Undercarriage Restoration (1 Viewer)

[kevin in okinawa]

bro, a sincere tip-o-the-hat to you for the insane amount of cleaning and refurbishing you did! that truck looks like a million bucks. From another dude that's spent a LOT of time wrenching on his 60, I salute you!

 

[NCFJ]

bro, a sincere tip-o-the-hat to you for the insane amount of cleaning and refurbishing you did! that truck looks like a million bucks. From another dude that's spent a LOT of time wrenching on his 60, I salute you!

X2!!!! I do this stuff for a living with a lift and a rotisserie and know how much work it is that way. You sir are a machine, great work!!!

 

[Reptar808]

im in northern nevada, my rig looks similar to yours. cant wait to start working on it and cleaning it up.

Are you going to try to do an off frame repair? I think might have to do a frame swap.

 

[UZJ100LC]

Are you going to try to do an off frame repair? I think might have to do a frame swap.

im going to try and do as much with the body on as I possibly can. although to replace that C channel that is rusted I may need to have a shop lift the body to take care of it. I found some shops in my state that can do a body off restoration for the frame but they are booked out for a year at the least.

 

[NCFJ]

Any shop worth it's salt is booked well into the future, if not Id take that as a sign.

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

this looks great! perhaps I missed it, but how did you get the nuts, bolts, body mounts, headlight shroud casing, and everything so clean? Do you have a quick run down of how you did all this? I just bought a 60 I want to restore and there is a lot of surface rust

Hey there. Well you can eat an elephant one bite at a time. I’ll list a few things below. But for me it wasn’t the specifics of the cleaning supplies but brute force. I started with a fairly rust free wagon, if the previous owner had cleaned up the oil and grease mess it’d be a rusty wagon.

-Hella lights were removed and soaked then cleaned the inside with alcohol. Mercury bulbs fogged inside.
-Bezels polished with never dull wool and chrome paste.
-Dremel with 60 grit scotcebrite head every bolt head or replaced with yellow zinc. VHT has a “Yellow Chromecast” that applied right looks identical to tested yellow zinc bolts. Used in a pinch for stuff I couldn’t replace.
-Body mounts used a die grinder with a Weiler soft stainless brush head and knocked all the paint and krud off them Eastwood’s frame paint.
-Most of the ladder frame was ok but my personal preference is to take it all off. If I prep an area and just paint over the area next you can see the old paint under it. I don’t like that. Some areas the epoxy was good so colorsanded it and covered with Eastwood’s.
-Differentials was a bitch. I had to take them down with angle grinder the finish with die grinder, scuff and Eastwood’s. I took the time and took a cutting wheel and grinder off the weld slag. Do this really helps the finish look.
-Grinder to metal on exhaust then Rustoleum BBQ grill silver on shafts and exhaust.

there is so much to list since I posted this. If you want to see the blow by blow my IG is toyotafj62_Texas most of my post have descriptions with before and after pics. This took me 9 months and with estimated labor time if I’d have farmed it out probably $30k. There were times I wanted to quit, cry or throw a wrench. Folks around me were like just sell it but if you tell me to do something I’ll do the opposite. Here’s a few pics from the last week

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

bro, a sincere tip-o-the-hat to you for the insane amount of cleaning and refurbishing you did! that truck looks like a million bucks. From another dude that's spent a LOT of time wrenching on his 60, I salute you!

Thank you I have an obsessive compulsive order (not disorder)

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

bro, a sincere tip-o-the-hat to you for the insane amount of cleaning and refurbishing you did! that truck looks like a million bucks. From another dude that's spent a LOT of time wrenching on his 60, I salute

X2!!!! I do this stuff for a living with a lift and a rotisserie and know how much work it is that way. You sir are a machine, great work!!!

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

@FJ60LC same here! Where are you located? Sharing you some of my undercarriage pic. @wester11 please tell us how you got the frame so nice and rust free. Thank you

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I started with a pretty clean setup but rust was grinded off everywhere and Eastwood’s. Fluid film this weekend now I’m caught up

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

Alright, have more to add. Here’s some various pics of cleanup and update. The intake system had to go due to some engineering stuff, this is temporary, the tubing is getting wrinkle paint. Still have about 6 inch to add to length. Pulled the throttle to clean and polish, replace sensor. New 70 series sun visors well worth it. Sliders pulled and painted and cleaned. And going through interior selections. ADC Australia is a cool place and do fantastic contributions to the restoration world.

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

Update since intake tubing work, had to go back to tuner after refabbing the tubing maf location. Installed new OME kit same setup. Struggling with alignment. Shop completed it but I think toe in is too close or too far off. The said the set at 1/32” but @cruisermatt wrote somewhere 1/8” but know every one is a tad different. Never had shims either and the shop said from the old OME to new would require 1/2” shim to roll diff forward on front. I called Cruiser Outfitters and they said it’s uncommon but not unheard of. Toyota shop takes all the old LCs here and they do good work. Last night threw 300lbs in empty cargo area on a 2 hour trip after align and every bounce on the highway the steering would try to dart left of right. It was a 2 handed drive. I don’t know if the toe is wrong or what. I did all the install and made sure measured threads on new tie rods before I took to shop. All my parts on the gate before I did the exorcism. Also my retainers for Birfield were nasty so a little cleaning and paint

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

Gutted the drivers side harness that was a mess. OME installed and discovered horrible grounds and rewired grounds on cruiser.

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

Installed flocked window channel rubber which sped things up. Here’s finished product on tubing, an deep clean in rear fluid bag for washer

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Great documentation. Is this rig going to see the trail? What’s your plan when it cakes up with dirt again? Power wash?

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

Great documentation. Is this rig going to see the trail? What’s your plan when it cakes up with dirt again? Power wash?

Haha been asked that more than once. Yeah I’ve taken it to Ozarks for a week and just got back from CO did alpine loop. She gets dirty, but all the work I’m doing is to help me feel a little better while I’m out touring

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

Haha been asked that more than once. Yeah I’ve taken it to Ozarks for a week and just got back from CO did alpine loop. She gets dirty, but all the work I’m doing is to help me feel a little better while I’m out touring

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Sweet moment at 12,900 at the American flag at Engineer

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Goon on ya! If I cleaned a rig up this clean, it would be sold. To the Museum.

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

To give a point of reference how bad the wiring was here’s before and after I rewired the engine compartment. Discovered only had 2 grounds on the entire cruiser. The chassis wasn’t even looped into ground with engine and everything that needed it

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

Touched up front diff, close up of the nice perches. Omg the last spring wasn’t playing nice and had to get my wench to pull it in to mount shackle

 

[cruisermatt]

Looking good. This was the truck that was put together by a supposedly reputable shop beforehand right?

Throw some 4-degree caster shims in the front springs. That will transform the steering.