First let me say, this is not a frame-off, alas! Purists and perfectionist please turn away now.
I have spent many, many long hours up to now researching and planning my ultimate dream build for my 1968 FJ40. This is the first project vehicle I’ve ever wanted to tackle and I can say that I’ve been inspired by the many incredible and painstaking projects that have been shared here. The IH8MUD knowledge base is vast and I have studied intensely. A complete frame-off seemed like the only appropriate thing to do for my FJ40 that I love. In the process of planning I created spread sheets of the required parts, part numbers, prices, suppliers, time-lines etc. Words like ARB, NV4500, POR-15, MAF, SOR swirled in my mind. As the scope of the project multiplied and the tally continued to rise I eventually came to this sobering and painful conclusion: There’s no f**king way I can afford to do all this!
As this reality sank in that I had neither the money, nor time, to take on my dream build I formulated Plan B. My cruiser runs pretty good. It’s got a low mileage SBC 350 mated to the original 3 speed tranny/transfer (rebuilt recently says the PO). It just doesn’t look good. The new plan: make it look good, minimize down-time, then drive the hell out of it and have a blast. It doesn't have to be perfect -the frame-off resto can wait. Suddenly the pressure was off and I was ready to have fun.
Here's what it looked like before:
I have spent many, many long hours up to now researching and planning my ultimate dream build for my 1968 FJ40. This is the first project vehicle I’ve ever wanted to tackle and I can say that I’ve been inspired by the many incredible and painstaking projects that have been shared here. The IH8MUD knowledge base is vast and I have studied intensely. A complete frame-off seemed like the only appropriate thing to do for my FJ40 that I love. In the process of planning I created spread sheets of the required parts, part numbers, prices, suppliers, time-lines etc. Words like ARB, NV4500, POR-15, MAF, SOR swirled in my mind. As the scope of the project multiplied and the tally continued to rise I eventually came to this sobering and painful conclusion: There’s no f**king way I can afford to do all this!
As this reality sank in that I had neither the money, nor time, to take on my dream build I formulated Plan B. My cruiser runs pretty good. It’s got a low mileage SBC 350 mated to the original 3 speed tranny/transfer (rebuilt recently says the PO). It just doesn’t look good. The new plan: make it look good, minimize down-time, then drive the hell out of it and have a blast. It doesn't have to be perfect -the frame-off resto can wait. Suddenly the pressure was off and I was ready to have fun.
Here's what it looked like before:
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