New body for the family 55 (1 Viewer)

[merbesfield]

Love it! That pic of you w the goggles is perfect. I wish I had all those cool parts you have collected to build something as cool as what you are building. Thx for posting.

 

[island45]

I have ten acres in the woods and a supportative wife, so I have my life's dream of my very own 'personal junkyard'.

 

[merbesfield]

I have ten acres in the woods and a supportative wife, so I have my life's dream of my very own 'personal junkyard'.

The supportive wife is most important

 

[AntFarm]

Amen to both you guys.

 

[spotcruiser]

Looks good, Gary. That poor old 55 has come back to life after rotting away in the woods for all those years.

I do sort of cringe when I see my mean spirited post on this page. Please accept my sincere apology, I can be too quick to judge. I now have the running boards on and we have been driving a bit locally. It is licensed as a collector vehicle as a 1979 toyota landcruiser , body style-truck, color-blue.... Bench seat is a 3rd row seat from my old '86 suburban.

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[greenbeasty]

Loving it! Thanks for keeping us updated.

 

[middlecalf]

“well engineered hillbilly s***”

Amen! Now my favorite thread!

 

[island45]

It just gets better.... Been driving the wheels off this old '55. Took it to a jobsite today and my 27 year old son said "Dad you sure we should take this to the job downtown? It doesn't really look too professional for your business reputation".... Let's just say the blue bomber stole the show. So Many tourists and locals too had to hear the story. I got to chat while my punk kid did all the trim work on the cabinetry we did for trhe new outdoor clothing store.

 

[MOTOV8R]

That thing has some serious character. Did you swap out the rear axle, I didn't notice the full floater in the earlier pics.

 

[island45]

Swapped it out mid stream in the build. You are the first one to notice..... I now have 10) 33x9.50x15s some are pretty good so I guess I will pull the splits off the rear. I had 33's on my T-100 flatbed but sold it with some 245 75 16s, so now I have a good stockpilke of my favorite tire size, all on mini-truck wheels.... Like money in the bank!

 

[merbesfield]

It just gets better.... Been driving the wheels off this old '55. Took it to a jobsite today and my 27 year old son said "Dad you sure we should take this to the job downtown? It doesn't really look too professional for your business reputation".... Let's just say the blue bomber stole the show. So Many tourists and locals too had to hear the story. I got to chat while my punk kid did all the trim work on the cabinetry we did for trhe new outdoor clothing store.

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Awesome post. Love the character this truck has. Have you considered a windshield? Something that has ability to fold down?

 

[island45]

I have been collecting some photos of mostly ford military vehicles built with a factory cowl. I bought some steel yesterday at the Napa store. Thinking 2 panes like the fire truck, but folding like the one sitting on the flatbed. That one is the same year as mine and Australian military. I think I have a couple of the rubber hood pads and I know I have some hold downs.

 

[merbesfield]

I have been collecting some photos of mostly ford military vehicles built with a factory cowl. I bought some steel yesterday at the Napa store. Thinking 2 panes like the fire truck, but folding like the one sitting on the flatbed. That one is the same year as mine and Australian military. I think I have a couple of the rubber hood pads and I know I have some hold downs.

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Perfect. I like the idea of two panes. That front protection grill is cool also.

 

[island45]

My 7 year old granddaughter and I heading home after dropping the crab pots yesterday afternoon

 

[island45]

Hey it's been a while. What a great summer we had driving this thing all over the island. Made a lot of new friends when we were stopped anywhere. It was amazing how many people came up and asked about it and many had a hard time understanding what it was... or WHY it was? I finally started carrying a clip board with a photo of the 55 in great shape, another of it rusted out and a third photo of this contraption half built. That made it easier for 'civillians' to get it. I haven't gotten to the windshield yet, but am sort of leaning to a slight V shape roadster style. This could be hinged to fold in two sections, or have a few hitch pins and wing nuts to remove it for the hottest days. I will get to that by next spring. Most interesting to me lately is the crazy rise in compression I have experienced over the last 500 miles or so. After almost 20 years since I last drove it on the road ( my ex wife and later my son drove it almost 15,000 miles and when I got it back it still had the date and miles written on the oil filter in MY handwriting) . It got a flush and a change immediately ! This was followed up with a quart of marvel mystery oil in the sump and a can of seafoam in the fresh fuel. I may have posted this earlier as I am becoming more forgetfull as of late, but right after I got this project started I did a compression test and wrote the results on the fender. Because I took the compression on the the left side of the vehicle and wrote it with a sharpie on the fender the sequence reads with #6 cyl as the numeral listed first, so starting with #6 and then towards the radiator, here are the results a few months apart.

142, 135, 135, 145, 140, 141
another oil change, more snake oil
150, 152, 151, 148, 144, 155
some vacuum issues, carb stuff, so more sea foam and marvel down the throat while dealing with that
More running hard, pulling long grades, some 65, maybe a bit of 70 mph....
168, 168, 170, 169, 159, 170

I bought the 55 with approx 80,000 miles on it. When I removed the dash it had 195,000. Head never off. Desmogged with Spector
Non USA carb/dizzy.
A marvel of engineering. PS I used stp with every oil change until these last two. Now it's 15-40 delo.

 

[island45]

Still no windshield but that didn't keep us from bundling up a few times this winter! Last week we got the wife;s suby crossed up so I rigged a snatch block to the burb's bumper and she backed up the foyota and we were back in business. Not much a recovery I know, but good to get out in the sunshine and we took an invigorating drive afterwards. With all this recent cruiser activity I DO find myself looking at 45s and 55s in various classified ad locations. The ones I want would decimate my pitiful IRA. Just glad I got my old pig back!

 

[middlecalf]

Love it!

 

[island45]

In the last few photos you may note that the left rear fender is orange. Well the weather is better now in Western Washington and my kids are heading home for the fourth of July parade etc. Actually been doing a lot of work on the fj 55 aka fordcruiser. So I have been painting and driving and working out bugs in my jalopy. I have now mounted the base for my windshield (kinda sad, but at 69 yearsd old a windshield has some merit). The float sometrimes sticks in my 64 dollar chinacarb but otherwise it starts, runs, idles and does everything required like a champ. When it sticks I have go aqnd open the hood, tap near the needle/seat with a blunt instrument and it always starts right up and I'm on my way. I live in a tourist town and folks come by to ask what in heck is this POS you are driving. It isn't fun to have to lift the hood and bang on the carb, so I built a Hammer actuated by a bell crank and a pull rope through the dash. Now I can tap the needle/seat on the cartb while sitting in the cab.... well it isn't really a cab. I had some light yellow paint out for trim so I painted some on the carb 'hammer' so it would show up better in the pics.

 

[island45]

Progress on my windshield

 

[Tank5]

I love it!!