[lowenbrau]

My first Cruiser was a 1982 BJ60 that I bought when it was 8 years old for $700. I probably paid too much. The owner hadn't changed any fluids since the warranty ran out. It had 195,000km when I bought it with probably 100,000 on the motor oil. The front brake pads had worn to the metal and then worn the rotors to the cooling fins before the calipers began leaking. The PO snipped the front brake line and folded it closed and called the problem "fixed". Spray foam 'fixed' the rust holes. A muffler clamp 'fixed' the broken main leaf.

That rig took me another 120,000kms and four years as a daily driver, as well as many trips between BC and Ontario. I haven't been without a diesel Cruiser since.

[Mark W]

Can I count the pinto rack and pinion steering welded to the fame of a customer's ig since it was not *my* PO who did it to *me*?

Or the bolts welded to the leaf springs for shock mounts?

And of course window screening and expandafoam to fill rust holed and replace missing sections of fenders prior to repainting.

Partial bypass oil filter removed and not replaced because the lines leaked.

Entire front axle rotated in a hack job SOA instead of cut and turn jobs.

Chunk hacked out of the frame to clear the mechanical clutch linkage that was cobbled together for a ford straight six swap.

I could go on, but why give anyone more nightmares?


Mark...

[ken_79-fj40]

Originally Posted by Wildman

My truck had a plywood and fiberglass (only on the bottom) body when I bought it. Ohyea, shagg carpet in the back too!

Too funny. My dad made me some sweet plywood rear inner fenders for my first 40 back in 1991. I had rolled the truck and the stock inner fenders (which were previously mostly body filler and rust) literally tore right off. I actually used the plywood inners, they were held in place by drywall screws right through the floor and the outside of the rear quarter, then I went over the outer ones with filler. I had it carpeted with house carpet too! I can't believe it actually passed inspection like that. It was short lived though, It leaked oil like crazy and I actually ran it out of oil and seized it about 3 months later.

[Hobbs]

The PO of my rig did very few mods, but one of them cost me some time and energy. The PO placed a rubber mat with a heavy felt lining in the rear. Water made its way under the mat and the felt held the moisture for an unknown period of time. PRESTO - rust-o-matic. It certainly could have been worse as it didn't rust through, but I did have to prep and RustBullet the area.

[dr_dobro]

I've got this 40 a year ago, and PO wanted to do a SOA with a shackle reversal. Picture says it all !
I ended up parting out the truck , it was terribly rusted . ( A shame for a 1980.)

[bad_religion_au]

Originally Posted by Mark W

Or the bolts welded to the leaf springs for shock mounts?
.

now that's given me an idea for shock mounts!!!

do we count a snapped inner axle that was welded together, then braced with cut up leaf springs?

Flaminbandit has seen that rig too

[GarageRat]

Mine was in suprisingly great shape with no PO issues except that he was not handy with a MIG and did a half decent fiberglass job over the cut out areas where there was rust through instead, it was passable I guess but I refuse to do anything less than all steel. My dad's, however, is the complete opposite. Jump seats mounted with plywood as the floors are rusted through, holes for the front bumper were cut with an oxyacetylene torch and aren't even spaced the same on the frame rails, ranchos mounted to the frame cross member and bailing wired to the rear axle, some 80s era magnavox deck mounted with a piece of 2x4 in the glove box, giant kicker enclosures right by your head, a booger welded set of V8 mounts with a rebuilt (for some reason) 305 out of a Monza (that he said was a 350). Oh and the frame is slightly munched on the pass side. I knew there would be issues when he said "well you know, with these old rigs you can just bash them into trees no problem it's what they're for".

[Blue77FJ40]

My only PO work was a repair done to the fiberglass top that was apparently in a fire of some sort, but was quickly removed from the fire. Anyways, the top must have been repaired by a ship/boat place, because there must have been *at least* 100lbs of fiberglass/resin. I noticed that it seemed top heavy in turns, but the real clue came when I went to remove the top for wheeling using 4 guys. We had already removed the top of another '40 and when we tried to remove mine, it took all of our collective strength to lift it off. I eventually replaced it with another, normal weight cap, and in the process, when I went to remove just the fiberglass top part, it took 3 of us to do so! In contrast, the replacement cap went on with 2 people, practically only using fingertips to lift!.

[pb4ugo]

Purchased a 40 that the PO had just done a SBC conversion & there was something wrong w/the clutch. He commented that It worked for about 100 miles then it quit. The PO used a racing steel bellhousing, I took it apart and found the Pilot bushing was wallowed out from wear. Evidently they didn't center the trans input shaft w/the crankshaft when they drilled and cut the hole in the bellhousing. To this day I still can't figure out how they got it to go together in the first place.

On another 40 the PO cut out 3/4 of the boxed frt crossmember for a saginaw PS conversion & added no additional support, which overtime created cracks in the front part of the framerails where the PS box mounts. I had to scab the frame for strength, replace the crossmember and adapt scout steering. Eventually I will need a frame.

I narrowed & installed a frt dana 44,opps! Still works though! That was b4 longfields were available.
The dana 18t/c is currently on the chopping block.

On my 1st 40 I installed rear fender flairs, never again!!

[BadPaddler]

Only mod my PO did (it was actually the PO's PO) is actually coming in useful, but took me a while to find. It's a nice little kick button that kills the ignition and fuel pump. Guessing someone was planning on turning it into a crawler, or didn't wanna spend the money of a security system.

[greencruiser]

Originally Posted by BadPaddler

Only mod my PO did (it was actually the PO's PO) is actually coming in useful, but took me a while to find. It's a nice little kick button that kills the ignition and fuel pump. Guessing someone was planning on turning it into a crawler, or didn't wanna spend the money of a security system.

thats a good idea! might just do that one myself

[73tlcv8]

1. Rear spring with one eye welded on. 2. Crappy wiring and controls for electric cooling fan. Other than that I can say I'm pretty happy with it.

[JohnnyC]

this is one of the worst mods i've seen

[cjgoode]

That might be better then this

[JohnnyC]

another odd mod

[Combat Chuck]

I was at Pick-N-Pull yesterday, and was reminded of the very first mod I removed from my 40. A Po (I think my rig's had about 12) stuck the plastic lettering from a heep Grand Cherokee on the hood, right above the arch over the center of the bib. The day I first saw the truck, I looked at that abomination, and chuckled. It went away the moment the truck rolled off the delivery trailer.

[zrheard]

Originally Posted by romegadave

Green garden hose used for door rubber on driver's side......this rig is so godawful I haven't even posted pics yet

i need new weather stripping and THATS A GREAT IDEA!
ill spray paint my hose black b4 i gorilla glue it in place

you just saved me a lot of $$ thank you!!

[Big Daddy]

My p.o. did a better paint job than " Earl's " . Used a roller and a Paint brush not once or twice but three times . I guess he thought the Alaska winters didn't allow for a better paint job.

[JohnnyC]

another odd mod

[cjgoode]

I think JohnnyC found the winner, that is just wrong, does cab does not flow with the rest at all, just does not look right.

[bad_religion_au]

Originally Posted by JohnnyC

this is one of the worst mods i've seen

come on! am i the only one thinking 'a set of 38's and a soa, and that'd be great to take to MOAB?

[craigwanderer]

That hurts me in my heart.

[laguna80]

I vote awesomest PO mod on this one...

[eventhough]

POs never did any really horrible mods on my Pig...the CO though, I don't know about him...

[MT-PTK]

Sorry, I had to add one.

[bad_religion_au]

i'm surprised the donald duck cruiser at disneyland hasn't made an appearance

[Eshu Elegua]

this was when i got my 40 ...then i have to touch it....

[webelk6]

my po- bless him if he is still alive actually had a cool mod.

he used my(then his)40 to ice fish on Lake Winnebago . Cut an octogan hinged hole in between the jump seats with 2 fans. He could ice fish and run the fans to keep the windows clear

[BlackDiamond72]

So currently my 69 has an entire wiring harness run in RED. Every ()*&^*% wire is in RED. Also, whenever he wanted to ground something, he just ran a new wire to the negative terminal on the battery. I must have 34 wires running to the negative terminal; in RED! Not to mention the 500 stickers all over the vehicle, plus shi**ty tint job on evey window.

I also stored a 68 for a buddy in my storage yard that had very interesting mods. All the wiring in the engine bay was suspended by ropes hanging above the engine. Had eye hooks on the firewall and welded eye hooks on the radiator to have a rope "cats craddle" above the engine. He then ran all the wires through this to suspend them above the engine. On top of all this, he made a "coolant" filter out of abs pipe, capping off the ends with rubber cement and old spray can paint caps. Drilled into the top of the radiator for the intake and output hoses. THEN>>> He used pipe insulator and rubber mats to make the vehicle aerodynamic. The running boards were axed and he made rope and vinyl running boards, all edges got the pipe insulator. I so wish I took pics before removing all that.

[splib]

Originally Posted by MT-PTK

Sorry, I had to add one.

Oh man that incredible!

A squirrel giving birth to a cruiser? Why are it's claws bloddy?

That's the funniest damn thing I've seen!