This tread is intended to document the multi year transformation of an FJ40. I'm going to include all the fits and starts, changes in plans , good and bad decisions and lessons learned. It all started 5 years ago while living on the campus of the Fountain Valley School . For 8 years my wife worked at the Fountain Valley School as the school nurse. The school Mascot is a Great Dane, school colors Red and White. My wife and I had Dirt bikes but she really didn't feel comfortable riding so we began looking for something else to trail ride. I looked at ATVs but wife said she would rather just ride with me so I looked at a UTV. UTV was "Very Expensive" I had neighbor Ken Ramey who was into building Jeeps and he got me interested. After some research, looking at images on line finding the Mudd website, I fell for the Toyota FJ40 land cruiser. I thought this would be cheaper than the UTV.. Looking back that was my first mistake. Next step Find an FJ40 project vehicle.