The Fleet (SFW)

[maybeillbuyit]

I just showed my wife the cek fleet pic in the hopes she would be "happy" about my plans to increase my fleet to two. I don't think it worked

[grahamcam]

What an amazing garage..... is that on the eastside?

[1st 5er]

Very nice Charlie.

[bmwstudent]

I would like to point out( respectfully) That garage is too damn small for that fabulous fleet!

Yes, I am having serious thoughts about finding a storage unit... I made the mistake of mentioning this to my wife. She was not amused.

You have issues.

With his wife? Because there is nothing wrong with car love.

[tig]

blue, red, and white.

fixed that for you.

What order do the colors appear in this pic?


Asking for a friend.

Well, going left from right, I see blue, white red.

relax francis. you're too easy.

[leadphut]

bravo!

[tig]

Uglina's back!

Recap:
- Purchased in 2006
- Refurbished as my first real 'wrenching adventure' through 2013
- Solid her like an idiot in 2013, but kept in touch with buyer (Houston, TX)
- He sold it back to me last spring and I have it in Utah so I can play

1978 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 in Mustard Yellow. Mostly original. Build thread on ih8mud.com here:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/uglina ... ead.79672/

I'm going to avoid commenting on the shop that did the work until I'm 100% confident in the results. However, I can say that after a 15 minute freeway drive from the shop to my place of work the key stuff feels great. Here's a summary of what has been done since Uglina went under the knife starting last August.

I realized I haven't posted the story yet, so here's the deal:

After driving her last spring I found drivability to be a real problem. The biggest issue was the carb. Whether it is the higher altitude of Salt Lake City vs. Seattle, or the additional miles and patina since I sold her in 2013, she just wasn't running well. It all came to a head when she simply died on I-80 outside of Park City and I had to get a tow truck. In addition the steering had gotten much sloppier over the years. The CCOT "mini truck" power-steering setup that was installed in the early 1990s was poorly fabricated from the get-go and just tired. Finally, smell of hydrocarbons (which is normally something I love) had either increased or I have just grown up. Either way, I felt I needed to clean this up if I was going to be driving it a lot. It was important that my wife would not be disgusted riding in or driving the rig .

I debated how far to go, recognizing that I don't have the facility to do any real work myself here in Utah (until our home here is completed). I talked to multiple shops and got lots of options and rough estimates. These included building/buying a 'built' 2F, going the V8 route, going with a Cummins R2.8 crate motor, and just extending the life of the original 2F with either a Holly or FiTech EFI unit. In the end, I decided my tenet would be

"Stay mostly stock, but make it reliable; bet on the 2F having many miles left in her. Avoid going down the cosmetic rabbit hole; prepare to drive her into the ground for a few years so an full frame-off restoration makes sense."

This led to the EFI solution and it was a toss up between the Holly Sniper or the FiTech. The shop I choose had experience with Holly so that sealed the deal.

I also decided the only way to fix the CCOT hacked-up-power-steering system was to rip it out and do it right. Right or wrong, I decided the "right" way to go was to do the FJ60 route after seeing several rigs with that conversion.

Finally, because I plan on actually adventuring out into the Utah wilderness now, I wanted SOME recovery options, so I decided to add a winch.

• Holly Sniper 2300 EFI - Replaces carb; self contained and looks almost-factory once installed.
• Mosley motor in tank fuel pump weld in ring
• TRE in-tank fuel pump
• Red Horse black anodized A/N fittings
• Reed Horse -6 black braided high pressure fuel line
• Mosley motor aluminum factory air cleaner adapter
• Red Line Cruisers throttle cable bracket
• Steering box rebuild seal kit form Cruiser Outfitters
• Steering pump rebuild seal kit for Cruiser Outfitters
• Air pump delete idler pulley from Spector Offroad
• EGR block off plates-made in house
• Ssteering shaft- made in house with Borgison 36 spline joint at box keyed joint from fj40 at top end
• Column bearing kit from cruiser outfitters
• Fittings for box made at House of Hose
• All steering joints are 555 from Cruiser Outfitters
• Steering tubes are OEM fj40/fj60 mix
• HFS front bumper from cool cruisers of Texas - warn 8274 ready
• Toyota battery
• Tesco tape for under hood wire protection
• Exhaust Generic Master muffler - quiet/stock series muffler
• OEM Toyota ignition switch from cruiser outfitters
• Warn 8274 winch
• Adjusted shifter to not be so far forward (I had previously adjusted it too far after installing the center console ages ago).
• Ripped out stereo amp under seat, new Continental head-unit with bluetooth and built in amp.
• Toe kick seals
• R&R headlight switch
• LED knob/dash lights

I am going to drive it today & tomorrow and then get it back to the shop Friday to have the winch installed. More to come... Great to be back (again).

[tig]

Yesterday afternoon I had one of the most fun "shakedown drives" ever.

I wanted to exercise the rig at altitude, ensure it worked well in traffic, and see if I could get off road a little. I succeeded on all fronts.

She drove great. I have a minor punch list of things to fix, but so far I'm very pleased with the investments I've made upgrading both the steering and engine. The Sniper 2300 EFI is still in learning mode and I'm not sure it's quite right yet (a little rich), but I had no issues driving up to Alta. Once up there I saw the sheriff and asked if he knew of a trail I could go on to quickly shake her down off road and take some pics. He said "follow me!". Yes!

Here's some pics for y'all to enjoy and comment on.

[knunger]

You have impeccable taste in window stickers Charlie:

DSCN0582 by Kim Unger, on Flickr

[Hffvdbl]

Ugly a looks fantastic. I’ve always loved that color. Thanks for sharing.

[tig]

She's back (again). For the past two weeks the shop has been tackling a healthy punch list:

• Fixed Fuel smell. Install an active vent/charcoal system.
• Running rich; Smells rich. AFRs low.
• TPS never shows more than ~60%. According to docs WOT requires above 90%
• Fixed Charging system
• Turning on headlights causes head unit to power cycle
• Parking brake light flakey
• Steering wheel is not straight
• Tick at idle. Exhaust manifold not tight.
• Cig lighter socket inop.
• Right front caliper smoking when hot. Sticking. Replaced.
• Add Rear hitch receiver
• Add a 12v, switched cig socket behind dash. Plug usb-c adapter that's in car in, and fish wire through little hole by phone mount. "
• Install Warn 8274 winch
• Radiator pin-holes. Replaced radiator.

I picked her up yesterday and drove hard. Hard enough to cause one of the speakers to break from it's (lame) mounting. Tee-hee.

Found a few more issues that I'll really need to address before I can declare this phase complete, but none are major (fuel gauge stopped working, heater fan inop). I'm loving driving her around (and looking back after parking).















Next up is some heavy duty work on the paint. I want to preserve the current patina as much as possible so I'm going to do a polish and protect with ceramic.

[tig]

Back in Seattle, I have finished putting the doors on the 911 back together. The project started with the passenger inside door release not working. It lead to me discovering the passenger door had been replaced (on a car that I bought with 6800 miles on it 23 years ago; I've always believed the car was pristine. Bubble burst.)

Feels good to have that episode behind me.




She was so dirty, I just had to wash... tee-hee.

[Zengineer]

That's quite the wash rig you've got there - what type of filters are in the big blues?

[tig]

That's quite the wash rig you've got there - what type of filters are in the big blues?

The spotless water treatment system is www.crspotless.com. Only H an 2O comes out. No need to dry cars. Love.

The pressure washer is https://www.kranzleusa.com/.

The stand is by cek.

[Zengineer]

The stand is by cek.

Would have expected some nice powdercoating, zinc plating and new chrome on that...

[tig]

The stand is by cek.

Would have expected some nice powdercoating, zinc plating and new chrome on that...

It's in the plan, but I wanted to make sure it was right. Plus I have my welding cart to powder coat too. I was going to do them together someday...

[tig]

I was able to pick Uglina up a the shop Monday afternoon.



Since the last report here's what we've done:

• Polished paint and professionally ceramic paint treatment to bring out the shine and prevent further oxidation/patina (by Dusty @ Envision Detail in Salt Lake city; class-act and very good).
• Remounted speakers
• Attempted to fix PS belt squeal (not fixed)
• Really fixed fuel smell? - Changed out check valve, re-did fuel hoses (all vent lines with new clamps), fixed cracked plug on fuel tank line, removed the VSV valve from between canister and manifold, swapped vacuum line from charcoal canister from throttle body to correct port on intake housing.
• Fixed leak in EGR block off plate - billet EGR block off plate.
• Replaced ammeter - now working correctly.
• Found and reattached cap for transfer case knob.
• Replaced screw in bezel.
• New wipers.

On Tuesday I went for a drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon because it was snowing. I've actually never driven this rig in the snow and was a little nervous about the tires since they've been on her since 2007. They were fine. I know technically they are too old, but they show no signs of rot and only have about 6,000 miles on them. Plus, I understand you can't actually buy 33x9.5x15 BFG ATs anymore and I love the tall/skinny look! The weather provided for some pretty good photos; too bad I didn't have a 'real' camera.













The shop damaged the left front fender previously and had it repainted. The paint does not match. They've agreed to fix it correctly and I'm going to have the rust on the passenger door fixed and it repainted because it just needs to be done. I will drop her back off at the shop Friday...

Pretty safe to say Uglina likes Utah. And I like having her back. I'm excited about being able to wrench on her myself in a few months when the house is done and we're out of the apartment.



New list of to-dos:

• Driver's side defrost vent always blows cold. Passenger blows hot when DEF is on. How could that be?
• I've not played out winch and re-wound it yet (you are supposed to this according to the manual).
• Re-do door seals (I put gaskets in in 2006-7 and didn't do a great job and a few are loose).
• I think one of the speakers' cones is bad as I get distortion sometimes.
• Figure out a different mount for the Holly Sniper LCD; that's where my phone goes.
• Fix Alternator/AC belt whine

On the last one, this truck has done this since I got it in 2006 (to some degree). We suspect it is do to the belt not getting enough wrap around the AC compressor. Thoughts?

[travisj]

Fucking Fantastic FJ Fcharlie!
Looks right at home in Utah!

[RoyW]

Simply awesome Charlie! Love them all.

-RoyW

[tig]

I finally got all three E28s together for a photoshoot. I had fantasies about doing this in some spectacular location, but in the end, I ended up doing it quickly the morning Minerva was to be shipped to Utah. I am a master of procrastination.

[muleskinner]

What do you mean you were looking for a spectacular location? That is a spectacular location. Also, some spectacular cars.

[Adam W in MN]

Gorgeous pictures, location, and E28 fleet.

[dsmith]

Amazing! The amount of work on those 3 cars is not let down by those pictures.

[leadphut]

[Bonsaibacker]

True eye candy!