- Location
- United States
I’m toying with the idea of letting go of what was once my dream truck... I’ll try not to bore you with too many details besides the truck, but it’s not an unfamiliar theme.. Changing priorities and finances, combined with some health issues, and a little bit of general oldfxxxeritis thrown in too... SW Montana.
What I have is a 1964 FJ45 lwb pickup. It is a project. It is not quite complete, nor does it run, nor do I know about it’s likelihood of running without fully rebuilding the motor. It sat for a little over 20 years before I got it (driven to it’s parking place), and was sunk up to the frame in a very dry silty setting. I have done some basic rescue work to the rig to preserve it by particle blasting several of the removable parts including the upper cab, roof panel, windshield frame, bib, aprons, hood, fenders, tailgate, headache rack, and transmission cover. It does not have the vacuum lines for transfer case shifting, the column shifter assembly is gone, the wiring is completely out (chewed..coiled in a box). The carb is missing, the brake master as well as clutch master and slave cylinders are out. All brake and clutch lines are suspect at best, and likely need full replace. The hood is a newer year, the hood hinges are a newer year. Windshield hinges are newer. The motor is an F, but not the original one... the open title in my name is a combination of the motor and frame numbers in accordance with it’s previous states requirements for re-powered rigs..(original US rig) this results in the truck title representing the truck as newer than the frame number alone implies. I suspect we could get this straightened around in my state if the vehicle was running with a simple, formal inspection.
The Good:
The frame is solid, there was/is only some minor surface rust present. I hand sanded and drill sanded much of the surface rust off before applying rattle primer and the rattle can paint. There is no bondo on the rig.. What you see is what you get. I took most of the cab exterior down to bare metal or at least into the factory primer to stop the oxidation.
The Bad:
No carb. Missing one corner glass and windshield glass. The roof panel has canoe(?) dents and a rust hole in the front portion near the mounting bar on one front corner. This was particle blasted to bare metal and promptly sprayed with rattle can rust inhibitor. The floor of the box is well used and has some rust through, it is dented and squarshed. I have not taken the cab off the frame, and I have not touched up the frame under the cab, so you can clearly see what the rest of it was like before my efforts. I haven’t done anything inside the cab other than try to slow the deterioration in the floors until I can cut it out... There are a couple spots on the lower cab like the rockers that are rusting a bit.. Unknown what exactly is there and is not, but I’m happy to help sort out the details as best I can...
The Ugly:
The floor at the drivers feet is rusted through. There are several nearly dime sized holes.. the majority of the cab seems good and it appears that a new piece welded in that floor panel would work fine. I do not see any structural damage in the main support pieces. The wiring was chewed through in many places and just deteriorated, the wiring is out of the truck entirely, coiled in a box. All switches and gauges are out of the truck also, but most are present with the truck. There are no rear lights, or at the very least they are not functional if I even have them in a box.. they were bare I think, and beat up thoroughly. The front springs seem pretty flat.. this thing had a small plow blade on it mounted to the springs. All the suspension bushings need replacing. The rear sill-channel of the box is not very good and should be replaced or will require modification to get the tailgate remounted.
The Extras:
I put a nice new, winch mount bumper on it that now has reamed out holes mounting some custom towing tabs, with a (not ideal) custom tow bar included.... I’ll tell yo about some of the glitches with that later (too short, unwanted wheel turn...) . I have a long range fuel tank that will go with it too. This tank was to be mounted in the rear of an fj40, but should fit the same place between the frame rails on this 45?? Not sure of it’s volume, but probably around 20 gallons. I have a new Painless wiring harness for the project. In addition to all the original gauges I have a few others in boxes.. not sure of operational condition, some might even be oem nos?
The Caveat:
I’m still determining what I will do with this project. This is not a rig that I am going to let go easily, or too inexpensively due to my financial and emotional attachments to it... You are Not stumbling onto the deal of the century here.. If there is such a thing as a purchaser, it will probably involve a generous offer and a short essay about how cool this thing is and your plans for it,, and maybe even the promise of giving me a ride in it at some point if I can show up in the right place/time?(I’m kidding, mostly) I may eventually poke around on EBay and see what happens with a high reserve at some point, but I won’t do that today or tomorrow like some I’ve seen post here. I suspect you’ve got time to think about it. I’m not to the point of ‘Needing’, or even really ‘wanting’ to sell it just yet, and have turned down a couple good, honorable, arguably generous offers by many standards in the 6k region by folks that really wanted to give it a good home.... Sooo, I’m just putting it out there to test the waters a bit... It is in fact for sale, but I haven’t determined where my tipping point is just yet.... I’m not going to take 6k today, but I thought I’d at least see if there’s an anxious searcher with more resources than me that wanted the opportunity to persuade me closer to double that?... ok that's a stretch, I know... I consider these things kind of priceless, but ultimately that’s not practical..... Call it what you will... I may even end up hanging on to it for another 10 years as it sits and keep tinkering...If I can come up with a solid number I'll let you know.
What I have is a 1964 FJ45 lwb pickup. It is a project. It is not quite complete, nor does it run, nor do I know about it’s likelihood of running without fully rebuilding the motor. It sat for a little over 20 years before I got it (driven to it’s parking place), and was sunk up to the frame in a very dry silty setting. I have done some basic rescue work to the rig to preserve it by particle blasting several of the removable parts including the upper cab, roof panel, windshield frame, bib, aprons, hood, fenders, tailgate, headache rack, and transmission cover. It does not have the vacuum lines for transfer case shifting, the column shifter assembly is gone, the wiring is completely out (chewed..coiled in a box). The carb is missing, the brake master as well as clutch master and slave cylinders are out. All brake and clutch lines are suspect at best, and likely need full replace. The hood is a newer year, the hood hinges are a newer year. Windshield hinges are newer. The motor is an F, but not the original one... the open title in my name is a combination of the motor and frame numbers in accordance with it’s previous states requirements for re-powered rigs..(original US rig) this results in the truck title representing the truck as newer than the frame number alone implies. I suspect we could get this straightened around in my state if the vehicle was running with a simple, formal inspection.
The Good:
The frame is solid, there was/is only some minor surface rust present. I hand sanded and drill sanded much of the surface rust off before applying rattle primer and the rattle can paint. There is no bondo on the rig.. What you see is what you get. I took most of the cab exterior down to bare metal or at least into the factory primer to stop the oxidation.
The Bad:
No carb. Missing one corner glass and windshield glass. The roof panel has canoe(?) dents and a rust hole in the front portion near the mounting bar on one front corner. This was particle blasted to bare metal and promptly sprayed with rattle can rust inhibitor. The floor of the box is well used and has some rust through, it is dented and squarshed. I have not taken the cab off the frame, and I have not touched up the frame under the cab, so you can clearly see what the rest of it was like before my efforts. I haven’t done anything inside the cab other than try to slow the deterioration in the floors until I can cut it out... There are a couple spots on the lower cab like the rockers that are rusting a bit.. Unknown what exactly is there and is not, but I’m happy to help sort out the details as best I can...
The Ugly:
The floor at the drivers feet is rusted through. There are several nearly dime sized holes.. the majority of the cab seems good and it appears that a new piece welded in that floor panel would work fine. I do not see any structural damage in the main support pieces. The wiring was chewed through in many places and just deteriorated, the wiring is out of the truck entirely, coiled in a box. All switches and gauges are out of the truck also, but most are present with the truck. There are no rear lights, or at the very least they are not functional if I even have them in a box.. they were bare I think, and beat up thoroughly. The front springs seem pretty flat.. this thing had a small plow blade on it mounted to the springs. All the suspension bushings need replacing. The rear sill-channel of the box is not very good and should be replaced or will require modification to get the tailgate remounted.
The Extras:
I put a nice new, winch mount bumper on it that now has reamed out holes mounting some custom towing tabs, with a (not ideal) custom tow bar included.... I’ll tell yo about some of the glitches with that later (too short, unwanted wheel turn...) . I have a long range fuel tank that will go with it too. This tank was to be mounted in the rear of an fj40, but should fit the same place between the frame rails on this 45?? Not sure of it’s volume, but probably around 20 gallons. I have a new Painless wiring harness for the project. In addition to all the original gauges I have a few others in boxes.. not sure of operational condition, some might even be oem nos?
The Caveat:
I’m still determining what I will do with this project. This is not a rig that I am going to let go easily, or too inexpensively due to my financial and emotional attachments to it... You are Not stumbling onto the deal of the century here.. If there is such a thing as a purchaser, it will probably involve a generous offer and a short essay about how cool this thing is and your plans for it,, and maybe even the promise of giving me a ride in it at some point if I can show up in the right place/time?(I’m kidding, mostly) I may eventually poke around on EBay and see what happens with a high reserve at some point, but I won’t do that today or tomorrow like some I’ve seen post here. I suspect you’ve got time to think about it. I’m not to the point of ‘Needing’, or even really ‘wanting’ to sell it just yet, and have turned down a couple good, honorable, arguably generous offers by many standards in the 6k region by folks that really wanted to give it a good home.... Sooo, I’m just putting it out there to test the waters a bit... It is in fact for sale, but I haven’t determined where my tipping point is just yet.... I’m not going to take 6k today, but I thought I’d at least see if there’s an anxious searcher with more resources than me that wanted the opportunity to persuade me closer to double that?... ok that's a stretch, I know... I consider these things kind of priceless, but ultimately that’s not practical..... Call it what you will... I may even end up hanging on to it for another 10 years as it sits and keep tinkering...If I can come up with a solid number I'll let you know.