'64 SWB and '65 LWB 45 Irish twins (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jan 22, 2019
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136
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Location
Tennessee
Been blessed to currently own 4 Land Cruisers, 2 of which are 45s. I grew up with lots of memories of Land Cruisers and 4 wheeling in the mountains of southern NM. We pulled out a lot of CJ5s and 7s with my dad's 40 and when driving along the cliffs of Long Ridge in the Sacramento mountains deer hunting, all the 4 wheel drives were left in camp except my dad's mustard 40. Memories of 5 men holding on to dear life on the front bumper and running boards trying to keep the 40 from flipping and going 100s of feet down a cliff are etched into my memory! Anyhow, I found a '76 mustard 40 for sale a few years ago that came originally from NM, so I figure there's probably a 1 in 3 or 4 chance that it's my dad's. My first 40, however, was a '74 green one bought in 1998 in Albuquerque for $750. It was sitting under a tree and had a blown engine. Put a lot of work into that 40 (V8 and SM465) and enjoyed 4 wheeling around Los Alamos, NM where I worked as a post doc. After getting an academic job in TN, we brought the green 40 east and after about 6 months ran out of time and money. Sold the 40 and exited Land Cruiser ownership for about 15 years while pouring ourselves into raising kids (we have 12 children) on a small 9 acre farm. After selling our farm, I was able to re-ignite the passion for Land Cruisers. Right now I have all I want and the 4 I want - dad's 40, a project 55, and 2 45s.

The '64 SWB is my nicest rig. It was restored by @tahoe40/45 in the mid-90s and he did a fantastic job. I love the combo of originality and upgrades - F engine out of a '72 40, 3 speed on the floor, shackle reversal lift, and Saginaw PS. The truck runs really well and will easily do 70 mph keeping up with traffic on the 4 lane into work. I've added gauges and fixed some issues that must have resulted from owners after Antony.

The '65 LWB was just purchased last week. I've been searching for a LWB for a while now and was 2nd in line on a very nice one out of AZ about 9 months ago. I've been wanting a beater truck that I can keep kinda ugly looking, but have it run like my '64 and do rust protection on. One became available and I jumped on it fast. I had to make a quick sale of a really nice 55 that I have poured a lot of effort into for a wheeling trip back home in NM this last summer. Here's the thread on the 55

Gas hitting $5/gal put an end to such wheeling plans. Oh well, it was fixed up and I drove it to work, hauled kids around, drove it to church, etc. But, when the '65 LWB became available, it was time to let the pig go unfortunately. This 45 needs some attention. My plans are: swap in the 3 speed/tcase from my 55 into this 45 because the tranny is bad, deal with some electrical issues, add metered gauges, replace belts and hoses, replace gauge cluster with a working one, fix the heater, and add a disc brake front axle and slight shackle lift eventually. The later stuff is really a ways down the road. Right now it's just trying to get it running well and have all the electrical work. I don't have much info on the history of the truck, but it appears it was used as a snow plow around Payton, CO.

Well, that's about it. I enjoy this 45 owners area and I'll update this thread as things get done.

Here are a few links to my project 55 build for interested parties. I haven't updated it for a long time, but once the 45 is running well, it'll be time to pull the 55 project back into the garage and get busy.

And here are a few pics of my dad's 40 and me when I was a kid, my green 40, the 55 I sold and the 45s that this page will be about. Sorry about the long post. Subsequent ones will be much shorter.

Onward!

Mike

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Old school pics, stories are the good stuff... Great looking collection you have there. That red one looks familiar.
 
Seats and transmission hump out. Just need to disconnect ebrake and take out 4 bolts and tranny/tcase will be out. All new clutch going in and then another 3 speed. Hope to get the 45 back in the road next week.

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I love this trick of using a slice of bread to pull the pilot bearing. Easy and relatively clean. Yes, new rear main going in too.

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I have never heard of using bread but I have used grease.
Essentially works like hydraulic forces. Use a similar size shaft and drive it in which in turn pushes out bearing.
Does the bread do the same thing?
 
Wonderbread 💪 works the best 😂
 
Been following your threads/updates, love the dedication to using these rigs! But didn’t pay attention to the white wheels on the SWB. If I were to have a white roof, the white wheels are perfect!
 

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