6Duece - SAMI's '88 FJ62

The 6Duece - SAMI's '88 FJ62

I finally found something to fill the shoes of the Xterra.. MPG was not a factor, but badassedness, auto trans, and a Toyota were all part f what I required in my next rig. The Montero didn't work out for us, I miss my FJ55 and I've always been in love with FJ62's.. So, I started hunting a few weeks back and found this little guy. It's a 1988 FJ62 Land Cruiser, 233k miles (barely broken in), fuel injected I6 (3FE), super clean interior, power everything, typical rust but not in a terrible way, OME 2.5" lift kit, 32" Maxxis Bighorns..

The owner was very cool with letting me borrow it for the weekend. I took it out to the west desert with the Canguro Racing crew to get a good feel for extended hwy driving, high speed dirt road handling, and crawled a few rocks/hills to make sure she's a true mountain goat. Let's be honest, the moment I drove off with the truck Friday afternoon I knew 100% that I was going to be the new owner.. It was meant to be and I couldn't let it go to someone else. The truck is solid, handles awesome and totes along nicely @ 65-70mph. Plans are to keep it basically as is, with the exception of new IPF replacement headlights, HID HELLA Black Magics up front, new bucket seats, sliders, better stereo/speakers, and install my HAM radio.

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[zukijames]

freaking beautiful i love those things!

 

[Cascadia]

Awesome cruiser! I'd love to pick one of those up. Looks like it's in great shape.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Love it. Someday I'll own an FJ62.

 

[LT.]

There was two rigs that I learned to drive in. A 1975 GMC 3/4 ton with a SM-465 tranny, and an old Toyota FJ-60 Land Cruiser with an old 4 speed manual tranny. I remember being so impressed with the Cruiser due to its heavy weight and great weight balance. Close to a 50-50 split in weight. I love the old Cruisers and can't wait to see what you end up doing with this one and where it will take you.

LT.

 

[airmanwilliams]

Great looking cruiser. I look forward to watching what you do to this one!

 

[Kevin B.]

Love those trucks, glad you're back in a 4wd! When did you get rid of the pig?

 

[SLC97SR5]

Congrats J! Love the dual square lights of the 62, it's also in my favorite color.

 

[MattL]

Nice score. I have always loved those.

 

[Bart]

Very cool rig for sure. Love them. Congrats

 

[solidfrontaxle]

Awesomely clean 62! Great looking. Good buy. Can't wait to share the trail with it!

 

[rollover]

Nice find. That looks great for 88.
A little rust but nothing that cant be repaired easy with some time and elbow grease.
FJ62 is one of my fav's.
The grill with the square head lights gave it a major upgraded look when it came out new.
By the way you have the best color as well.

 

[SAMI]

Thanks guys! It's nice to tinker on something other than my guns to keep myself occupied while my wife has been out of town for a month.

I dug into the dash last night to scope out how much room if have to install my Yeasu FT 2800M (HAM radio) under the stereo. Looks like it will fit like a glove. The Yeasu is about an inch too narrow, so I'm going to make some spacers that will snug it all together for a nice solid fit. I also carefully pulled enough headliner to snake the cable up the B pillar and over to the dome light. In the coming days I will drill a hole for the antenna to mount in the middle of the roof. Pulling that pristine headliner had me sweating bullets for the first while.. Luckily it all went back together nicely.

 

[bryson]

Why did you decide to put the antenna in the roof rather than sticking to your previous hood-mounted style? Reception? Would it make that much difference?

She's a sexy girl, by the way.

 

[SAMI]

The antenna gets the best results with both transmitting and receiving when it has a surface to bounce/reflect the signal, as I understand it. The bolt on hood mount that I have blows, and rubs the paint over time, and I didn't feel like doing the L-bracket style on the fender/hood again like I had on my '99 4Runner. So I took the L bracket mount apart and used it to run up to the roof.

The best CB setup I've ever had was the antenna mounted in the middle of the roof. Same CB I'd used in different rigs, and it was the antenna location that made the biggest difference.

 

[SAMI]

Drummed up some nice spacers to get the HAM bolted snugly to the DIN. ILean recommended Regional Supply to source a piece of scrap HDPE. A whopping $.98 for the 4.5x3.75x.5" piece; not a bad way to go. I made a template for the holes to both mount the HDPE to the Yeasu radio, and the DIN to the HDPE. Thanks to my pal Ryan and his mill that made exact fit very easy to achieve.

 

[Hickey]

Sami is right about the antenna location. It will reflect off the large flat metal surface of the roof. That's one of the reasons a decent magnet mount antenna works so well. Nobody likes to drill holes in the roof, but you can't beat the reception. On a side note, antennae that are mounted close to each other will reflect off each other in a bad way. It will kind of "confuse" the signal.

That's a nice looking install Sami. It makes me think about yanking my double din stock stereo in favor of the same setup.

 

[SAMI]

Thanks Hickey.


Not fully wired up yet, but bolted in to make sure it fits. Looks great. I might try to come up with a way to cover around the edges of the Yeasu so you can't see the HDPE spacers.

 

[Rot Box]

The FJ62's are the perfect combination of modern and classic when it comes to Toyotas. I'm jealous I hope it works out for you