the start.....
I was looking for an Early Bronco for a toy..... ran into a couple, but no sellers. Wife goes to see her mom 45 minutes away and calls me at work. "Guess what I'm looking at"...... I was hopeing for a midget hooker, and even guessed, but she told me she was looking at an old cruiser.... the Jeep style. My eyes perked. Asked what year and she said she thought it was a 67. "Hows it look?", "little rough, but not too bad. I told her to get me some more info, didn't think I would be too interested. She called me back and said it was a 76, eyes perked back up. I bolted for the truck to take a look. Talked to the guy and he was pretty firm on the price. Wife suggested I get it, and there it started.
Its been about a year and little progress. Ordered floor pan through real steel cruiser parts and had all floors replaced. Went on a bolt breaking spree, spent time replacing all bolts I could. More broke and I went through a ton of drill bits. It ran decent, but not great. I ordered a carb through TrollHole and went to Mark for a Pertronix and coli. Paid the money to have it all installed and timed right after a new header and exhaust. It needed tires so I did the lift and tires. Got alot of flak from the guys at work saying the wheels and rubber were worth more than the rig. I scored new or better parts on Craigslist, Ebay, and here on Mud over the past year. Rebuilt the Heater with the parts from AATLAS (I think thats right), replaced alot of hoses and lines.
and the list goes on. Finally decided to get it in for paint. Gather parts I jumped the gun on a year ago I bought from CCOT ( HUGE mistake, now I know), mainly fenders and took it in for paint. While it was apart I had some pieces powder coated with Silver Vein and then Black Chrome, very happy how that turned out. Dash was the original, painter cleaned it and dyed it, looks brand new to me. Need to assess lower dash pads to see if they're good enough to reuse. Most pieces I ordered through Cruiser Corps and Cruiser Solutions, great experience with both. Spent tons of money on all new OEM Toyota weather stripping, wanted to make sure it was the best.
I didn't document with pictures like I wanted to or should have. I have pics all over my comp that I will try to find and post more of. Thanks for all the help from you all, wihout you and Mud, I'd still be wrenching.
