New guy with ‘81 FJ60 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter FJosh60
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Old Nick
GOLD Star
Very nice looking 60. What's the backstory here? There's always a backstory.
Love the color! Looking forward to more pics and story!
- Thread starter
- #5
Not really much of a story. We bought it mainly for my wife. She really likes angular, boxy older style SUVs (such as the older full size Jeep Wagoneer and older Land Rover Range Rover), but because she lived in Japan from the age of 7 to 18, she has a soft spot for Japanese manufacturers. When I saw this one for sale and the color, I knew she would like it. When I showed her the picture, her eyes lit up, and she asked, "can we buy it?" Since I've always been a fan of Land Cruisers, I definitely wasn't opposed. We made the 2.5 hour drive to check it out and came home with it that afternoon.
Old Nick
GOLD Star
That's a fine backstory!
Is that going to be your wife's dd? What sort of plans do you have for it? Wheeling/camping, etc.?
- Thread starter
- #7
The plan is to hopefully turn it into an around town daily driver for her. I would eventually like to swap it to a more modern drivetrain with a 5.3 LS truck motor and a 4L60 automatic transmission.
Welcome to a new addiction Josh. Beautiful 60.
Old Nick
GOLD Star
She will get better gas mileage with that set-up. But then again, if gas mileage was a concern, you would never have bought a 60. My 62 is a pig.... It gets the mileage of an Italian sportscar, yet is has the get-up-and go of a 25hp Kubota... lol!
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I did the same to mine, and my wife loves driving my 60 around town!
If you don't name her, The Avocado, you're not a real cruiser guy.
Welcome
- Thread starter
- #14
Funny you say that. My wife was calling it a she the other day because she says it’s a girl, but she didn’t know what to name it yet. I told her she could name it Ava for avacado.
If you don't name her, The Avocado, you're not a real cruiser guy.
Welcome
All ships are female, and the FJ60 is a land yacht.
On a more practical front, the Early 60's are different in a lot of ways. Took me a bit to realize that (and that most people have later 60's, so the info here doesn't tend to be accurate for early owners). You need a 1980 Body manual: FSM - 1980 Chassis & Body 36044E - https://forum.ih8mud.com/resources/1980-chassis-body-36044e.137/ though the 1984+ manual has slightly better photos/wording for some things.
there's the rest of the 60 manuals on the site. Hopefully yours is less fuddled-with than mine... someone put a later gauge cluster in mine that threw me for all kinds of loops (4wd light, but there's no switch, or even spot for a switch, on the early transfer cases), rear hatch with defrost and wiper but the dash switches were not added and the switches have different pinouts from the later models, etc... Can be a highly frustrating experience with an Early 60. Just keep that in mind as you start your reading.
there's the rest of the 60 manuals on the site. Hopefully yours is less fuddled-with than mine... someone put a later gauge cluster in mine that threw me for all kinds of loops (4wd light, but there's no switch, or even spot for a switch, on the early transfer cases), rear hatch with defrost and wiper but the dash switches were not added and the switches have different pinouts from the later models, etc... Can be a highly frustrating experience with an Early 60. Just keep that in mind as you start your reading.
Very nice, shoot us some more pics when you can. Wondering whether a full color change was done (under hood etc)
- Thread starter
- #18
They painted door jambs and the bottom of the hood, but they didn't strip the interior and paint the inside under the carpet or behind the dash or door panels. They also didn't paint the firewall or inner fenders, but I'll probably do something about that (probably semi gloss black and some sort of sound deadener/insuslation on the firewall) if/when I swap the motor.
