4bt fj cruiser

[slytowncrawler2]

Thought I would post up a build I'm doin for a friend.
Try an get some thoughts and opinions from some of you guys.
The truck is a roller right now and I'll be trying to get y'all up to speed throughout the day if my work schedule permits...
Have learned a lot on this build and have enjoyed every second of it. In very proud of it and the direction it's headed.
I got thick skin soooooo if somethin looks like **** or needs to be changed speak up !!

This is how it looked when ryan(my friend) picked it up.

He then stripped it down to frame and had the engine guy install engine and he sat the redone tub on the chassis.
That's when he made the call to me to see if I was interested in building it. I am almost done with my buggy and short on cash so my obvious answer was hell yea !!
This is what I started with

 

[slytowncrawler2]

An as we all know toyota guys are almost religious about keeping there yota axles. But after a lot of teeth pulling and name calling I managed to talk Ryan into some super duty axles...... Not rockwells but they would have to do.
We found a sterling rear and 60front . The next call was to ruff stuff for all our link tabs.
Those folks are great and so are there products

Rolled the rear out and got my friend who " calls" himself a body man to come by an cut fenders so we could walk the rear back some.

 

[slytowncrawler2]

"body man"

On the rear links I tried to keep them as level as possible an stick to the 75 percent rule as much as possible.

Nobody really makes a lot of stuff for cruisers so u will see a lot of jeep stuff adapted to this build.
Like the frame French kit from genright for the rear king air shocks ...

 

[UABYJ94]

Definitely watching this one.

 

[birfme]

Finally

 

[slytowncrawler2]

So we started to figure out how we were going to mount the kings .... Thought about tieing into the cage but we are still aways from the cage and I wanted it a roller ASAP. I always liked gen rights frame French so I started throwing that idea around as I built the rest of the suspension .

The only kicker was the cruiser frame was not as wide as a jeep.... So I couldn't recess it all the way.
I know I know. I could have cut the frame but that's the only damn thing on the truck remotely square so I ran with it!

 

[slytowncrawler2]

The rear limit straps will be just shy of letting the shocks flex all the way. Shy by about 2". So with the rear done except for welding we moved to the front.

Got the Dana "50" rolled under there and mocked up. Notice I said "50" would anyone like to ask Ryan how you tell the difference between a 50 and a 60 just by looking at it???(got a 60 later)

 

[birfme]

 

[STROKERYOTA]

 

[birfme]

Good to see you found it Jeremy

 

[birfme]

Now tell me what I'm doing wrong

 

[STROKERYOTA]

i didnt say one thing

 

[yozuki]

Great start love the power plant keep up the good work...

 

[slytowncrawler2]

So when I started thIs I knew almost nothing about cruisers except they looked cool. If this had been an old Chevy I could tell you per batum what would fit and what wouldn't . Well on this cruiser with the 4bt up front, room to put everything became an issue.
So I decided on a three link with a pan hard ...

 

[slytowncrawler2]

I am really happy with the front end all except for how short the pan hard is .... Doesn't seem to be too bad but may change it still.

 

[slytowncrawler2]

Well we had some 2.0 kings lined up but the guy took them out for one last trail ride and broke them.... Soooooo the guy pulled through (cool guy) and sent us some 2.5 sway aways to make up for the others.... You can see them in the last pic.

So next was figuring out how to mount them. I was hoping to order some tube fenders and tie them into them.

I liked them but they were kinda cheesy.... They just bolted to the body?.?.?. Don't know bout y'all but I would trash them.
So It ended up just being more work for me. I had to tie them into the frame and all sorts of ****.
But they do look good if I do say so myself

 

[zukimaster]

I wanted to put one of those engines in my sammy! I get a chubby when the turbo goes to whining and blake smoke rolls!

 

[slytowncrawler2]

 

[slytowncrawler2]

I wanted to put one of those engines in my sammy! I get a chubby when the turbo goes to whining and blake smoke rolls!

Im still learning about the 4bts. All I know is .... I come in the shop the other day to work on it, and ryan had a new big ole pretty turbo sittin on the parts table.
Spose to spool up quicker for more low end

 

[slytowncrawler2]

So with front end under there we threw the front clip together and rolled it out to see if it passed the johndeere test.