1969 FJ55 Build

[Chris]

Undeterred by what I saw when I first looked at this I had one condition to the seller: Give me a passing emissions test and I'll buy it. It was pretty sad, a typical amount of rust, seats torn beyond use with springs popping through, lots of baling wire holding things together and some pretty obvious hack work performed on it.

The good news was that it ran fine, had a Chevy 350, 4 speed, Atlas overdrive and, most impressive, it was an FJ55! I'd wanted a Pig for quite a while.

Pics are from the PO's add on Craiglist.

[Funrover]

This will be a fun build to follow!

[Chris]

When I first got this truck the steering was kind of bad which wasn't real surprising considering it's about 40 years old. I drove it gently until one day when I jacked it up to get a better grasp of what was needed. Passenger side, not too bad, needing a knuckle rebuild. Driver's side, scary sloppy! Decided it deseved an immediate closer look since I could flop the wheel back and forth far too easily.

Here's the knuckle housing I found :o

[Chris]

After discovering the gauge I decided not to drive the 55 until fixed. I should add that this slop also explains its tendency to dart from one lane to another when the brakes were applied.

I turned the truck over to Justin and Jeff at Redline Motorsports for some work. They did quite a bit and had their share of issues with it. Here are the mods they did:

Built new seat mounts and tossed the ratty bench seat.
Replaced front and rear axles with what were supposed to be 60 axles, turned out to be 55 axles which was disappointing but I told them to forge ahead
They cut and turned the front axles increasing camber about 4 degrees to 5 degrees, rebuilt the knuckles, made sure the brakes worked, installed Rancho 5000's on new hooped mounts and made new spring perches and flipped the u-bolts.
Installed 60 series Power Steering.
Installed 60 series rear (long) springs front and rear after going through numerous broken spring packs.
Installed a different brake booster and numerous brake masters until getting a good one.
Fabricated and installed a full roll cage.

We also replaced a bad driver's door and badly mangled hood with replacements.

Cool stuff.

[Chris]

Some pics from Redline:

[Funrover]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

[4Runninfun]

So whats next for the 55?

[Chris]

I replaced the clutch slave & master which I spent too much time on since the slave was apparently good. It's also hard to find some stuff for these old rigs and then modification is not uncommon but it's all good and working as it should, I even took the opportunity to fix some of the PO's half-@ssed setup.

Inspired by Jon's install of eDead I checked into it too. Nice price and what I was looking for and ordered both the sound deadening material and the liquid rubber. My firewall had an abundance of holes from previous stuff like A/C (wish it had been left!) and wiring etc. It was pretty drafty so I patched all the holes then painted on the rubber. After the rubber I installed the mats. Wow, the difference is dramatic, this will never be as quiet as my 62 but it's much improved.

Of course having a new exhaust system put on didn't hurt either :-[

The pic with the gray stuff is the rubber, the silver the dampening pads. I used 60 sq. ft. of it before running out.

[Chris]

I also found a Toyota AM/FM radio from an 82 pickup that fit the 55 radio slot perfectly which pleased me a lot. It looks like it belongs and has the bonus of FM which wasn't available in the 55's. I picked up a pawm shop surround sound system for $10 and used 4 of the speakers for the truck. Now I have music! ;D

[Chris]

Next up is replacing the front pinion seal which leaks badly, picked one up today so that's moving to the top of my list. Also right there is installing a Holley T/A carb which I hope will avoid much of the known carb issues off-road. I got a great buy from Holley on eBay so i didn't spend an arm 7 leg to buy it. Once those two things are installed it will be time to give it a bit of a shakedown run and see what's next on the list.

There are a few good leaks on the motor but I hope a new oil pan gasket and valve cover gaskets will take care of the bulk of it.

[Chris]

I jumped ahead of the carb and pinion seal to find and fix a short in the wiring causing me to blow the fuse for the tail lights and dash lights. I'm removing the trailer wiring and PO installed manual switch for backup lights in hopes the short is there.

[Funrover]

Coming along nicely!

[Chris]

I have to fix the wiring short before doing the above. Thinking my additions (radio, heater blower switch, interior roll bar mounted lights) may have been the problem I removed them in hopes I created the short. Not the case so I'm still searching and will rewire those after fixing the short.

[Chris]

I'm buying Man Jerk's diffs & ARB locker along with a few other parts from his FJ60 so it will be locked in the rear before too long.

[Chris]

I just need to fix the final wiring, still don't have dash lights but everything else is wired and working.

[Chris]

No more progress on the wiring but a big thanks to Mark (Man Jerk) for today's work and parts. :bow:

The 55 now has 4:88's and an ARB in the front. Probably put an Aussie/Lockright in the rear.

His 60 may be coming to the end but his parts will live on

[KnuckleHead]

Nice build. Looks like its coming along how you want it to. Good luck with the wiring. Thats not a fun task to handle.

[Chris]

Thanks, I'll go back to the wiring tomorrow. It's coming along well and I'm happy with it but need to step it up to have it ready for Moab in July.

(Did your stickers make it yet?)

[KnuckleHead]

They did, I got them friday. Again thank you. I just picked up the Ranger today ( sunday ). I posted pics in intro. Once i get it cleaned up I'll add the stickers.

[Pathrat]

wow. that is just incredible what you can do.