Residual Boulders 79 Pig Build - Picture Overload. (1 Viewer)

[residualboulders]

I guess I will document here the build out of my 1979 pig. Unfortunately I didn't keep track of step by step progress, but I will share photos I have from the process. I loosely followed my progress on my instagram account @residual.boulders.

After many years of looking for the right pig, i purchased my 55 from it's original owners in 2017. They bought it new in '79 and the story goes that they flew from their home in CA to pick it up at a dealer in Portland. At the dealer, a warn 8274 was installed. They then took a road trip taking a loop down through Idaho. As they drove through McCall they fell in love with the area. After owning the landcruiser for a few years, they built a cabin in McCall and moved the landcruiser there permanently so they'd have a vehicle to drive when at their cabin. There it remained until they were in their 80s. With their health declining and visits to their cabin less frequent, they asked their neighbor to sell it for them. I had seen it for sale for several months with much too high of a price (for me). I had recently just sold my HJ45 on a whim to a guy that just had to have it. My wife encouraged me to at least make an offer I was comfortable with on the 55. I did, and found myself in McCall that weekend.

1979 FJ55 - Factory Power Steering, Dealer Installed AC.
Odo stopped at 75k miles around 2012 - Previous owners insisted it was it's first lap on the odo. Since they were the original owners, in their 80s and had kept it at their cabin for a couple of decades at least, and based on the condition I believe that to be true, but no way to verify. The last many years they had not been visiting their cabin much and had the neighbor drive it occasionally. I would suspect actual mileage is in the 80-90k range maybe.


To start: Here are the before and after pics:

 

[Megadoomer]

wow straight to the sex, no foreplay? j/k. Nice looking rig. I might check you out on IG.

 

[residualboulders]

Aquisition day. I drove to my brothers house in Idaho City. He had taken an afternoon the week prior to drive up to McCall to check the 55 out in person before I made the trip from Wyoming. My brothers and I grew up driving Landcruisers and all have an appreciation for them. We've joined each other on a few different Landcruiser aquisitions over the years. He drove us back up to McCall to pick it up. I try and involve my kids in my cruiser adventures and acquisitions. My Daughter, 13 at the time jumped at the chance to join me on this one. She learned how to drive it soon after.

We drove it about 3 hours home to my bro's house and loaded it up for the 6 hour haul back to Wyoming.

 

[residualboulders]

Immediately took it out for some back road exploring when I got home. It ran great, AC needed a charge.

My 16 year old at the time had never driven a Landcruiser because she was too short. Up to that point I had only owned fj40s and my HJ45, both with seats too low for her to see over the dash board. She had two bouts with Leukemia from ages 4-8 so her growth was a little stunted from all the chemo and bone marrow transplant. She's 21 now and topped out at 4'10. The 55 was a stretch, but she could do it. She was stoked.

 

[residualboulders]

We couldn't fit the whole fam in the 40, so it was fun to have the 55. We'd all pile in and take the boats up to the lake. Sometimes we'd take both rigs.

 

[residualboulders]

@cruiseroutfit had a lift kit available, but it required a relocation of the spring hanger. If I had to do it again, I probably would have just done that. At the time, I was not wanting to modify from stock in the event someone wanted to return the pig to completely stock. I ended up ordering custom 3" lift springs from Alcan.

Post lift install pic:

Didn't quite get the lift I was looking for. Alcan was willing to work with me. I sent them back to Alcan and they reworked them and sent them back.

Post lift install the second time around with 9.5 x 33" tires.

Somewhere on the mud forum someone recommended making the shackle side of the spring a bit longer. This made it very difficult to install the stock shackles. I ended up using 1 1/2" extended shackles from CCOT. But, to me it rides really nice. It's a pleasure to drive on bumpy roads compared to the short wheel base FJ40 with Skyjacker springs.

 

[residualboulders]

Makes a great Christmas Tree aquisition rig.

Stretching it out after lift install.

 

[residualboulders]

Love the look of the tall skinnies, but I've kinda always wanted to have the stock wheels widened for a stock but beefier look. So I robbed the wheels off my 40 so I could keep driving my 55 around. Then sent the wheels off to Stockton to have them widened and powder coated.

 

[residualboulders]

I knew when I bought the 55 I wanted to take it back to original colors. The previous owners had filled the gutters with bondo I'm assuming to keep water from sitting in there and causing rust? And there were a couple of issues with the body work that made me wonder what was underneath. I was also not a fan of the metallic green and gold. I guess when it comes to paint colors I am more of a purist. I just like the old vintage colors. My first cruiser was a mustard FJ40 my brother had restored and painted a metallic greyish green. We both wish he would have kept it Mustard. He now has a mustard 40, same model year as the first.

The motor was very complete. But needed some tlc. Previous owners were pretty good with keeping it maintained. They actually gave me a stockpile of oil filters air filters and some extra hoses it looked like they purchased back in the early 80s and just kept them at their cabin so they could maintain when they were in town.

The interior really needed an update too:

Original owner insists these are original first time around the clock mileage. I'm inclined to believe them based on their use and the condition, despite it being repainted. Since 55s often have a lot of rust in the gutters I wonder if that is why they filled the gutters with bondo hopeing to keep water from sitting in there and maybe repainted at that point. I ground out all the bondo and all the metal looked good with a few repair spots.

They did have an small accident. Luckily no body damage and I was able to straighten out the frame cross member beneath the bumper.

Cargo area was in good shape and the rear window works! Roll bar installed by PO, I assume from Spector Offroad back in the day when they made them. Carpet kit maybe from them too?

 

[residualboulders]

More before restoration pics. Looked a bit like an old volvo wagon with those 28" tires.

 

[residualboulders]

My son and I took several trips to the Landcruiser Heritage Museum and asked @cruiserdan a bunch of random model year specific questions all of which he knew the answer too. They have a very nice 78 FJ55 with something like 11k miles on it. I wanted to see it in person and take pics so I'd have them to reference to. I planned to do stock reproduction upholtery and whatnot, but went off the rails a little bit with that when it came down to it. More on that later. It was helpful to see where the stock factory paint transitions were. Dan let me crawl around underneath and take pics of the sway bar and such as mine was manufacturered just a few weeks after they quit making the sway bar standard.

Some of my boys fav rigs there:

 

[residualboulders]

Got my wheels back from Stockton. I love them. 15" Stock wheel widened to 8" - 3.5 backspacing. Powdercoated Cardinal P004-GR09. 33x10.5 BFG KM3

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Cool story so far. Keep it coming.

I would be interested in some photos of the frame around the front bumper. If the dealer installed the 8274 then I am thinking they would have removed the original bumper mounts from the frame and installed OEM frame extensions. If so did they bolt them onto the frame (OEM factory would have been riveted). Just curious what the dealer(s) would have done back then. Of course they could have done something completely different since it looks like they didn't keep the OEM bumper. I really like the way you went back with the modified OEM front bumper. Looks great!

 

[greenbeast]

So cool, thanks for sharing. Love the story and pics. That Museum is definitely a special place for those of us with the sickness!

 

[cruiserdan]

My son and I took several trips to the Landcruiser Heritage Museum and asked @cruiserdan a bunch of random model year specific questions all of which he knew the answer too. They have a very nice 78 FJ55 with something like 11k miles on it. I wanted to see it in person and take pics so I'd have them to reference to. I planned to do stock reproduction upholtery and whatnot, but went off the rails a little bit with that when it came down to it. More on that later. It was helpful to see where the stock factory paint transitions were. Dan let me crawl around underneath and take pics of the sway bar and such as mine was manufacturered just a few weeks after they quit making the sway bar standard.
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Some of my boys fav rigs there:
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That was a long time ago.

 

[residualboulders]

Cool story so far. Keep it coming.

I would be interested in some photos of the frame around the front bumper. If the dealer installed the 8274 then I am thinking they would have removed the original bumper mounts from the frame and installed OEM frame extensions. If so did they bolt them onto the frame (OEM factory would have been riveted). Just curious what the dealer(s) would have done back then. Of course they could have done something completely different since it looks like they didn't keep the OEM bumper. I really like the way you went back with the modified OEM front bumper. Looks great!

You know, I've wondered if the bumper you see in my before pics was the one the dealer installed. It had some plates about 4" x 6" bolted to the frame rails top and bottom to extend it out to make room for the winch. It didn't look like anything specially designed for the LC. And the bumper is obviously not original. I wonder if the dealer actually did something else, but when the previous owner had the rig repainted maybe went with this other option. Perhaps their original front bumper had been damaged so they went with this other one. I do have the receipt for the winch installation from the dealer with my paperwork though.

Frame mounted bumper wings were still on the frame with no apparent modifications to them. I ended up cutting them off so that I could install some Trail Tailor frame extenders. I do wish the frame extenders had the wings like stock to reinforce the bumper and look more stock.

 

[residualboulders]

That was a long time ago.

yes, about 5 years I think. My son is 14 and 6' tall now.

 

[residualboulders]

Lake runs and exploring continued.

 

[residualboulders]

Pulled off my bumpers and winch to start restoring them. Winch was not working when I bought the truck. I replaced the control box and got it working again, then found it needs a new brake. New brake is still sitting on my work bench which has resulted in some tricky winching a few times, ha ha. Gets tough on a steep incline when the brake is not working.

 

[residualboulders]

Progress on the 55 was derailed a little bit. One morning I found a 76 mustard fj40 in Laramie for $5k. The owner George worked at a Toyota Dealer in Laramie in the late 70s. He says some guy bought it new and after a year or two showed up at the dealer to return it - motor had seized. Not sure all the details but sounds like the dealer worked something out with the owner. George bought it from the dealer and put a rebuilt 383 in it. He'd owned it since and just used it as a hunting rig once a year. He was getting old, figured it was time to sell. It ran terrible and had some issues from sitting too much. But the whole floor inside was solid, didn't look like the top had ever been removed. I couldn't let it sit in the field for the rest of it's life, I grabbed the boy out of school and road tripped it. Coincidentally I'm wearing the same T shirt I was when I picked up the 55. The Rustard 40 had some very heavy unique bumpers as you can see in the pics. I removed them promptly.

Luckily I was in the middle of adding another bay to the barn. He he.

My girl (that was with me acquiring the 55) loved it. And I loved seeing the joy of driving an old classic on her face.