The pig is shipped.
I bought a 1976 fj55 out of Sacramento. It looks to be pretty rust free, but I'm pretty sure I'll be cutting into the rockers and maybe a few other things. The engine is bad and was said to have spun a beating. It's been sitting for 20years and that's apparent from the issues that have already come up.
My brother picked it up for me and it had a few flat tires, no buggie. They put air in them and had to change one. My brother said he and the sellers boyfriend were both standing on the star wrench on the lugnuts and still had a hard time getting them off.
When my brother got it back to his place one of the tires were flat. He was going to get a used tire before the shipper picked it up, but it was only two hours from when I told them to ship it and when they had a shipper lined up and it was 3:00 that same day that the shipper showed up to pick it up.
The engine doesn't run and there are no brakes. They said it was a lot of fun getting it up on the car hauler. My brother used a winch on his trailer to get it up onto the trailer and they used straps to lower it to the back of the trailer in two foot increments. One strap was tight while the other had two feet of slack. They would release the tight one and let it roll to the next strap. And all this in the rain.
My helicopter mechanic is going to take delivery of the cruiser while I'm out of town working and I'm sure he's going to be thrilled with the prospects of getting it off the trailer.
It'll get to Alabama in 7 to 10 days and I think I owe the driver a tip for dealing with this. Maybe they can just tie off the cruiser to an aircraft tug and drive the semi away or something.
.
I'm not really good at keeping up with these write ups but I'll try to keep it up. Some initial thoughts of what I want to do. I was thinking about putting fj60 axles under it with fj80 coil springs and control arms. I've been looking into this a lot and am hoping I can do it.
I'm sure I'll need a new master cylinder and maybe a brake booster. Ive seen the tundra upgrade and heard there is a Chevy upgrade, but don't know where I read that. Also what's the better upgrade?
Engine wise I'm leaning towards the 4bt but also still thinking about a 5.3 Chevy. I owned a 24 valve cummins and have heard the 4bt is louder. I'm a little worried about the noise. I know there are blankets that you can put on the 4bt to quiet it down and lots of sound deadening, I just wish I could hear one before I put that kind of money into it. I'd like to put a ranger torque splitter, it has a 27% overdrive, behind the 4bt or the 5.3 and keep the Toyota transmission and transfer case.
I'm going to strip out the interior and get the floors painted probably with the noxyde paint with the sound deadening additive. And I'm trying to decide if j should keep the bench seat. I really like having 6 seat belts. I wondered if I could modify the original bench and make it like the dodge 2500 I had with a center console that folded down but could fold up for a 6th seat.
That's it for now.
I bought a 1976 fj55 out of Sacramento. It looks to be pretty rust free, but I'm pretty sure I'll be cutting into the rockers and maybe a few other things. The engine is bad and was said to have spun a beating. It's been sitting for 20years and that's apparent from the issues that have already come up.
My brother picked it up for me and it had a few flat tires, no buggie. They put air in them and had to change one. My brother said he and the sellers boyfriend were both standing on the star wrench on the lugnuts and still had a hard time getting them off.
When my brother got it back to his place one of the tires were flat. He was going to get a used tire before the shipper picked it up, but it was only two hours from when I told them to ship it and when they had a shipper lined up and it was 3:00 that same day that the shipper showed up to pick it up.
The engine doesn't run and there are no brakes. They said it was a lot of fun getting it up on the car hauler. My brother used a winch on his trailer to get it up onto the trailer and they used straps to lower it to the back of the trailer in two foot increments. One strap was tight while the other had two feet of slack. They would release the tight one and let it roll to the next strap. And all this in the rain.
My helicopter mechanic is going to take delivery of the cruiser while I'm out of town working and I'm sure he's going to be thrilled with the prospects of getting it off the trailer.
It'll get to Alabama in 7 to 10 days and I think I owe the driver a tip for dealing with this. Maybe they can just tie off the cruiser to an aircraft tug and drive the semi away or something.
. I'm not really good at keeping up with these write ups but I'll try to keep it up. Some initial thoughts of what I want to do. I was thinking about putting fj60 axles under it with fj80 coil springs and control arms. I've been looking into this a lot and am hoping I can do it.
I'm sure I'll need a new master cylinder and maybe a brake booster. Ive seen the tundra upgrade and heard there is a Chevy upgrade, but don't know where I read that. Also what's the better upgrade?
Engine wise I'm leaning towards the 4bt but also still thinking about a 5.3 Chevy. I owned a 24 valve cummins and have heard the 4bt is louder. I'm a little worried about the noise. I know there are blankets that you can put on the 4bt to quiet it down and lots of sound deadening, I just wish I could hear one before I put that kind of money into it. I'd like to put a ranger torque splitter, it has a 27% overdrive, behind the 4bt or the 5.3 and keep the Toyota transmission and transfer case.
I'm going to strip out the interior and get the floors painted probably with the noxyde paint with the sound deadening additive. And I'm trying to decide if j should keep the bench seat. I really like having 6 seat belts. I wondered if I could modify the original bench and make it like the dodge 2500 I had with a center console that folded down but could fold up for a 6th seat.
That's it for now.
