Prairie Schooner - AKA What have I done? (1 Viewer)

[OilfieldCowboy]

As a matter of introduction I have been a Jeep person as long as I can remember, first vehicle was a 1987 Wrangler. I had always known about Land Cruisers and appreciated them in a tangential "those things are capable" manner. The 60 series is really what I have lusted after for the last 15 years now, and I still kick myself for not buying one when I first started looking into them.

This last fall I was browsing a local online auction and saw a 40 that got under my skin and I couldn't stop thinking about. It didn't help that a friend had just bought one in totes and we had been talking about his endeavor to piece it back together. Two weeks and $3,500 later I became the proud owner of a rust bucket purchased sight unseen. The auction had it listed as a 74, which I think is correct, VIN plate lists it as an October 1973 construction. The emission control information states it is applicable to 1974 model year vehicles.

Got it hauled to its temporary storage site and start crawling around and find that the tub looks like it is going to be a total loss. Have to dig in deeper to really get an idea of it, but right now it is looking like a Gozzard tub is in my future.

Once I figure out how to get .heic images attached to this post without having to jump through a dozen hoops, I'll post a pile of pictures to show the state of things.

Edit: logged in through mobile to attach images.

Overview of as received condition:

 

[OilfieldCowboy]

Interior didn’t look terrible, only because it had a carpet kit installed.

 

[OilfieldCowboy]

But, things weren’t so pretty underneath.

 

[OilfieldCowboy]

Power train wise it has a 2F mated to the three speed. Lots of leaks and missing parts.

2F serial number:

New starter:

 

[OilfieldCowboy]

Current state of affairs:

Have a deposit in to ARD Offroad to have them put a set of FJ60 axles under it that I found on a local classified. They are only 50 miles up the road from me and I like helping local vendors stay in business.

Starting to plan out upgrades to the braking with a booster and master cylinder from City Racer, and need to figure out how to go about swapping in the four speed transmission from the previously mentioned friends Build Your Own 40 kit.

Beyond that I'm trying to plan out how much work it will take to get this thing up to Daily Driver status and take some of the load off my F-350 since it is getting down to needing some pretty major maintenance now that it is approaching 32 years old and 100,000 miles.