I was hoping to do a write up on Cerdito, the little pig, since that would be more in line with the "preservation" part of this corner, but very little work has been done on it due to a bunch of wheeling trips and a lot of classes.
So the Pig purists will have to suffer with the pig deconstruction that is the War Pig.
I bought the 78 FJ-55 from a football coach at our school. He saw the other Cruisers at my shop at asked if I could get his running. He brought it by and I did some work and expressed interest. The next football season he came by and asked if I could get it running right again since it had sat for a year, but I think mostly he was trying to drum up interest. I told him what I thought it was worth, which was many thousands less than he had paid for it and I didn't hear from him for a while. Finally he figured out that a rusty pig ain't worth much about the same time I got the Jones bad enough to work out some deals to make us both happy.
He had purchased a clean looking rust bucket and had installed a Goodwrench 350 with an Edlebrock carb and Hooker headers. He had a TH350 behind it with an AA adapter to a stock transfer case. I sold the trans and transfer case to help fund the purchase. He had paid to have it sprung over and a PS conversion done.
I had a 40 project that went through a lot of changes and finally ended up going on a stock frame with a stock drive train and getting blown out for next to nothing. I think I lost more money than he did. I was left with a bunch of parts for a trail rig that were better for the pig than they were on the 40.
So right away the pig got a Th400/NP203 doubler and a 74 transfer case. It also had the FJ40-type sag steering box relocated to behind the crossmember with a brand new 4 turn box and a 4x4 labs high steer. 1 ton chebby TREs for easy replacement in whatever boonie town they might break in. It got the Bill Jackson rear disc conversion too. And a Belleville winch with a little bumper mount.
I sold the brand new GoodYear 35x12.5 A/Ts and bought some GY 37x12.5 MTRs with the intention of driving it to the trail head. That lasted about a year and some pretty exciting trips. After one 4 hour drive to THe Badlands ORP I swapped the bench seat for some Pontiac buckets along with the Pontiac shifter to replace the POS B&M ratchet shifter.
The steering wheel got swapped with a mini wheel. Smaller diameter, thicker rim and same spline count. It looks like it belongs too.
The Edlebrock got swapped almost immediately for a Q-Jet. I meant to do it just for a little while but it works as well as any FI I've ever had. The front of the engine got a serp belt with an upgraded alternator. I had an aluminum radiator in the 40 so that went in too with a Taurus fan.
I was having problems with keeping an anti wrap bar under the thing so I just 4 linked the rear. My son turned my 80 in front of a Kia. The Kia was destroyed and the 80 blew a tire and bent an axle housing. Insurance bought a new axle housing. I had a spare locking third.
About that time my local pick and pull got a locked 80 in with a bent front axle. They gave me the front third and the rear complete for a great price. Now I had all the stuff to put lockers front and rear. I sold the welded rear and the brand new Aussie I just put in the front as well as the front third. I installed the spare rear third in the front housing with 70 series long spline axle on the long side. I built the 4 link with coil springs for the rear 80 axle giving me a locker, disc brakes, e-brakes, full floaters and a wider stance.
The 4 link is triangulated with 80 series lower links for uppers and square tube with 80 series lower link bushings on the ends. It flexes great without slop or noise from heims.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=115764
I bit the bullet and bought a Super Longfield set shortly after that knowing that the stock birfs were not going to hold. Now I have no wrorries ever about my fronts. Bobby had just started making 32 spline inners with the long spline for the locker, so a nearly brand new 70 series axle found a new home.
Now that is was linked, it needed a trailer. Bought one.
Then I needed a tow rig to pull the trailer. 5.7 CrewMax Tundra. Most expensive mod ever.
Then I didn't need street tires anymore. Traded the MTRs straight up for a set of TSL Swampers.
Now it needed a cage. I wanted a tree-slider cage, midwest style. Smooth sides outside of the raingutters, but without added width. I had had enough of wheeling the big assed 80 through the trees. Might as well cut off the top. Got that off and just had to cut off the back too. Nothing back there but rust and overhang. Heavy overhang at that. Too many times I had been hung up on my rear not being able to do stuff the stock 80 would walk through.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=150514
A couple of hard trips mashed my fenders. Easiest thing would be to just remove 'em. I hope to fill in some of the space with sheetmetal, but I'm sure something else will consume my time. I'm not good at spending time to make my trail rig pretty.
Same hard trips had me on the side a few times fighting with the doors and the to-far-forward B pillar. front doors came off. I'm trying to resist welding the rear doors shut and cutting off the roof the rest of the way.
Latest mods have been a boat shifter for the cable lockers and some tweaking to the coil springs. I have to say it works pretty damn good now, but it has lost a lot of pigness.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=2571628&postcount=55
Still, it's the only one I've ever seen in person on a trail. I bet most of the folks around here can say the same thing. I'd never do all this to a nice pig. This one was trashed to start with, so I don't feel too bad. Better to knock the Bondo off on the trail and cut it off with the Sawzall than to have it just rust to junk in a field somewhere.
So the Pig purists will have to suffer with the pig deconstruction that is the War Pig.
I bought the 78 FJ-55 from a football coach at our school. He saw the other Cruisers at my shop at asked if I could get his running. He brought it by and I did some work and expressed interest. The next football season he came by and asked if I could get it running right again since it had sat for a year, but I think mostly he was trying to drum up interest. I told him what I thought it was worth, which was many thousands less than he had paid for it and I didn't hear from him for a while. Finally he figured out that a rusty pig ain't worth much about the same time I got the Jones bad enough to work out some deals to make us both happy.
He had purchased a clean looking rust bucket and had installed a Goodwrench 350 with an Edlebrock carb and Hooker headers. He had a TH350 behind it with an AA adapter to a stock transfer case. I sold the trans and transfer case to help fund the purchase. He had paid to have it sprung over and a PS conversion done.
I had a 40 project that went through a lot of changes and finally ended up going on a stock frame with a stock drive train and getting blown out for next to nothing. I think I lost more money than he did. I was left with a bunch of parts for a trail rig that were better for the pig than they were on the 40.
So right away the pig got a Th400/NP203 doubler and a 74 transfer case. It also had the FJ40-type sag steering box relocated to behind the crossmember with a brand new 4 turn box and a 4x4 labs high steer. 1 ton chebby TREs for easy replacement in whatever boonie town they might break in. It got the Bill Jackson rear disc conversion too. And a Belleville winch with a little bumper mount.
I sold the brand new GoodYear 35x12.5 A/Ts and bought some GY 37x12.5 MTRs with the intention of driving it to the trail head. That lasted about a year and some pretty exciting trips. After one 4 hour drive to THe Badlands ORP I swapped the bench seat for some Pontiac buckets along with the Pontiac shifter to replace the POS B&M ratchet shifter.
The steering wheel got swapped with a mini wheel. Smaller diameter, thicker rim and same spline count. It looks like it belongs too.
The Edlebrock got swapped almost immediately for a Q-Jet. I meant to do it just for a little while but it works as well as any FI I've ever had. The front of the engine got a serp belt with an upgraded alternator. I had an aluminum radiator in the 40 so that went in too with a Taurus fan.
I was having problems with keeping an anti wrap bar under the thing so I just 4 linked the rear. My son turned my 80 in front of a Kia. The Kia was destroyed and the 80 blew a tire and bent an axle housing. Insurance bought a new axle housing. I had a spare locking third.
About that time my local pick and pull got a locked 80 in with a bent front axle. They gave me the front third and the rear complete for a great price. Now I had all the stuff to put lockers front and rear. I sold the welded rear and the brand new Aussie I just put in the front as well as the front third. I installed the spare rear third in the front housing with 70 series long spline axle on the long side. I built the 4 link with coil springs for the rear 80 axle giving me a locker, disc brakes, e-brakes, full floaters and a wider stance.
The 4 link is triangulated with 80 series lower links for uppers and square tube with 80 series lower link bushings on the ends. It flexes great without slop or noise from heims.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=115764
I bit the bullet and bought a Super Longfield set shortly after that knowing that the stock birfs were not going to hold. Now I have no wrorries ever about my fronts. Bobby had just started making 32 spline inners with the long spline for the locker, so a nearly brand new 70 series axle found a new home.
Now that is was linked, it needed a trailer. Bought one.
Then I needed a tow rig to pull the trailer. 5.7 CrewMax Tundra. Most expensive mod ever.
Then I didn't need street tires anymore. Traded the MTRs straight up for a set of TSL Swampers.
Now it needed a cage. I wanted a tree-slider cage, midwest style. Smooth sides outside of the raingutters, but without added width. I had had enough of wheeling the big assed 80 through the trees. Might as well cut off the top. Got that off and just had to cut off the back too. Nothing back there but rust and overhang. Heavy overhang at that. Too many times I had been hung up on my rear not being able to do stuff the stock 80 would walk through.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=150514
A couple of hard trips mashed my fenders. Easiest thing would be to just remove 'em. I hope to fill in some of the space with sheetmetal, but I'm sure something else will consume my time. I'm not good at spending time to make my trail rig pretty.
Same hard trips had me on the side a few times fighting with the doors and the to-far-forward B pillar. front doors came off. I'm trying to resist welding the rear doors shut and cutting off the roof the rest of the way.
Latest mods have been a boat shifter for the cable lockers and some tweaking to the coil springs. I have to say it works pretty damn good now, but it has lost a lot of pigness.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=2571628&postcount=55
Still, it's the only one I've ever seen in person on a trail. I bet most of the folks around here can say the same thing. I'd never do all this to a nice pig. This one was trashed to start with, so I don't feel too bad. Better to knock the Bondo off on the trail and cut it off with the Sawzall than to have it just rust to junk in a field somewhere.
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I'd much rather see a pig in the wild than rusting away unloved -
LV in the background? Looks like it's stripped, ready for paint. Keep yer sawzalls away from that one