Project Crawdad - 1979 FJ40 (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jan 30, 2016
Threads
10
Messages
85
Location
Clover SC
I’m starting this thread to document the adventures of Project Crawdad, our 1979 Toyota FJ40.

I’ve always loved & admired old land cruisers, and my wife has a 200 Series daily driver. I’ve been in the four-wheel-drive scene for a long time, rock crawling in my college years at places like Tellico & Jellico, and working in a 4wd shop in college, but this is my first Cruiser.

I have an amazing wife and 2 young kids, and when she saw the ad posted for the Cruiser, and the Nebula Green paint, she didn’t hesitate to encourage me to buy it.

We found the cruiser on Hemmings, and purchased it from a gentleman in Charleston, South Carolina.

Wonderful guy, and he made the transaction very easy. It was a special cruiser to him, as he restored it in honor of one of his good friends who passed away tragically, and was the original owner. They called it the “crawdad” and the name stuck. He was ready to move on to a new project, and we were blessed to purchase it from him.

My dad and I left Clover, South Carolina, at 5 AM on a Saturday morning. A great father / son adventure!

A few cups of gas station coffee and a Bojangles Cajun filet biscuit later, at 8:30am, we were sitting in the previous owners driveway, ready to take her for a test drive.

As we pulled out his neighborhood, I was excited to get her up to operating temperature, and really give her the once over.

My dad laughed and remarked, “Even if it breaks down on the test drive, this rig is so cool, and we can fix anything that goes wrong, let’s just load up, and haul her home!” so we did…

I’ll be using this thread to post about our adventures in the crawdad, upgrades, and fixes.

It’s wonderful to be on the forum!

On to the Cruiser;
1979 FJ40 - Nebula Green
Original 2F, 192,000 miles originally
Refreshed 2,600 miles ago
Weber Carb
Aqualou Tub
33x10.50 BFG AT’s
OME 2.5” lift
Dakota Digital Gauges

I’m blessed to have some good friends with Cruisers, that can help me on the way! And looking forward to learning a lot more, working on the rig with my kids, and taking it on family adventures.

So far I’ve done the following;
- Changed the stock mechanical fuel pump with an OEM mechanical unit after being stranded….

- Changed out the homemade bumper with a HFS bumper and fabricated new bumper brackets to support the new bumper

In my barn / shop
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First Drive with the Family!
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Bringing her home for the first time!
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Thank you, Will do! Are these good shackles or should I go a different route? It looks like both my front and rear are wrong looking at the diagram.
 
Great looking rig. Congratulations and welcome. Welcome to MUD. You would be hard pressed, I think, to find a more knowledgeable group who is always willing to help out with advice or suggestions.
 
got to ask, what did you pay for this beauty?
 
Thank you, Will do! Are these good shackles or should I go a different route? It looks like both my front and rear are wrong looking at the diagram.
Great looking 40. One of my favorite colors.

Yes, both front and rear shackles need to be corrected. Nothing wrong with those, looks like an old man emu lift maybe? Good stuff.
 
Amazing ride! Looks to be pretty complete already!! Love the color
 
looks nice - something funky going on with the fuel fill, there should be a key-opened door enclosing it
 
Great looking 40. One of my favorite colors.

Yes, both front and rear shackles need to be corrected. Nothing wrong with those, looks like an old man emu lift maybe? Good stuff.
Correct; Old Man Emu lift
 
I drive to work early in the morning & always in the dark, and live out in the country, so the stock lights weren’t cutting it. Very dim and dull yellow.

I made a lighting upgrade over the weekend to Hella H4 glass headlights with an LED bulb; significantly better lighting and still looks stock during the day, which was my goal. Not too expensive either.



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