"Another" 1971 Pig Build Thread!

[StevenS]

So we were finally able to coordinate schedules and go pick up the Pig yesterday. This will be the beginning of my personal build thread, starting with carting her home. Yesterday we loaded her up on a friend's trailer, and I will be taking delivery of it some time later today/tonight. For now, enjoy the pics of pulling her (somewhat begrudgingly) out of her 4 year long pen. Hope she likes her new home!

 

[StevenS]

More pics of the Pig. I have it strapped to my Tacoma, and the right rear drum on the Pig froze up on us. Despite calling her Polly, she may earn the nickname Mule!

 

[StevenS]

More pics. Getting it positioned to be loaded up on the trailer.

 

[StevenS]

More pics. Getting close to trailer trash.

 

[StevenS]

So what are the plans? Always nice to see a pig saved

Pretty close to stock restoration is what I'm aiming for. May put a few personal touches on it, similar to the Tacoma. OME or ALCAN lift, and some heavy duty bumpers. Maybe a swing out tire carrier. Should be pretty modest overall.

For color, I'd like to aim for Pollux Orange and Cygnus White.

Starting next week she'll be stripped to her bones, and rebuilt from the ground up. All in the comfort of my open back yard in HOTlanta.

 

[StevenS]

More pics. Evidence of liquid encouragement shown for good measure. May be making future appearances throughout the build.

 

[StevenS]

More pics. Using the winch from my Tacoma to ease Polly onto the trailer. Winching at an angle calls for the input of 3 Georgia and Alabama engineers, lots of heavy math, hours of calculation and another case of beer.

 

[StevenS]

Very cool... keeping the F, 3 speed, and vacuum tcase?

Upgrading the front seats?

Disk brakes?

Disc brakes, for sure. F engine/3 speed/vacuum case will be restored and will remain for now. Maybe an upgrade down the road, depending on what kind of driving I do. I'll start off authentic, and may take it somewhere else depending on what kind of challenges I run into or what kind of deals I can get on alternate parts!

 

[StevenS]

I have a spare F and 2F engine that come with it, so maybe a 2F down the road?

 

[StevenS]

All done! Ready to come home!

 

[StevenS]

OK, before everyone freaks out - the rear chains ARE being adjusted to fit under the rear springs before it hits the highway.

 

[StevenS]

She's home safe and sound! Little bit hairy getting her off the trailer (no brakes) but we had her strapped pretty good. She came off with no real problems other than a few sweaty palms. Looking forward to posting my progress. Stay tuned.

 

[StevenS]

progress on the pig

Well, being away for a week on business certainly didn't help get any progress made on the wagon. Flew back into town late Friday night, and all I could think about was getting up early Saturday morning to start digging into it and see what I was up against. The following pictures will chronicle my progress from this past weekend, which mechanically wasn't much but it was necessary to start cleaning it up. It was amazing to see how well she shines despite receiving a quickie shop repaint at some point in her life. It was also amusing to pull out all the 80s vintage add-ons. It became apparent to me, the more I dug into her, that this wagon has barely been touched and honestly, fairly gently used over her lifetime. Here's a pic of how she looked after getting her first bath in perhaps a decade.

 

[StevenS]

denim seat covers?

My next mission was to get in and remove all of the denim seat covers that covered both the front and the rear bench seats. I started on the back seat. I first removed the metal frame all the way around the rear bench, backing out one small screw at a time. I was able to remove the top and bottom portions of the frame which proved to be just enough to remove the shag carpet panel glued to the rear panel of the seat. What a mess! I now have a ton of glue residue to try to remove. I then thought that if I was going to be successful at removing the denim seat covers I was also going to have to remove the seat catches. As I dug into all of this stuff I wondered how many FJ55s out there still had all of this stuff intact. I was amazed at how well preserved the interior is! Once I got the two seat catches removed, I was able to make short work of removing the denim seat cover off of the seat back - and I was amazed to see that the vinyl was completely intact, save two small rips at each top corner. The question I have though is, would this be the original vinyl seat, or a replacement? While it matches all of the door panels, I've never seen this pattern in an FJ55 before. Maybe someone can help answer this for me. Either way, it's in such good condition I'm going to just leave it in. I think it looks great.

 

[StevenS]

Rear seat bottom

Next came the removal of the rear seat bottom. This was easy, as it was only held together with two anchor bolts. I quickly removed the cotter pins, hammered out the bolts and within five minutes I had the rear seat bottom out. I took some detail pictures of the denim seat cover to show how well it preserved the vinyl seat covers beneath! Turns out I'm thankful that the denim seat covers were on these for so long - look how well the seats were preserved.

 

[StevenS]

shag carpet gone, floors look pretty good

So I went around the wagon and removed all of the shag carpeting. This was probably the cause of the worst rot on the truck anywhere. Once I removed it, the rot on the passenger and driver's side floorboards was revealed. It's pretty nasty. On the passenger side, it's completely rusted through in some spots and the metal is very thin. Both sections on both sides will have to be cut out and replaced. I was amused to find the original AM radio speaker hanging in the passenger side floorboard.

 

[StevenS]

rear cargo area looks amazing

With all the carpet gone, the worst areas were the front and passenger sides. However, the rear passenger and cargo areas are surprisingly intact. You can probably see all the glue residue on the back seat that I'll have to try to get off. I've heard that WD40 is pretty good for removing old glue. Any other suggestions or better recommendations?

 

[StevenS]

old radio removed

So I only got so far as the back seat. Removing those denim covers took several hours, as I didn't want to rip any of the original (?) vinyl. After a good 8 hours of scrubbing, I stopped. Oh, I did forget to mention that I also removed all of the faded window tinting that was on the rear passenger windows, the cargo windows and the back window. That took forever. Despite taking my time, there are gobs of glue and other tint residue all over the windows I still need to scrape off. I realized I ran out of razors and made a run for some. I will try to finish that off this coming weekend. I didn't hesitate to install some TLCA decals in each of the rear windows though - even though everything will soon be dismantled.

On Sunday I had an hour to kill so I removed the old AM/FM cassette stereo from the dash. I also dug into the driver and passenger doors and removed the old, dry rotted speakers. I was really disappointed to find that a P.O. had stuffed each of the doors with sheets of foam insulation to deaden the vibration from the speakers. The insulation had trapped moisture that was infiltrating the doors, and is now causing each of the doors to rust from the inside out. This will be an involved repair that I'm not looking forward to.

 

[StevenS]

Things I'd like to accomplish this weekend

1. Finish removing the denim covers off the front bench seat, assess the condition of the vinyl underneath.
2. Clean the glue residue off the glass.
3. Try to remove paint overspray off of vinyl in rear cargo area. Any suggestions?
4. Install a new battery, test all of the electricals. See if rear window operates so I can lower rear tailgate and clean out.

By week after next, I would like to dig into the engine. P.O. said that carburetor will need to be rebuilt. I'd like to see if it will fire up before I remove the carb. Would also be good to try to do a compression test on the engine.

Any and all advice appreciated!

 

[TEQ]

Man, I do love Pigs. What color will you paint it? Will you keep it white?