Thanks! I had a good time out at the meet on Friday, glad I was able to make it down. I plan on keeping the FJ for quite a while so I am getting it cleaned up inside and out and then starting on the mechanical side. Went over to my parents and borrowed my dad's polishing wheel Saturday and was pleasantly surprised with how good the paint looked after. The hood is totally shot so I am going to sand it down and then get it resprayed shortly.
I went out and did some light wheeling by Lake Pleasant on Sunday morning with friends to get a feel for it (my first truck/suv) and then did some shooting afterwards. I should have taken more photos of it while we were there but we left in a hurry to get back in time to watch the Cardinals lose to the Vikes...anyways here's a shot I got of the fj and my buddies well built Tacoma:
And a shot of the paint the night after I cleaned it up, the scratch looking reflection is my neighbors christmas lights across the street. Looking good!
Right now the first thing on my agenda is getting what I believe is an aftermarket alarm removed (no fob, of course), it's been a PITA. Fortunately the horn is not hooked up so my neighbors don't want to murder me, but the method I found to disarm the alarm (turning the key to on and then holding down the red light/button for around 5 seconds then putting the key to off) that worked twice is no longer working, so I unhooked the battery for now. Need to google some more to see if I can get it to disarm so I can move it since it kills the ignition when it's bugging out. If anyone has any experience with the various methods to disarm them I am open to suggestions. I need to trace the wires and get it uninstalled so it doesn't strand me in the middle of nowhere. Looks the same as this one:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/attachments/dash-red-light-jpg.538205/
After that's squared away, I am going to get the front seats and rear seats rebuilt/reupholstered in cloth, not a fan of leather and the front seats are shot. I plan on putting new carpet in when the seats are out getting reupholstered and I'll deep clean the rest of the interior and then move on to the fun mods once that's back together.
In the very near future I am looking at the the standard OME 2.5" lift on 35"s, slee short bus front bumper, trail gear rock sliders, and then later down the road I will figure out which rear bumper I want to run and maybe snag the prinsu design roof rack..it is sweet. Going to keep an eye on any black friday/cyber monday deals so I may end up with some other pieces if the price is right. Spent less than I had budgeted for the FJ initially and won't need ARBs, so I've got more to spend than I figured I would. And I'll be replacing whatever else I come across that needs to be replaced in the process. Picked up Phil's swaybar disconnect at the meet, so that is my first official parts purchase!
