PFB's Gelande FJ40

[pigeonfarmboy]

Hi kids remember me? Probably not, it's been too long.

Had my eyes on a Cruiser kit and got one in a trade recently. No reason to bore you with the stock kit buildup. I really only built up the stock kit to get the axle locations marked on the frame. Never built any of my previous trucks with spring-under leafs so I decided it's time. Also pardonmynoob's build really inspired my motivation to build this so it'll follow that direction in true copycat form. Going to weather it as well to prove I'm a cool guy too. (Mostly to hide my poor painting skills)

Robbed the spring hardware from a TF2 kit I'm building with links for a Blazer. For the spring-under I filed a flat spot on the underside of the axle. You can control the angle of the pinion using this method too. I need to bring mine up a bit. The bolts just pass through the holes in the leafs for alignment and the fuel tubing hopefully will help the springs from getting bent up.


Still need to cut the u-bolt studs shorter


Milled out pockets in the frame rails for the leaf mounts.


Front mounting was a bit tricky. I used the leaf mount from a Tamiya Semi kit.


Decided to bend the shackles in the front to fit inside the semi mount. The screws straddle between the frame rail and bumper mount which is not flush but will hold fine with some force. I'll eventually deck out the whole rig with scale hardware. As stupid as that is, it really does make a difference on the look of a truck to me.




The semi mounts add a bit of ride height to the front end but makes it much easier to mount the shackles. I may have to add a bit of height to the rear end as it sags in the back. I'll probably go with the 1.9 MTZ as they look dead-on for this truck. These are just a bit smaller OD.


Big issue with dropping the axles is the front driveshaft now hits the transmission and limits suspension travel.


There's about 1" of clearance to the underside of the hood from the top of the shock hoops. I'm thinking of swapping the driveshaft over to the other side of the t-case and re-mounting the trans in this location. Higher and more forward gets it out of the way of the axle. I've got an R4 trans coming in the mail so I may wait to see how that looks before fabbing something for the 3.

[bmuzz1]

Been a while, welcome back.

[fr8cture]

Nice looks good. those are the normal yota axle U Bolts correct? Want to get to leafing mine.

[eddievedder]

PFB is back! Such a nice entrance too!

[chino63]

Where have you been? Good to see you back in action!

Still have the 45 from back in the day?

[pigeonfarmboy]

Originally Posted by fr8cture

Nice looks good. those are the normal yota axle U Bolts correct? Want to get to leafing mine.

Yessir!

Originally Posted by chino63

Where have you been? Good to see you back in action!

Still have the 45 from back in the day?

Been playing with rc hydraulic construction equipment. Guess I haven't talked to you in a good while. Few years back I had a bad garage fire. The 45 was sitting next to this semi truck unfortunately. I had just redone a bunch of stuff on it too.


Most of the custom one-off or rare stuff was ruined by the fire or water damage. All the really easy to replace things were untouched of course. Wish it wasn't the case but I'm still to this day cleaning crap up from this. New garage is all built up though, same size, no stupid window dormers up top this time.

[bmuzz1]

Wow, that sucks!! Good to see you back in action though.

[pigeonfarmboy]

Made some tabs to raise the trans up 1". Driveshaft angle from the trans to the t-case isn't ideal so I'll have to test it. Likely will have to lower it. Plenty of clearance to the hood and front axle though.






Got the fancy sliders on.




Waiting on some scale hardware to mount up the CCHand spare tire swing and bumperettes/step. Will also mount a pintle hitch

[chino63]

Holy crap, sorry to hear about the fire. Glad you guys were ok, stuff is only stuff and can be replaced. We need to catch up sometime. Looking forward to seeing more of the build!

[fr8cture]

Sliders look good need to pick a set up myself.

[rcjeepbuilder]

That raised mount looks good, if the driveshaft angle from the trans - t-case is to steep maybe you could build some mounts that not only raise the tranny up but also forward? Sliders look the business.

[chino63]

Can you raise the t-case, I only have a body so don't know what kind of clearance there is.

[pigeonfarmboy]

Originally Posted by chino63

Can you raise the t-case, I only have a body so don't know what kind of clearance there is.

Yeah that will likely happen. The stock Gelande mount has got to go. (Or at least get chopped up.)

So half an inch looks way better....my bolted together hack job with my current "mill" not so much.


"Mill"

[pigeonfarmboy]

Beat the crap outta some flat bar steel until it decided it was going to be a t-case cross member.


It hangs lower than I wanted but it keeps the battery tray in the stock location. There will probably be a version 2 that tucks it up further. Definitely the strongest part of the truck now.


Waiting on some remaining parts to complete everything and start on the body paint/weathering.

[pigeonfarmboy]

Make me parts whilst I sleep robot!

[pigeonfarmboy]

First print showed good promise but I wanted to be able to mount it to the grill backside.


V2 has mounting tabs but I messed up on the drawing and made the grate spacing too large.


While I was waiting for that one to finish I cut the grill opening to fix what should have already been molded. Tsk Tsk RC4WD. Mounts up nice but unfortunately does not clear the servo mounts on the bottom.


Just used a silver sharpie to get the silver to stand out. Think it would look much better black with just a little silver dry brush. Designing V3 now. I hate 123Design so much. I like Sketchup but it's giving me weird results to the printer when I convert the files to .stl

[fr8cture]

That's sweet. Much needed.

[pigeonfarmboy]

Originally Posted by fr8cture

That's sweet. Much needed.

Thanks! Agreed for sure.

Since sleep is overrated I stayed up most of the night redesigning Version 5 of the rad. Used an OEM replacement photo for reference. Happy with the looks of it.


Very subtle look with the black. But if you look at pictures of a stock FJ40 you can't really see the rad detail. I really just didn't want to see a motor and servo through the grill.


I should try to mount it on the chassis. I may eventually cut open the hood for more scale goodness.


Gotta figure out shocks and new front shock mounts. It's getting emus for now but they are really out of proportion. Not a fan of the front shock hoops. May have to machine some that are more accurate to stock.

[pigeonfarmboy]

Got the lenses painted and the rear ride height set. Under the weight of the body, the tires were already tucked up under the body. I added medium helper springs.

[mtnbiker4evr13]

That radiator is perfect! your slave robot does great work, and your ride height looks spot on. Taking notes for my cruiser to make it suck less.