First off, It feels great to be back on IH8MUD, I joined here many years ago when I was a teenager but haven't logged in in years.
A little backstory on me, then the project...
Here we go...I am currently a 28 year old mechanical engineer, I got my first car when I was 14, a 1980 Fj40, it was free. It had rotted rear corners and some other run-of-the-mill 40 problems but it was pretty damn solid. I put a ton of miles on it just wheeling it in my woods before I had my license. When I was 16 or so I bought 3 more 40's at the same time for $1800, a 71' which I drove home, and a 69' and 72' for parts. I drove the 71' quite a bit to school and around town with friends etc. Probably around age 18 I got another free one, a 74' that had an SBC in it and had a tree fall on the front end and the owner just gave up on it. Around that time i got into cars and fabrication and just moved away from the off-road world with the purchase of a 96' Firebird ws6. I sold all the 40's in a series of package deals over the next few months, what a mistake. Anyway, time went on...I built a 396 stroker nitrous motor for the firebird in my garage which was cool, but I got the desire to build something more from the ground up so I parted it out and started on something new and fresh. When I was 21 I had a '94 Mazda Rx7 stripped out shell shipped from AZ to my house in CT and spent the next 7 years building it. I learned soooo much building this car it's not even funny. I learned to Tig weld, sheetmetal work, building transmissions, suspension fab and geometry, entire turbo system fab, wiring, autobody (built my own paint boot and painted it), EFI tuning...etc etc etc. I literally built every single component in my shop, hell, I even bought/rebuilt a 3-axis CNC knee mill to produce my own billet parts.
During that seven years I finished my engineering degree and I also built a couple vehicles, and got back towards the 4x4 stuff...
'63 F250 on a 94' F350 chassis with a 12V cummins and ZF5
And my '51 Willys M38 with SBC350/Muncie 4 speed/ oem t-case
I still have (and always will) the RX7, the F250, and the M38.
Anyway...I recognized years ago that one of my biggest mistakes was letting the 40's go. Not only has the value gone through the roof on them, I miss driving them. I have been keeping my eyes open for years for something salvageable to build for my girlfriend but alas, most of them are soooo far gone or the owner wants $10k for it.
So, A few weeks ago I was up at my house in VT and was traveling down to northern mass to get a block of wood for another project at a forestry place. On my way back I was taking some back roads through Southern, VT and spotted what I thought was a 40 peeking out from behind a barn out in a sheep pasture. After turning around to double check I notice a lady in the front yard. I stopped in real quick and asked her about it and she said it was her husbands, he wasn't home, and lots of people have stopped and asked about it in the past. I asked if I could take a look and she said no problem. So I parked my car, walked across the street, walked through a cemetery (which was very interestingly located...) and up the 40 out behind the barn. This picture is an approximation of my first look at this truck...
Yes, you're thinking the same thing I was..."wow, that trucks best days are long gone..."
But, I started looking around and found it actually had a lot of good parts left.
The doors/windshield frame/hood/fenders/grille/bib/aprons etc are remarkable well preserved...its complete too, minus the rear axle. The original F motor and trans/tcase were actually inside the cab too. After maybe 15 mins of wandering around looking at it I saw a truck pull into the driveway, figured it must be the husband. I walk back over to the house and introduce myself, tell the guy I was admiring the land cruiser. The rest of the conversation went something like this:
Him: "Lots of guys have come and asked me about that truck"
Me: "I'm not surprised, they're rare and you can see it from the road"
Him: "Are you seriously interested?"
Me: "Yes, and I have the means to remove it"
Him: "Lots of guys have wanted it, what makes you the one?"
Me: "Well, it'll be my 6th Fj40 and I think I may be able to save most of it...I've saved worse"
Him: "Okay, its yours"
And with that, this thing became the 3rd free FJ40 I've gotten in my life.
We then spent the next hour or so shooting the s*** about the truck...turns out, he's a Vietnam vet and the truck belonged to one of his buddies from the war. They spent a lot of time out hunting in it and stuff and it was very sentimental to him. His buddy died of cancer 20 years ago, the truck had been in the sheep pasture for about 25 years. Anyway, we made a plan that I'd come back in 3 weeks (labor day weekend) and drag the thing out, shook hands and I was on my way.
Fast forward 3 weeks...My father, two very close family friends, and myself went back to pull the thing out on Saturday morning. It took SIX HOURS! to get it on my trailer. Since It had no rear axle and sat for 25 years the thing was buried. Here's a pick of the trailer hitch/ball after digging down about 8 inches just to find it.
So we jack it up out of the dirt, set it on wood beams and winched it up on the trailer. I didn't want to destroy anything before I had a chance to see what I had so we had to take it slow.
Once I got it back to my place in VT and was getting it ready for the longer trip home to CT I realized just how bad the tub/frame were. Someone could maybe save it, if you wanted it to be your life's work or something. I essentially resigned myself at that point to parting it out.
The next morning I was laying on the couch getting ready to head back to CT and was browsing 40 parts on craigslist to get an idea for what people are asking for parts these days (cant believe how the prices have gone up!) and I spotted something interesting: a 74' 40 "project"...I clicked the ad and it had no pictures but described basically a rolling chassis, fiberglass tub, SBC350/TH350/40 T-case, Saginaw P/S, Con-ferr aux gas tank...So I texted the guy and asked if it was still around and if he could send me a pic...a few minutes later I was delighted to receive these pictures:
So I then did what any sane man would do...I got in my truck and dragged the 72' back home to CT...got home late...woke up early the next morning, grabbed my girlfriend, got in my daily driver and drove from CT to just outside Atlantic City, NJ to look at the '74. It only took me 10 mins to make a deal with the guy.
And just like that, I had attained two seemingly perfect puzzle pieces to this build inside of 24 hours from each other about 600 miles apart. I agreed on a price, and planned to come back down the next weekend with my truck and trailer. I had to wait since I couldn't just drop the 72' off my trailer without some prior planning, you know, the whole "no axle" thing....
Anyway, that brings us to today...I got home from Jersey with the '74 about 3 hours ago. Maybe tomorrow I'll post some more pictures and outline my plans for this build...for now, I feel like I just wrote a damn book. Please forgive any spelling errors, I don't have the energy to go back through this whole post right now.
A little backstory on me, then the project...
Here we go...I am currently a 28 year old mechanical engineer, I got my first car when I was 14, a 1980 Fj40, it was free. It had rotted rear corners and some other run-of-the-mill 40 problems but it was pretty damn solid. I put a ton of miles on it just wheeling it in my woods before I had my license. When I was 16 or so I bought 3 more 40's at the same time for $1800, a 71' which I drove home, and a 69' and 72' for parts. I drove the 71' quite a bit to school and around town with friends etc. Probably around age 18 I got another free one, a 74' that had an SBC in it and had a tree fall on the front end and the owner just gave up on it. Around that time i got into cars and fabrication and just moved away from the off-road world with the purchase of a 96' Firebird ws6. I sold all the 40's in a series of package deals over the next few months, what a mistake. Anyway, time went on...I built a 396 stroker nitrous motor for the firebird in my garage which was cool, but I got the desire to build something more from the ground up so I parted it out and started on something new and fresh. When I was 21 I had a '94 Mazda Rx7 stripped out shell shipped from AZ to my house in CT and spent the next 7 years building it. I learned soooo much building this car it's not even funny. I learned to Tig weld, sheetmetal work, building transmissions, suspension fab and geometry, entire turbo system fab, wiring, autobody (built my own paint boot and painted it), EFI tuning...etc etc etc. I literally built every single component in my shop, hell, I even bought/rebuilt a 3-axis CNC knee mill to produce my own billet parts.
During that seven years I finished my engineering degree and I also built a couple vehicles, and got back towards the 4x4 stuff...
'63 F250 on a 94' F350 chassis with a 12V cummins and ZF5
And my '51 Willys M38 with SBC350/Muncie 4 speed/ oem t-case
I still have (and always will) the RX7, the F250, and the M38.
Anyway...I recognized years ago that one of my biggest mistakes was letting the 40's go. Not only has the value gone through the roof on them, I miss driving them. I have been keeping my eyes open for years for something salvageable to build for my girlfriend but alas, most of them are soooo far gone or the owner wants $10k for it.
So, A few weeks ago I was up at my house in VT and was traveling down to northern mass to get a block of wood for another project at a forestry place. On my way back I was taking some back roads through Southern, VT and spotted what I thought was a 40 peeking out from behind a barn out in a sheep pasture. After turning around to double check I notice a lady in the front yard. I stopped in real quick and asked her about it and she said it was her husbands, he wasn't home, and lots of people have stopped and asked about it in the past. I asked if I could take a look and she said no problem. So I parked my car, walked across the street, walked through a cemetery (which was very interestingly located...) and up the 40 out behind the barn. This picture is an approximation of my first look at this truck...
Yes, you're thinking the same thing I was..."wow, that trucks best days are long gone..."
But, I started looking around and found it actually had a lot of good parts left.
The doors/windshield frame/hood/fenders/grille/bib/aprons etc are remarkable well preserved...its complete too, minus the rear axle. The original F motor and trans/tcase were actually inside the cab too. After maybe 15 mins of wandering around looking at it I saw a truck pull into the driveway, figured it must be the husband. I walk back over to the house and introduce myself, tell the guy I was admiring the land cruiser. The rest of the conversation went something like this:
Him: "Lots of guys have come and asked me about that truck"
Me: "I'm not surprised, they're rare and you can see it from the road"
Him: "Are you seriously interested?"
Me: "Yes, and I have the means to remove it"
Him: "Lots of guys have wanted it, what makes you the one?"
Me: "Well, it'll be my 6th Fj40 and I think I may be able to save most of it...I've saved worse"
Him: "Okay, its yours"
And with that, this thing became the 3rd free FJ40 I've gotten in my life.
We then spent the next hour or so shooting the s*** about the truck...turns out, he's a Vietnam vet and the truck belonged to one of his buddies from the war. They spent a lot of time out hunting in it and stuff and it was very sentimental to him. His buddy died of cancer 20 years ago, the truck had been in the sheep pasture for about 25 years. Anyway, we made a plan that I'd come back in 3 weeks (labor day weekend) and drag the thing out, shook hands and I was on my way.
Fast forward 3 weeks...My father, two very close family friends, and myself went back to pull the thing out on Saturday morning. It took SIX HOURS! to get it on my trailer. Since It had no rear axle and sat for 25 years the thing was buried. Here's a pick of the trailer hitch/ball after digging down about 8 inches just to find it.
So we jack it up out of the dirt, set it on wood beams and winched it up on the trailer. I didn't want to destroy anything before I had a chance to see what I had so we had to take it slow.
Once I got it back to my place in VT and was getting it ready for the longer trip home to CT I realized just how bad the tub/frame were. Someone could maybe save it, if you wanted it to be your life's work or something. I essentially resigned myself at that point to parting it out.
The next morning I was laying on the couch getting ready to head back to CT and was browsing 40 parts on craigslist to get an idea for what people are asking for parts these days (cant believe how the prices have gone up!) and I spotted something interesting: a 74' 40 "project"...I clicked the ad and it had no pictures but described basically a rolling chassis, fiberglass tub, SBC350/TH350/40 T-case, Saginaw P/S, Con-ferr aux gas tank...So I texted the guy and asked if it was still around and if he could send me a pic...a few minutes later I was delighted to receive these pictures:
So I then did what any sane man would do...I got in my truck and dragged the 72' back home to CT...got home late...woke up early the next morning, grabbed my girlfriend, got in my daily driver and drove from CT to just outside Atlantic City, NJ to look at the '74. It only took me 10 mins to make a deal with the guy.
And just like that, I had attained two seemingly perfect puzzle pieces to this build inside of 24 hours from each other about 600 miles apart. I agreed on a price, and planned to come back down the next weekend with my truck and trailer. I had to wait since I couldn't just drop the 72' off my trailer without some prior planning, you know, the whole "no axle" thing....
Anyway, that brings us to today...I got home from Jersey with the '74 about 3 hours ago. Maybe tomorrow I'll post some more pictures and outline my plans for this build...for now, I feel like I just wrote a damn book. Please forgive any spelling errors, I don't have the energy to go back through this whole post right now
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