In the summer of 2001, I was 17 and was driving my totally stock 86' Honda CRX Si. I redlined every gear every time and was the most typical punk-ass-ricer-wana-be you'd ever seen. My best friend at the time and I decided we were going to take one of those road trips around America camping along the way. It was decided that I would be the one getting the road-trip vehicle. On accident, I tripped over what would become my new love, LandCruisers. A very long story later and I was the proud new owner of an EBAY discovered 85 FJ60 that wound up being a huge scam. It required about $2,000 of work just to get it driving. I was young, I knew very little about cars then and my wonderful parents had to bail me out on fixing the truck. Needless to say, they were not happy. Two of the three guys that were supposed to road-trip, douche-bagged out last minute, the trip never happened, and I was left with the Land Cruiser. I sold the CRX for $1,000. (gas only cost $1.15 at the time. If I only still had it…) The following then happened over the next few years:
1. I drove the balls off it and put 50K miles on it in two years. Drove it back and forth from NC to TX for college and it never missed a beat.
2. I blew the engine up on the way back to college my sophomore year.
3. I put a Chevy 350 in it my sophomore year on a college kid budget
4. I wrecked the FJ60 one week after finishing the engine swap (70-year-old man pulled out in front of me in construction zone. We were both faulted; I got no money out of the deal)
In the summer of 2005, I went to NE, SD, ND to build buffalo fence all summer. My ex G/F broke up with me while working 70-80 a week to fund a future engagement (that clearly never happened). I had all intentions of fixing the body on the FJ60 and then, while driving to the bank over thanksgiving break in the fall of 2005, I laid eyes on what would soon be my zebra.
(sorry for the really long background; on to the good stuff)
I bought the truck for $1,500 and it ran "okay". I had to tow it home because the clutch slave was bad and it didn't run well enough to clutch-lessly. It had an awesome zebra-print paint job, some 31" Cooper Discovers, and a savannah-heat air freshener (the zebra print matches the paint job).
I didn't do much with it till the spring of 06' when I bought a header, Webber 38/38 (now for sale, PM me), and a clutch slave. I was parting out my FJ60 after a completely failed attempt to sell the vehicle as is for $1,800.
I started driving it regularly around campus (no insurance, no plate, etc). In the summer of 06’ I pulled the engine, tranny, and t-case to replace the clutch, TO bearing, etc. The PO had swapped to an H42 but had mixed and matched parts so the TO bearing was toast and was screaming loudly. I replaced the HG at the same time cause I wanted to check the valves. I put it all back together and kept driving it around campus. I kept it at my apt and it was the village truck. My room mates:
Jon and
Keith drove it around too and it was a lot of fun to just put around campus in. Keep in mind I was then a junior in mechanical engineering at the time so my time was very limited to work on it.
Finally, in the spring of 07’ I took it to Barnwell MTN off-road park for the first time. I quickly discovered that I had “phantom” 4WD. The hubs weren’t locking out and thus began the next phase of build up.
In the Fall of 07’ I tore the whole thing down at once and did shackle reversal, SOA (with C&T), disc brakes, etc. I got a set of 35” BFG A/T’s cheap and threw them on. I took it wheeling once, decided the tires weren’t big enough and got some 37” MT/R’ from CL for 100 a piece. I wheeled the balls off it several times and quickly realized that I need to get geared down. I wheeled it several times with stock gearing and HATE IT but that’s next.
Most recently, I started (not yet completed) the
PIG BOB where I took 12.5” out of the body to better the departure angle.
NEXT UP: I already have an SM420, Mini-tuck T-case, and split case, which will move me from my current ratio of 32:1 to 271:1. I also have almost everything for the propane swap at the same time. This will all happen within the next 6 months.
I love this truck; it frick’n rocks off road. Believe it or not, it picks up chicks too. It successfully helped on the deal when first meeting my now fiancé. She grew up in Africa and her parents owned an HZJ78.
I have tons of pics I’ll throw up tonight that show it from the purchase date to current.
zuluzeugma
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