FJ-40 to become a hot rod

[David Rayner]

I’m heavily into custom cars and wish to customise an FJ-40. By that, I don’t mean raise it up and modify it for extreme off-road work, but customise it like you would a Falcon or Monaro. When it’s done, there won’t be much of the FJ’s mechanicals left so rather than begin with a complete car, I thought I’d buy a chassis and go from there and I have the opportunity to buy a bare ’71 for a good price. I’d put an Oz East ‘glass body on it because I prefer ‘glass to steel. It’s much easier to work with and it doesn’t rust. For power, I’d have a Ford 460 with a C-6 trans (like my other car). Rear end would be either a Ford 9” on triangulated 4-link, or Jag. I haven’t decided as yet. The front axle would be a dropped I-beam on 4-bar like you’d see on most hot rods, and I’d prefer rack & pinion to a steering box. I’ve spoken to an engineer who can certify such mods and he says it’s all quite OK but, as I’ve had nothing to do with Land Cruisers, I have some questions about them.

Did the chassis change much over the FJ’s production run? A ’71 chassis has to comply with only a handful of ADRs which is great for me, but is a ’71 model a good one to have? My favourite bike (of which I have 3) came with two distinctly different frames – ’70 to ’73, and ’74 to 81. The early frames are junk so I have to ask the question.

Has anyone used an Oz East ‘glass body? Are they well made? Are they certified for road use or are they “off-road only”.

Does the chassis number indicate things like year of manufacture, country delivered to, and left/right hand drive? Can you quote a typical chassis number (use your own if you like) and tell me what all the letters and numbers mean?

I know they were made in LHD for other countries but any chassis I buy here in Australia will be RHD and I’d want to convert it to LHD because my wife is deaf in her right ear. When we’re in her Mazda, she drives and I sit to her left. When we’re in my Ford, I drive and I sit to her left (it’s a lefty). If I sit to her right, she can’t hear a word I’m saying. Do you think a RHD chassis would be easy to convert to LHD? Given that the front axle will be changed and most of the steering linkages will be hand fabricated, could it be any harder than locating the rack where I want it to be? Even if I use a steering box, surely it’d be just a matter of moving it to the left side?

If all this sounds like pie in the sky, please be aware that radical cars (and bikes) are nothing new to me and I’m quite capable of building such a thing. It’s just that I know next to nothing about Land Cruisers, except that the one in my mind will be a sight to behold and be something no one else has.

Thank you.

Dave.

[trentmeyer23]

I may be able to somewhat, with two of those many questions.

First: Steering rack, I work wih a guy who builds hot rods in his spare time and where he can, he prefers to use Holden Camira racks due to the positioning of the input shaft.

Second: There are guides found via Google on how to read the VIN and chassis numbers. It is fairly generic.

[David Rayner]

Thanks or that.