This thread will document the rebuild of my 78 FJ55. Some of you may remember me asking about the value of this truck a month or so ago. Well I ended up buying it last Sunday and towing it home.
The Long Story:
I have wanted a FJ55 since seeing Lance William's "Rock Lobster" at the first Land Cruiser club meeting I ever attended. Eight years ago I moved into my house and my neighbor walked over to welcome me to the neighborhood and pointed out that he liked my FJ40. When I told him I was surprised he knew what an FJ40 was he told me he had a FJ55 in his garage he was restoring. So we walked over to his house and he showed me the most rust free FJ55 I had ever seen. He had removed all the doors, all the glass, all the interior, and a good bit of the engine. Unfortunately, he had no time to work on it due to a growing family so there it sat in a state of disassembly.
Fast forward eight years and he is selling his house and is unable to take the 55 with him so it has to go. I went to look at the truck again and had forgotten over the years just how disassembled the truck was. I did not remember he removed the wiring harness and all electrical components also. I also did not remember that the previous owner butchered all the interior panels to install a "stereo system". Part of this "system" install included gluing Styrofoam to the backside of every door skin and piece of sheet metal in the truck. Ugh. But it was still as rust free as I had remembered.
The best I can tell I am the fourth owner of this truck. The truck lived in Arizona for most of its life. It took a trip to Mexico in 1987 based on the customs sticker on the windshield. The truck spent some time in a very dusty environment. The entire truck is covered in a layer of red clay like dust. The truck left Arizona after being bought by someone in Oklahoma who owned the truck for only a month or so before selling it to my neighbor who had it transported from OK to Maryland in 1996. Once it arrived in MD my neighbor started to tear the truck apart to restore it. He said it ran perfect when he received it but wanted to start the restoration and not drive it. The odometer reads 53,070 which is the same mileage as on the title when he purchased it.
Some of the more interesting things about the truck are a factory AC system and a Fairey overdrive. The AC system may have been dealer installed but it is all Nippondenso from Toyota so I am betting it is factory installed. My understanding is that the Fairey overdrive units do not hold up well so I hope this one is in good shape or it will be pulled. I have the Fairey overdrive manual that came with the truck. I am going to scan it into PDF format in case anyone wants a copy for reference. The truck also came with the following FSMs: AC repair manual, 2F engine manual, Electrical Wiring Diagram, SST catalog, and Service Specifications for all USA and Canada 1978 Toyota models.
The truck came with some new in the box factory parts my neighbor bought to restore the truck. The highlight being new front fenders! I believe I can cut out and patch the little rust in the current fenders. I will probably hold onto the replacements in case anything happens to the current ones so I will have backups. I know they are unobtainium, which is why I want to patch the current fenders and keep these as backup.
My plan is to start by cataloging the boxes of parts that came with the truck to determine what is missing or broken. Then I need to remove all the Styrofoam from the doors and body. Cut out any rust I find and weld in patch panels. I know the truck has some bondo in the rear end where it was hit. Whoever did the body work did not do a real good job. I need to find out how much bondo is in there and what is behind the Styrofoam. One of the POs installed a vent in the rear of the roof but someone welded in a patch when it was removed. Need to decide what I am going to do with that, if anything. The factory wiring harness has been cut into by a PO. I need to find out how bad it is before I decide to rewire the truck or put it back in. I am not looking forward to recreating all the interior panels but if I can make them look half as good as buckroseau did on his 45 build I will be happy.
This is my first "restification" type project. My FJ40 was purchased to be built into a wheeling rig and it was a rust bucket to start with so I have no issues cutting it up. I already have a wheeling rig, I don't need another. I want to put this truck back together in a stock fashion while making it more "daily driver" friendly. I will swap the mini truck PS system from my 40 over to the 55 since the 40 is getting Saginaw. Little changes like that. It is missing all the emissions and has what I believe is a Rochester carb on it which I will probably ditch for a factory one.
I am going to need lots of help from everyone identifying what parts go where on this truck and am really looking forward to this project.
Here are a few pictures to get this thing started.
The Long Story:
I have wanted a FJ55 since seeing Lance William's "Rock Lobster" at the first Land Cruiser club meeting I ever attended. Eight years ago I moved into my house and my neighbor walked over to welcome me to the neighborhood and pointed out that he liked my FJ40. When I told him I was surprised he knew what an FJ40 was he told me he had a FJ55 in his garage he was restoring. So we walked over to his house and he showed me the most rust free FJ55 I had ever seen. He had removed all the doors, all the glass, all the interior, and a good bit of the engine. Unfortunately, he had no time to work on it due to a growing family so there it sat in a state of disassembly.
Fast forward eight years and he is selling his house and is unable to take the 55 with him so it has to go. I went to look at the truck again and had forgotten over the years just how disassembled the truck was. I did not remember he removed the wiring harness and all electrical components also. I also did not remember that the previous owner butchered all the interior panels to install a "stereo system". Part of this "system" install included gluing Styrofoam to the backside of every door skin and piece of sheet metal in the truck. Ugh. But it was still as rust free as I had remembered.
The best I can tell I am the fourth owner of this truck. The truck lived in Arizona for most of its life. It took a trip to Mexico in 1987 based on the customs sticker on the windshield. The truck spent some time in a very dusty environment. The entire truck is covered in a layer of red clay like dust. The truck left Arizona after being bought by someone in Oklahoma who owned the truck for only a month or so before selling it to my neighbor who had it transported from OK to Maryland in 1996. Once it arrived in MD my neighbor started to tear the truck apart to restore it. He said it ran perfect when he received it but wanted to start the restoration and not drive it. The odometer reads 53,070 which is the same mileage as on the title when he purchased it.
Some of the more interesting things about the truck are a factory AC system and a Fairey overdrive. The AC system may have been dealer installed but it is all Nippondenso from Toyota so I am betting it is factory installed. My understanding is that the Fairey overdrive units do not hold up well so I hope this one is in good shape or it will be pulled. I have the Fairey overdrive manual that came with the truck. I am going to scan it into PDF format in case anyone wants a copy for reference. The truck also came with the following FSMs: AC repair manual, 2F engine manual, Electrical Wiring Diagram, SST catalog, and Service Specifications for all USA and Canada 1978 Toyota models.
The truck came with some new in the box factory parts my neighbor bought to restore the truck. The highlight being new front fenders! I believe I can cut out and patch the little rust in the current fenders. I will probably hold onto the replacements in case anything happens to the current ones so I will have backups. I know they are unobtainium, which is why I want to patch the current fenders and keep these as backup.
My plan is to start by cataloging the boxes of parts that came with the truck to determine what is missing or broken. Then I need to remove all the Styrofoam from the doors and body. Cut out any rust I find and weld in patch panels. I know the truck has some bondo in the rear end where it was hit. Whoever did the body work did not do a real good job. I need to find out how much bondo is in there and what is behind the Styrofoam. One of the POs installed a vent in the rear of the roof but someone welded in a patch when it was removed. Need to decide what I am going to do with that, if anything. The factory wiring harness has been cut into by a PO. I need to find out how bad it is before I decide to rewire the truck or put it back in. I am not looking forward to recreating all the interior panels but if I can make them look half as good as buckroseau did on his 45 build I will be happy.
This is my first "restification" type project. My FJ40 was purchased to be built into a wheeling rig and it was a rust bucket to start with so I have no issues cutting it up. I already have a wheeling rig, I don't need another. I want to put this truck back together in a stock fashion while making it more "daily driver" friendly. I will swap the mini truck PS system from my 40 over to the 55 since the 40 is getting Saginaw. Little changes like that. It is missing all the emissions and has what I believe is a Rochester carb on it which I will probably ditch for a factory one.
I am going to need lots of help from everyone identifying what parts go where on this truck and am really looking forward to this project.
Here are a few pictures to get this thing started.
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If anyone wants the PDF of the AC manual or Fairey Overdrive shoot me a PM with an email address that can take at least a 5MB attachment.
