- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Threads
- 127
- Messages
- 1,070
- Location
- Orcas Island in NW Washington State
- Website
- www.mtpickettwoodworking.com
Hello, I am a long time landcruiser lover. I have owned 2 fj 40s , two fj 55s and three fj 45s. I live on an island in Washington's Puget Sound, and have for over 40 years. I have four children who were raised here. The older kids all learned to drive and got their license in our family wagon, a 79 fj55. Flash forward way too many years and the poor old 55 is/was a virtual rust bucket. I loved and cared for that wagon with my heart and soul, having lost a previous '70 fj55 to the road salt devil. In 1984 this 5 year old 79 was a near mint beauty when I bought her. We went on many family camping trips, often pulling a 1966 aloha travel trailer with the polished, waxed and lubricated Piggy. Well. as often happens, the family changed, the wife left and took the 55 (and the 80) and the kids and I fended for ourselves. Not so bad, really. A few years later my oldest son and I tricked her outa the 55 and it was his... Then mine again. I'm really sorry for all the drama, but it gets better. Well somewhat. The 55 has served us very well over the last 20 years as a sort of 'lifeboat' to get all our essentials up our mountain road when the snow was too deep, the ice too slippery or the road was just plain washed out. To the best of my knowledge it remained chained up on all four wheels for the last ten or 15 years. As Neil Young pointed out, the rust never slept and I ended up with a fine running and hard pulling rusty landcruiser. Long before I bought my first landcruiser (the 70 fj55) I got involved in ancient ford trucks. Mostly one ton and larger. I have owned probably 30 of them. So Here I am today grafting the body/cab of a 47 one ton onto my beloved old fj 55. I have a set of 33 9.50 15s on mini truck wheels, which fill out the 47 ford one ton wheel wells quite nicely. They rode on 34" dia 7.50 x17s back in the day. I have 3 full cabs for this type of ford, but I'm starting out with a factory ford cowl assembly to get the geometry right at first. At 67 years old it involves less bending over. I have seen sooo many old ford trucks put on suburban chassis with the wheels sticking out like a hotwheels car or gag, placed on an s10 or ranger 2wd frame and slammed to the ground with 22" rims. Gag me with a tire iron. The 55 has the same track width and is a natural fit. I have the rust free body parts I need many times over. So far my investment has been 4 sawzall blades and some oxy-atcetylene and a few cuttoff wheels to remove the old body.