Toyota FJ40 Project
Page 2: Upgrades!
This is a very capable truck out of the box so there is very little that
needs to be done. There were some irresistible empty mounting
holes in the front bumper for a winch, so I had no choice but to install
one. I chose RC4WD's smallest mini Warn which bolted right up.
Every scale truck needs some lights, but the Tamiya TLU-01 system is way
too complex for the needs of this model. I was able to find a
small Yeah Racing system for only $7 which works fine. The
lighting set came with 4 white lights so I just clipped two of them
off. The body
already comes with light buckets in both the front and rear.
I built two bodies for this truck (more info on the next page). At the moment I've decided not to use the pink one, but I did go all out on detailing the panel lines.
Phase 2:
Several years later I came back and changed the body to a classic Bronco
while also updating the electronics. Here is the bag containing
the Tamiya Bronco body which was originally intended for the CR-01
chassis but also fits the CC-01 and, therefore, the CFW which uses the
same bodies. In fact, I could have bought this chassis with this
body but I didn't.
After trimming out the shell I checked the fit. The FJ40 used a
252mm wheelbase but the Bronco uses 242mm so I made the changes from
MST's instructions as shown on the left. This involved removing
10mm of spacers from the rear links. The body posts lined up
perfectly, but as you can see on the left rest didn't line up at
all. The front wheels are too far forward and the wheelbase is too
short. I then realized that you are also supposed to move the
body posts to different holes which I did as shown on the right.
This is better, but I still don't like the position of the rear wheels.
I decided to play around with the links so I put 5mm worth of spacers
back into the rear links resulting in an interim 247mm wheelbase.
This looks much better in my opinion.
Time to paint the body. I chose Corsa Grey which is actually a
light blue that I think is perfect for that early 70's look. I did
the top in plain white. I didn't need to smoke the windows
because the stickers cover them with a tint color already. I also
masked and painted the wheel arches in black.
Here is the completed body on the chassis. The winch had to be
removed, but I was able to move over the lighting system from the FJ
body.
©2019/2022 Eric Albrecht
