Wilma's Buildup thread - FJ45LV (1 Viewer)

[fogblanket]

Bear- yes the tree comes down at new years. my wife controls the inside of the house. I have really no say. its my protest to this that I left the lights ont he garage

mderrick- you should prolly post up a new 'thread' about what you are looking for or check outhte classified section of the 45 section. and just keep watching the board people here are pretty good about posting up 45's for sale even if its just one they came across on Craig'slist or in the paper or on line somewhere. or buy one of Mikesta's he has a good project cruiser for you

Mikesta- I don't think htere are any dealer options left on Wilma.

back to Wilma took the measurer ments for the drive shafts and both front and rear measure in at 31.5" kind of funky and random I plan on having 3 made up and have one as a spare. Fox is coming ove ron Friday to help with the steering shaft instal. hopefully it goes smoothly hopefully there are no issues.
Jason

 

[fogblanket]

Thanksgiving. . . what are you thankful for? I am very thankful to my wife for letting me have 2 full cruiser days this 4 da week end.I finally and starting to feel that instead of 2 steps forward 10 back I am more like 5 forward and 2 back. progress!!
So Fox came over on friday but was not able to stay long i was able to bounce some ideas and get a good plan of attack for my steering shaft set up. I am pretty pleae with how t turned up and I learned alot that is for sure. I atttached some pics of the final setupthe paint is wet int he pics on the bracket i fabbed up and I may still have to trim the bearingcoupler end so it does not interfer withe the fender when that gets mounted but overall i am extremely please with how it all turned out.

 

[fogblanket]

next up was lengthening the rear sway bar links. this was not near as hard as my mind was making it out to be. i removed them from the axle and the sway bar then cut the bar part in half right at the middle then cut a peice of 3/4"square tubing and slide the cut ends of the original ends in and welded them to the square tubing.came out alot neatier than I expected and saved me $60 bucks in after market extended ones.
then I got the reast oof the gas tank hardware installed. and the gas cap so not all that is left with eth fuel system is the wriing and the fuel sender very excited about that.I then started working on chaging out all the coolant hoses ont he engine. did not really take pics of that not terrible interesting....

 

[fogblanket]

so after getting all those projects crossed off I decided to start looking at how I was going to change alter make my tranny hump. i have the stock hump and the top peice of the fj60 trany hump that has the shift boots a=on a coolpeice . so I figure to use thede to make my tranny hump. in that my hump has no holes in that it was set up for 3 on the tree and I am gong to have 4 on the floor.
i figure I am going to take a large chunk out and have to wident it on teh passenger side. what I mean by widen is extend the hieght portin of hte hump over more to accomidat the t-case a bit. all in all I hink it willl be very functionall and I hope decent looking.

 

[Mikesta]

lookin good!

 

[mderrick]

tranny humps

before you chop that up you might want to consider saving it! there are loads of humps that already have holes in it that the 60 plate will cover up. not very many unmolested humps out there you could probibly sell it for a bit of money.

 

[fogblanket]

nope I actually bought a 70's fj40 tranny hump that had the 4 spd hotransission holes in it but they are in the wrong place and the hump as a whole is the comlete wrong shape. I am better off starting with the stock one and gong from thre.thanks for the thought though but it is more feasable to go the route I am going.

dropped my drive shafts off today 3 in all one gets shortened one lenghted and one I prezeled on my fj62 the last time out. the kewl thing about my engine tranny set u is that both front and aft drive shafts are 31.5" long makes for carring a spare much simpler

 

[treerootCO]

If you start picking up chicks in that rig you had better have my phone number handy

 

[fogblanket]

i am making decent progress who knows mike your grand kids might not be out of college by the time I am done
i would love to have it on the road by end of september for the Fall Gathering. if that is the case you will have to fly out for the run.

 

[fogblanket]

the tranny hump

well I knew this was not going to be a glamorous project but it sure has been fun. Basicaly I took the stock tranny hump in that the foot print of it matched the floor and went to work. I did get a fj40 tranny hump thinking I could use it because the holes were already there for the gear shifters but it was like it was made for something so different .
anyway I decided to use the top part of the fj60 donor vehicle for the top of my tranny in that it gave me so frame work ideas to rebuild the entire passenger side of the hump.
so I get started (I have put about 20 hours this week end into it already) totally fun stuff. anyway my first object was to cut away everything to get it to fit without hitting the tranny.that means cutting out the hole on top and pretty much removing the entire passenger side. In the process I learned that I needed to widen the hump to the passenger side by an inch in the middle section and by 4” at the back. I also needed to raise the rear section up to be level with the middle section. My transfer case ends an inch or so in front of the end of the opening but the whole drive line (87’ 2f) is longer than the stock unit was so the slop at the back end of the hump was not going to work. So first I cut a strip of 16 guage steel and bent it to conform to the curve that forms the lip that is right in front of the seat box. Then I traced that curve onto a pieave of 1/8 steel bar stock cut out the excess and made a solid bridge for the back end of the hump. I cut the angled rear section and welded it onto my bridge..
l was able to use the front passenger side section and weld it to my bride and to the lip.. my welds are getting better and the burn you see is just the epoxy primer burning away.
Anyway I had some lip repair due to rust on the drivers side that I still need to clean up and finsh the front section on the passenger side . a lot more grinding and spot welding to make it look pretty. But boy this has been a fun learning experience project..

 

[fogblanket]

next 3

 

[fogblanket]

another 3

 

[fogblanket]

last 3

 

[fogblanket]

been busy. I went up to 82cruiser's house thispast week end to pick up my 78'fj40 front axle. Randy had graciously picked it up in VT and brought it back to his place in Mass. so instead of a 10 hour round trip it was only 4..
so I think I have everything for the axle rebuild. i plan to widen 2" to match the wideth of an fj62 rear axle. so with my widened wheels haveing 5.25 bs i should have the look of stock wheels with out the deep dish look.
so anyway since i last posted I have finished and painted the tranny hump and installed the steering wheel. its always that last part that holds you up in my case it was finiding the right ignition lock for the steering colum. ended up getting a new one through toyota.

I have next week off so i hope to get the axle rebuilt and installed anyone hav einterst in a stock 1964 lanc cruiser axle thta has ball and claw but is set up for disk brakes? everything works fine on it would be great for a stock resto or if you are not planning on running larger tires like I am.

I also should get my window glass back tommorow so i want to get some templates traced and those installed as well.

it so easy to go off on a project and get stopped just short due to a missing part . but hte hard part is picking up where you left off when you finally (remeber) to get the part.

 

[apeterson]

we need a couple more shots of that finished and painted up tranny hump... looks like you spent tons of time on it...

looking good bud!!!

 

[82cruiser]

Looking good Jason and nice work man.

Is it me or do I see clear coat on that axle?

 

[fogblanket]

well it has been a week or so since I last posted progress. I have been busy.I have swapped in the 78 fj40 front axle and have torn it down and rebuilt it to the knuckes putting in new bearings all around. I used the Marlin knuckle rebuild kit andused there excellent beefy axle seal as well.
also in my rebuild I swapped in mini truck hbs to encorporate the sky widening kit which puts a spacer betwen the hub and disk so as not to have a spacer between the wheel and hub. I also switched to Aisin hubs from the clunky Warn hubs (thanks George).it was a ton of work but worth it in the end.
I also installed my rear lift gate will take pics of that when I have a chance. still waiting on my glass should get it next week after the holidays.
next up is plumbing up the brake lines ont eh front axle thengetting it back on its wheels.
below pics are befor and after on the front axle hubs

 

[fogblanket]

been busy since I last posted the front axle is rebuilt to the knuckles on both sides yeah. I have just about finished up running new brake lines hard and soft. and got the shocks on the front as well.

I also made some brackets for the radiator and have that installed just waiting on the upper radiator hose.

things are starting to really come together now its just sourceing the little parts I have boxes of nuts and bolts and gaskets and springs and hoses coming in almost daily from toyota.

I also installed the rear lift gate i will hav eto take pics of that in that I forgot to
Jason

 

[fogblanket]

rear hatch and some random shots

I figured I would update some pics of things that I had not gotten up yet like the rear hatch. it is installed and working i need to get atleast one of those knobs for the lift gate stays in that I don't have mine i can see where they were and how they were used but mine are missing. i still need to figure out what molding to use for the surround but the hardware is all on.

i am waiting on a braided hose for the passenger side then I will be able to get it back on all 4 wheels but the drivers side is back on. for me that is a huge accomplishement. it means the axle is done. anyway the steering is all connected and the wheels actualy steer. i still need to finish up the brack lines on the fire wall but the brakes are getting close to being done.

getting all the engine hoses worked out and connected has been a challenge and trail and error. I am trying to keep it stock. . but what stock do I keep it 87' stock 64" stock or 78" vintage fj40 stock... so I get parts from I think every year of land cruiser in order to get it all working. Fun.

the pictures don't really show it well but I bolted on a 2x4 square tube to the stock bumper mounts . it is by no means going to be my finished bumper but it was nice to mount it up there to get ideas on what best to make . I will take better pics when I revisit it later.

My Dog Belle figured out she could see much more of the neighborhood from the tailgate.

 

[fogblanket]

more