Look'n for a ride for my daughter...

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Mtbcoach

Mtbcoach

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jun 29, 2006
Threads
179
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4,391
Location
Carolina Beach NC
My oldest daughter is about to turn 16 and I guess I have to do be a "good dad" by finding her a car. If I let my wife pic, she will be driving a diesel VW Golf or other similar vehicle. Nothing wrong with that but...

She also has come to really like FJ-40's in her adventures with me in my FJC. She saw one in CO that was for sale, saying "Hey dad, why can't we get me that one"? Well, I couldn't have been prouder. At least she doesn't want some "import tuner".

So, I'm on the lookout for a "starter" FJ-40. I know that this is a very dangerous and slippery slope to be stepping onto to. But, how can I turn my daughter down AND get a chance to engage in a build up/restoration of a classic.

I know that somebody has one sitting around just begging to be restored or the network of ONSC members has a secret source laying around. Who knows, maybe someone has a "rolling chassis" that I can drop one of Barry's diesels into, hmmm.

Thanks in advance for any leads...
 
Rusty Cox had a decent 78 fj40 for sale a few weeks ago. Maybe he still has that?
 
We wound up looking at another FJ-55 but it was biting off more than we could chew. My daughter really likes them but she knew that it would be a longer term project than wanted.

Fortunately, the ONSC club members helped us out and we were able to find a nice "rolling project" in a '71 FJ-40 from R.K. He had a potential buyer get a bit "iffy" and let me know it could be available. We drove up today to check it out and decided to take it on as a project.

My daughter is beside herself. It sure doesn't help with the negotiations when one party is so giddy with excitement that they can't contain themselves. Then he had to look at my daughter...

Its a sound rig, needs a few things to get it road worthy, a couple more to get it road worthy for a teen-ager but we have through October for our time frame to make that happen. Hopefully, I'll be able to take advantage of all the knowledge in this group to help me grow up from the ease of bolt on mods of my FJC to actually having to work on a vehicle, I might even have to get dirty.

First up will be troubleshooting the lighting since I've got to get the headlights and driver rear taillight working. Then, I've got to rig in some 3 point seat belts and get some fresh shoes installed on the original wheels. Next would be doing the disc brake conversion, power steering modification and relocate the transfer case shifter to the floor.

That will be good enough to get her relatively safely driving on the road. We can then start tackling the cosmetic issues while she is able to drive it back and forth to school, swim team practices, little sister shuffle duty, etc.

But, I fear that I have stepped onto a very slippery slope, one which I fear will pick up speed quickly...
 
Thats awesome! Sounds like a good candidate for a HAMOM.
 
PICS!
 
rutbeer said:
PICS!
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Here is a link to R.K.'s photobucket page with the pics but I'll link up a few now...

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Let us know when you need a hand Jerry.

Very cool first ride, mine was a 72 FJ55...did body work for two years before I was able to even legally drive. You will enjoy the project.
 
Congrats, looks like a nice start and a great project.

It will be fun to watch the progress you make, should make for some good father / daughter bonding. :cheers:
 
there is a really nice 62 sitting in my front yard for sale. New radiator, exhaust and a few other items. Has a tad bit of rust on the bottom of the tail gate. Interior is in great shape. Guy is asking $6,000, but i'm sure if you made him a good offer he would take it.
 
Awesome! I saw that 40 a while back when I went to pick up some parts from RK while I still had my 40, I was impressed with how solid it is and how most of the original parts are there. Great buy!
 
Flinny said:
Jerry,

Looks like you guy found the ideal project! It looks good. Let us know if you have any questions.
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I think you can count on me asking questions. You really impressed my girls on your work and how nice your rigs are. She is hoping to get it as nice as the one you have...

GarnerFJ40 said:
She's going to have to get an account of her own now!
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Yup, we talked about that since she has to have her perspective on how things go. You can guess how dads can skew the facts if they need to...

cruiser4life said:
Congrats, looks like a nice start and a great project.

It will be fun to watch the progress you make, should make for some good father / daughter bonding. :cheers:
Click to expand...

We had a great time in our 5 week, cross-country trip. Both my girls did great with the primitive camping of Rubicon and she got to drive some in Moab and Ouray. I can only hope that they have the same appreciation for hard work on something you love...

concretejungle said:
there is a really nice 62 sitting in my front yard for sale. New radiator, exhaust and a few other items. Has a tad bit of rust on the bottom of the tail gate. Interior is in great shape. Guy is asking $6,000, but i'm sure if you made him a good offer he would take it.
Click to expand...

Sounds nice but we did decide on the FJ-40 R.K. had available...

fj40z said:
Awesome! I saw that 40 a while back when I went to pick up some parts from RK while I still had my 40, I was impressed with how solid it is and how most of the original parts are there. Great buy!
Click to expand...

Thanks, we hope to make its heritage proud. I've been reading all the tech threads I can find on what needs to be done to this rig before she gets to start driving it. Then, I've got to find the "pumpkin" color paint code (T308, right?) to really make her happy with it...
 
Jerry, I have a gallon of PPG paint in beige that you may be interested in. It's unused....I bought it for mine, but it was the wrong beige. It's probably close to the color on yours, though it's tough to see in the pics. Next time we have a raleigh meeting, I can bring it and the chip of what it looks like....if you're interested. I don't think you mentioned if you were going to paint it on your own or not.
 
rutbeer said:
Jerry, I have a gallon of PPG paint in beige that you may be interested in. It's unused....I bought it for mine, but it was the wrong beige. It's probably close to the color on yours, though it's tough to see in the pics. Next time we have a raleigh meeting, I can bring it and the chip of what it looks like....if you're interested. I don't think you mentioned if you were going to paint it on your own or not.
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Thanks for reminding me about that. I'll have to give it a look to see how well it matches. Mikaela REALLY wants to go with the orange/MetalTech color as her first choice and the "Dune beige" is our second choice. I've dabbled in painting before and plan on giving this a try also. I've just got to find a way to make a temporary booth somewhere in my house.

Right now, I'm wrestling with all the issue related to doing the disc brake conversion + power steering conversion, post-'78 knuckles/birfs vs pre-'78 knuckles/birfs, saginaw vs mini-truck ps boxes, Hi-steer options...my brain is overwhelmed with too much information. My mind is getting numb reading all the tech articles, the linked threads on which is better and why, then trying to find all the parts, where to look...

I hate to sound lazy but I really only want to do things once and if it makes sense to do some of these things at the same time, it makes some sense to me but its getting overwhelming. I need to set a priority check list and work from that instead of reading more and more in the ih8mud tech section.

Sorry, I know all you were talking about was your paint, here I go doing a brain dump, hi-jacking my own thread...
 
Here's what I would do:

Disc brakes - Buy a Toyota mini truck front disc brake axle ('79-'85 year models) for around $200. Sale the inner axles, third member, and housing to recoup some of the purchase price. Then buy a knuckle rebuild kit from any of the Toyota vendors for around $100. Other than a minor amount of grinding on the end of the axle housing, it's a bolt-on conversion.

Power steering - Saginaw would be better in my opinion, but more involved to swap in. Mini truck power steering would be easier to do (and work fine), the downside is that it still uses all of the moving parts such as relay rod and center arm.

High steer - You really don't need high steer unless you're going to do a spring over axle conversion, which lifts the Cruiser about 5".

See you tomorrow night!
 
R.K. said:
Here's what I would do:

Disc brakes - Buy a Toyota mini truck front disc brake axle ('79-'85 year models) for around $200. Sale the inner axles, third member, and housing to recoup some of the purchase price. Then buy a knuckle rebuild kit from any of the Toyota vendors for around $100. Other than a minor amount of grinding on the end of the axle housing, it's a bolt-on conversion.

Power steering - Saginaw would be better in my opinion, but more involved to swap in. Mini truck power steering would be easier to do (and work fine), the downside is that it still uses all of the moving parts such as relay rod and center arm.

High steer - You really don't need high steer unless you're going to do a spring over axle conversion, which lifts the Cruiser about 5".

See you tomorrow night!
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That's right where I'm at and I'm in complete agreement. I just through the Hi-steer in there because it looks like the way to go, once I get control of the rig.

Thanks for the feedback and we are excited to get it here to start the process...
 
I'll sign my wife up once #2 is closer to driving condition. She's up for driving, but not the actual work part.....
 
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