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Clueless 69 FJ40 build

Jcbmx

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Joined
Sep 6, 2020
Messages
427
Location
Denver
Just a disclaimer: I'm 9 months into this, I've been documenting for myself, but what's the fun in that? (Especially being a member of this forum) To start I initially posted a wtb thread that went like this:

"I’m in the Denver area looking for an entry level fj40. <7500. Not complete rust bucket or crawler build. OG paint/patina is awesome, but ok with rattle can paint sniffing induced “art”. Running preferably or minimal effort required, V8 also fine. Whatever I end up with will be used, maybe even daily(working heat would be a luxury). Anything that comes with history/anecdotes is encouraged as I respect originality, but also expect a workhorse. It won’t be abused, but definitely not pampered. Correct me on any delusions I have, and guidance is also much appreciated"

And I got literally what I was looking for!

Here it is today(what prompted to start a thread as there's a ton more planned for it as well)

I beyond lucked out by having @madorbit as a nearby neighbor to bug with every possible question that arises (as well as random ADD thoughts) who's been insanely helpful getting it going. So here's the first pic: Amazon jeep mirrors that he modified to fit the Fj

Initial 69 Fj40 Specs:
3rd owner, CO car it's whole life (grand junction)
66,000 rumored miles(speedo fell apart with po)
Og color white with what looks like one respray
Matching doors/hardtop(top and doors removed once summer hit)
F series engine, not believed to be the OG
Converted from tree to floor
A ton of aftermarket og looking mods (to the uninitiated, like aisin big window carb)
Pretty minimal rust

More to come...
 

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madorbit

Lifted
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Denver
There’s so much more to be told here. #bigWindowCarb #ColoradoNative


congrats on the sweet FJ40!

Secretly I’m glad there’s another Land Cruiser nerd so close by. 😎
 

MDH33

Hard Core 4+
Joined
Mar 8, 2006
Messages
7,680
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Trapped in a corn field
Cool, can`t wait to see it come together. I can think of at least 6 people on the forum also rehabbing pre `70 fj40`s. :zilla:
 

Jcbmx

Trail Ready
Joined
Sep 6, 2020
Messages
427
Location
Denver
Well I linked up with a buddy of mine from the Vw/Bmx world and we made a bikini top to hide from that sun! So pleased with what he came up with. PO or someone in the Fj 's past had some sort of top installed, used the existing holes and installed snaps Todd at lone wolf whipped together a top... Walla. Gonna shamelessly plug him, he's dialed if ya'll ever need upholstery work


plain simple vinyl for the top double layered with tweed for added structure/rigidity/stretch resistance… And the delightful appearance of having a headliner.

Ironically I'm already eyeing up a full length bikini top, after the addition of a rear roll bar, but it's good to have options! Will backtrack some and add some origins story to have all this started, but was too pumped on the top to keep it to myself.
 

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Jcbmx

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So as promised (to the one or two actually reading this) I brought home the FJ from grand junction to Denver. It was a wild time, had to wait 3 long weeks while the PO had a trip to Moab and I was first in line with "dibs" However, given the affordable price, he had a ton of interested parties, even some trying to come in with the swoop. But he held true and I traversed the jungle to get it home(see picture) JK I towed it home with a rented uhaul trailer and my pathfinder(which later got replaced by a 01 sequoia)
 

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Jcbmx

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Welp, as I dive deeper into the forty I get more questions. Like how much of this thing is a rarity? When I first got into it I was super confused as to why I couldn't find any information on how to rebuild my carb, come to find out it was a big window and relatively "rare" Not sure how rare is rare. But luckily up the street from me is a landcruiser affectionado @madorbit If not for his kindness the 40 would probably still be sitting haha. Under the hood I found all sorts of random non oem replacements that occurred at some point: oil filter for a scout, o'reilly special fuel filter, welded in trailer tailights(yes welded), aftermarket roll bar that seems into the rear seat supports, heavy duty bumpers...etc I am wondering about the hood, there's a seam down the middle along (just early) with the chrome spear(which I love). Also I scored the custom front brush guard off Craigslist a while back.

Then I also made an armrest, it has a rockin liner fabric...I needed cup holders, and an armrest haha (yes those are pool noodles covering the seat hinges, one bump I hit had me landing on them...painful!)

Also I just got some new KO2's on the wheels, thought about going with the Steelies only to confuse my well versed buddy who didn't know what was up with them either, so anyone on here know the deal?
 

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MDH33

Hard Core 4+
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Trapped in a corn field
'69 had 3 different carbs depending on when it was built. the big window singles are cool, I would keep it and its period correct, as are the split hood and riveted drum brake steel wheels. (y)
 

Jcbmx

Trail Ready
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Sep 6, 2020
Messages
427
Location
Denver
'69 had 3 different carbs depending on when it was built. the big window singles are cool, I would keep it and its period correct, as are the split hood and riveted drum brake steel wheels. (y)
Thank you I appreciate it! I ended up throwing the tires on the white wheels cause I wasn't sure if air would leak on the rivets without the center rubber rim strips. The carb is amazing for when I run out of gas(happened once) just look at it and one less thing to diagnose 🤣
 

Jcbmx

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Sep 6, 2020
Messages
427
Location
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I should probably update to this thing more. I'm always working on it, a couple times a week, but I never document any of it. The last time I wrote anything I had a different set of wiring. The good news is my previous owner included one of Spector off roads harnesses that they offer. The bad news is it a general harness and there is troubleshooting to do. I'm going to admit that I taped stuff off as I went instead of what a smart person would do, and that is using zip ties or other means to isolate the wires and then having a more compact harness tape it all at once… I have a miniature harness for every system, maybe it'll be easier to diagnose later haha.

I also decided to take it upon myself to build speaker panels. The online options of $70 and then some didn't appeal to me, especially when I could spend $11 at Home Depot. I've included pictures of the dimensions. I installed a stereo that's meant for a motorcycle but completely hidden in the glove box and bumps! Along with the waterproof kicker speakers, all that's left is the rear speaker configuration yet to be decided.

Also, I lost my oil cap...turned out to be a complete PITA! Turns out side oil filler caps are a bit of a rarity, luckily classic cruisers had one and I didn't pay close to $200 for the only NOS eBay one I could find.

I also got the hand throttle installed. Maybe I'll take a cool Instagram video of me getting out of the car and capture the possibility of my own car running me over...apparently it's called "crawl control" and its the cool thing to do.

Not mentioned, but mentioned now: cowl vent drains from city racer, defrost hoses, a different gauge cluster, water temperature sender, how helpful a ih8mud post was on the hazard circuit was, and checking the tire pressure.

Also at a dilemma with headliner material, whether or not to attempt fixing my selectro hubs even though no resources/parts are available. Oh and I took my rear heater to a radiator place to be fixed, he had it for four days and didn't look at it until i showed up after being mistakenly told it was ready...being fixed by a friend now. And while I'm at it, be sure to carry a tourniquet is each car as you'll never know when you'll have a workplace accident and it'll interfere with wrenching on your vehicles
 

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Johnny Utah

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Thanks for the update. But we need to hear the story behind that cut. That’s pretty serious!
 

Hulk

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Sorry about your cut! Those speaker panels are sweet. It also looks like you amped up the lighting in your gauge cluster — looks good!
 

Jcbmx

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Sep 6, 2020
Messages
427
Location
Denver
The lighting was just iphones sweet night time exposure setting, but I ordered the "super bright" bulbs from cool cruisers so we'll see what they're like when they arrive.

If anyone is interested: the speaker pods are literally one $12 22ga 12x18" sheet. I literally used a builders square, added an inch in each direction...which happened to measure out to exactly 9"=2 from one sheet. Then it perfectly worked out that the additional material provided just enough to make the 90* flaps...obviously cardboard template first, but other wise maybe 3 cuts with tin snips. Only pain part was doing the speaker cut outs. I messed up by placing them too center/rearward and ended up needing to trim 3/8" off the front during final fitting....also my brush guard made a great place to bend the metal. I'm pumped (hence the write up no one asked for).

Also, since no one is asking, the SOR harness is pretty idiot proof. Definitely recommend. Only thing I wish I would've done was mount the fuse box in the engine bay. I almost "started over" and moved it but it would've required extending wires that had already been cut and I didn't want additional variables/fail points. If I had to do it again I'd place the fuse box inside a pelican case right by the heater blower and utilize one of the existing firewall pass throughs...

Alright since everyone wants to know: the wrist. I was changing the blade out on a tile scraper. Set down the screwdriver used to change the blade, was holding the scraper in my left hand across my body, and on my way back up from being bent down and slightly rotated, lost blade awareness and got myself in the best/worse way possible! Had instant pressure on it, then came denial about a split second later "I didn't get myself that bad" Lifted my thumb and dark blood and a giant gash presented themselves. Returned pressure with the thumb, shouted a couple F-bombs capped off with a sh*t...then I collected my phone and recruited a stranger to call 911 and aid me in walking to my sequoia where I keep a tourniquet in the driver side door(all my vehicles). Didn't lose too much blood thankfully to being a trained (former) EMT, walked out of the hospital 3 hrs later.

Also how is it almost December and I haven't "needed" to put my top on yet?! 70* on 11-29-2021
 

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Jcbmx

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Denver
Another update: the new year is here and I finally got my top on! I got tired of waiting for my desired headliner material to get back in stock. Come the time, I'm just going to have the whole roof suspended from my garage rafters again. Because for everything lining up perfectly from the factory, for some reason it is incredibly difficult to get it all back together! The side to top seal was from city racer llc... not all the rubber holes lined up, otherwise pretty good. Once again @madorbit came through with advice that saved my ass! He recommended using automotive studs on the rear hatch where you have to put the bolt in from the top as opposed to the rest of them from underneath.
So thread one side of the stud down, and the top sticks up through. Once I got those studs in and the cap dropped on them with the seal lined up things went pretty dang smooth. I won't mention the previous couple hours/attempts of trying to get things lined up (before the rear hatch trick) while kneeling in frozen snow soaked carpet because I took the FJ out during these last snow storms with no top on and did donuts in parking lots and climbed some "urban obstacles"


I had some broken bolts when I removed the hardtop. I drilled out the old threads and used M6 rivnuts as a replacement and I can say now every hole intended to have a bolt has one! So I have a a sealed roof that's yet to be water tested… I don't know what I'd do if I have a leak other than cry, for now I'm going to assume that everything is sealed which it should be.


Got the rear heater installed, now my front blower motor seems to be going out… Of course.

But the big news is I got my front seat redone and it is beautiful! I'm going to plug him every time I get work done as I don't want him to not be able to survive doing upholstery and go back to being a vet tech ha ha selfishly. My friend Todd at Lonewolf upholstery has talent! We just did my driver seat first because the lower portion had a pretty significant tear. But basically, I sent him a bunch of pictures from FJ 45 seats as inspiration, had him throw in heated seat inserts(still need to wire them), and asked him to match my rear jump-seats and Toyota design language. He killed it.


Ps after rescuing a Karmann Ghia once, I thought about rescuing the FJ 60 out of the Denver upullandpay, but I am beyond lucky I had @Cruisertrash to also happen to be there and talk some sense into me ha ha. One day I will get another Land Cruiser, while keeping the 40 of course... I need more space though(wife & kids, dogs, gear) and if the later models are even remotely as fun, I'll be a happy camper.

PPS does anybody have a spare conferr style roof rack w/brackets they would like to unload? I'm not a fan of the bowfincruisers modern style for my personal tastes, and the Gobi one is a little excessive for me. The SOR wilderness rack seems like the best option right now.
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MDH33

Hard Core 4+
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Trapped in a corn field
Looking good!

You should talk to Nakman about a rack. I would buy one of his, no question, if either of my cruisers would fit in my garage with one. ;)

 

madorbit

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Jan 6, 2016
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165
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Denver
Second vote for the Gamiviti rack. If I wasn’t so obsessively DIY, I’d go with that rack, for sure.
 

madorbit

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Jan 6, 2016
Messages
165
Location
Denver
How is that rear heater core holding up? Any leaks?
 
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