Hello gents,
Short intro: My name is Drew. Cruisers have been one of my biggest passions since day 1, particularly a certain FJ60. I'm 27 and in my last year of school for Mechanical Engineering, though I fancy the electrical stuff and sometimes wonder if I should've gone that route. Right about the time Covid came around I was doing my second internship, and the stars were aligning between this company and I, and plans seemed pretty sure. First week of summer I was informed that they were cutting all their interns, and as I quickly found out, such was the case for all the other places I had been talking to. There was no work to be had for a beginning engineer, especially since I was now right in the running with all the kids who procrastinated getting a summer job. wanting some income while I searched for another job, I reached out to my local toyota 4x4 group to see if I could do some side work. Among a bunch of other jobs here and there, I got a once in a lifetime opportunity.
One of the guys that responded said that he needed somebody to fix up his 80. Story is he bought his cruiser here in Utah for a couple grand, but couldn't bring it with him on his move to TX a few years later as it was only running on 3 cylinders (mind you he had still been driving it that way, just not all the way to Texas). But with a kid on the way it was time to have something that could fit the whole family and it might as well be his old cruiser. It had been sitting in storage for a while so the first job was to get it in a drivable condition so it could be driven to my "shop". From there we assessed the work that needed to be done and make a plan of action (Spoiler alert: He dove DEEP into the rabbit hole!) Thus the namesake for my thread title: Once in a lifetime to have such crummy luck with employment (hopefully); once in a lifetime to actually have the time to work on a cruiser all day; once in a lifetime to get PAID to do your hobby, have boxes and boxes of OEM parts shipped to your door, and to be able to go all out without a guilty conscience and/or serious talk with your wife about priorities (she still doesn't like seeing all the packages, but only because they're not for her).
Bear with me as I've never done a build thread, I get too much ADD typing on the computer when there's other things to do but I think this'll be entertaining/helpful.
Pics to come
Short intro: My name is Drew. Cruisers have been one of my biggest passions since day 1, particularly a certain FJ60. I'm 27 and in my last year of school for Mechanical Engineering, though I fancy the electrical stuff and sometimes wonder if I should've gone that route. Right about the time Covid came around I was doing my second internship, and the stars were aligning between this company and I, and plans seemed pretty sure. First week of summer I was informed that they were cutting all their interns, and as I quickly found out, such was the case for all the other places I had been talking to. There was no work to be had for a beginning engineer, especially since I was now right in the running with all the kids who procrastinated getting a summer job. wanting some income while I searched for another job, I reached out to my local toyota 4x4 group to see if I could do some side work. Among a bunch of other jobs here and there, I got a once in a lifetime opportunity.
One of the guys that responded said that he needed somebody to fix up his 80. Story is he bought his cruiser here in Utah for a couple grand, but couldn't bring it with him on his move to TX a few years later as it was only running on 3 cylinders (mind you he had still been driving it that way, just not all the way to Texas). But with a kid on the way it was time to have something that could fit the whole family and it might as well be his old cruiser. It had been sitting in storage for a while so the first job was to get it in a drivable condition so it could be driven to my "shop". From there we assessed the work that needed to be done and make a plan of action (Spoiler alert: He dove DEEP into the rabbit hole!) Thus the namesake for my thread title: Once in a lifetime to have such crummy luck with employment (hopefully); once in a lifetime to actually have the time to work on a cruiser all day; once in a lifetime to get PAID to do your hobby, have boxes and boxes of OEM parts shipped to your door, and to be able to go all out without a guilty conscience and/or serious talk with your wife about priorities (she still doesn't like seeing all the packages, but only because they're not for her).
Bear with me as I've never done a build thread, I get too much ADD typing on the computer when there's other things to do but I think this'll be entertaining/helpful.
Pics to come