Hi, my name is Joel and I liked heeps.
Growing up in a household where vehicles were only used for transportation I knew nothing about decent vehicles or modifying them for a hobby. My first car was a '67 VW bug and it got me thinking about modification but nothing about 4 wheel drive crossed my mind until my dad bought a Heep Grand Wagoneer. I loved that FSJ and thought it was so cool, I dreamed of having one of my own.
I blame my wife for getting me hooked on Cruisers. When we were dating in college she talked about Land Cruisers and the friends she had with them. I started looking into them and liked what I heard and saw. She was more familiar with 60 series rigs but I started looking at 40's and soon after we were married I bought a 68 FJ40.
It was a cool rig but I was in way over my head. I paid far too much for a rust bucket in need of a lot of work but it got me to dreaming and researching and led me to MUD.
In January of 2004 I started looking for an FJ60 to fit my growing family. I found one in the Phoenix area that I thought was a good deal. At the time, 60's were commanding a higher price than they are now. This one looked clean and seemed like a good deal. So we flew down to Phoenix, bought it, and drove it 1100 miles back to Oregon.
It was a cold trip - the PO didn't realize the heater didn't work.
Around Sacramento we got flagged down by someone to tell us one of the rear shocks was hanging loose.
I later found tons of rust and previous body(bondo) work.
When I bought it the rig was sitting on 31's, had a no-name lift of ~2.5", and a ceramic coated header. It had 238K miles on the clock. It was in fairly bad tune for my 4200' elevation but that was soon remedied.
So Far:
33x10.5 BFG AT KO Street tires
34x10.5 SS LTB Play tires (bought well used)
Desmogged
IPF H4 headlights
Aussie Locker in the Rear
Cut down stock front bumper
Cut out rust in rear wheel arches and bobbed quarters
Rear bumper/swing-outs (in the works)
Longer shackles
4Runner calipers
U-bolt flip kit in front (need to copy it for the rear)
In the works:
Right now my long-term plan is for a 4bd1t-700r4-toybox-splitcase, sprung-over on 62 axles (long term as in: keep dreaming).
Short-term I need to finish my rear bumper, work up some rear storage ala Kevin Rowland, fix the rear shocks, and wheel a whole lot more.
Oh yeah - the name "Crayon" I was wheeling with the local club and on the drive to the trail everyone was on the CB introducing themselves. I was w/o a CB so, since there was already another blue LC in the group my BIL introduced me as the CRAYON blue LC.
PICS:
1: Original Condition 2: My cut rear quarters
Growing up in a household where vehicles were only used for transportation I knew nothing about decent vehicles or modifying them for a hobby. My first car was a '67 VW bug and it got me thinking about modification but nothing about 4 wheel drive crossed my mind until my dad bought a Heep Grand Wagoneer. I loved that FSJ and thought it was so cool, I dreamed of having one of my own.
I blame my wife for getting me hooked on Cruisers. When we were dating in college she talked about Land Cruisers and the friends she had with them. I started looking into them and liked what I heard and saw. She was more familiar with 60 series rigs but I started looking at 40's and soon after we were married I bought a 68 FJ40.
It was a cool rig but I was in way over my head. I paid far too much for a rust bucket in need of a lot of work but it got me to dreaming and researching and led me to MUD.
In January of 2004 I started looking for an FJ60 to fit my growing family. I found one in the Phoenix area that I thought was a good deal. At the time, 60's were commanding a higher price than they are now. This one looked clean and seemed like a good deal. So we flew down to Phoenix, bought it, and drove it 1100 miles back to Oregon.
It was a cold trip - the PO didn't realize the heater didn't work.
Around Sacramento we got flagged down by someone to tell us one of the rear shocks was hanging loose.
I later found tons of rust and previous body(bondo) work.
When I bought it the rig was sitting on 31's, had a no-name lift of ~2.5", and a ceramic coated header. It had 238K miles on the clock. It was in fairly bad tune for my 4200' elevation but that was soon remedied.
So Far:
33x10.5 BFG AT KO Street tires
34x10.5 SS LTB Play tires (bought well used)
Desmogged
IPF H4 headlights
Aussie Locker in the Rear
Cut down stock front bumper
Cut out rust in rear wheel arches and bobbed quarters
Rear bumper/swing-outs (in the works)
Longer shackles
4Runner calipers
U-bolt flip kit in front (need to copy it for the rear)
In the works:
Right now my long-term plan is for a 4bd1t-700r4-toybox-splitcase, sprung-over on 62 axles (long term as in: keep dreaming).
Short-term I need to finish my rear bumper, work up some rear storage ala Kevin Rowland, fix the rear shocks, and wheel a whole lot more.
Oh yeah - the name "Crayon" I was wheeling with the local club and on the drive to the trail everyone was on the CB introducing themselves. I was w/o a CB so, since there was already another blue LC in the group my BIL introduced me as the CRAYON blue LC.
PICS:
1: Original Condition 2: My cut rear quarters
