LazarusTaxa
SILVER Star
OK, finally time to start a thread documenting my work on my FJ60. Through this thread, I'm hoping to give back what I can to the community. I'll do my best to document everything and include part numbers. Though, I realize now how hard it is to stop and take pictures when you're in the middle of something.
I caught the bug for a 60 last summer and started looking. I've got other transportation, so luckily it doesn’t need to be my DD. Mainly, I want a car to drive around town, take into the mountains, and work on. I was hoping to find a late model 60 without much rust and in overall good condition. After a few months of looking, I found one over in Portland which seemed to fit the bill and picked up an ’87 FJ60 with 185,000 miles last October.
The interior and body are in good shape, but from what I can tell it’s spent its entire life on the rainy side of the mountains and that’s created a uniform and complete coat of surface rust on the underside. Luckily though, it seems to only be on the surface… I’ve spent a lot of time down there by now and haven’t seen any actual rot or issues that can’t be solved with blasting and paint.
The body itself is cosmetically in pretty good shape and overall is almost rust-free. I can only find some blistering at the bottom corners of the rear windows and the bottom of the windshield. The floor, doors, and everywhere else seem to be clean. It does look like it’s been in some kind of a fender bender at some point as the front driver fender and tailgate have clearly been repainted.
Here’s a pic of the truck after a quick trip to the car wash:
Overall, I get the impression that like many Toyotas, it’s worked fine its whole life and been a perfectly dependable car. The unfortunate result of that fact is it probably hasn’t always gotten the attention it deserves. Beyond the chassis rust, the engine compartment looks as if it’s sat for years with the hood open. Basically, any non-painted metal part is rusty and very dirty. The truck hasn’t been washed in long enough so that every part of the truck exposed to the elements had a healthy colony of moss growing on it.
My goal for the truck is to restore it cosmetically and mechanically to it’s former glory. Eventually, I’d like to end up with a reliable truck running like new. My idea is to keep it “stock plus”; I’ll use OEM parts wherever possible unless there’s a better alternative that fits with the LC/TEQ philosophy. For now, my thought is taking the body off to get the frame, axles, etc powder coated, and then eventually a re-paint.
I caught the bug for a 60 last summer and started looking. I've got other transportation, so luckily it doesn’t need to be my DD. Mainly, I want a car to drive around town, take into the mountains, and work on. I was hoping to find a late model 60 without much rust and in overall good condition. After a few months of looking, I found one over in Portland which seemed to fit the bill and picked up an ’87 FJ60 with 185,000 miles last October.
The interior and body are in good shape, but from what I can tell it’s spent its entire life on the rainy side of the mountains and that’s created a uniform and complete coat of surface rust on the underside. Luckily though, it seems to only be on the surface… I’ve spent a lot of time down there by now and haven’t seen any actual rot or issues that can’t be solved with blasting and paint.
The body itself is cosmetically in pretty good shape and overall is almost rust-free. I can only find some blistering at the bottom corners of the rear windows and the bottom of the windshield. The floor, doors, and everywhere else seem to be clean. It does look like it’s been in some kind of a fender bender at some point as the front driver fender and tailgate have clearly been repainted.
Here’s a pic of the truck after a quick trip to the car wash:
Overall, I get the impression that like many Toyotas, it’s worked fine its whole life and been a perfectly dependable car. The unfortunate result of that fact is it probably hasn’t always gotten the attention it deserves. Beyond the chassis rust, the engine compartment looks as if it’s sat for years with the hood open. Basically, any non-painted metal part is rusty and very dirty. The truck hasn’t been washed in long enough so that every part of the truck exposed to the elements had a healthy colony of moss growing on it.
My goal for the truck is to restore it cosmetically and mechanically to it’s former glory. Eventually, I’d like to end up with a reliable truck running like new. My idea is to keep it “stock plus”; I’ll use OEM parts wherever possible unless there’s a better alternative that fits with the LC/TEQ philosophy. For now, my thought is taking the body off to get the frame, axles, etc powder coated, and then eventually a re-paint.