here it is after a year of owning it..the truck came with a hard top that was never on..  a random guy stopped to talk to me while i was filling gas and had asked if i was interested in buying an old soft top that he had lying around in his garage for a 150 bucks.. i said sure and brought it home.. it needed a back window and a zipper fixed but 100bucks later it was on and i was happy..



from this point I stretched the frame 14 inches and bought a 45 tub through aqualu and got that on.. around the same time i ended up buying an original 45 that came with 3 boxes, 4 tailgates, 2 hartops, 4 doors, an extra windshield frame and numerous other extras..   i took the worst box of the 3 and bobbed it on both ends and ended up with the following product..  around this time several other mods happened as well..  i did my first spring over, shackle reversal, saginaw power steering and bought some 35 inch rubber..  i also borrowed a set of boggers from a buddy and had a few other sets as well..  







a few years ago i bent the frame on my truck and blew the eadgasket all within the same month so i thought i had better upgrade.. i ended up getting a diesel bj60 series cruiser that i have taken the whole rolling chasis from and now have transplanted everything onto that chasis..  so my cruiser will now be  a 3b diesel, 5 speed, splitcase, rolling on 60 series axles and powersteering..





and thisis where i am today..  the new rolling chasis has been sprung over, shackle reversed, chopped, shortened and new body mounts put on and everything modified.. i have got a little ways to go and i will post stuff at a later date but it is lightening like crazy right now and i gotta shut off the computer before the power goes out..

This is probably my Favorite Cruizer of all time, the diesel makes it that much cooler! Is that an old pic of the donor 60 sitting in the lot, or is there still ice on the ground?!

thanks for the good words guys..    yes, that pic was taken in the early spring time.  snow and ice isnt coming around yet for at least another month and a half..  

i will have a bit more of an update after the weekend..  its definitelly a bit more put together today.  

Lookin good.

Whatcha doing with the steering? Looks like you dropped some big coin on them new rollers!

Very cool!    What color code blue is that?  I'd like to see a picture of the diesel when you get the time.

i left myself 3 inches or so between the rad and the bib so that should be enough to get an intercooler and piping in there..   i will be hopefully purchasing a new garrett turbo setup from a guy on ih8mud that is putting them together so that will be exciting..  i am hoping for around 10-14 pounds of boost out of this thing..
 
this is going to be an expensive month for me though..  i am getting my gas meter moved off my house and put on the garage within the next few weeks here..  from there i am getting a gas line put into the garage and putting in a gas heater for the winter..  on the house side i am getting it teed off there so i can have a gas bbq hooked up along with moving the line that goes into the house so i can build a deck there next year..  i am quite excited!!   i finally get to have a warm garage to build in for the winter..   
 i am trying to get this landcruiser put together and running before winter hits so i can then work on project extend-a-toy this winter and get it done for spring..

Yeah Man Rank is looking good! Its gonna be wild running a turbo in that thing! Oh and congrats on the garage heater, I cant imagine working out there when its below zero   When you coming to Cali, I need you to redo my welds!

I like the diesel, going to be real cool with the turbo. The 1969 fj40 I'm working on now, I think was painted sky blue. Used to be a lighter color, but I can't find the code on the rig. How much do you think a 3b diesel engine weights?

Hey man what's the latest on your rig? Any updates? We need our Rankenstine fix
Bro!

just a little bit of an update..

so i have had a little bit of time this week to tackle the thing that has been keeping me from working on this truck..     i have really wanted tilt steering in Rankenstein for a long long time so i thought this was going to be an easy mod and jumped right into it..  it didnt end up that way and i needed a little while to think about things..    i came up with this over the last week..   it was a pain in the ass but now that i have most everything worked out, i wont hesitate doing this again..
 and while i was in there i got the upper and lower rad hoses in place, the heater lines in place and all of the crap that was on the engine taken off so its a clean slate to work with..

the shop is getting cleaner and cleaner.. i havent had this much room to work in my garage in a long time...  here is an action shot of my truck just sitting there..   :lol:


here is the old master cylinder waiting for an upgrade..


and here is the new one on..  actually its a used one for mock up..  i roughly hooked up all the lines but will redo everything when the time comes..    also, notice that the steering shaft is poking throught he fire wall..  the "pocket" that gets bolted to the fire wall had to get the inside enlarged so the end of the steering column could get through..   the final hole ended up being cut around all 4 welded nuts in the pocket and resembled a cross..  this was so not only could i get the end of the steering column shaft through the hole but the u-joint from the column..  everything just squeeks through..


here is a little closer pic..


this is the template that i made using the base from the original steering column..   this will be the plate that gets welded to the end of the 60 series column..


this is the plate being built..  the 4 holes i think were drilled to 3/8's and the center hole was 2 inches..


this is the final product built.. i had to cut it in half so i could get it around the steering column end..  from here i put the 60 series column to where it looked like it would work and installed the two halves around the column shaft in the firewall pocket..


i will have to get a pic of what the steering column looked like before..   where the springs for the tilt column mechanism hook up, the whole area had a lot of excess metal that flared out making it tough to put into the stock colomn location in the firewall..  a lot of trimming was done to make this work and then that cross brace was rewelded.. this is a very much needed step to make this work.. this cross piece will also serve as a mount for the brake pedal return spring..  the original mounting hole was cut off when i enlarged the column mounting bracket..


you can see how much i had to cut out of the column support based on the shiny grinded metal..  i wasnt pleased with how low the column was sitting under the dash so i cut and trimmed in small doses till i was able to get it up enough to where it was in the stock columns location.. sorry, no before photos..


here is another..


and another..


here is the column removed again for final welding of my square base plate..


and another..


and here it is bolted up in its home..  i still have to sand blast and paint all the associated parts but i am still just test fitting everything at this point..


and one more from the inside..  although it doesnt look like much, its been a pain in the butt to get to this point..  i think that column has been in and out of the truck over 40 times..


and the result..  all the way down.


and all the way up..



i still have to build a strap for the underside of the column to bolt to the dash and make a mount for the spring that puts tension on the lever that controls the tilt but this is minor...  i am hoping this is done this weekend along with a few other odds and ends..

i love it! sweet build man. keep up the good work

so i am going to be saving my pennies for a toybox this winter...  i cant see myself not doing one for this truck as i still believe that this is the most economical solution to make my cruiser crawl.  this combined with my 3b diesel will give me the ability to pull houses over..
 my first priority though is to just get the truck back on the road but i have another complete h55f/splitcase on my floor that would great with a toybox in the middle so when it was time i could just swap with my drivetrain thats already in there.....   there seems to be a bit of confusion to what is actually in stock now adays though and cruiser dave is that mythical person that everyone says works for marlin but can never be gotton ahold of..  hmmmmm   
 i sure would like to see an update on what has been happening with all the toybox stuff lately..  i am more interested in just what applies to me such as a h55f/splitcase combo..  i want to build this one my self so all i would need is the front adapter, rear adapter and the 4.7s..


this all being said, i have started building/resizing front and rear driveshafts so it will help me get my axles in the proper position so i can weld my spring perches permanently..  the steering column is pretty much done.. i will have pics soon of how everything turned out..  i really miss my cruiser and being that my buddies let me drive theirs it sure is encouragement to get mine on the road again!!!

finally got the steering column done this weekend and am now starting with the rear axle and driveshaft..  i had to finish extending the nose of the column another 1.5 inches so i could get everything the proper length.. 

here is the piece of tubing that i used to extend the front nose of the steering column.   i needed the column to be 1.5 inches longer


here it is all in place for yet another test fit.. i was quite happy to be at this point..


here is a small 1/4 inch washer that i welded to the top of the column so the spring for the tilt lever would have something to hook onto..


this is another test fit with the column in the dash..  you can see how tight everything is..  the other spring peeking through towards the back is the brake pedal return spring..  it will now get hooked onto here..


and here is one of the "wings" that i welded to the side of the column so it can be bolted to the underside of the dash..


pretty much the last test fit and final assembly shot..  very happy with how it turned out..


closer shot of the same thing


a good underdash shot of everything bolted up..


there is the wiring end of things yet but i will tackle that when the rest of the fabricating is done..

SHA-ZAM!!!

i will start with the u-bolt plates that i made..  i didnt want to spend the money at rough stuff specialties and then have to wait a week on top of it all so i just made these.. they are made from 3/8 thick plate that i had lying around...

started with plasma cutting the plates out.. plasma cutters=happy


and then i tacked all my plates together so i can build these quicker.. i originally had 4 tacked together but my drill press doesnt like cutting through thick material with a 5/8 drill bit too much...


dont ever let those shavings from your drill bit get too long while letting them whirl around your drill bit while you were cutting..  one long whirling strand got caught around my finger while working and ripped through my work glove and finger pretty quick...  no stitches this time.. whew!


and here are the plates all cut and drilled..  i used the band saw and made a deep cut on both ends and then pounded them up to 45 degrees.


i then put a pass of weld in the gap that opened from bending the ends up and painted them up and viola!


here is Rank with the box off and getting ready to work on the entire back end of the frame..   i sure am tempted to put a tube flatdeck back there and use my box as a trailer!!


here is the box.. it was heavy..  



what we found in both back frame rails.. it was quite bad..


but they both cleaned up super nice and benp did an excellent job cleaning everything up.. everything got painted before the new frame patch panels got tacked into place.. check out the new u-bolt plates!!