Any interest in salvaging a fire damaged FJ45? (1 Viewer)

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Feb 11, 2021
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Location
Colorado
My 1967 FJ45 met it's demise in my garage during the Marshal wild fire in Boulder CO. Sadly, this was a largely original FJ45, with a matching 1F engine, and relatively rust free.

In all its glory:
CE688B9C-FE74-489B-99FE-5B7EA11CE670_1_105_c.jpeg


Now:
0AB4BA6D-A36D-4009-9C51-79BCAE6AF484.JPG


Insurance has offered a fair settlement, and they don't want the vehicle back. I don't have the time or energy to consider doing anything with the remains myself, and the county will dispose of this when they do debris removal.

I am wondering if there is anything worth salvaging from this, and if anyone in the community would be interested in doing this? This was a major fire, and burned hot, most of the aluminium and glass in the house was melted. I have no idea what, if anything, would be salvageable given these conditions. However I would hate to see this hauled off to metal recycling if it could donate parts to keep other FJ45s on the road.

If anyone has advice on this, or would want the carcass, please let me know. It would make me happy to know that Rosie lives on as part of another FJ45. Unfortunately I don't have the bandwidth to consider individual parts, and I am not looking for any money.
 
That’s terrible, sorry for the loss of home and hobby. Hopefully it can contribute some usable parts to breathe new life into another 45. :(
 
Sorry about the loss. Brian is right. Save it!!
 
Thanks for the inspiration!

Unfortunately that is not a project I will be able to take on - I have a house to rebuild.

In terms of anyone trying to rebuild this one - I would have some concerns about the integrity of structural components like the frame. I am no metallurgist or fire investigator, but some of the I-beams from the house around the truck are twisted like twizzlers, which makes me think that the steel may have been heated enough to become plastic and deform. This was a blast furnace of a fire with 100mph winds.

My initial thoughts were that things like door skins, latches, smaller body parts would be more likely to be reusable with some elbow grease. But I would be happy to be proved wrong.
 
I'd be very interested. I'll shoot you a PM.
 
This is terrible. I'm sorry about the loss of your 45 and all your other possessions. I trust your family is okay.
 
Dang. Surprised I haven't seen that 45 around town. Best of luck with the rebuild - it's going to be a long haul.
 
The diamond plate in the bed, along with the color and the bumper remind me very much of a vehicle that I serviced back in the mid 90s. Do you know any history on this truck?
 
My 1967 FJ45 met it's demise in my garage during the Marshal wild fire in Boulder CO. Sadly, this was a largely original FJ45, with a matching 1F engine, and relatively rust free.

In all its glory:
View attachment 2892804

Now:
View attachment 2892805

Insurance has offered a fair settlement, and they don't want the vehicle back. I don't have the time or energy to consider doing anything with the remains myself, and the county will dispose of this when they do debris removal.

I am wondering if there is anything worth salvaging from this, and if anyone in the community would be interested in doing this? This was a major fire, and burned hot, most of the aluminium and glass in the house was melted. I have no idea what, if anything, would be salvageable given these conditions. However I would hate to see this hauled off to metal recycling if it could donate parts to keep other FJ45s on the road.

If anyone has advice on this, or would want the carcass, please let me know. It would make me happy to know that Rosie lives on as part of another FJ45. Unfortunately I don't have the bandwidth to consider individual parts, and I am not looking for any money.
So sorry for your material loss. Awesome of you to try and keep her soul alive, I'm sure it'll find a good home. I hope you and your family all made it out safe 🙏
 
The diamond plate in the bed, along with the color and the bumper remind me very much of a vehicle that I serviced back in the mid 90s. Do you know any history on this truck?
This did spend much of its life in southern CA, supposedly owned by a doctor there. More recently it was in Salida, CO before Boulder. I had much of the paper work for it.....

This truck had received some love earlier in its life, so I would not be surprised if some folks on here were familiar with it.
 
Thanks for all the interest in this via PMs. I definitely underestimated the number of people who would be interested in trying to rebuild the truck. This is a good thing, and I would certainly smile if she were to drive again someday.

Just as a heads up, nothing here is going to happen quickly, we are talking weeks to months. I will take some more photos to post the next time I visit my house smoking hole and get them posted here. And get back in touch with the folks the messaged me about it.

As a point of discussion, for those that have attempted rebuilding a vehicle from something like this, what is involved? This is not something I have the bandwidth or skills to attempt, but it would be interesting to know.

I also know there was a guy in Louisville in the neighborhood across from the Police Station who had several antique cruisers in front of his house. It looks like that whole neighborhood burnt - any news here about that?
 
Somehow it would be appropriate if we all could help get this back to some form of use for you. I don't have much, but maybe a few things. Hardest part would be finding someway locally, maybe a club there could jump in. I grew up in Steamboat, finished HS in Wheat Ridge, and had grandparents in Boulder so made a lot of trips through your area (a few years ago lol). Can't believe what happened to you all, thank the Lord your family is safe.
 
This did spend much of its life in southern CA, supposedly owned by a doctor there. More recently it was in Salida, CO before Boulder. I had much of the paper work for it.....

This truck had received some love earlier in its life, so I would not be surprised if some folks on here were familiar with it.
I did my work for the doctor. A very nice man. AFAIK, he only took the truck off road once…and I was there. What an adventure! We laughed about it for years after.

This truck had a little brother at its first home on a ranch in TX: a sea foam green 65swb with 21k (also with several hundred pounds o diamond plate welded into the bed) that was bought by @Downey. The F135 that was in that swb now lives under the hood of my lwb, but not before the doctor offered me a LOT of money to put it in HIS 45.
 
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Somehow it would be appropriate if we all could help get this back to some form of use for you. I don't have much, but maybe a few things. Hardest part would be finding someway locally, maybe a club there could jump in. I grew up in Steamboat, finished HS in Wheat Ridge, and had grandparents in Boulder so made a lot of trips through your area (a few years ago lol). Can't believe what happened to you all, thank the Lord your family is safe.

That's a great idea. I can't imagine the emotion coming back to your house only to see a pile of ashes. Seems like too many people have felt the wrath of wildfires the past few years. :frown: The least the Land Cruiser community could do is to help out a fellow owner is to get his truck fixed back up and on the road. I'd toss in some $$ for a Go-fund-me project if there was someone who could take the lead with the physical truck.

@whitey45 proved it can be done!
 
Under the category of ‘why do I remember SO much’ whoever takes on rebuilding this truck needs to get a complete pair of front door windows, left AND right, for the job. And new regulators.

When the doctor first brought the truck to me in 1993, one of his complaints was that he had just paid K&H to put a new window regulator on the truck, but that the window would still fall down if you rolled it down more than part way.🤔
I determined that someone had accidentally put a driver’s side window in the passenger door (or visa versa) and the offset in the window track allowed only partial engagement. I explained to Brian that taking the freshly painted door apart to properly remedy the problem would probably chip up some of the paint.
When he asked me if there was an alternative I told him that I thought, (but couldn’t swear) that if I cut open the arm of the regulator and welded in a small extension, the wheel would have the use of the entire window track. It worked just fine, and it was just the kind of can-do attitude that won him over.
Even if the glass is all gone, that one elongated regulator arm would make you scratch your head…but not any more! :lol:
That was also the first 45 I had to modify the cab on to accept an FJ40 fuel tank. Nerve wracking that was. Original tank was shot, and the previous mechanics solution had been to glue indoor/outdoor carpet over the tank, like somehow that would seal it. :rolleyes:

Sometimes I wonder how much I’m starting to forget. Other times, I’m amazed at what I still remember.
 
What would I do... w a i t ... a minute.....
I have an idea....
I would make a sculpture out of it & put it in front of the house or in he garden.
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...forgotten to write it yesterday.
I made a wooden sculpture out of a part of a burned wooden house.
We have the sculpture on our living room .

And did some small metal ones too -decades ago- as a gift for friends .
My gifts are always designed & made by me....
 
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Somehow it would be appropriate if we all could help get this back to some form of use for you. I don't have much, but maybe a few things. Hardest part would be finding someway locally, maybe a club there could jump in. I grew up in Steamboat, finished HS in Wheat Ridge, and had grandparents in Boulder so made a lot of trips through your area (a few years ago lol). Can't believe what happened to you all, thank the Lord your family is safe.

This is a kind and generous suggestion, thank you. Without having made a detailed inspection, I can say this would be in the 10's of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to fix - way beyond what could be expected from the generosity of strangers (or even friends). At the minimum, every plastic, rubber, glass, fabric and aluminium part would need to be replaced. Every metal part would need to be cleaned and repainted, and every heat treated part is suspect.
 

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