macdaddy59
SILVER Star
Ok so the back story is I have a 1976 FJ40 I am doing a frame off on. I bought the truck disassembled and am slowly going through all of the parts replacing with new or refurbishing them. I am not a purist but mostly want to keep the truck stockish. I am replacing the 350SBC with a 2F out of a 1987 FJ60. I have had Gerog at Valley Hybrids rebuild the original transmission and t-case. Here is my dilemma. The truck came with the original top and sides (condition 8.5 out of 10) and ambulance doors (condition 8 out of 10). However, I have a top and sides from a 1979 FJ40 with the pop out side windows and sides (condition 9 out of 10) and ambulance doors for another project (condition 9.5 out of 10). For the sake of expense and amount of work to make the 79 parts would be a lot easier to use. Although, the 76 is original to the truck and the proper year but would require more work and expense to make perfect. My question is does it really matter 10 -20 years down the road if the top and sides are from a different year or is there some overall magical experience to keeping all parts from the original truck?