Well, it's about time I start a build thread, I have mostly stuck to a few one off posts on some things that were installed or fixed, and asking a few questions here and there. I have both a 60 and an 80, with the 80 more recently taking up my time as I made it road worthy. If you search my post history you can see some of my work, nothing special, but also somewhat interesting. Now, I'm finally taking on this roof removal and rust abatement project. I feel like it's finally time I can contribute something to the IH8MUD forum. There may be a thread or post on this, but I have not found it.
A little about Colonel mustard, @slj3df33 was one of the owners on IH8mud here, and his kidos gave it the name, so I've carried it forward. She is a 1984, Fj60, US spec, 2F nothing special, I bought the truck from the owner in between us. When Steve had it, he did a ton of work to keep it going and it looked great when he turned it over to its new caretaker, unfortunately the person between us, did not help the rust situation and drove it a few winters before I picked it up in 2016. While it was mostly mechanically sound the rust was/is bad, really bad… and I could stick my arm through the floorboards, rockers are gone, rear wheel arches shot, body mounts are collapsed, and rear quarters bad. Interestly enough though, the frame is super solid, in fact better than my 80 frame. I did all the standard stuff, as you can see in my posts, the lift, seals, axle rebuilds, sliders, bumpers, etc… and I daily drove it in the summers for several years. I absolutely love this truck and hope to never have to sell it and my Nephew can inherit it.
Well, here we are, late summer 2022, and I figured I should address the rust around the air intake for the a/c unit, and that has now spiraled into the truck gutted, and the roof is off. In this thread, I'll talk about how I got the cowling and roof off, how I dealt with the drip rails, and how I put it all back together. There will be lots of other rust work, but that has been covered extensively here, I'm also going to do a full roll cage, and a LS / NV4500 swap, the motor is already built and ready to go. This will take forever, so this will be a long haul.
Goal of the project is to make a super drivable over lander, I'm not a purist, so LS swaps, and non OEM items are fine with me. The rust is so bad, that trying to keep it original is way way past anyone’s reasonable budget. Lots of non-conventional sheet metal work will be needed to get it back in shape. The outward appearance will look stock(ish) other than the lift and bumpers.
A little about Colonel mustard, @slj3df33 was one of the owners on IH8mud here, and his kidos gave it the name, so I've carried it forward. She is a 1984, Fj60, US spec, 2F nothing special, I bought the truck from the owner in between us. When Steve had it, he did a ton of work to keep it going and it looked great when he turned it over to its new caretaker, unfortunately the person between us, did not help the rust situation and drove it a few winters before I picked it up in 2016. While it was mostly mechanically sound the rust was/is bad, really bad… and I could stick my arm through the floorboards, rockers are gone, rear wheel arches shot, body mounts are collapsed, and rear quarters bad. Interestly enough though, the frame is super solid, in fact better than my 80 frame. I did all the standard stuff, as you can see in my posts, the lift, seals, axle rebuilds, sliders, bumpers, etc… and I daily drove it in the summers for several years. I absolutely love this truck and hope to never have to sell it and my Nephew can inherit it.
Well, here we are, late summer 2022, and I figured I should address the rust around the air intake for the a/c unit, and that has now spiraled into the truck gutted, and the roof is off. In this thread, I'll talk about how I got the cowling and roof off, how I dealt with the drip rails, and how I put it all back together. There will be lots of other rust work, but that has been covered extensively here, I'm also going to do a full roll cage, and a LS / NV4500 swap, the motor is already built and ready to go. This will take forever, so this will be a long haul.
Goal of the project is to make a super drivable over lander, I'm not a purist, so LS swaps, and non OEM items are fine with me. The rust is so bad, that trying to keep it original is way way past anyone’s reasonable budget. Lots of non-conventional sheet metal work will be needed to get it back in shape. The outward appearance will look stock(ish) other than the lift and bumpers.
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