Hi everyone,
Yup, you guessed it...another 40 build. After reading so many outstanding builds by some very talented people I got inspired to post what I've been up to since I came down with this disease we all call Land Cruisers. I've always been fond of Land Cruisers starting with the 80 series in the mid 90's. But, being a young dude in my 20's with a very limited income I knew it would be a long time before I ever owned something like that. Fast forward to 2013 and I'm now a high school math teacher/coach and I finally have the means to get a cruiser. I make the plunge and get myself a 1979 FJ40 from Colorado...I live in SoCal.
Sadly, I didn't realize what crappy smog laws (it had a SBC 350) we have here in California so my dream cruiser became an issue getting it registered. I found a "guy" to help me out with that, but I didn't want to deal with the every 2 years so I painfully sold her to a gentleman in Florida.
Shorty after that I came a across an add on Craigslist for a guy selling his 70 (running) and 72 (not even close to running) that lived very close to me. I went out to take a look at the 72 since it was the cheaper one and had the hardtop. When I got there I immediately became interested in both of them and took them off of his hands. My intention was to refurbish the hard top from the 72 and put it on the running 70 and then build the 72 the way I want it. I ended up getting that done (and I'll never do that again!) and I now refer to the 70 as Tweety Bird.
The 72 has very little rust on the body and the frame is great shape. I slowly started taking her (no name yet) apart and got it down to the frame. I had the frame sand blasted just last week and brought it back home. I didn't get it powder coated just yet since I want to box the frame and there are motor mounts/cross member to weld in....I'm trying to post some pics, but for some reason it won't let me at the moment.
My plan is this:
5.3 Vortec
4L60E tranny
Air Conditioning
Keep it a soft top
4" lift
Disc brakes all the way around
It was baby blue (maybe Capri) but I like the desert sand color
33" tires/wheels
and god knows what else!
My name is Craig and I hope to post as much I can as I move along with this project. As they say, it takes a village to raise a child, and when it comes to most of the issues I'm going to run across I have about as much knowledge as a child and I'll need as much help/input as you guys can give!
thanx,
Craig
Yup, you guessed it...another 40 build. After reading so many outstanding builds by some very talented people I got inspired to post what I've been up to since I came down with this disease we all call Land Cruisers. I've always been fond of Land Cruisers starting with the 80 series in the mid 90's. But, being a young dude in my 20's with a very limited income I knew it would be a long time before I ever owned something like that. Fast forward to 2013 and I'm now a high school math teacher/coach and I finally have the means to get a cruiser. I make the plunge and get myself a 1979 FJ40 from Colorado...I live in SoCal.
Sadly, I didn't realize what crappy smog laws (it had a SBC 350) we have here in California so my dream cruiser became an issue getting it registered. I found a "guy" to help me out with that, but I didn't want to deal with the every 2 years so I painfully sold her to a gentleman in Florida.
Shorty after that I came a across an add on Craigslist for a guy selling his 70 (running) and 72 (not even close to running) that lived very close to me. I went out to take a look at the 72 since it was the cheaper one and had the hardtop. When I got there I immediately became interested in both of them and took them off of his hands. My intention was to refurbish the hard top from the 72 and put it on the running 70 and then build the 72 the way I want it. I ended up getting that done (and I'll never do that again!) and I now refer to the 70 as Tweety Bird.
The 72 has very little rust on the body and the frame is great shape. I slowly started taking her (no name yet) apart and got it down to the frame. I had the frame sand blasted just last week and brought it back home. I didn't get it powder coated just yet since I want to box the frame and there are motor mounts/cross member to weld in....I'm trying to post some pics, but for some reason it won't let me at the moment.
My plan is this:
5.3 Vortec
4L60E tranny
Air Conditioning
Keep it a soft top
4" lift
Disc brakes all the way around
It was baby blue (maybe Capri) but I like the desert sand color
33" tires/wheels
and god knows what else!
My name is Craig and I hope to post as much I can as I move along with this project. As they say, it takes a village to raise a child, and when it comes to most of the issues I'm going to run across I have about as much knowledge as a child and I'll need as much help/input as you guys can give!
thanx,
Craig
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, much better than tweety bird yellow 
