1978 Barn door FJ55 "daily driver" (1 Viewer)

[gonzopancho]

new door skins, rockers, etc.

 

[gonzopancho]

The hood needed some love as well.

 

[greenbeast]

Amazing the first pics were definitely "lipstick on a pig"!! In my search the barn doors are very intriguing however only one I have seen is in Costa Rica. Kudo's for you to be doing this correctly!

 

[onemanarmy]

wow!
Brand new door skins?!

 

[bobm]

new door skins, rockers, etc.

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Where you git skins? Nice shop

 

[gonzopancho]

Where you git skins? Nice shop

it's the Land Cruiser Heaven shop in Cartagena, Colombia

 

[Half Wacked aka Split Pea]

Incredible work thank you for the pics, I am amazed at what can be repaired, Great Pig to be

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Wow. Looks like they have the skills to do it right. I've seen a few 55s for sale in Saudi but nothing overly tempting yet....and they all have barn doors.

 

[RUSH55]

Gaawwd daaayyuuummm!!!

 

[gonzopancho]

Working on the door(s), but this is the worst one.

 

[gonzopancho]

 

[xtiaan2000]

That ground on his welder has seen some time!

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Wow. I wasn't sure how that was going to turn out.

 

[PabloCruise]

Since I got into FJ55s (not so long ago) I've had an affinity for the barn door variety. These were never available in the US, but they do occasionally find their way here.

I've also found myself admiring this FJ56 restored by Riverside Garage in Japan. I really like the 1UZ, 5-speed combination, FJ7x rear axle, bucket seats, heavy chrome, and the overall "Toyota Way" quality of the build. It looks like something Toyota would have built, had the FJ5x been produced 10-15 years later.



More pics on the owner’s IG account.


So I set out to build my own version of it. First thing to do was to find a barn-doored pig. As it turned out, I found two, but we'll save the other for a later build. @FloridaFJ80 at Land Cruiser Heaven helped me find several in Colombia, but I finally settled on this one. Frank had his people fly to where it was and check it out. It was a bit rougher than these pictures show (and on tear-down things were, as you might imagine, even worse), but that's the fun of it all, right?

It was "good enough", and money changed hands in a country I've never visited.


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Wow, this should be a kick to read!
Good for you.
I really like the Japanese example. I wonder what wheels they are running? Double-DIN touchscreen looks at home on that dash. Is that a vacuum operate transfer case?

 

[PabloCruise]

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I like that rear license plate light, and the air cleaner!

 

[PabloCruise]

Have to take all the paint off to address various sheetmetal issues.

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Was the body really that wavy?

 

[PabloCruise]

new door skins, rockers, etc.

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Wow! Did they fab those locally?

 

[PabloCruise]

The hood needed some love as well.

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New steel as well? Beautiful work!

 

[PabloCruise]

Wow. Looks like they have the skills to do it right. I've seen a few 55s for sale in Saudi but nothing overly tempting yet....and they all have barn doors.

Tell us more...

 

[gonzopancho]

Wow! Did they fab those locally?

Yes, and @FloridaFJ80 is thinking about making them available as a product. Gotta save the pigs, man!!