering box!

I tried to "label" where everything hooked up, with either tape and a marker or different colored zip ties correlating which part goes to which linkage.
Somewhere i have the oil feeder tube that goes to the head from the oil pump. Sometime in it's 40 something years of existance a PO decided to feed the oil to the head via a copper tube thru the valve cover directly to the rockers. You'll have to pull the pan to figure that one out.. And you get the joy of showing that to the rest of us. I would venture to guess the oil pickup tube is cracked as well but I am pretty sure i have a spare that's going with.. Also have some misc cartridge filters for the oil filter housing and I think a new fuel filter, you'll need to clean the "glass" bowl that was original, the new ones are metal. I am pretty sure I have an intake gasket or two as well for the siamesed intake manifold off the FJ25.. I did pull the carb for safety and transport..

I think i'm done till after halloween tho, social life gets in the way.. I'll try to work on transport end of Oct beginning of Nov. I gotta hurry deer season is coming quick and that will kill most of November.

I am pretty sure I will need a totally different fan shroud from a 79 era and you will want the fan shroud off this one. From my recollection the depth is different with the viscous coupling involved due to the depth of the water pump.. Course I'll have to drop an engine in first!

Anyway, it should be like Christmas for you when you get all the stuff..

 

[CrowleyFJ40]

The copper line feeding the valve train with oil is really wild!