ORA's 1970 Toyota FJ55 Land Cruiser project

Curtis Guise

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I've been wanting a FJ55 for about 15 years and finally bought one a few weeks ago. It's a major project because it's been completely taken apart and I need to find fenders, weatherstripping, rear lights and more that I don't even know about yet... But the good thing is that the body is rust free except for the hood surface rust.
The guy I bought it from spent a couple years working on the body and the underside and frame are all fresh paint. And the areas known to rust are all treated to help prevent it in the future.
As of now my plans are to get a 2005 Tundra 4.7 V8 and trans which I already have lined up to get. And I need to figure out what I want to use for axles. The rear will have to be a centered diff and the front a drivers side diff if I'm using the Tundra trans/t-case.
For suspension I would like to link it with coil overs but I also have a NOS Ironman 2.5" leaf spring kit for it which would be the fastest and cheapest option to get it running.
Yesterday we got the stock front axle bolted back in so its a roller and I should be towing it home soon.
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Curtis Guise

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I found a drivers side fender and might be getting the other side from someone not to far from me soon. A guy on ih8mud makes panels for the corner rust area.
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Curtis Guise

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I picked up a pair of fenders, rear tailgate panel, rear brake lights, side marker lights and seat belts yesterday.fj55-parts-may-2016.jpg
 

Curtis Guise

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image.jpeg I just got a set of custom motor mounts that a friend didn't end up using for his race truck. These should work out great. Next step is to get the motor in place and make tabs for the frame and a transmission crossmember.

I also got some good news that the Tundra this came out of didn't have the anti-theft/immobilizer key which wil make it allot easier to get running.
 

Curtis Guise

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I haven't posted in awhile or worked on the Iron Pig much at all... but I've been finding parts over the last couple months. Summer is always the busy time of year for me because I have to finish the Dezert People DVD for the September release. And I also took on a big job for my friends at Total Chaos Fabrication and designed their new 72 page catalog over the summer.

I bought a power steering pump and the drive by wire gas pedal from a guy parting out a Tundra. Now I need to find the fan and fan clutch that I'm missing.

I found someone selling a set of new cargo window and tailgate weatherstripping that he didn't use because he sold his pig. Just waiting for the shipping cost so I can Paypal him. Prices are a little less that what Slo Cruisers sells them for so I'm not going to pass it up. Cargo and the upper tailgate window piece are the ones from PV Cruisers (before they went out of business) and the other tailgate piece is from Slo Cruisers. Weatherstripping is expensive and hard to come by for the FJ55's.

I found a used big bearing 9" trussed rear housing with a pair of new Currie 35 spline axles. I got it all for $500 so I couldn't pass it up. I just ordered a complete brake kit from Quick Performance that has an integrated parking brake. Similar kit that Currie sells but $130 cheaper. I've been told by a few people that this is a good way to go and works well. ( Ford 9 Inch Rear Explorer Disc Brake Kit With Shoe Style Park Brake ). They normally don't sell them with 6x5.5 drilled rotors but he said they will drill them for me no charge. They also have great prices on 9" 3rd members. A friend that got his 9" 3rd from them for his race truck highly recommend them, so I will probably get one from them. I just need to decide on 4:88 or 5:29 gears and either a Yukon Grizzly locker, Detroit Locker or an Eaton Truetrac limited slip.

The rear end is about 66" wide or a little less (haven't bolted in the axles yet). For the front I have been pricing out different options and it can get real expensive going with a custom Dana 60 style front axle. I just ordered a 9.5" front housing from Ruff Stuff and took advantage of their $100 discount that ends tomorrow. It uses a 9.5" Land Cruiser rear 3rd member that is stronger than the stock FJ80 8" front diff. I'm going with that setup so I can put the diff on the drivers side (to work with my Tundra transfer case) and I can make it wider to match the rear end width. I would be getting new stronger axle shafts and birfields anyway so I can get longer inner shafts to work with the wider housing. I found a guy near Pasadena that parts out FJ80's so I might be getting the FJ80 front axle that I can use all the parts from and the 9.5" rear diff from him. He also has the brake booster, master cylinder and steering box from FJ80's that I need.

The rear Currie axles have 5/8" studs installed. I haven't had any luck finding out if it's possible to upgrade FJ80 front hubs to 5/8". If I can't upgrade the studs my wheel guy found some lug nuts that will work with the stock 12mm studs and wheels drilled for 5/8". It would be nice to upgrade if possible though.
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For wheels I have a new set of 17"x8.5" Walker Evens Racing beadlocks on order. One of my Dezert People 13 video sponsors is the Offroad Tire Guy out of San Diego ( Garrett (@offroad_tire_guy) • Instagram photos and videos ) and part of the sponsorship was to get wheels for the FJ55 which works out great for both of us. I've had a set of 5 new 37" Goodyear MT/R's with the old style tread sitting in the shed for the last few years. They were an extra set for my T100 prerunner but they are finding a new home on the pig... The black wheel in the pic is the ATX beadlocks I run on the T100.
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Curtis Guise

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I found someone selling a new set of the PV Cruisers cargo window rubber on eBay. It had sold already but in the description he said he had a second set that he might sell in the future. I messaged him and ended up buying that second pair along with a new PV Cruisers tailgate window rubber, the upper part that goes in the body for the glass run. And also a Slo Cruisers upper tailgate WS. Overall I saved about $125 buying the 3 from him. And the quality of the PV Cruisers pieces look great.
PV Cruisers was a company that started reproducing FJ55 rubber/weatherstripping years ago but ended up closing shop. The Cargo window rubber isn't being reproduced any more until Slo Cruisers finds a new source to make them.

I will need the felt and also the two pieces for the lower tailgate glass run. And I'm crossing my fingers that the metal pieces those attach to inside the tailgate are in one of the bins of parts I have...

The only other expensive pieces I need now are for the fixed windows in the two rear doors. Slo Cruisers still has those. For the door weatherstripping/body seals I've been told I can use them from a 89-95 4runner. So I need to find one in a wrecking yard.

Cargo window rubber.
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Upper tailgate WS. Attaches to the body and the tailgate glass slides up into it.
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Upper tailgate rubber. The side pieces have to be glued and the part that contacts the glass is held in with clips.
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Curtis Guise

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I was recently searching headlight options and saw that a couple people on the ih8mud.com forum have used different LED conversions and some used VisionX 7" sealed beam lights with conversions. VisionX has been a long time sponsor of the Dezert People Video Series that I produce so I brought this up with them and they suggested using their XIL-7RD LED lights they make for JK's. They are a little out of my price range for this project so we ended up working out an advertising trade. It's probably a little early to worry about headlights for the FJ55 but I'm excited to get to the point where I can see how well these work. They also included their hi-4 adapters which allow the high and low beams to come on at the same time for maximum light when driving off-road.
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Curtis Guise

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I've still been collecting allot of parts before starting on the fabrication of the FJ55 project. I bought a rear disk brake kit to use on the Ford 9" housing that I have. I thought the housing had the new style big bearing ends but it turns out the shape of the ends don't matter and could be the old style with a different bolt pattern like mine turned out to be. The brake kits only work with the new style ends so I had to buy a pair of ends from Quick Performance, the same place I bought the brake kit from.

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I got 5 Walker Evans 17" beadlock wheels in last week from Dezert People 13 sponsor Offroad Tire Guy. Check them out on Instagram and email them for a quote on tires and wheels.
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The Ruff Stuff front housing that I ordered during their sale came in last week. It's built to use a rear 9.5" Land Cruiser third member which is stronger than the stock 8" FJ80 or FZJ80 front third member. Using this custom housing also allows me to make the front wider without using wheel spacers and I had it made for a drivers side drop because my transfer case is opposite of a Land Cruiser. I'm going for 66" WMS to WMS to match the rear end.
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Curtis Guise

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Quick Performance had a black friday sale last week so I went ahead and ordered the rear third member. I went with a Yukon Pro nodular housing with 4.88 Motive gears and an Eaton Trueurac limited slip. Quick Performance has great prices on third members and came highly recommended from my friend Mike who bought a couple third members from them after he had allot of problems with other companies.

Last Thursday I made a 90 mile trip north and bought a 1991 FJ80 front axle and he had a pair of 1994 FZJ80 brake rotors and calipers to go with it. 93-97 have the larger brakes that I definitely want to use. I have to cut off the knuckle ball ends and weld them on the new Ruff Stuff housing. He gave me a great price on the front axle and kept the third member, birfields and axle shafts that I don't need. (I plan on getting aftermarket birfields and custom length inner shafts) He gave me most of the new knuckle rebuild parts that I will need also. I just need to order a set of wheel bearings.
He also had a rear 9.5" third member with a factory limited slip that I bought. It was from a 1991 diesel FJ80 right hand drive Land Cruiser that he imported from Japan. Limited slip was not an option for the US models so I'm happy that I came across this one to use in the front axle. He also had a 1994 FZJ80 parts vehicle that I got a brake booster, master cylinder and steering box from.

At the top of the picture is a pair of 63" Chevy leaf springs that I am going to use in the rear. I ordered a Chevy leaf spring swap kit from Ruff Stuff during their Black Friday sale which will make it an easier install.
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Curtis Guise

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We just finished installing a set of Moroso studs (part # MOR-46240) in a pair of FJ80 hubs. I bought a 1" end mill with a 1/2" shank so I could use it in my drill press to clearance the hubs for the larger heads of these studs. ( 1" end mill $27.95 from Littlemachineshop.com ) Then I went to my friends shop and he used a 43/64" drill bit which is the correct size for these studs. Then pressed in all the studs.

Now the studs match front and rear and all my wheels are drilled for the 5/8" studs.
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Curtis Guise

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Not to much to report. I still need to pull the 2F engine and put that up for sale along with all the engine parts and the old FJ40 axles that it's sitting on right now. Then we can start installing the V8 when the 2F is out.

My friend has my 9" rear housing and new bearing ends and is working on it when he has time. He has a jig to make sure it's all straight when the ends are welded on.

I just bought the gears, install kit and solid pinion spacer for the 9.5" third member that I'm using for the front from Nitro Gear. And I also got a new set of front wheel bearings for the FJ80 hubs.
http://www.nitro-gear.com/TLC-488-NG-p/tlc-488-ng.htm
http://www.nitro-gear.com/MKTLC-B-p/mktlc-b.htm
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Wardy

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Looking good Curtis, nice to see some updates on your project. What are thinking on a completion date?
 

Curtis Guise

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More parts...

I got a pair of Slee Offroad FZJ80 high steer arms for the front axle this week. I also scored a pair of 93-97 FZJ80 knuckles for $50. I was going to have a friend machine the '91 knuckles I have so I could use the Slee arms with them but it turns out there's not enough material in that area compared to the later model knuckles that have the ABS sensor hole. The Slee arms are made to have the third stud using the ABS hole with a threaded insert.

Pic of the Slee arms:
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Pic from the Slee website showing the double sheer setup. I already have a right hand drive lower steering arm so I can double sheer both sides.
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Curtis Guise

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Not much progress to report but I just did a trade with American Powder Coat in Escondido, CA and had them do my grill, headlight bezels and fender vent pieces. They came out great. If you are in SoCal definitely check them out if you need anything powder coated. I dropped them off Thursday and they were finished Monday. American Powder Coat - Home
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Curtis Guise

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I cut apart the FJ80 Land Cruiser axle this week and took the knuckle balls and a lathe fixture that I borrowed from a friend over to Jr at Custom Tube Works in Vista. He's going to turn down the knuckle ball ends so they fit in the Ruff Stuff front housing.
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Curtis Guise

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It looks like I found a buyer for my stock bench seats and hopefully the 2F engine. So now I have a pair of Baja RS reclining seats on order along with the Rubicon rear bench seat and 2x2 5 point harnesses from long time Dezert People supporter MasterCraft Safety. I run the 3" harnesses in my T100 prerunner but decided to go with the 2" for the FJ55 after talking with some friends about them being more comfortable and not rubbing your neck as much as the 3". I also got a pair of their seat sliders for the front seats. I've had the MasterCraft race seats in my T100 for years but wished I had the reclining seats. I went with the black and gray that's pictured below since I'll be doing black and gray for the rest of the interior.
mastercraft-2x2-restraints.jpg Mastercraft-baja-rs.jpg mastercraft-rubiconbench.jpg
 
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