ANTFJ 77 Build.. (ends up as a 1978) (1 Viewer)

[antFJ]

oooookay so i guess I'll finally get around to making this thread.

My name is Anthony.. currently 21 years old and am a junior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in MASS as an Aerospace Engineer.. Also a cadet in Air Force ROTC.. hopefully find out whether or not I'm selected for a pilot slot in a couple of weeks..

okay now that you know who I am here is what I've got so far.

About 2 years ago I decided I wanted another truck.. something old and something easy to work on.. I had no idea really what I was even looking for - my roommate at the time told me about this Land Cruiser his uncle had.. (of course I thought he meant Land Rover) I had never even seen a cruiser before. after pouring over pictures on the internet and CCOT's website along with many others I decided that I wanted it. There lies the problem. I went to go look at this cruiser which was miles and miles away in Maine (on the coast).. and well I thought it looked good. my roommate told me it ran and that there was little rust.

HAHA that could not have been any further from the truth..

as far as cruisers go it came with a lot of goodies and nice parts.. so based on the price I didn't get too bad of a deal. What I should have done is just bought a whole other cruiser and used this one for parts... but.. what did I know.

in fact. most of this build is going to be me not knowing what i'm doing... awesome. but yea I've been lurking on mud since... fall of '06 and have checked this thread at least once a day.. read though a lot of the FAQ.. so i've increased my knowledge base quite a lot. not to mention tear down. i know what every freakin thing on this cruiser is now..

anyways here are some pics..

hmm i don't know how to just add the pictures.. it is making me attach them.. i guess i need them on a website to just add them?? i swear i don't go to a tech school..

 

[antFJ]

So that is the cruiser as it sat in my driveway after I towed it 6 hours or so down from Maine in a uHaul truck.. man a 17 foot box truck (was the smallest they had) and a trailer in worcester is wicked hard to navigate.. anyways.. from here i wanted to fix her up and drive it back to CT.. i put in a new brake MC, new clutch MC, new rear brake lines, and a DUI.. got the thing running.. and well too, i was quite surprised at how well it ran after what.. almost a year not running.. so i changed the fluids and took care of that stuff too. Now to take it around the block! o man that first ride in a cruiser was awesome.. no license plate... good times.. anyways one time around the block was enough for me - the thing drove exactly like everyone said it would... an tractor!

so i'm all ready to drive it home in the spring when... I find that the right rear spring hanger is about to break apart.. complete rotted awesome. well there goes that idea.

so i trailered back from worcester to CT and then it sat in my driveway until i could make its first home.

before i could get to work i had to go to Field Training at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota for a month. came back in july.. got PRK eye surgery so that I could get a waiver for pilot training.. laid in bed for a few days and then went to work building this...

 

[antFJ]

more..

 

[antFJ]

i probably have a ton of errors and it is hard to understand me so i'll go back and edit everything later.. just trying to get the point across for now..

this little project toook wayyyyyy to long. i leveled something like 40-50 cinder blocks... dug two feet down on 8 of them.. put the 4x4s down.. filled them all with cement while still making sure everything stayed level. Now i know that there is probably an easier way to build this thing than what i did but i was working by myself and i've never done anything like this before.. the first layer of plywood was 1/3' maybe.. don't remember.. either way, it was expensive and definately not strong enough. so i got a few sheets of 1/2' pressboard and put those down where the cruiser would be.. i'm not sure if you can see them in any of these pictures.

lastly i had holes cut into the plywood which led into the cinderblocks along the 4x4s and ran the poles for the tent into them. it was a tight fit but the text went over the whole structure nicely.. and i stapled it to the wood. I also put another tarp inside lining the roof to give it more support for the winter.

it did leak though.. and got worse.. so i just got another tarp and layed it over the top.. bone dry now.

 

[antFJ]

so back to the cruiser..

i started taking it apart in full force during fall break and then finished up the process during winter break. thank god it was warm in december and the beginning of january.. i was out there almost every day.

 

[FJ40 MNTCRZR]

Looks like alot of fun,, Welcome to MUD / SICKNESS ,,,

and official salute of course ..

shhh ... BEZEL ,,, BEZEL POLICE WILL GET YA..


CHEERS,

 

[antFJ]

back in worcester i decided to start on some smaller projects for the crusier... picked up some jump seats from JJS - they weren't in too bad of shape but there was quite a bit of rust starting to form.

thanks to coolerman's website i build myself one of these guys using a computer power supply and man did it work well.. the steel i used as the .. cathode? didn't last very long though and was eatin away very quickly.

 

[antFJ]

haha nice.. yea over 200 posts and thats my first salute!!

the bezel was one of the first things i noticed after reading this thread.. don't worry it will be painted white and put back on the RIGHT way.

 

[antFJ]

jump seats with a couple of coats of primer.. don't know what i'm going to use as the final black coat so they will sit like this until i get there..

 

[antFJ]

alright so back into CT for winter break and i started really ripping things apart... but actually. anything i wasn't keeping i showed no mercy. for the body though it was that hard.. most of the body mounts had rotted away.. including the ones on the cowl which sucks because the rest of it is in good shape. anyways got me a ryobi 4 1/2' angle grinder.. some cut off wheels and went to town.

before this though i had to disassemble all of the electrical and take everything off the cowl. as a one man job labling everything as i went and putting everything in little baggies... it took forever.

i was happy when i finally tore that rust off the frame.

 

[antFJ]

here you can see the seats.. i don't know how they are in such good condition... but they are. weird.

 

[antFJ]

so christmas came.. and i got a new compressor and some air tools... wow they make everything sooooo much easier.. my friend is seasonal landscaping so he was around and helped me out for a couple days.

 

[antFJ]

ahh finally some room to clean up all that rust... and finally started taking off the engine, transmission and transfer case with my next door neighbors engine hoist... man that thing is sweet.

o yea and check out that DUI.. doesn't quite look right at the moment..

 

[antFJ]

engine secured.. did that by myself. not fun.

 

[antFJ]

last thing i did before closin up shop until summer was cut up the frame so I could actually store everything in the tent... it's a little tight fitting everything.

 

[antFJ]

plans..

ahhh so my plans.

it is going to be DD.. and if it ever sees the dirt/mud i'll be surprised - so yea. we'll see.

Engine rebuild
Jim C carb rebuild for non-smog
New frame on the way - may get it powder coated
Ehsan's khaki soft top with amby doors and half soft doors
New steel cowl** - really hope I can find one of these
3/4 aluminum aqualu or 3/4 steel tub if Ehsan gets his shipment to immortal within the summer.
Dune Beige - it's original color
33x9.5 BFG All terrains on stock wheels
4'' HFS lift
armstrong steering

here are some pics of the frame i bought.. yea. its in oklahoma.. but the price i'll pay for shipping and the price i paid for the frame is still cheaper than what cruiser parts wants for one of their frames.. so o well. lets just hope it actually looks like it does in the pics - the guys at dentdepotsales really suck at getting back to me.

 

[1973Guppie]

that's cool, I like the little shop you built, why chop up the frame? are you going to find another good used one or ?

Noah

 

[antFJ]

annnd the soft top amby doors... i just got from bull

 

[antFJ]

noah, i know it's hard to tell from the pics but the entire rear end of the frame looked like sat in salt water for a couple days.

the front of the frame was in good shape but the rear was really bad. the PO welded on a bunch of think metal and boxed the frame, welded that tube bumber, and actually had the body welded to the frame in the rear - a lot of the original metal was rusted through and was only held together by the additions of the PO. the crossmember was also completely rotted out.. i broke it off the frame with a rubber mallet. the rear spring hangers were shot too. i thought about repairing it, but it was just too far gone for what i want out of this cruiser.

 

[antFJ]

so anyways.. that is all i've got for now.. until i get to tackle it again in the summer. I go back to field training as a cadet trainer from may 2nd to june 3rd (this time at Maxwell AFB in Alabama). so it'll be a while. I'm hoping to get the engine to a builder in the meantime though.

thanks for reading!