POTM Wayneraintree
This is my 1973 FJ-55.
It lives in decent health in eastern PA. It needs a round of maintenance before the weather breaks but as always, it is ready to go wherever and however far away at anytime. The build on this pig was intended to meet the need for long range expedition distance driving coupled with relatively hard core wheeling elements, obstacles, and generally demanding offroad performance while able to complete the round trip. It is meeting the needs for the most part. Though I have plans to go here and there, trips in it are rare these days as I am a new proud father. I get to wheel and go on trips on occasion however, which is fine with me because the joy of driving it loaded for fun is irreplaceable in my life as is my daughter so I have the best of both worlds.
History: I bought this 55 in 2002. I returned from a few month long trip and decided to build the truck I always wanted. Originally from Colorado, I bought it in a wierd way in south Florida sight unseen. I was living in south Florida at the time with my wife to be. I saw the 55 listed for sale on SOR classifieds. It took about three months of hagling for me top finally reach a deal on the truck. The PO drove it from CO to Louisville, parked it in his dad's garage and moved to south Florida himself. His dad wanted it out, I had the cash, so we met somewhere near Hollywood, FL to exchange the title. I had only seen three exterior pictures of it so it was really a mystery deal but I ended up happy. So now to actually take posession of the 55.
My cousin living in northern KY was enlisted as was a good cruiser friend in NKY to help pick up the 55 from Louisville. My cousin 'borrowed' a truck and trailer from his employer, a landscape outfit, on a Saturday and they went to get the 55. They had no issues getting it and returning with it dor storae at my cousins. The landscape company had issue with what my cousing did with their equipment without permission When he arrived at work on Monday, the boss asked him if he knew anything about one of their outfits on I-71N on Sat. AM towing a white van???? (first time anyone's say it resembles a van
) but.......................they let him slide of course
and my 55 is at his place.
My 55 has an interesting history. As the PO's story goes (I know, anything can be the truth but...) this 55 has traversed the most famous trails including the Rubicon, Moab, all over CO and the west. A reason to believe this is that it actually had rock rash under the skim of bondo on the body and it was modified with rudimentary craftmanship..... it had a MAF lift, 33 X 9.50 BFG AT, a nasty RUNK winch bumper (and evidence of a winch), and a 4 bolt main CSB from an '68 impala, mounted with crude engine mounts, crude bellhousing adapter to the trashed 3-speed on the floor, crude acrossmember, etc. The PO told me that it was wheeled and modified for those trails back in the 70's with a lift and the CSB before conversion parts were available. He said he was the 2nd owner, making me the 3rd and the PO to him did all the mods and told him the history. No advanced adapters stuff here
I call it a pioneer'ed conversion but it all makes me feel humble around a pig that has seen so much battle. It's scars prove to me it was a functioning, built beast. Some pioneering knight thought a V-8 would give it the heart it needed to conquer those types of trails for many, many years. Someone wiser than I saw the capability of this pig and gave it an early build up '70's style It withstood all the years of service and arrived to me in a mild state of disrepair. The driver and passenger door were heavily creased from a guard rail, axles needed maintenance, driveline itself was sitting cockeyed from years of torque, the three speed was sceaming bloody murder, and it had some cancer showing in the usual places. It was a solid Iron Pig with a need for some attention. It was exactly what I wanted and the purchase price left me with a build budget. Pic with donor doors:
The engine was then regasketed and cleaned, new Holly 4-barrel, steering, brakes, drivelines, etc. were tested, adjusted, and safe. I drove it for a while in this state of functional (but obviously extremely worn) condition. I needed to drive it so I could get to know the iron pig. It is important to spend some quality time driving a new rig before dismantling it for repairs/mods, IMHO After six months of service and me relishing the smells, sounds, and sights of my 55, the engine's oil pressure went south. Uh oh
I got with Chris Fryman (formerly Hybrid Offroad in Rabbit Hash KY, AKA Frydaddy) and we worked out a plan for the piggie: SOA, front discs from a donor '77 FJ-40 I scored from a friend, rear discs from Fryman's brackets, longfields up front, Astrovan Saginaw power steering inside the framerail behind the radiator, Griffin radiator, axles rebuilt complete, rebuilt SM465, rebuilt 3-speed case, new HD drivelines, replace rear channel, fix front driver floor body mount, donor doors from a parts pig in good shape, rear traction bar (antiwrap), marlin hysteer arms, tuck driveline as high as possible, and other miscellanous items. Once all this was complete, I planned to swap in a TBI 350. It took a while and some grunt work but I learned alot. Here are a few pics:
ALBUM
/needsTBI.sized.jpg[/IMG]
I then took on the task of swapping in a TBI 350. I found a used one complete with wiring harness and computer on EBAY for cheap. It was not hard for me to convince myself I needed a reman'ed motor. The compression check on my new motor told me so so off to GM goes the bad 93' 4 bolt main 350 and back to me comes a clean engine in a crate. Reassemble everything, took two days to weed out the stock GM wiring harness with diagrams in hand, bolt it up, plump the fuel lines, final wire everything,rebuilt the TBI and there it was... a strong TBI 350, reliable and simple. This was a large task but well worth it. Since my 55 came to me with a 350, it was an easy decision to go TBI 350. The hardest part was the wiring harness which actually turned out to be a great learning experience, as was the whole swap. In the end, I again had what I wanted. I then rattle can spray bombed it what I call 'powdered donut white/antique blue', built a rear bumper/carrier with DIY parts from IronPig Offroad, front bumper with 8274, replaced the rockers with 4x4 1/4 sq. tube and bent tube sliders from Lance at IPOR, trimmed the quarters, 2.5 x 2.5 quarter sliders tied built into rear bumper, pintle hook, rockstomper recovery points in rear bumper which is made of 2x6 1/4 sq. tube, SOR dash pad, dash cover, camaro bucket seats, new (used) rear bench from fellow mudder in good shape, CB, noise suppresion, custom interior panels, replacement glove box from SOR, OE floormats, 36" Super swamper SX (2nd set) on 15X8 Chevy Rally steelies, etc. Let me know of any questions, comments, feelings , or just plain encouragment for my piggie , thanks for reading (I heard people like to read about rigs so I wrote more rather than less)
I will add some more recent pics ASAP
This is my 1973 FJ-55.
It lives in decent health in eastern PA. It needs a round of maintenance before the weather breaks but as always, it is ready to go wherever and however far away at anytime. The build on this pig was intended to meet the need for long range expedition distance driving coupled with relatively hard core wheeling elements, obstacles, and generally demanding offroad performance while able to complete the round trip. It is meeting the needs for the most part. Though I have plans to go here and there, trips in it are rare these days as I am a new proud father. I get to wheel and go on trips on occasion however, which is fine with me because the joy of driving it loaded for fun is irreplaceable in my life as is my daughter so I have the best of both worlds.
History: I bought this 55 in 2002. I returned from a few month long trip and decided to build the truck I always wanted. Originally from Colorado, I bought it in a wierd way in south Florida sight unseen. I was living in south Florida at the time with my wife to be. I saw the 55 listed for sale on SOR classifieds. It took about three months of hagling for me top finally reach a deal on the truck. The PO drove it from CO to Louisville, parked it in his dad's garage and moved to south Florida himself. His dad wanted it out, I had the cash, so we met somewhere near Hollywood, FL to exchange the title. I had only seen three exterior pictures of it so it was really a mystery deal but I ended up happy. So now to actually take posession of the 55.
My cousin living in northern KY was enlisted as was a good cruiser friend in NKY to help pick up the 55 from Louisville. My cousin 'borrowed' a truck and trailer from his employer, a landscape outfit, on a Saturday and they went to get the 55. They had no issues getting it and returning with it dor storae at my cousins. The landscape company had issue with what my cousing did with their equipment
without permission When he arrived at work on Monday, the boss asked him if he knew anything about one of their outfits on I-71N on Sat. AM towing a white van???? (first time anyone's say it resembles a van ) but.......................they let him slide of course and my 55 is at his place.My 55 has an interesting history. As the PO's story goes (I know, anything can be the truth but...) this 55 has traversed the most famous trails including the Rubicon, Moab, all over CO and the west. A reason to believe this is that it actually had rock rash under the skim of bondo on the body and it was modified with rudimentary craftmanship..... it had a MAF lift, 33 X 9.50 BFG AT, a nasty RUNK winch bumper (and evidence of a winch), and a 4 bolt main CSB from an '68 impala, mounted with crude engine mounts, crude bellhousing adapter to the trashed 3-speed on the floor, crude acrossmember, etc. The PO told me that it was wheeled and modified for those trails back in the 70's with a lift and the CSB before conversion parts were available. He said he was the 2nd owner, making me the 3rd and the PO to him did all the mods and told him the history. No advanced adapters stuff here
I call it a pioneer'ed conversion but it all makes me feel humble around a pig that has seen so much battle. It's scars prove to me it was a functioning, built beast. Some pioneering knight thought a V-8 would give it the heart it needed to conquer those types of trails for many, many years. Someone wiser than I saw the capability of this pig and gave it an early build up '70's style It withstood all the years of service and arrived to me in a mild state of disrepair. The driver and passenger door were heavily creased from a guard rail, axles needed maintenance, driveline itself was sitting cockeyed from years of torque, the three speed was sceaming bloody murder, and it had some cancer showing in the usual places. It was a solid Iron Pig with a need for some attention. It was exactly what I wanted and the purchase price left me with a build budget. Pic with donor doors:
The engine was then regasketed and cleaned, new Holly 4-barrel, steering, brakes, drivelines, etc. were tested, adjusted, and safe. I drove it for a while in this state of functional (but obviously extremely worn) condition. I needed to drive it so I could get to know the iron pig. It is important to spend some quality time driving a new rig before dismantling it for repairs/mods, IMHO
After six months of service and me relishing the smells, sounds, and sights of my 55, the engine's oil pressure went south. Uh oh I got with Chris Fryman (formerly Hybrid Offroad in Rabbit Hash KY, AKA Frydaddy) and we worked out a plan for the piggie: SOA, front discs from a donor '77 FJ-40 I scored from a friend, rear discs from Fryman's brackets, longfields up front, Astrovan Saginaw power steering inside the framerail behind the radiator, Griffin radiator, axles rebuilt complete, rebuilt SM465, rebuilt 3-speed case, new HD drivelines, replace rear channel, fix front driver floor body mount, donor doors from a parts pig in good shape, rear traction bar (antiwrap), marlin hysteer arms, tuck driveline as high as possible, and other miscellanous items. Once all this was complete, I planned to swap in a TBI 350. It took a while and some grunt work but I learned alot. Here are a few pics:
ALBUM
/needsTBI.sized.jpg[/IMG]
I then took on the task of swapping in a TBI 350. I found a used one complete with wiring harness and computer on EBAY for cheap. It was not hard for me to convince myself I needed a reman'ed motor. The compression check on my new motor told me so
so off to GM goes the bad 93' 4 bolt main 350 and back to me comes a clean engine in a crate. Reassemble everything, took two days to weed out the stock GM wiring harness with diagrams in hand, bolt it up, plump the fuel lines, final wire everything,rebuilt the TBI and there it was... a strong TBI 350, reliable and simple. This was a large task but well worth it. Since my 55 came to me with a 350, it was an easy decision to go TBI 350. The hardest part was the wiring harness which actually turned out to be a great learning experience, as was the whole swap. In the end, I again had what I wanted. I then rattle can spray bombed it what I call 'powdered donut white/antique blue', built a rear bumper/carrier with DIY parts from IronPig Offroad, front bumper with 8274, replaced the rockers with 4x4 1/4 sq. tube and bent tube sliders from Lance at IPOR, trimmed the quarters, 2.5 x 2.5 quarter sliders tied built into rear bumper, pintle hook, rockstomper recovery points in rear bumper which is made of 2x6 1/4 sq. tube, SOR dash pad, dash cover, camaro bucket seats, new (used) rear bench from fellow mudder in good shape, CB, noise suppresion, custom interior panels, replacement glove box from SOR, OE floormats, 36" Super swamper SX (2nd set) on 15X8 Chevy Rally steelies, etc. Let me know of any questions, comments, feelings , or just plain encouragment for my piggie , thanks for reading (I heard people like to read about rigs so I wrote more rather than less) I will add some more recent pics ASAP
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