Project Rusty, turning a rusty turd into a slightly less rusty turd...

hlb3 · Sep 3, 2008

About 3 years ago I picked up a turd of a FJ40, which I named Rusty. It was a scary rust bucket with lots of hack work done to it, but it ran, so I was happy. I wheeled it a few times until broken parts and fear for my life forced me to park her. A few easy repair jobs turned into many, many larger projects, it has been sitting since December

hlb3 · Sep 4, 2008

She rolled out of the shop for the first time in 2 years today, I have a few more things to wrap up, but she is pretty much ready for a shakedown run...

Glenn · Sep 4, 2008

Who picked out your seat harnesses?

landbruiser1 · Sep 4, 2008

more info on that rear cover please. Where did you get it?

hlb3 · Sep 4, 2008

Glenn said:
Who picked out your seat harnesses?

I picked the blue and the wife picked the pink, gotta keep the wifey happy. :redneck:

landbruiser1 said:
more info on that rear cover please. Where did you get it?

The diff cover came from Ruff Stuff. Last time I was on his site, I didn't see them on there. I know there were a lot of fittiment issues with them, I had one of the first few made, I had a lot of problems getting mine to fit, I had to do a little of clearancing inside the cover, and other were having problems as well, so he might have just gave up on them.

landbruiser1 · Sep 4, 2008

looks good.. Nice cage work also.

zukkev · Sep 4, 2008

That's gotta make you feel pretty good!!!:cheer: Looks Great man!!!:awesomework:

hlb3 · Sep 5, 2008

landbruiser1 said:
looks good.. Nice cage work also.

Thanks. :awesomework: I am pretty happy with how the cage turned out.

zukkev said:
That's gotta make you feel pretty good!!!:cheer: Looks Great man!!!:awesomework:

Yeah, it is nice finally getting it done, especially since I have spent a good 120+ hours on it in the last month. :redneck:

hlb3 · Mar 27, 2011

Well I guess 2.5 years later it is time for an update. I have wheeled the piss out of her and there really isn't any straight sheet metal left on her.

I swapped out the rear springs with some XJ springs, running 100" wheelbase now. Here is what it looked like after that (I was skidding logs with it in this pic):

I dovetailed the rear, you can see that here:

And now I got the 39.5x13.50 Iroks that I have wanted for years. I really need to figure out how I am going to afford some 30 spline Longs... :redneck:

zukkev · Mar 27, 2011

Wow, I forgot about this thread...Looks good Les---

Whatever happened to the Sami? Is it still around?

hlb3 · Mar 27, 2011

Sold it back to my dad. :redneck: Its sitting out back, waiting for me to do a spring over with stock springs on it to ditch the chitty stiff lift springs. It will find its way down to AZ to my parents retirement place in about a year and half.

lilpain · Mar 28, 2011

rocksliders? :haha:
nice! :awesomework:

hlb3 · Mar 28, 2011

Nah, they are overrated. :redneck: The rockers are junk so I just never took time to make any, I'll probably get around to it some time, haha.

hlb3 · Apr 22, 2011

Here's some pics and video from out at Elbe a few weeks ago...

hlb3 · Apr 22, 2011

Bought some bling, see if you can figure out what I got... :redneck:

I tore apart the front axle on the Cruiser and found that my short side inner was on its last leg...

Some how the birf pushed the c-clip past the groove, it took a chunk out of the shaft.

All the splines are rounded and a few more chunks were gone...

Good thing I was replacing everything. :redneck:

hlb3 · Sep 19, 2011

So time for an update...

She is now running on propane, haven't taken her out for a run yet, but she is running awesome:

My press fit crank pulley fell off again, found it had a crack in it, so I found another one, it was only a single pulley, so I cut apart my old one and rigged up another pulley to bolt on. I also drilled and tapped the crank so now it is bolted on as well...

I also enclosed the back, made a frame out of 1/2" square tube and skinned it with 22ga sheetmetal. I still need to mount the tail lights, had them for like 4 years and never got around to mounting them.

Also ditched the old POS Ford powersteering pump that has been on it since I got it and got a Trail-Gear high pressure one, huge difference! I cut down some 3"x3" square tube and made a mount for the pump to slip into, then I was hack up the Ford mount and weld the new mount to that.