700hp, 40s, bypasses, tube chassis rock buggy build

This thread/build is rowdy- I’m in for it too!!

 

x2

 

I am enjoying reading and seeing all of your behind the scenes work. WOW! Definitely sub'd to see how everything turns out. Very nice work and nice shop too!

 

@smslavin glad to see it’s not just us in here anymore. This build deserves the love haha. Not that’s there’s anything wrong with just you

 

Just saw this thread but dang! Subd and keep the pictures and info coming!

 

I’m good with whatever sir haha

 

Nothing you can't learn, everything I do is just from having fun and wanting to learn. Like getting the plasma table and tig welder, no reason besides wanting to get better at fabricating. I don't do any of this for work, so just spending a few hours and weekends here and there over the past few years and seeing cool stuff and wanting to learn how to do it myself got me here.

The FJ is a 1977. Originally my dad and sister did a frame off restoration on it in preparation of being my sister's first vehicle, but once it was running she decided she didn't like it. I had it as a daily for a few years in college, and at one point rolled it going around a corner on a dirt road at 50mph and totally destroyed the front end, rear end, and cage. I fixed and rebuilt everything, and then painted it back to its original red (when my dad bought it was black). When I moved to Southern Utah I took it with me, though I consider it my dad's truck but he gifted it to me since I always liked it. The frame got sand blasted and powder coated, the body is an aluminum replica from Canada, the cage was the first cage I ever did and is based on a kit out of Colorado Springs which I tweaked a bit, the drivetrain and axles are all stock and my dad completely rebuilt everything. A couple years ago I converted it to a Holley EFI system, but otherwise it's essentially stock, a resto-mod more or less. I keep it parked inside, and I've left the roof off for the past few years and mainly use it as a summer cruiser. A few weeks ago I pulled the cage and redid the seat mounts since I bought a set of PRPs to replace the cheapo seats I had, and also touched up and repainted the cage. One of the most fun vehicles I've ever driven, I've thought about linking it and building it out a little but part of its fun and character is how slow and painful and raw everything is so I've just kept it stock.

 

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments! Cool to see other people with similar interests, even if it's not remotely Tundra related.

I have all Artec gear, including their weld on high steer arms which have been just sitting on the table. If you haven't run any of their stuff, I definitely recommend it, I wouldn't call it cheap but it's not crazy expensive. The front and rear truss and the full hydro mount are all from them, and are really nice pieces of hardware that fit great with minimal grinding. I'll be buying full hydro from PSC in the near future, so will finally get the high steer added on then.

 

Wow that’s beautiful

 

This was about the extent of my off-roading in my FJ 40. It was a franken-build but I had a lot of fun. Nothing to look at but my brother and I still talk about how many times we broke down and had to Jerry-rig a fix to get us home! Always wish I didn't let it go.

 

totally get that. no shortage of wanting to learn on my end. just short on space and finances. the little bit of welding i have done, i've thoroughly enjoyed.

that's the best story. glad to see it still getting used.

 

That's awesome! What year was it? I had a 1969 with a 3 speed I bought too but ended up parting it out since it was too far gone. I haven't done anything gnarly in my 40, I used to do a lot of snow wheeling but never much crawling. Being so small yet tall and open diffs doesn't lend itself very well to the slick rock and sand where I live now. In college I did take it camping a lot, and even built a little trailer since the 40 had such little room. Truly one of the slowest setups ever, but had an absolute blast. Can't beat a FJ40 for fun, even if it's not that good at anything haha

 

So cool
It was a 1980/81(I think) The chassis and drivetrain was 80, body 81'? tranny was the 4 speed, but we burned it up when we swapped in a 385 stroker SB and then had to re-adapt to a 700r4 automatic tranny... and only had trouble from there. I should have done so many things differently, but that's what experience is... Learning from the mistakes. I sure learned a whole lot... mostly how NOT to do things LOL.

This is my 86'. "400runner". Still in progress.




SB 400, Richmond 5spd, NP205 t-case, Competition engineering 9" housing, Richmond gears, Moser axles, arb air locker, willwood brakes... Etc etc etc. Lol it just keeps going!

 

Thanks for the heads up! I've been worrying about steering for awhile since it's the most expensive system next to the drivetrain essentially, and I have zero experience with hydro and between psc and trail gear, psc had somewhat better reviews. I didn't even know Howe has full hydro setups, I thought they specialized in rack and pinions. I'll give them a call later this week and see what the goods run.

 

Great build!

 

Your dog has that "Put down the freaking camera and let's roll" look! LOL

Awesome build. You have some chops for sure!

 

First time I've seen this thread/build, but I ate it all. Great job...will be following

 

Give some info, that thing is sick I've wanted a buggy just like that someday with rear steer and ORIs, build something with all the fancy crawling stuff that wouldn't be on a go fast build. Let me know if you're ever near Sand Hollow or go to Trail Hero, we can hit some trails once mine is done

 

Thanks for posting, digging it.

 

May has been super busy in every way but working on the buggy. Been getting a trickle of parts in and doing a little wrenching here and there.

Got my shifter in from Sand Hollow Offroad. What's cool about this is by moving that front quick release pin, you can have the shifter setup to go straight from drive to reverse or have it setup to have a normal lockout between neutral and reverse. So if you're crawling for instance and getting tippy, you can slam it straight into reverse without pushing on the brake or pulling/pushing levers for the shifter. Since that single pin engages/removes the reverse lock out, you can have it setup for crawling and then quickly enable the reverse lockout for normal/fast driving.



Got my radiator in too, it's a 33x19x3 Griffin. Honestly a little smaller than I thought it'd be and it was the largest one I could find (surprisingly cheap too!), I'll have to do a little shroud work but the two Ford Taurus electric fans should fit about perfect. I'll have the trans cooler in front to one side, and another cooler on the other side. I think it'll be pretty slick, blow a metric assload of air, and be one of the cheapest systems on the whole buggy.





Also got this cute little Lingenfelter AN adapter plate for the oil cooler. It also has ports for a temperature and pressure sensor.



A bit of a bummer was the stock water pump I bought does not fit, the thermostat housing is right where the chassis is. After a lot of digging and calling around I found an Edelbrock and a Stewart Components water pump that are super narrow plus don't have any heater core ports to block off. Down side is I'll be going from a common and cheap water pump to a rare and expensive one. Though what is nice, is the fancy water pumps have a cartridge assembly for the pump itself, so I can carry a spare pump cartridge only and not need to pull the whole assembly, just a few bolts to swap the actual pump itself. I haven't bought that yet, but at least there's a path forward.



Also got some replacement coil packs since some of the stock ones were broken and mounted them up. The stock valve covers have this ugly little rail that they all mount to, the Holley covers look pretty clean--and of course, aesthetics are just as important as function



Also, not really buggy related, but we picked up this Can Am X3 two weeks ago. I'm not a huge golf cart fan, but I will say it is very fun even if it lacks the cool and uniqueness factors. We may end up racing it in the future, but for now it's more of a toy for my girlfriend (maybe me a little ) and something I can use to prerun in the future. If we end up racing it, it won't be until after the buggy is done. One racecar build at a time!



And now onto the exciting news of today, I just got my beadlocks in I ordered 4 weeks ago! 5x Trail Ready 17x9, 3.5" BS, 8x170, with the phat ring.



And I had to mount one up really fast just since this is the first time I've had 40s on beadlocks



And then compared to the first set of beadlocks I bought a long time ago. Same setup but they're 15s wrapped with 35s. The 40s at 15psi measure to 39.75" and with the beadlock weigh in at 120lbs.



I'll finish mounting up the other tires tonight. I need to order one more 40 as a spare too. Additionally the transmission crossmember is in and I have the trans mount drawn up in CAD, maybe pound that out today and then it'll be about time to start mounting seats up and doing the interior. I need to buy some swamp coolers, now that the holidays and relatives in May have left, time to fight the heat and get back to making some headway.

 

sorry. was i drooling?

 

Looking good!