@KSDaddio (my father) and I have been importing restored cruisers, and project cruisers, from the Middle East for awhile now. Last year we were approached by someone local here in Phoenix asking us to do some work on their FJ40. We'd not ever considered doing this but it seemed like a fun opportunity. I emailed @wngrog a few questions about doing work on other people's rigs... and then we did a complete axle rebuild and disk brake conversion on his FJ40.
Fast forward a bit and while selling two trucks at Barrett-Jackson in January we were approached by a gentleman looking for help on finishing up a Land Cruiser project. He'd gotten the engine rebuilt and a disk brake conversion started (front and back). He'd also sent the body out for paint and they had never really finished the job. His project has lost momentum and he just wants it finished. It's a 1963 FJ45 SWB that has been painted in a pretty close match to Toyota Cavalry Blue (newer color on several of their 4x4's). We have quite a few of the parts with only a few things missing. Design decisions before we got involved... removing the 3-on-the-tree, relocating 4wd to floor shift, removing fuel tank from the cab and putting it under the bed, patching over the original fuel filler... we'll work with those. It looks like we may be getting a complete repaint as we are finding more and more issues in the current paint job.
We visited with him several time... inventoried most of his parts stash... and gave him an estimate. And then we went and picked up the truck...
And stuck it in my garage.
And started a formal inventory of what we have so we can get parts orders out.
Fast forward a bit and while selling two trucks at Barrett-Jackson in January we were approached by a gentleman looking for help on finishing up a Land Cruiser project. He'd gotten the engine rebuilt and a disk brake conversion started (front and back). He'd also sent the body out for paint and they had never really finished the job. His project has lost momentum and he just wants it finished. It's a 1963 FJ45 SWB that has been painted in a pretty close match to Toyota Cavalry Blue (newer color on several of their 4x4's). We have quite a few of the parts with only a few things missing. Design decisions before we got involved... removing the 3-on-the-tree, relocating 4wd to floor shift, removing fuel tank from the cab and putting it under the bed, patching over the original fuel filler... we'll work with those. It looks like we may be getting a complete repaint as we are finding more and more issues in the current paint job.
We visited with him several time... inventoried most of his parts stash... and gave him an estimate. And then we went and picked up the truck...
And stuck it in my garage.
And started a formal inventory of what we have so we can get parts orders out.
