Builds Project R2D2 Sixty - 1986 Retro Refresh (1 Viewer)

[wngrog]

This is gonna be a good one

 

[wngrog]

In a strange combination of events, I had a friend that was helping one of his friends sell his FJ60 while they were out of the country.

We swapped a few photos and I committed to going to Louisiana to pick it up last week.

A few days before I headed to pick it up, I was talking to a guy in Texas about putting a Sniper on his FJ40.

I told him I was going to Louisiana to pick up a weird silver 60 with blue graphics and he said, wait....that sounds like one my friend Wes has 3 years ago. In fact, @cbmontgo had named it R2D2 because of the silver and blue scheme.

Small Cruiser world indeed .....

 

[Bama4door]

The graphics are awesome, looking forward to where you take it...

I recently bought back my old 60, so I’m interested to see what you do with this one.

 

[wngrog]

Wes said he sold it a few years ago with 135,000 miles. Paint looked about the same , an OME lift and 33s has been added and it still had just under 150,000 miles.

With just a little info and even fewer pics, I was in

This was it about 3 years ago.....

 

[Jdog]

Hey Nolan, great find! We met about 14 years ago at LSLC. Had the Green 40 that you helped me get a HFS lift from CCOT and published an article in it in TT. Been out of Cruisers for a while but now building a 62..
looking forward to see what you do with this one!

 

[wngrog]

Other than the fact that Wes said it came from “an ole boy in Houston” and that it got 14,000 miles and a lift and tires over the last 3 years, all I can deduce is that the last owner clearly lived in it with a dog or two because the “perfect interior” it had 3’years ago is pretty rough.

No worries. The rest of the truck is solid as a rocks.

 

[Skniper]

Wait a minute....you said that one was just 'passing through'. So you DID have something to tell us!!

Like I said....groovy AF!

 

[wngrog]

Wait a minute....you said that one was just 'passing through'. So you DID have something to tell us!!

Like I said....groovy AF!

You are getting ahead of the story but yes....groovy is a great description....

 

[wngrog]

I got home after a 13 hour round trip and unloaded this thing and took it for a spin.

Mind you, I had not driven it yet. Deal was done before I left Mississippi and I did not load it on the trailer.

I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a fully smogged FJ60, much less ever driven one.

I was not expecting much....my expectations were very low.
The only thing missing is the headlight washer res. Such a dumb feature..... not sure why the bulb of a blaster is in there.....

The speedo is 10 mph slow due to the 33x10.50-15s.......

Not bad.

 

[wngrog]

80 mph seemed pretty legit but 85 or so was even better.

 

[cbmontgo]

Hell yeah. Giddy up.

 

[wngrog]

Another fast forward. Busy week. Lots of occupation work, lots of work on the Mustard 78 FJ40....some farm work....

All the while R2D260 is taunting me. Every photo I take this week it seems like there is a glimpse of this 60.

I could not stand it and I had to do the first Mod......

 

[wngrog]

For some reason, a small hacksaw was twist- tied to the bumper.
That’s a first ....

 

[wngrog]

For a week R2D2 sat taunting me under the tree.
I was waiting on someone to look at it and see if they wanted to move it out before I went nuts on it.
About 5 pm we made the call. He’s out so R2D2 gets the Tilda Bogue Service Station treatment ...
I hate seeing Cruisers sit out in the weather so I did some musical chairs and got R2D2 in the shop at the end of a long day on the farm.

Second mod. Scrape the TOYOTA off the windshield and start peeling that awful tint off the windows.

 

[wngrog]

This one may prove to be the most challenging to date getting the paint right.

When the totally BITCHIN Decals were added at some point, the shop put a weak coat of silver paint on the truck over the factory silver and some darker gray primer. They are both there just in different areas.

Yesterday I cleaned a corner and then went straight to the orbital. I felt the pad dragging and looked at it and it was full of paint.

I backed off and took some goof off to a section and the silver started coming right off.
After seeing what @dogfishlake did with some goof off and elbow grease my pulse settled out a bit.

 

[wngrog]

I am pretty happy with that. I’ll have to be careful with the decals. I want to bring them back but I don’t want to lose any more blue.

The hood is really faded so I wanted to see what it was going to offer me.


I moved to see what will hap


Looks like the bad overspray may have protected the paint underneath.
CLR and steel wool was working well. I’m going to get some 3000 grit paper and try that as well.

 

[dogfishlake]

That single stage metallic is tough stuff to get shiny without a ton of "modeling" in the metallic. Maybe try to overdo it with cutting compound then really light pressure on the polisher. The idea being to keep the heat from softening the factory paint. I do like the idea of getting the sh*t paint job off with the goof off or something similar that wont take the factory paint. Give lacquer thinner a shot too maybe.

 

[wngrog]

That single stage metallic is tough stuff to get shiny without a ton of "modeling" in the metallic. Maybe try to overdo it with cutting compound then really light pressure on the polisher. The idea being to keep the heat from softening the factory paint. I do like the idea of getting the sh*t paint job off with the goof off or something similar that wont take the factory paint. Give lacquer thinner a shot too maybe.

Testing small areas yesterday, it seems like the CLR and steel wool was easier than the Goof which got sticky real fast.

I am going to try some 2500-3000 grit wet sand with just water next trip to the shop

considering the huge area the graphics cover and the unknown reason the roof was still primer, it’s not THAT big of a job. The photo above of the corner where you can see the factory paint, it had been cleaned then hit with the polish. No wax of course.

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

Another great project to follow

 

[wngrog]

I had to work all day but I was able to get home and spend an hour on R2D2.
Because I need to see results I decided to take a section on the hood and finish it out just to see what it will look like in the end

This took a solid hour.....I tried 2500 wet sand with water versus CLR and steel wool and the CLR combo won hands down. The paint gummed up the sandpaper way too fast.

I hit it with some polish and it really came out nice.
Right side done to the Center. Center rear not done.

This is the passenger side for reference

I think it’s going to be great.