New to me FJ55/FJ62 Hybrid w/ Patina...I think..lol

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Washed out and degreased the back end.....tons of layers of dust and oil and dirt and rocks......this LC has definitely been well used over its life. Going to wire wheel and put a coat of POR15 on the back cargo area and fluid film everything on the inside rear quarters while its all open. Then soundproof/heat product. I think somebody went crazy with a semi auto BB gun from inside the back area....there's holes in the roof everywhere about the size of a BB.....I'm sure there's an interesting story behind all the holes! 😆

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Been working on a bunch of misc things the past few days. I installed the new power steering line the PO made up. The old line was dry rotted and cracked below the pump. It works and looks great! Also took off AC bracket and addressed a couple old clamps on coolant line behind bracket, also fixed one other leaky coolant line. So now the wife won't get mad at me for leaving pig marks on the driveway :princess: I also fixed the battery hold down bracket and gave the whole inside a wipe down. I cleaned all the windows inside and out. They were covered in dust and film. Now I can actually see out of them, LOL. The front seats and Tuffy console cleaned up nice.
I bought some metal to do some floor patching and other various patches. For now I am taking the approach of driving it and enjoying working on it and leaving the exterior as is. I am going to rust convert the roof and rain gutter and patch the BB holes, LOL, to keep that at bay. Of course I need every piece of weatherstripping etc and I need to address back window at some point. Also need to make a drivers side door skin. I do have the passenger one and both back doors are good. Like I said, just going to drive it and pick things off one by one. My wife was quick to point out how the body is not level so I need to address that as well. I'll take some pics of the underneath as well and post, it doesn't look terribly rusty and suspension is a newer 3" OME lift w shocks so I am good there. Excited about this project for sure!! I love learning from everybody else's projects and threads, thank you all for sharing, its super motivating to read and see all of the hard work everybody puts into these rigs to keep them alive. I know mine isn't a true 55 having the FJ62 undercarriage and all but I am pumped to have it!
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Another project I am thinking about is switching fuel filler to passenger side like on the FJ62. PO set it up w a long run of fuel filler neck going from drivers side to passenger side and it doesn't like to vent and takes forever to put even 5 gallons in it at the pump so my thought was to cut out filler assembly from drivers side and patch and then weld in assembly on passenger side and have it fill like a 62. Thoughts??
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I’m a little curious about how the PO or whoever it was that grafted the 55 to the 62 dealt with the area of the rear inner fenders. At one point I was seriously considering widening my 55 frame by about 3” to match the 60 series axles, but that area put a halt to that idea. Would have, could have been several ways to deal with it, none of which seemed easy enough to be worth doing.

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RUSH55 said:
Your 55 reminds me a LOT of FJBen’s old rig. This was from around 15 years ago or better.
Unfortunately, the beast is no longer with us, and FJBen moved on to 70 series Cruisers.

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@FJBen still pokes around in here!
 
RUSH55 said:
I’m a little curious about how the PO or whoever it was that grafted the 55 to the 62 dealt with the area of the rear inner fenders. At one point I was seriously considering widening my 55 frame by about 3” to match the 60 series axles, but that area put a halt to that idea. Would have, could have been several ways to deal with it, none of which seemed easy enough to be worth doing.

Here is a couple pics.....not sure if these help or not?
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scrapdaddy said:
Question....what kind of tank is in there now that has thee fill hole on the pass. side? Would it be easier to find a 55 tank to replace that one and leave the filler door alone.
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PO said it was the original 62 tank and chassis and that fill was on passenger side on the 62. I need to research this. Also yes, if I can find a 55 tank and mounting is possible in the 62 frame that could be a solution too. Thanks for the idea :-)
 
RUSH55 said:
Thanks @sn22 ! Looks to be more or less right up against the inner side of the fenderwell. That’s an interesting little mount too🤔
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So after I sent that I looked around a little more and it looks like that mount is not used and a new mount was fabbed in back by the rear tailgate/sill plate. There is a thick plate welded in there and a mount on each side. I'll post pics tomorrow. The rust and scale isn't as bad as it looks in pics, I think the flash always makes it look worse plus I live in the salt belt so my version of rust and rot is different then those that live in the nicer, drier climates ;-) I've been fixing rusty stuff my whole life....lol 😆
 
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