20 years in the making. 72-fj55 (2 Viewers)

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Joined
Dec 30, 2022
Threads
5
Messages
174
Location
Chico California
When I was a young man, still in high school my dad and I bought a 1972 fj55, thinking it would be a fun first vehicle to drive to school. Safe, reliable and a head Turner for sure. I drove it to school as a senior and on Christmas break I decided to tear it down for paint. I really liked the truck and wanted to preserve it, and make it nice. This led to that, led to another thing and I never put the truck back together after paint. I ended up leaving to go to school and the project languished in my dads shop.
All the rust got welded up by a professional body shop, the paint is done, and nothing got thrown away. Here we are 20 years later and the paint is definitely cured. Life events have been nudging me toward finishing up the iron pig. Dad has developed dementia and doesn't leave his chair much any more. This was our project and I'd like to get it to a state where I can take him up to "the outpost" for a cheeseburger before I loose my chance to do so.

Another factor contributing to my decision was that another 1972 fj55 became available nearby and they're within 2000 of each other on vin numbers.

I've been slowly and methodically tearing into the rusted out pig and acquiring all of the stuff I need to button up mine.

I started with brakes. The brakes go right to the floor, so they're getting a complete overhaul.
I've almost got the fronts complete.

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The other order of business is the carburetor.
My dad said he never has taken apart a carburetor and had it work better when he was finished, so he didn't touch it and didn't permit me to touch it....
It never had any action from the accelerator pump since we bought it.
I've developed some carburetor skills over the past 20 years and so I dove in.
My experience is 180° from my father's. Every carb I've ever worked on ended up working better, and adjusted to near perfect. I've owned lots of crappy cars, and so have my friends and so I've had lots of opportunities to hone my carburetor skills.
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I did a knuckle rebuild while i had the brake drums off, and greased everything with marine grease.
I'm hoping to have the old girl rolling this spring and drive it to work on my birthday (march 26th) with the intent of retiring my mini truck shortly thereafter.
I'll post some better photos as the build progresses.
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This is my donor carcass.
I'll post some shots of the pretty one once I get the garage cleaned up.
 
Welcome to the group and thanks for doing this now while your Dad is still with you. I watched my Father go down hill for ten years before dementia finally took him. Post up any questions as I'm sure we all could help get it going. One question on your nice parts wagon, what happened to that front turn signal lens? Looks like an alien shot it with the x-ray gun and melted it. :)
 
I don't know exactly what happened but if I was to hazard a guess, the previous owner was probably burning trash or yard waste too close to it and the heat melted the lens out. I may not have that many questions. When I left the project in 2003, I went out to Denver to attend Denver adult Day care. (D.A.D.C, Denver automotive diesel college) and I've been working as a mechanic ever since. Mostly self employed but occasionally in a shop.

At the moment I work in a very supportive shop for a man who owns multiple classic cars and who has offered all of the resources at his disposal to help with the project. He's a good man, helpful and encouraging...

I'm in a good position to button up the project so its taking the front burner.
 
The donor has donated so far, front backing plates, a hub, and some missing hardware.
At some point during its life someone slapped 400 pounds of bondo Into some holes that you could throw a football through. The body is done. The frame and drivetrain, naturally is solid as a rock. Engine turns but probably doesn't run.
I've got half a mind to make a trail wheeler out of it, and half a mind to strip it of its parts, restore those parts and pickle them in my garage for spares. This world we live in is only getting weirder and I'd like to have my supplies on hand. I've never had a whole lot of money to throw at my projects, so I cant exactly pay Ebay prices for Landcruiser stuff. Having a spare set of wheel cylinders, spare carburetor, starter, distributor, alternator, totally rebuilt ready to bolt on is going to save me big money in the long run.
The shop where I work specializes in rebuilt starters alternators and generators. He has rebuilt stock on the shelf for virtually anything anyone could want.
Every day of the week someone comes in and drops a starter on the bench thinking they have him stumped, and he usually walks right over to a box on the shelf, pulls down an in house rebuilt unit and takes a few hundred dollars for something nobody else can have in under a week. Tractors during harvest, big rigs that need to go, and dealer only starters are especially lucrative and he has most of them before they're needed. On the rare occasion he doesn't have something he can usually fix it within 2 to 3 days, order a brand new one or find one in one of his shipping containers and rebuild that.
It's rather inspiring to witness someone that professional do their thing.
That's where I'd like to be with piggy parts. When something fails, I'd like to not have to wait on the postman, rather Pull it off a shelf, bolt it in and get back to gettin on. A Landcruiser must have utilitarian qualities one of which is available parts. I need utilitarian vehicles, not garage queens, my lifestyle demands it. I run a small farm, wrench on everything under the sun, and I've got a little Honda trials bike I love to ride. I often find myself back in the woods helping friends who have property cut wood, or clear brush, or do tractor work...
The iron pig Isn't getting any breaks due to being 50 years old. I expect it to work.
 
Tony, I believe you came to my house in Reno 20 years ago with your dad and picked up a homegrown dual gas tank and few other parts I don't recall that I had removed from my FJ55. I remember the Trainbufftony handle.
 
Tony, I believe you came to my house in Reno 20 years ago with your dad and picked up a homegrown dual gas tank and few other parts I don't recall that I had removed from my FJ55. I remember the Trainbufftony handle.
That is correct sir. That was us, dad was in his prime, and iirc we got a seat, rear heater and maybe a fender or door.
 
I got a chance to do a little work on the Iron Pig today and I put the left front backing plate on, freshly painted with rebuilt original wheel cylinders, new gaskets, seals, and brake shoes.
I painted the springs pink for contrast and because springs are often painted odd pastel colors, and I had a can of pink...
I bought a snap on MG325 impact gun, and socket set to keep at home and this is the first time ive used it.
I really like it, and I've had its big brother the 725 at work for years.
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The right hand side wheel cylinders got a rebuild last night and the paint is still curing out in front of my shop heater.
astute observers may note that is a trials tire, its attached to a Honda TLR reflex trials machine which I hope to someday carry on the back of the pig with one of those hitch mount bike carriers.
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I may get around to the other side today or maybe not.

I've got to pull apart a steering column and a door on a Toyota mini truck to fix a headlight switch and a inoperable power window. I'm also putting in one of my hoarded door pulls because I'm a nice guy like that.
Stay tuned for updates and thanks for the kind words of encouragement everyone.
 
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I have got the front brakes put together, they're all painted up with freshly rebuilt cylinders, new shoes, new lines and beneath that the knuckles got a full overhaul as well. I'm moving on to the tears which were bound up on the driver side, and on the passenger side, one of the shoes had come unglued from the steel portion of the shoe.
The cylinders back there are another lame, hodge podge of Vato-zone crapola. When dad and I fixed the brakes years ago it was a patch job, rather than an overhaul. At this point it needs the complete overhaul.

last night I got a call from a dude named Kyle who ive given a few old cars to, apparently the rim's I took in to have blasted and powder coated are done.


Kyle has no affiliation with the shop that did the work and the shop had not called me, that is until Kyle gave them my number. That's the level of professionalism most shops here exhibit, very poor customer service at a premium price tag. Anyway I'm going to try and pick those up today and I'll post photos when ive got them. This is why I try and do everything myself, not only is it cheaper, but it actually gets done correctly instead of minimum effort for maximum price. Everyone here has extremely high rent to pay, just to keep the doors open.
They've got to blow em out the door fast, and collect every penny so the landlord can buy more passive income property.
Hopefully the rim's turned out gorgeous.

Here's some photos of the brakes.
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Your truck is still one of the untouched with out “manual locking hubs”. Cool!
I get the reason doing most of your own work. At least you can. What’s worse is when you do the work for folks and they don’t pay you….hmmm
Anyways cool to see you are still the owner of a high school era ride and even cooler you are getting it going again. Keep going man!!
 
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I didn't realize lockers were that popular.
I have thought about putting in lockers but once again, doing it right is very expensive and my priority is getting it drivable right now. When I was 17 the locker to buy was the ARB air locker, and if I go that route in the future that's probably what I'll do. Unless one of you knows of something much better that's come along in the last 20 years...

Torsen (geared) limited slips are cool but those belong in rwd muscle cars.
When I was a young cruiser head I made a torsen diff out of lego.

Arb air lockers require a compressor, a compressor (appropriately sized) gets me the ability to air up tires and run air tools.
That would be very utilitarian and that's the type of vehicle I need from this project a utilitarian truck.

Speaking of which, the thought has crossed my mind of putting a second alternator and battery pack on board to run an inverter. I work at an alternator rebuild shop right now so. Sourcing and implementing that would be no problem...
 
Nah you misunderstood….

On the front hubs you have a full time spinning driveshaft because of the plates you see in the center of the hub itself. You can remove those as the dealer did most of the time or the buyer did after and install locking hubs. You can lock and unlock your hubs so you aren’t using extra power when driving on a street. Personally I don’t see it to be loosing much but everyone likes an accessory here and there.
Here is my truck with the drive plates when I got it. Me installing the lighter duty cast locking Warn and then recently found a set of the more robust Warn that I’m cleaning up to put on my truck.

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Nah you misunderstood….

On the front hubs you have a full time spinning driveshaft because of the plates you see in the center of the hub itself. You can remove those as the dealer did most of the time or the buyer did after and install locking hubs. You can lock and unlock your hubs so you aren’t using extra power when driving on a street. Personally I don’t see it to be loosing much but everyone likes an accessory here and there.
Here is my truck with the drive plates when I got it. Me installing the lighter duty cast locking Warn and then recently found a set of the more robust Warn that I’m cleaning up to put on my truck.

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Wow! Nice Bling! I’m guessing you blasted them? Holy smokes they look GREAT!!!
 

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