Last fall found some 60 axles on marketplace an hour away for a good price. While there the seller asked if I was interested in a project and showed me this non running not numbers matching , but no rust 1983 FJ60. I was excited just seeing how rust free it was!
Owner had a 1983FJ60 with 168k but the frame rusted out and ended up finding a doner truck with no engine. He had engine sitting in truck and started a headliner replacement. He had all the parts off his old truck to go with the sale. Also had a warn 8274 that he would throw into the deal. This was October his wife wanted it out by first snow so she could park in garage. Went back and forth on price and the colder it got the price came down to what I thought for a non running truck that has sat since 2002. Motor sat for 5 years.
Got it home, put a battery in it and everything worked after cycling some switches. Crazy to me. Engine turned over but would not start. Found distributor 1 tooth off, fired up no oil pressure. He put on new pan gasket and cleaned oil pump screen so pulled distributor and ran oil pump with drill until good pressure. Installed distributor and it fired up. Being winter that was good. Finished up headliner and installed windshield and rear sides. Don't really need to do that again. Truck had mice in it so swapped out carpet too.
I now have about 1200 miles on the truck and really enjoy it. It feels like it just wants to run forever. I even got ac system working. The biggest issue is rear main seal leaks pretty bad so maybe this winter I will tackle that. I took it on a 300 mile trip and got 16 mpg which surprised me!
Enough talking here are some pics
Owner had a 1983FJ60 with 168k but the frame rusted out and ended up finding a doner truck with no engine. He had engine sitting in truck and started a headliner replacement. He had all the parts off his old truck to go with the sale. Also had a warn 8274 that he would throw into the deal. This was October his wife wanted it out by first snow so she could park in garage. Went back and forth on price and the colder it got the price came down to what I thought for a non running truck that has sat since 2002. Motor sat for 5 years.
Got it home, put a battery in it and everything worked after cycling some switches. Crazy to me. Engine turned over but would not start. Found distributor 1 tooth off, fired up no oil pressure. He put on new pan gasket and cleaned oil pump screen so pulled distributor and ran oil pump with drill until good pressure. Installed distributor and it fired up. Being winter that was good. Finished up headliner and installed windshield and rear sides. Don't really need to do that again. Truck had mice in it so swapped out carpet too.
I now have about 1200 miles on the truck and really enjoy it. It feels like it just wants to run forever. I even got ac system working. The biggest issue is rear main seal leaks pretty bad so maybe this winter I will tackle that. I took it on a 300 mile trip and got 16 mpg which surprised me!
Enough talking here are some pics
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