This is Lance Hawkins awesome 1966 model FJ40.

  I am one lucky shop owner to be doing the conversion on this sweet 1967 truck  Below you will find the sequence of pictures we took as the truck went throught its growing pains.

Here goes everything.  We disassemble the front cap and the interior all at once.  

Everything came out fairly easily.  The wiring is always difficult and let me tell you, Toyota sure learned as they went along because the wiring on early models and the factory installation to put it bluntly, suck.

Check out the chaos the consumes the cruiser as things progress

One thing I have found to be a crucial part of all major conversions like this one is to assemble the entire drive line or skeleton thereof and make sure every thing fits before any major welding is done.

You can see the space between the xfer and the lower portion of the body.  That's good!

For some reason Lance's cruiser had small holes everywhere in the back so we had to weld, fill and grind them all flat before prepping the truck for the liner.

Next came the roll cage.  I didn't want to burn the liner with the welding spatter so we went ahead and assemble the family cage and drilled the holes.  Lance is having the cage and windshield hooks painted to match the silver on his seat frames.  Very trick

By the way check out the feet on the rollcage.  Nice touch, you can say it. 

Ugh, prepping for the liner.   The fourth pic above shows why we are the best.  Look for the holes that were present before.  They are no longer and the liner looks absolutely great.

Here are some sequences involving the prepping of the frame for motor installation.

The rear disc conversion went smoothly.  We then moved on to moving and shaping the brakelines for the driver side frame rail.  The stock master cylinder goes bye-bye shortly.

The next series shows the some of the steps involved when installing the Man-a-fre bolt on kit.  Its actually a very cool kit but did have some minor issues we had to overcome.

These next pictures show the correction kit and power steering being installed.

Again, make sure everything fits.

Notice the bolts welded in for the bumper.  One of the greatest tools invented: the pickle fork for an impact air hammer.

Here you can see where the fit is affected by the slope of the front frame crossmember.  Notice the hole for the sector is blocked by the correction kit.  I use the hole saw to scribe the hole then cut it with a torch.

The next step is to get the motor and tranny installed so that the final fittings can start.

Once the motor is in we can concentrate on the wiring of the truck,  that way you can see where wires need to go and connectors need to be.  Check out how we make the accelerator cable fit snugly.

The power steering column was installed next.

These next pictures are not that clear but do show how we did the battery box.  This was done before we got to work on the truck so we refined it and made it functional.  These are extremely heavy duty custom battery cables.  Notice the multiple grounding straps.

We wired up the motor next.  ATD is essential here.  Look closely at the heat shield for the wiring.  The power center keeps the rear mounted battery box free of wires. 

The last picture shows how things sometimes don't go the way you plan.  I intend on the oil cooler going in front of the radiator.  There was just not enough room.  So I put the cooler on the side of the radiator in an upright position.  It will not be as effective as the original plan would have made it but it will still take the edge off the temperature of the oil.

These are some of the reasons people choose us to do there conversions.  I cleaned up the dash of all the extras,  the check engine light is tucked away nicely, the heater is adapted to the motor in a clean way,  the shifters look stock and are functional, and I'll let Lance cut the carpet and the mats for the rollcage.

The Cruiser Company   
Copyright © 2000 The Cruiser Company. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008