Triple 40 Series build Thread.

[Kadjiado]

Good Morning everyone. After reading about 40 series on here for so long I have decided to wade into a project build. I've actually bought three cars and plan to make three very different 40 series.

So this morning I drove back out of the Kenyan bush and headed for Nairobi's industrial area to source an original engine that has been rebuilt and never installed. Its my birthday so this is the perfect way to spend it.

For your info the trucks and bits i am hoping to buy today are:
- FJ45 rhino charge set up with Range Rover P32 4.6 v8(4x4 competition in aid of saving rhinos - a big thing here
- HJ45 with in poor condition H diesel - broken diffs and generally in a bad way
- Rebuilt F engine, gearbox and tranny

Next week I should get a fj40 with no engine or gear box to complete the trio.

 

[sggoat]

This looks like a really interesting project!

 

[Kadjiado]

As you read above it was my birthday so a few drinks turned into many drinks and I lost my phone with all its photos.

A friend has it (thank the lord) so you will need to wait until Monday for this thread to kick off.

Good news is I am now the owner of two fj45s with, I hope, an fj40 to come

 

[Kadjiado]

Heres a picture of me setting off on this new project. One of me heading towards Nairobi and one of my birthday croissant!

 

[Kadjiado]

After about 30 minutes of checking out a number of 4x4 rally projects at the warehouse and getting sidetracked the rebuilt F engine arrived on a forklift - shortly followed by the gearbox and tranny.

It may look a bit dirty but I have been assured by the seller that it was rebuilt and only has a few hundred KMs on the clock. It didnt have the grunt to move his huge tires offroad so he put a range rover v8 in it instead and removed the recently rebuilt engine.

We did hit a bit of a snag when the PTO was removed as it wasnt included in the sale - issue was we couldn't find the plate... but no problem! These guys got a piece of cardboard, made a quick template and had one made by the steel and iron fabricators next door. Impressive ingenuity!

 

[Kadjiado]

This looks like a really interesting project!

I hope so - got plenty of the fun stuff done this week (buying toys) but the actual work starts when the third car arrives tomorrow

 

[Ol'40]

Nice to see people who drive on the correct side of the road.... heh heh
This will be a very interesting thread to follow....

Gaz....

 

[Kadjiado]

So here is car #1 an HJ47 with an old H engine in it. Its running but quite rust and currently has a seized rear diff and no pro shafts!

From another angle you can see my HZJ105 providing battery support.

The next day she was winched up and towed home.. followed by me in my LJ72

Until the Land Rover did the inevitable and broke down and my HZJ105 had to tow the HJ47 and the 109!! Got to love reliable Land Cruisers right?!

 

[Kadjiado]

Next to arrive is this silly machine...

As I mentioned above this was put together for competitive amateur 4x4 competion but the owner got quite ill and never got round to it. I was quite attracted to it because if you ignor the rest of it the tub is in great nick and I saw the pictures of it being rebuilt and was impressed.

It has a range rover p38 (i think) V8 and also a rebuilt f with tranny and box with just 800KM on the clock. Which is ideal as I had already found an FJ40 with none of the above but everything else. The truck above is an FJ45 originally - I dont like what has been done to it and look forward to turning it back into a more stock looking machine.

After a better look around it I can see the chasis has been welded just in front of both forward wheel arches and that the chassis has been shorted from the back by about 14 inches. I took it for a spin while the sun was out and the noise is silly and it can spin the wheels even with all that weight on a murrum road. The V8 from this is dropping into the FJ40, the F into the HJ47 and the H wil go into this with much smaller wheels, a new roof and possibly a smart custom tray.

Just one more to come....

 

[Kadjiado]

Finished the day by taking the 72 up a hill with a flask of tea to watch the sun go down - not a bad idea!

 

[Kadjiado]

Finally the final car arrived in thr back of a truck in thr pouring rain. It was a bit of an arse getting it out of the truck as they had let the tires down to get it in!

Luckily I have a 12V compressor and we managed to toe her home so that we can start work

 

[Kadjiado]

A bit of a delay in keeping this thread going, the rains have come in Kenya and it has made everything slow and muddy work.

First of all we removed the v8 from the fj-monstertruck and removed an already badly cobbled together gearbox housing only to find that the rangerover v8 was bolted to the chassis of the original truck.

As we would need to fabricate new plates we decided to get on with the body work while we made another cardboard jig to be copied in the industrial area.

 

[Kadjiado]

Next bit of luck... while chewing someones ear off about this build they mentioned they had sold one off for scrap!!! And had a few bits left over if I was intersted. So for 150USD I bought a set of old doors with hinge windows and metal trim and a working speedo. Not bad.

I have to be honest - this isnt actually my door but its exactly like this, without any rust, and im quite chuffed with it!

 

[Kadjiado]

So with a bit of help from a few guys looking for work and a grinder we got down to taking the paint and filler off. This took longer than expected as there was about an inch of filler on the car in some places. I cant tell you how thick it was - and whats more the metal underneath was in decent nick. Why the last owner had such a shoddy job done I will never know!!

View attachment 1362009

 

[Kadjiado]

As we got further through the filler over the next day or so the car started to look a lot more promising!

I quite like the metal snow look!!

 

[Kadjiado]

We did find a few bits of rot, though considering this car is 44 years old hardly any.

A bit under the windscreen....

A few holes in the footwell.....

But nothing a quick weld and a bit of sheet cant fix....

 

[Kadjiado]

After we had the car down to the metal and a little panel beating we reapplied a thin layer of filler and then primered the tub.

Starting Looking like a car...

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Very cool stuff. It's funny, around here that LR motor is binned because it has such trouble keeping its head gaskets in place. That said, I still have plans of doing a flat-crank version of that motor (it's got very good crank support) as something to be different....

 

[Kadjiado]

We really had a dilemma about the roof, we need it to be weather proof but the car only came with a ragged bikini top that look terrible. We just spoke to the metal fabricators to sort us a rollcage and canvas full length roof when my 'classic chaser' told me he had heard of a man in Nyeri who was using an fj40 roof as a chicken hutch. 400USD later and a six hour truck journey this turned arrived home

I popped it into the back of my now running (just) HJ45 and dropped it at my garage.

 

[Kadjiado]

Very cool stuff. It's funny, around here that LR motor is binned because it has such trouble keeping its head gaskets in place. That said, I still have plans of doing a flat-crank version of that motor (it's got very good crank support) as something to be different....

We are going to see how it goes, had been running great in the big truck, and I have the rebuilt 2f to slot in if theres any issues. Also been offered a 1fz-fe with 45,000 on the clock for 1000USD which might not be bad purchase...

Have had a few defenders and lost a few head gaskets and cylinder heads so I am aware of the impending explosion looming...