First off, Im not a professional Im going to post things here as I go. One because I want to document some of this stuff and two maybe it will help someone else.
"Pearl" as by father in law called her was bought new in 1987 and was his primary car. The sales slip says it came into the US through Portland and was sold in Kingsport, TN. It served this duty until 11 years later when it was given to my wife because his company gave him a company car. My wife drove it for 6 years across the state when in 2004 it went into retirement when she got a new highlander. From 2004 to 2016 it served the occasional duty of visiting the cousins farm in the next town over and going to get coffee on Saturday mornings (10,000 miles over that 12 year span).
In march or 2016, It was in disrepair and was essentially unusable, lots of rust. Lots of vacuum leaks. it squeaked, the brakes squealed, all of the above. It essentially sat behind their house wasting away for several years, just getting cranked occasionally.
I stepped in, Id always wanted a 40 and/or 60 and wanted something in the garage to mess around with. After some haggling with my mother in law we towed it down to south Alabama to start the restore.
The first line of business was getting rid of the rust and paint.
So, I learned how to weld and welded in some sheet metal etc. removing all the rust I could.
Yep this was an amateur paint job. Harbor freight paint gun, etc.
It really turned out OK, but I did realize that working on the truck in 9000 degree south Alabama heat in an unconditioned garage was not going to work. So I decided to rebuild the garage which took 2 years so from June 2016 to 2018 there was no work done on the land cruiser. Once again it sat and rotted in a driveway.
"Pearl" as by father in law called her was bought new in 1987 and was his primary car. The sales slip says it came into the US through Portland and was sold in Kingsport, TN. It served this duty until 11 years later when it was given to my wife because his company gave him a company car. My wife drove it for 6 years across the state when in 2004 it went into retirement when she got a new highlander. From 2004 to 2016 it served the occasional duty of visiting the cousins farm in the next town over and going to get coffee on Saturday mornings (10,000 miles over that 12 year span).
In march or 2016, It was in disrepair and was essentially unusable, lots of rust. Lots of vacuum leaks. it squeaked, the brakes squealed, all of the above. It essentially sat behind their house wasting away for several years, just getting cranked occasionally.
I stepped in, Id always wanted a 40 and/or 60 and wanted something in the garage to mess around with. After some haggling with my mother in law we towed it down to south Alabama to start the restore.
The first line of business was getting rid of the rust and paint.
So, I learned how to weld and welded in some sheet metal etc. removing all the rust I could.
Yep this was an amateur paint job. Harbor freight paint gun, etc.
It really turned out OK, but I did realize that working on the truck in 9000 degree south Alabama heat in an unconditioned garage was not going to work. So I decided to rebuild the garage which took 2 years so from June 2016 to 2018 there was no work done on the land cruiser. Once again it sat and rotted in a driveway.