kcustom73
Stretched it...
A little history behind my cruiser. I had been searching for the last year for a mid 50's Willys wagon to restore but with out much luck when my wife told me she saw a cool looking truck for sale 5 minutes away from the house. So that weekend I went to take a look at this so called cool looking truck to find out it was a 75 FJ40. I loved the look of it right away and the wife was liking it too. The place was closed so I couldn't talk to anybody about it so I decided to go back home and do a web search on it. That’s when I found IH8MUD and read up on all the great history of the vehicle and I was hooked. After checking the finances (had spent quite a bit doing landscaping so far this year) I went back to the garage where the cruiser was and talked to the owner to get some history about this cruiser. It had been a plow truck for the last 9 years and he had just retired it. I could see that the body and a section of the frame where really rusty, but I knew I could get the parts to fix it. So I made a deal with the PO and brought my 75 FJ40 home in late July of this year.
Here's a picture of it when I first brought it home
I finally got to work on the cruiser this weekend. Started by gutting the interior and removing some of mess the PO had done to this poor cruiser (welded in driver seat, fuel tank from God knows where). No real surprise with the shape of the body but the frame is a little rougher then I originally taught but nothing that can’t be fixed
Here she is in her new home
As you can see from the pics, I'm going to have to replace the rear crossmember and both rear frame gussets and probably the rear spring mounts
a pic of the driver side seat mount near wheel well
The plans are to make this into a reliable daily driver so I’m going to take my time and go thru every part of the cruiser and fix/replace/clean up or upgrade everything that needs it. Here are some of the plans for it:
-body: everything from the rocker panels back has to be replaced (too much cancer) so thinking of getting an Aqualu tub. Any opinions on this?
-drivetrain: keeping stock 4 speed and t-case (rebuild them) and adding a Ranger overdrive (I've read that they can be noisy, but I'll be doing some sound insulation to make it a nicer daily driver, no water crossing for this girl any time soon) and replace the 2F with a 6.2L GM diesel (I know it hard to recoup the money you spend on converting over to diesel but I'm doing it to go to bio).
-disk brake upgrade: front from a FJ60 or mini truck, rear maybe from Poser
-Suspension: 2.5” OME Dakar spring and OME shocks
-Wheel & tires: stock 15” rims and Firestone Destination A/T 31x10.5
I know I've got a lot work ahead of me but it should be fun and a great learning experience.
Wish me luck
Kevin
Here's a picture of it when I first brought it home
I finally got to work on the cruiser this weekend. Started by gutting the interior and removing some of mess the PO had done to this poor cruiser (welded in driver seat, fuel tank from God knows where). No real surprise with the shape of the body but the frame is a little rougher then I originally taught but nothing that can’t be fixed
Here she is in her new home
As you can see from the pics, I'm going to have to replace the rear crossmember and both rear frame gussets and probably the rear spring mounts
a pic of the driver side seat mount near wheel well
The plans are to make this into a reliable daily driver so I’m going to take my time and go thru every part of the cruiser and fix/replace/clean up or upgrade everything that needs it. Here are some of the plans for it:
-body: everything from the rocker panels back has to be replaced (too much cancer) so thinking of getting an Aqualu tub. Any opinions on this?
-drivetrain: keeping stock 4 speed and t-case (rebuild them) and adding a Ranger overdrive (I've read that they can be noisy, but I'll be doing some sound insulation to make it a nicer daily driver, no water crossing for this girl any time soon) and replace the 2F with a 6.2L GM diesel (I know it hard to recoup the money you spend on converting over to diesel but I'm doing it to go to bio).
-disk brake upgrade: front from a FJ60 or mini truck, rear maybe from Poser
-Suspension: 2.5” OME Dakar spring and OME shocks
-Wheel & tires: stock 15” rims and Firestone Destination A/T 31x10.5
I know I've got a lot work ahead of me but it should be fun and a great learning experience.
Wish me luck
Kevin