I wanted to make this to document the life of the FJ I recently acquired. I have 0 experience with them, but a large portion of my motivation for acquiring one is that my brother-in-law who I love and adore deeply is a HUGE Land Rover guy, and I thought this would annoy him the most, because A) it's not a Land Rover, and B) because deep down he knows how cool it is. To acquire this thing, I traded a 2022 Triumph Scrambler XC. I loved riding it, but lost 3 friends over the course of 9 weeks, and decided it just wasn't worth it for where I was at in my life. I run a wedding and boudoir photography brand in addition to my corporate career and thought a LC would be a cool way to advertise it, and could be used in some of the photos as well. I also get really tired of being stuck in the middle of a city and want to be able to go play in North GA. My daily is a pavement princess, and I'm not ashamed to say I want to keep it pretty.
Picked up "Nick" on a Sunday afternoon in Augusta, GA, and started a 120-mile drive back to Atlanta. Made it 103 miles and totally lost the clutch and it wouldn't even hold fluid at that point. The PO told me there was a small leak in the slave cylinder and actually gave me the replacement part to install. Ended up towing it to a friend's garage that was close to where it gave up. Came back Monday, tossed on the new slave cylinder, and he's banging through all 4 gears (the reverse is a little crunchy) like nobodys business. I'll get it back to ATL this weekend, but figured I'd start this in the meantime. Came with an OME 2" and dead shocks, so it's a bit of an adventure to drive. The goal of the whole thing is to have a reasonably reliable rig with an aggressive look, front, and rear bumpers, able to get wherever and just be a little different. Catch some looks along the way, and have fun.
Things that work:
Air conditioning
Lights
All gears
Speakers
Wipers
Locker
Pretty much everything at this point honestly... I'm sure I'll break something though, fear not.
Things I'll have to address:
Wheels / Tires
Shocks
EFI Swap
RUST - this is my biggest issue. The drip rails are toast, the roof is also not worth repairing. Will likely source a good body, cut the roof off and replace it. This is how it earned its name, because its almost decapitated, but hanging on by an oxidized thread.
So my questions as I approach this that I can't solve myself are:
1. I want to run 33x12.5x16-17 tires. I ran Milestar Patagonias on some Jeeps with a lot of success, so that's what I'm hoping to get on there. I can't run a 12.5 on the pizza cutter width of the stock wheel, so does anyone have suggestions for a wheel that allows for manual locking hubs in the front? Be cool if was beadlock / beadgrip without being ungodly expensive.
2. EFI swap - looks like the Holley Sniper is the way to go. Is there a defacto "kit" that kinda has everything in one place so my idiot self doesn't miss ordering something?
Picked up "Nick" on a Sunday afternoon in Augusta, GA, and started a 120-mile drive back to Atlanta. Made it 103 miles and totally lost the clutch and it wouldn't even hold fluid at that point. The PO told me there was a small leak in the slave cylinder and actually gave me the replacement part to install. Ended up towing it to a friend's garage that was close to where it gave up. Came back Monday, tossed on the new slave cylinder, and he's banging through all 4 gears (the reverse is a little crunchy) like nobodys business. I'll get it back to ATL this weekend, but figured I'd start this in the meantime. Came with an OME 2" and dead shocks, so it's a bit of an adventure to drive. The goal of the whole thing is to have a reasonably reliable rig with an aggressive look, front, and rear bumpers, able to get wherever and just be a little different. Catch some looks along the way, and have fun.
Things that work:
Air conditioning
Lights
All gears
Speakers
Wipers
Locker
Pretty much everything at this point honestly... I'm sure I'll break something though, fear not.
Things I'll have to address:
Wheels / Tires
Shocks
EFI Swap
RUST - this is my biggest issue. The drip rails are toast, the roof is also not worth repairing. Will likely source a good body, cut the roof off and replace it. This is how it earned its name, because its almost decapitated, but hanging on by an oxidized thread.
So my questions as I approach this that I can't solve myself are:
1. I want to run 33x12.5x16-17 tires. I ran Milestar Patagonias on some Jeeps with a lot of success, so that's what I'm hoping to get on there. I can't run a 12.5 on the pizza cutter width of the stock wheel, so does anyone have suggestions for a wheel that allows for manual locking hubs in the front? Be cool if was beadlock / beadgrip without being ungodly expensive.
2. EFI swap - looks like the Holley Sniper is the way to go. Is there a defacto "kit" that kinda has everything in one place so my idiot self doesn't miss ordering something?