Hi all, I have watching for a while now you guys restoring 55,s and seeing them coming back to life. I thought I would like to add my pig to the mix as well.
I guess a little history should be added to make it more interesting.
Maybe 15 years ago I remember seeing an old Ford Bronco drive by and thought how cool it was and how I liked the square shape. I would have liked to have one but they are quite rare here so was an unrealistic proposition. Fast forward 14years I started looking for another alternative and decided on buying an Fj40 as a restoration project as wanting to build up something of my own enjoying the challenge of restoring a vehicle. So I started looking for a likely project online and stumbled across an image of a FJ55. I was hooked immediately and thought they look great, funny looking, very distinctive shape. So started seeing what was available in New Zealand and found.....nothing. They did exist here but very few and far between the reason you will all know Rust! They had all simply rotted away and had been parked up in paddocks or scrapped due to not being warrantable.
Still I kept on looking mainly on our local auction website and saw one spring up in Queenstown for sale but it was in good condition at the other end of the country and asking too much so that one was out. By luck while idly trawling the Trademe website I found a old 1930 Chevy car being sold but in the dim background the unmistakable shape of an FJ55! I contacted the owner of the Chevy and was told that if wanted, it was for sale. So I went down to Tauranga and had a look, it was in pretty bad shape lots of rust though some had being repaired like the rockers and some floor panels.
Anyway beggars cant be choosers so bought it off him for too much and had it sent up to Auckland.
I wanted a project...I've got one.
Anyway here's some pictures behold the horror!
I guess a little history should be added to make it more interesting.
Maybe 15 years ago I remember seeing an old Ford Bronco drive by and thought how cool it was and how I liked the square shape. I would have liked to have one but they are quite rare here so was an unrealistic proposition. Fast forward 14years I started looking for another alternative and decided on buying an Fj40 as a restoration project as wanting to build up something of my own enjoying the challenge of restoring a vehicle. So I started looking for a likely project online and stumbled across an image of a FJ55. I was hooked immediately and thought they look great, funny looking, very distinctive shape. So started seeing what was available in New Zealand and found.....nothing. They did exist here but very few and far between the reason you will all know Rust! They had all simply rotted away and had been parked up in paddocks or scrapped due to not being warrantable.
Still I kept on looking mainly on our local auction website and saw one spring up in Queenstown for sale but it was in good condition at the other end of the country and asking too much so that one was out. By luck while idly trawling the Trademe website I found a old 1930 Chevy car being sold but in the dim background the unmistakable shape of an FJ55! I contacted the owner of the Chevy and was told that if wanted, it was for sale. So I went down to Tauranga and had a look, it was in pretty bad shape lots of rust though some had being repaired like the rockers and some floor panels.
Anyway beggars cant be choosers so bought it off him for too much and had it sent up to Auckland.
I wanted a project...I've got one.
Anyway here's some pictures behold the horror!
