Builds Build - 1981 FJ60 (1 Viewer)

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Finally made some progress! Turned out that the fuel line directly after the fuel pump did delaminate, which plugged the hard line and grenaded the carburetor. I opted to replace it with a Weber 38, and I finally got that bolted on and ready to go. At the moment, I'm just waiting for the throttle cable to arrive to be able to drive it, and I need to wire the choke. The choke wiring isn't super necessary, as it fired right up without it, but I'd like to get it done right. All told, I replaced the fuel pump (ended up being fine, so I'm keeping it and the electric one I ordered as spares), replaced all of the rubber fuel lines and cleaned the hard ones, replaced/swapped the carburetor, and replaced the ignition key cylinder. The last one was because my daughter lost my keys, and it was cheaper to buy a new cylinder with keys than get a locksmith in my area to make new keys. The pictures are of the various stages of completion, along with the accursed broken choke cable that is no longer necessary. I also got it running, which you can see here:
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So it took a while, as I don't really have the right tools for the job, but I got it done. I ended up using a hand saw and a Black and Decker drill, with a vise grip and the roll bar of my CJ-5 to modify the stock throttle linkage plate (? I think that's what it's called, anyway) when a drill press and a band saw would have worked a lot better, and probably been safer. But, no harm done to me, and it finally runs, so I don't really care at this point. I'm just happy it runs. Next up is the OME lift and 4PlusProducts bumper, but first thing to come is moving to our new house.
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All right, so I tried to get the OME kit on twice now, and have hit some decent roadblocks with both attempts. The first time I tried, the lugnuts wouldn't come off. Turns out the electric impact wrenches my uncle had were old and tired, so they weren't enough to bust them off. Then, because we were moving to our new house, I had to wait for a bit to try again. Yesterday I was finally able to start working on it, only to discover that the frame has some decent rot. I'm not super sure what to do from here, to be honest. Here's a video of it, and I'll post some pictures in a bit.
 
Here's the frame rot that I'm seeing. Anyone have input on where to go with it? I really want to keep it, and I'm honestly leaning towards just doing a frame-off restomod of it, but I don't know. If I do, it won't be because I ever hope to get money out of it. The Rolling Turd is a hobby vehicle, and the money that goes into it is budgeted as straight spending/fun money. Basically I'm treating it as money spent for the experience, and not for any kind of monetary return. Hopefully these pictures give a decent idea of what's going on, but this has me in a bit of a conundrum. What do you guys think? Is it as bad as I'm thinking it is?
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I haven't updated this thread in a bit, but I decided to keep moving forward with it. The frame, while concerning, isn't horrific. So, the current plan is to keep building it. My current goal is to get it to daily drive-able. There's a decent list of things to do for that. I'm continuing with the lift kit, which as of right now, I have almost removed all of the rear suspension components. I also found out that one of the gaskets on the rear axle was bad, as it has evacuated all of my diff fluid onto my carport concrete. When all of those are put back together, the next step is the cooling system, as the temp gauge reads really high on a regular basis. I'm going to get an auxiliary gauge that reads the actual temperature, and then I'll dig into the cooling system if necessary. That should put it at easily DD-worthy, though, so at that point, the Rolling Turd will go on hiatus, and I'll be bringing Lemon-Lime to the forefront for project status. I put videos of my progress up on YouTube, the links for that are as follows, so feel free to check them out and razz me for my incompetence.
 
On your frame - from what can be seen in the pics - you need a Trail Tailor "C-channel kit:

60 Series C-Channel Kit

And also the rear shock mount tube needs replaced. Both are well documented here.
 
On your frame - from what can be seen in the pics - you need a Trail Tailor "C-channel kit:

60 Series C-Channel Kit

And also the rear shock mount tube needs replaced. Both are well documented here.
After spending about an hour on my back with a flashlight looking for more rust, those were the only concerning areas, so I'm glad to see that there's parts support for that. Thanks for the link, that's a huge help.
 
All right, so it's been while since I updated this thread. I realized that I didn't get good pictures of the frame rust that I'm dealing with, so I've attached some better ones. The frame rails are splitting on both the driver's and passenger side right above the front leaf spring mounts, and I decided that was something that needed to be addressed. So, in the interest of overkill, I've started stripping the interior. The plan is to strip the body as much as possible to make it as light as possible for when I lift the body off the frame so I can replace it. Also planning to sandblast and paint it. I also want to swap the engine while I have everything apart, and am currently leaning towards doing an SBC swap, but am open to other options. My requirements for a swap are ease of repair, ease of install, and at least better horsepower and torque specs than the 2F (I know that's not hard).
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