[toddslater]

History of the Pigwald Part ??? I purchased the pig in Januaryish 2006 from Clay (aka RHINO) out in Phoenix Arizona. I had been searching for a pig to restore in my usual irregular fashion for a couple years. At my age, I dismissed major rust-o-ration pigs with such incredible speed…that in most cases their sellers were unaware of my quest. As mentioned my goal is/was to restore…since the truth of the situation for me is that A) this is/was Cruiser #4 (up to 5 now) and B) the reality is that somewhere in the 95+% range this, (and all of my crap) will be pavement driven. So with restore in mind… the clean predominantly rust free pig was purchased from Clay, with the eng, trans, tc from a donor 83/84 ? FJ60 bolted in. Clay also painted it using rattle cans …and for a rattle can job it looked good….the cargo area stored the driveshafts, radiator, a couple of alternators, and all kinds of various sundary things needed to be sorted out and/or installed. So there it was rust free…not so much dent free…76 pig clear across the country. First pics below are Pigwald in Arizona and then Pigwald at the shop.

Pigwald in Phoenix…. me in Philly…and long time great friend (who owns body shop located in between)…Pigwald was shipped on a transport to Columbus, O., off loaded and rolled into the deep recesses of the shop wherein vehicles have been know to spend many…many years before ever seeing the light of day or the taste of octane. This however…was not to be Pigwald’s fate as A) I wanted to Git-R-Done and B) I promised CG that I would endeavor to have it outta there in 1 year. Still Pigwald is ~500 miles from Philly, so that means short but very intense bursts of effort would be necessary to live up to my promise. Trip #1 operation pig-mobile. I though that it would be nice if Pigwald could crawl around the shop as need be on it’s own belly…so I took a 4 day weekend in late February to see if I could make pig-mobile. Well, after those few long days/nights at the end of day 4…drive shafts were sized and installed, wiring was sorted through, radiator, belts, hoses, yada yada installed, fluids, more yada, gas tank not back from rad/tank shop…temp drag type fuel bottle strapped in where the washer bottle should be…fabricated some throttle linkage from scratch …Pigwald crawled on his own around the block…down the street…and back to the shop….stopping not so much good…but hey. Not bad for a few days effort. No pics of this stage..nothing visually externally changed.

The hot humid days of August is upon the land and since Feb….the only change has been the return of the fuel tank from the rad shop…sitting in the back of Pigwald now awaiting my return to be installed. Needing to make some real progress, I burn a weeks vacation to spend in Columbus. The Mrs. and kids are happy as they visited her folks in Cleve and did various day trips to the likes of Cedar Point. CG’s shop in August…not so much like Cedar Point. Before jumping head first into the body work, I started Day 1 of this adventure by reinstalling the fuel tank. Even with a lift and this third arm thing…it would have gone in easier not being by myself. Even though I blew it out with air at every orfice available prior to installing…the fuel tank crud haunts me to this day. At this point…typically a thinking person (think restoration) would usually opt to really go through all the mechanical and button that up prior to doing the body and paint. However, I am not a thinking man…nope not me…Oh actually I was thinking …thinking of my promise to get Pigwald out of my friends shop soon (like Jan 1, or 4 months left on the promise clock for those keeping score). So, I say full speed ahead on the body and paint (after all it is in a body shop)…and I’ll drag it home to finish sorting the mechanicals at my leisure. Rose colored glasses firmly installed, I say hey maybe I can just knock off the rattle can paint (which it appeared was the only thing covering the original), knock it down to the original paint and start from there bringing it back up. A good all over respray on top of the original…hey I can live with that….right ? Well, 80 grit on the 8” DA and I was off to the races. The rattle paint can was quickly dispensed with and for the most part it didn’t appear to have been resprayed repeatedly. However, the Arizona sun is good to steel…bad to rubber bits….and also pretty tough on paint. The original paint was crazed/cracked down through the primer to the steel. Also, again no rust but lordy, lordy…do we got dents. A few head scratches later…and after a quick looksee by the bossman CG himself…we calmly walked over to the supply cabinet wherein the 36 grit, self stick 8” DA paper resided and a new friendship was born. Yes, between the craze/cracks and all the dents…the only answer to do Pigwald justice was to take it to bare metal. Nothin says lovin like a pig naked. The pics below were shot towards the end of several days worth of happy me with the 36 grit, whilst the boss himself followed on my heels with the stud gun, pullers, hammers and dollies…followed by both of us bondoing/roughing out of the panels. Round and round we went…and I was fortunate enough to stop the evening prior to the damn near final float out of the body work before I laid down the primer to get some progress pics. End of intense body work week 1…Pigwald in Prime. And yes I fell off the ladder when priming the roof and had a full cup of primer cover the right side of my body….nice…real nice. Memo to self…things not to do when your basically exhausted.

Trick or treat time and it’s time for me to get my ass back to Columbus to beautify that pig…Round 3 (and yes 2 months remaining on the clock…and lets face it nothing going to be done from about Turkey Day on). Burned vacation week number 2…wife and kids stay home …school and all. Making a bold statement regarding this whole Pigwald thing, I hook up the car trailer to the 80 (also known as the Puker) and head west from Philly. Oh yes I say, Pigwald will be painted and hauled back to Philly…thats what I’m talking about …Well, I started this trip looking at the three heavy coats of primer laid down at the end of my last visit…out comes the 180 grit on the 6” DA and off I go. Hand blocking certain areas that need some additional lovin. Scratch head, lots of rubbing along the panels …not bad…but there are a few areas that could use a little more lovin. Little more bondo, some 80 on the air file, hand blocking, etc…reprime some spots…and where does the time go. I back calculate departure for Philly against the various steps needed to complete the squirting. OK now one last go round everything feels pretty good…time for final prime. Three coats of primer laid down. Next up…yours truly with 240 grit on the 6” DA and the 3M scratch pad in all the tight spots. Take it outside an blow the living crap out of it …dust is bad…Pull it back in and wash it down with Pre-Kleeno. Some minor head scratching later and a little ciphering…painting the roof of Pigwald in the spay booth…not so much …roof of booth minus roof of Pigwald equal not really enough room to squirt comfortably. So, the roof is taped out, blown down again, pre-kleeno’d again, tack and the sealer applied. Then two coats of the blue, followed by two coats of clear. I also taped out the “Toyota” on the tailgate, sealed and put the blue there…no clear there yet. Next day untapped it drove it outside and blew it down again. Cleaned the booth filters and blew it out as well. In goes pig and we tape out thefor spraying the white. I think we put down 4 coats of the white to ensure good coverage. In the afternoon we taped out to do the final lower sections in blue. Two coats of blue. Let it dry and then untaped it. Now the top and windows are the only thing taped and the white and blue are ready for the clear. Blew it all off and tacked it real good and then 2 coats of clear were applied. Deadline met…Pigwald fresh in paint was loaded up on the trailer and headed east.

Looking at this …this is way long so I apologized and will shut up now and post up some pics.

[toddslater]

mo pics

[toddslater]

mo...

[toddslater]

some mo...

[toddslater]

yes mo...

[toddslater]

bout done...

[RHINO]

just plain beutiful.

[k9crazy]

That right there is my dream. I am encouraged and motivated by what you have done! My pig is at the "finished stripping and now I have to sand and patch" stage. I can't wait to get it to the body shop for the paint!

Thank you so much for posting up your story and your pics. I am going to go home and work on mine tonight!

[n2666s]

Damn Todd........bout to have an organism looking at that beautiful piggy porn

Lou

[scouthead]

Damn that's clean. How's it stand now? Ever work out all the mechanical bugs?

[Lucy_FJ55]

I've viewed this POTM a few times in the last couple days and am just so stoked that you have been putting that much sweat and love into that old pig. Simply amazing work and you sir should be proud. Thanks for sharing and revitalizing such a fine swine.

Carlos OINK! OINK!

[oldfj40]

Pigwald looks great!
I think your vacation time was time well spent.
I see you have bucket seats.What are they out of?How were they to mount in the pig?
Great job!

[toddslater]

scouthead,

Most of the little joys (expected for rig that was last licensed in ~94) have been sorted out....brakes all redone, used gear for rear window, fuel pump (X2), valve stem seals, carb rebuild (weber) followed by a re-carb (Aisan) courtesy of the 86 FJ60, IPOR power steering, water pump, various gaskets and seals, hubs, heater lines and hoses, etc...etc..etc...The last PITA is still with the fuel tank..although (fingers crossed) this filter is nearing 500 miles !!! Other than that, the last major things on the OE redo list is the AC which is currently residing on the work bench. I have most all of the parts...but there will be a need to retro fit some of the stuff with newer or vintage air stuff. Then there is the front windshield, I am on the look out for an OE gasket so I can re-use the chrome bling spreader. Oh ya, and I am about 60% done with all the new door rubber seals...new felts are all in.

oldfj40,

Bucket seats are out of some sort of a Kia (Sorrento maybe). I bought them off ebizzle from a guy an hour or so away from my house. The pig had buckets seats installed be a PO, so the base framework (or reframing work) was already there. All I had to do was cut the mounting brackets on the new seats, flip them around and reweld them, then weld on some mounting tabs to the exiting base framework, drill holes in the tabs and bolt them down. The seats have side airbags...and singleing out the wire pairs to operate the seat backs was a blend of art, science, and luck. Wire pairs to the seat bottom motor was obvious. Anyway, I didn't set off the air bags and they look pretty good in there...a dark charcoal grey...pretty much matches the color of the rear bench.

[cruise4070]

Todd, glad you made it to the pig run!
That is one amazing clean truck!

[toddslater]

Thanks Tom....I had to bug out Sat. afternoon before everyone returned from their rides. But I am dying to know if you need to change your sig line. Is it now FJ45x1 and Piggiesx2 ?

[CJBury]

Yeah sure it's nice, but how does it wheel?

Pics don't do it justice, it looks great up close too. Nice work Todd. Love seeing every time you bring it around.

[Wayneraintree]

It is certainly one of the nicest pigs I've ever seen! and I hope one day to have one like it.. but I can only hope : )

[cruise4070]

Originally Posted by toddslater

Thanks Tom....I had to bug out Sat. afternoon before everyone returned from their rides. But I am dying to know if you need to change your sig line. Is it now FJ45x1 and Piggiesx2 ?