Late to this thread, but for a good reason. We were out using the Frankencruiser for exactly the purpose for which it was built...four days of roads and trails near our western Colorado home. That included Engineer and Stoney between Lake City and Silverton and three nights of "penthouse camping" in the rooftop tent, including a last night scouting our elk hunting area south of Gunnison.
Caught "swine flu" back in 2007 after seeing my first Pig, a rustbucket with a For Sale sign on it up in Crested Butte. About a year or intrigue and research found me buying the one I should have kept off EBay in Prescott AZ during a side trip while taking my son to check out Arizona State University. AZ and CA its entire life, SBC conversion with a four speed, mostly original paint with nice patina, zero rust except for a spot the size of a quarter in the tailgate. Filled it up, checked the oil and drove it 600 miles home.
Sold it a year later but only after acquiring a '73 roller parts rig from lcwizard. That hulk sat beside the house until 2010, when Bonnie suggested selling her '69 Karmann Ghia and building it up. In the meantime came a third Pig from Scorcher, rusty remains of a chopped up '74 hulk that donated roof and rear quarters to the Moviestar restoration but still had a running and driving 350, 4spd with a disc brake front axle. Two long weekends that summer moved the body from the second Pig onto the chassis from the third and the Frankencruiser was on the road. Two additional Pigs followed, each contributing their better parts before being sold, the '69 to landcruisnman and the other '76 to someone in Denver. Since I paid less than $2,000 for all four, the sale of parts and vehicles paid for a bunch of parts and work.
Since then, over 50,000 miles, the Frankencruiser has been to every western state except OR and WA, something we'll rectify. We've attended every western Pig Party and two or three Cruise Moabs. It's my daily driver. In addition to scheduled gatherings we're frequently out camping, hunting, fishing etc. out of it. It serves all those purposes well, despite being built on the cheap via Mud, Craigslist, etc. Total net cost for all Landcruiser-related purchases and sales is about 1/4 of what I've heard others say they have in theirs. It's old school but gets done what we want, whether that be crawling over Stoney Pass or Elephant Hill in low range 1st gear or chasing Ron and Jeri on the way to PP2020 at 90 mph. (If they go down the Baja or up to AK without us, I'll be p.o.ed )
Like Ron, I've tried to keep it stock looking on the outside save for 40/60 chrome or spoke wheels, a slight lift via shackles and unused Manafre add-a-leafs purchased off this forum in a killer deal that also netted a bunch of OEM rubber and other pieces. Front bumper came in a simliar MUD deal and the rear was fabbed locally this summer. I have more $$ in my winch plate than I do in the off-brand winch, another MUD find, which got its first workout last weekend moving a downed pine tree off the trail while scouting. Other mods, old school and anathema to some, include mini-truck power steering, a noisy Ranger overdrive, an '80s mini truck steering wheel, a FJ60 console between late model F150 captains chairs (the best mod ever) and a replacement TBI 350 (fuel injection is a game-changer.) Next is a/c and we're done.
I fully realize this is a relatively antiquated, old school-type build ("I wouldn't mess with TBI or anything less than a Vortec" I heard when replacing the old 350) but it suits our purposes. I admire the skill, planning and effort that goes into the over-the-top builds by others as seen in this forum. Especially the ones we see at Pig Parties, but we're still right with 'em on the trails and on the roads getting there. Looking forward to the next 50,000 miles as well as completing the other western states and AK and Mexico.
Thankfully it's not sitting in the garage with me scratching my head wondering if it'll ever be finished. It ain't a crawler (I've spend 60 years in 4WD learning to avoid or go around the things those guys do for sport) or a trailer queen. But it does exactly what we built it to do, frequently.
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