After years of dreaming that I could restore an old FJ, I finally got serious and did some shopping. I looked at several vehicles local to me and they were all way too far gone to be able to resurrect. We use a lot of salt on the roads in the winter here and it shows in the condition of our older vehicles.
I finally found this FJ on Craigslist. It was listed and titled as a 1966 and brought here almost a year ago from Colorado. The seller had planned to build it himself but said he had too many projects. Based on the VIN (35536), I believe it was built in mid-1965. It still has the 3 speed column shift and vacuum transfercase shift and a PTO winch.
This poor vehicle has been the victim of a lot of shadetree mods. I've started tearing off the "extras" like the antenna drilled through the top of the cowl, lawnmower gas tank under the hood, and the chevy WS washer pump! The firewall has a huge hole behind the aftermarket heater which makes me wonder if this is the second one it has worn.
The hardtop is in rough shape. Someone took off the hatch and replaced it with something resembling ambulance doors.
The tub is in decent shape compared to the ones I've seen in my area. There is rust-through in both rockers, both wheel wells and the rear sill. The rear doors are very rusty, and the right door is welded in place!
I have only very basic mechanical skills, but I'm hoping to learn them in the process of completing this project. I'll post my progress in this thread and hope to have some help and guidance along the way.
I finally found this FJ on Craigslist. It was listed and titled as a 1966 and brought here almost a year ago from Colorado. The seller had planned to build it himself but said he had too many projects. Based on the VIN (35536), I believe it was built in mid-1965. It still has the 3 speed column shift and vacuum transfercase shift and a PTO winch.
This poor vehicle has been the victim of a lot of shadetree mods. I've started tearing off the "extras" like the antenna drilled through the top of the cowl, lawnmower gas tank under the hood, and the chevy WS washer pump! The firewall has a huge hole behind the aftermarket heater which makes me wonder if this is the second one it has worn.
The hardtop is in rough shape. Someone took off the hatch and replaced it with something resembling ambulance doors.
The tub is in decent shape compared to the ones I've seen in my area. There is rust-through in both rockers, both wheel wells and the rear sill. The rear doors are very rusty, and the right door is welded in place!
I have only very basic mechanical skills, but I'm hoping to learn them in the process of completing this project. I'll post my progress in this thread and hope to have some help and guidance along the way.
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