**More Pictures Here**
Current status picture:
How I ended up with this truck:
I bought my Cruiser from my college roomate. He and I are both Toyota
fanatics. Here is how it looked while he was working on it. This
picture is from 1997.
It has a bit of history - basically, I was trying to relocate to the Asheville area of NC at one point. I moved down there and was rooming with my old college roomate until I could find a job.
During this time, my car broke down. He mentioned that he knew of an old guy who lived near him that had an FJ40 that never seemed to move. We went and offered the guy $3k for it and he called back a few days later to tell us "No".
A month later, I moved back up to PA since I had not found a job. He called me a few weeks later and told me that he had purchased the 40 for $3500! DOH!
He did a few things to it - had the tub sandblasted and primed, and sanded the other body parts and primed them. He also put on a 4" lift and 33s, had Jim C. rebuild the carb and convert it to non-USA, and put a non-USA distributor on it.
Then it sat for 5 years and I weasled it out of his hands ;-) ! It only has 38,000 miles on the clock.
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Getting It Home:
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This is what the Cruiser looked like when I towed it home. My friend and I drove my 80 series down, rented a tow dolly, and towed the truck back up. Rather than do it all in one day, we opted to stay at a campground for the night. It was around an 11 hour drive each way. The 80 towed the 40 pretty well although it did have trouble on some of the mountains! At one point we were going less than 30MPH and had to have the heater running to keep the engine from overheating!
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What next?:
Immediately after getting the truck home, we took the top off, cleaned the carb, charged the battery, and fixed the brakes (drums were adjusted improperly and wouldn't stop right - this is actually the reason it sat for 5 years). At this point I was still not sure how much money and work I was going to put into the truck. I debated just spraying the whole thing with a coat or two of paint and driving it.
I eventually decided to take the tub off to get it cleaned up and
repainted. Of course, I had to keep digging deeper - I took the frame
to be blasted and repainted it. Things went downhill from there - even
though I had little time to work on the truck. I had met my soon-to-be
wife and was hardly working on the truck.
After we were
married, I found time to work on it again. I rebuilt the front axle
with minitruck front brakes, I cleaned up and re-gasketed everything on
the engine, and I had all of the bolts and brackets replated to get rid
of any rusty/nasty old hardware.
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Setting up the front axle/brakes:
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Here are my shiny new rotors, rebuilt locking hubs, and other minitruck hub accessories.
You can see a brief overview of how to use the Toyota SST to set the knuckle bearing preload HERE .
I
chose to use Toyota pickup (minitruck) parts to swap onto the front axle to replace the original drum brakes. I used a minitruck brake booster, a V6 minitruck master cylinder, and V6 minitruck brake calipers. The rotors are Land Cruiser vented rotors from '76 to '81 model years. The steering knuckle parts are all from an '84 Toyota pickup.
The only hitch with the whole setup is that I had to purchase bushings to mate the Land Cruiser tie rod to the minitruck
steering arm, and a proportioning valve to tone down the rear brakes. |
"Refreshed" Engine:
I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up the engine, installing all new accessories and gaskets, and rebuilding the carb.
I also had all of the hardware on the engine replated with cad & yellow to clean up the hardware. I think the plating adds a professional look to a restoration.
I chose cad and yellow over zinc because of increased corrosion resistance as well as having less of a tendance to flake off because it is a softer material. |
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Bodywork:
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Next, I began bodywork, of which I am not a fan and takes me way too long. I think I did all of the other work just to actually avoid having to do bodywork.
I decided to paint the truck smurf / sky blue #854. It is not an original color for this year, but the truck is not original enough to matter much.
The one side was nearly perfect,but the other had been slightly crunched. The top rail was pushed in for some reason. I welded up a fixture to straighten it, and I used a
bottle jack to push it out. This worked quite well!
The other issue was that the wheel wells were cut out when I got the truck. I chose to run flares from SOR.
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All of the body seams were sealed with a 3M seam sealer
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Fender flares were test fit early on in the process
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Rusted Cowl Vent:
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What was the cowl vent on older models turned into a giant rust collector on this thing. It is just a pan with 2 drains on it. Someone along the line did not keep the drains clean, and the pan rusted out pretty badly. After weighing my options, I decided that the best was to just cut it out and close the hole.
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Lower Cowl Rust:
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I also had a bit of an issue with the lower part of the cowl on the
passenger side. I pryed it out and cleaned up behind it as well as I
could. Then I drilled it 3 places, clamped it together with a c-clamp
and welded it to the pillar behind it. Then I sprayed a generous amount
of epoxy primer behind it and sealed the seams with seam sealer and
filled it.
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Spraying the Color:
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08/08/07 - Finally, some color! The paint is single stage urethane - Shopline (a cheaper PPG line). The color code is #854 - Sky (Smurf) Blue. Tub is back on the frame
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Putting it back together:
08/09/07 - Installed the wiring harness, brake/clutch/gas pedals, and the fender flares on
08/11/07 - Got most of the dash installed and the wiring hooked up. I also got the body mounts tightened and the steering column installed.
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Brake System -
I chose to use a booster that I had laying around. It is from an '89 4 cylinder 4runner. The master cylinder is from a '95 4runner with a V6. Everything bolted right up and took only minor adjustment to get correct. The brake lines even ended up in the right place on the MC without bending the lines!
I swapped minitruck knuckles and birfields, and used Land Cruiser rotors with '95 4runner V6 calipers and pads. I bought new flexible brake lines all around.
It moves on it's own!
I was finally able to back it out of the garage to admire my handywork. It felt good!
09-23-07 - After failing miserably at painting the bib, aprons and windshield frame, I thought I would try them on and install my soft top to see how it fit/looked. I was happy wih the results! Now, to repaint the stuff I messed up - Ugh!!!
10-15-07 - Fenders painted, and bib,aprons and windshield frame repainted after messing them up the first time!
10-22-07 - Bought some 8" wide black wagon wheels. Rear is a little narrow for my liking. I plan to install wheel spacers or an FJ60 rear axle at some point.
Engine shot - Still needs a little rewiring and detail work, but you get the idea!
I bought a used STC soft top and doors from a local club member. I looked quite a while for one of these exact tops and was thrilled to find one locally in perfect shape! They are not made any more and are one of my favorites.
11-01-07 - Made the trip the the exhaust shop for a shiny new custom exhaust system! This shop is right up the road from my house and does an unbelievable job - while you wait! I was able to direct the guy exactly how I wanted it routed. The exhaust from the header back was around $100!
08/19/08 - Recently removed a leaf from the rear springs, added 1-1/2" rear wheel spacers (not shown in this picture), wet sanded some panels, Put a little over 2000 miles on it this summer so far. I drive it every day that it is decent outside! It hasn't been rained on yet! Hood should be painted within the next month.
06/05/09
I bought a set of 35-12.50x15 BFG KM2 Mud Terrain tires. I have also been working on all the litle odds and ends to make the truck truly nice. I have been driving it daily for a little over a month now because my 4runner was wrecked.
**More Pictures Here**
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FJ-40 
