This project is a commission for a friend of ours and is of the Tamiya FJ40 kit.  He asked two things:  for it to be a little more scale looking and for it suit his driving style.  For the most part this truck will be built box stock but will feature some modifications, not only to suit his tastes, but to also make the vehicle a bit more maintenance friendly for him. Follow along as we build Project FJ.  Click the thumbnails for the full size version.

Tamiya has always had great box art and its nice to see that this continues with the Land Cruiser.  Upon opening the box we are greeted with a nice presentation of the kit itself.

We decided to start with the beadlock wheels as these always seem to take the longest amount of time and are the most tedious part of any crawler build.  We were surprised when we mounted the tire and noted that it sat very well into the wheel which made assembly easier.

All 4 wheels are assembled.  Due to the fantastic engineering it only took half the time to assemble these despite the use of small 2mm philips head screws.  The tires are actually held in place quite well too.

The transmission is comprised of quite a few more parts than a standard 3 gear transmission that so many other kits use.  The design is quite unique in the fact that it uses a planetary system to achieve its gear reduction.

The transmission is completed and is actually quite a compact unit.  This helps keep the weight down low.  Despite being quite different from other transmission builds, it went together quite easily.

The transmission is placed on the skid plate and tightened down.  It will not be bolted up to the stock frame rails so it will be put aside for now.

Building the links for the 4-link suspension was tedious.  Sixteen rod ends on eight links.  Thankfully the parts went together easily and didn't require any super wrenching.

The axles are started.  These have the ability to be locked or unlocked per the users desire.  These are built in the locked position for better climbing ability but with Tamiya's design, can be easily unlocked at a later date.

Rear axle lockouts are used to make the rear axle look more scale.  It also eliminates any flexing that using the stock steering assembly would cause.

Both the front and the rear axles are complete.  Only thing left is to center the steering servo and install the servo saver.

The center transmission plate is connected to the subframe of the Junfac "Lizard" chassis.  The black anodizing is a nice textured matte finish.

The upper section of the chassis is built.  The large cross members make for a very rigid frame and it doesn't have the transmission installed yet.

Here you can see that we have completed the chassis build.  The structure is very rigid and provides nice locations for the new shocks that will be installed on this truck.

G-Made shocks which are also available through Junfac are very well made and each part is separately bagged to minimize damage to anything.  All the parts are of very high quality and the instructions are clear and easy to follow.  Although we didn't need them, extra e-clips and o-rings are provided just in case of a mishap.

Here are the finished shocks.  The threaded shock body allows for quick and easy spring preload adjustments.  The shocks come with either the standard plastic spring cup for holding the bottom end of the spring in place, or the sleeker looking machined aluminum ones.  We chose the aluminum ones since the look of this truck is almost as important as the performance of this truck.