- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Threads
- 127
- Messages
- 1,070
- Location
- Orcas Island in NW Washington State
- Website
- www.mtpickettwoodworking.com
Let me start by saying this is not a hard core offroad build, but this forum's heading suggests that it might include this type of 'not outa the box' stuff. What I have done here is take my family's trusty '79 FJ 55 wagon and replace the rotten body with sheet metal from a '47 ford pickup. I had a factory made ford cowl which was sold to body manufacturers for the construction of school busses, military vehicles and the like. They were sold with or without windshield and mine was the type without. The 6 1/2' pickup box came from a project I did a few years back which involved changing a '47 1/2 ton pickup into a woodie wagon. This box was sitting in my personal wrecking yard on sawhorses andd along with the school bus cowl, was looking for a home. At first I was going to stretch the FJ 55's frame from a 106" WB to the 114" of the ford pickup, but the cowl (as opposed to a normal cab) gave me the ability to skip the frame stretch. You sharp eyed watchers will note I am currently running 16" splits on the rear and 15" mini trucks on the front. 255 85 16s and 33 9.50 15s. They are within 1/8th OD so since I only run 4x4 in dirt or snow, ok for the time being. I have owned this FJ 55 for almost 37 years and it has 196,000 miles, head never off. Runs very well. Ok, I tend to stretch a short thought into a novel. Here's some pics. I will post a link to a youtube video I uploaded onto my channel, garymtpickett . There you will find my Foyota video and other oddball ventures, often involving the hard to find cummins 6AT inline turbo diesel of 210 cu in and 120 hp with chev bellhousing.
