Reworking Coyote 1973 fj55
- Thread starter 61twpw
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
- Thread starter
- #162
Driver side also, but not as bad. Someone worked pretty hard to keep this rig on the road. Guess it’s on me to get it back there again. My ‘78 is in so much better shape rust wise.
- Thread starter
- #164
Retired with toys, so no real deadline.....except PP19 ! Hope to get engine/tranny/t-case out this evening. 1-2 hour blocks of time in garage are working as long as I can stay focused. Somehow getting more done in less time, I like it.
They’re all parts pigs until someone with time and money comes along to restore it to something usable.
The real question is how much time and money do you want to invest in your current pig?
For me personally I would rather start with a non-running good body and spend my time working on the mechanical stuff if my end goal was to have a clean painted pig without rust holes.
If the goal is to have some fun and drive your pig and you don’t care too much about a few holes here and there then follow wngrog’s lead and fill the big holes with some spray foam and hit it with some spray paint make it mechanically sound and enjoy it.
Just an FYI:
I bought this body for the drives door a couple weeks ago for $1000. I am having it shipped to my place in Idaho for another $1250. It’s a clean desert pig with very little rust. This sounds like a lot until look in to the time and money to find a reasonably rust free body, have it sand blasted and epoxy primed. Doing the work myself I would have more than $2500 in just material to repair the metal work your current body.
My point is that these unfinished project pigs pop up for sale quite often and if you could find one with a good body then at that point I would consider your current pig a parts pig but not before.
You can’t count things like welder, air-compressor, and CNC machine purchases into that equation JMack, sheesh!
If you’re doing the work yourself and buying primers, sealers, paints, reducers, hardeners, catalysts, wax and grease removers, lint-free cloths, masking tape and paper, bed liner, heat barrier and sound barrier spray, sheet metal, welding wire and gas, grinding disks, sanding pads and sand paper, gloves, dust masks, mask filters, and ear plugs, you’re only really looking at about $2,350 bucks. Don’t know why you gotta go so overboard with the budget figures - what are you trying to do, scare him?
If you’re doing the work yourself and buying primers, sealers, paints, reducers, hardeners, catalysts, wax and grease removers, lint-free cloths, masking tape and paper, bed liner, heat barrier and sound barrier spray, sheet metal, welding wire and gas, grinding disks, sanding pads and sand paper, gloves, dust masks, mask filters, and ear plugs, you’re only really looking at about $2,350 bucks. Don’t know why you gotta go so overboard with the budget figures - what are you trying to do, scare him?
- Thread starter
- #167
J Mack thanks for a reality check. My intention when I bought this $2600. running driving rig was to use it as a beater while working on the ‘78. Only drove about 150 miles in it around town before it decided to stop running driving. My wife had noted the passenger floor “ moving around” when we turned corners. There’s a children’s book called “If you give a moose a muffin...”, which describes all the various steps or results of giving the muffin. This trek feels the same. I have about $5K total into this rig. I know from reading Scrapdaddy and your build threads I could’ve had my ‘78 pristine for that 5K. So now I guess I’m putting Coyote back on the road somewhere between yours and many others rigs, and a rolling death trap. Good practice for the ‘78. I can almost hear bobm saying “just do it” 
$5,000 I don't see the problem. 
- Thread starter
- #171
Hard to believe I was saying the same thing a year ago. Really wanted to be driving Coyote by now, but life had other plans. Need to get a long 19mm box end to break the lower transmission bolts loose. That or a low profile 19mm socket. Last two bolts keeping me from getting drive train out. Not much left in the interior as far as seats and floor covering, but the mouse piss odor still lingers on. Headliner is still in, so maybe a nest up there?
- Thread starter
- #172
Got the needed wrench about 10:00 this morning. Couldn’t get time to use it until 7:30 this evening. Skipped doing the dishes until later just to get the last 2 bolts out. Engine/tranny/t-case out in thirty minutes. Now a little break to organize all the parts and finish a repower on a 310 Bobcat we have. It will make moving engines and other big parts a lot easier. Looking forward to rolling Coyote outside and pressure washing everything.
- Thread starter
- #173
A few years worth of grease and grime build up.
- Thread starter
- #175
Thanks. With only a couple hours at a time, I need to really stay focused. Clarity in my vision as to how I want this old rig to run and look has helped too. Started out kind of getting it safe to be driving but has since crystallized into what I want it it do. More of a cruiser than rock crawler. 100 series interior comforts ( hey we’re old), while stile looking stockish. Time will tell.
And remembering how everything went together. I used the parts pig for just that, works better than looking at the manual.
- Thread starter
- #179
The ‘78 body is helping me see how things are supposed to look. An anesthesiologist I worked with in Flagstaff restored mustangs. He turned me on to photographing before disassembly. Digital makes it so easy to see how it was x number of weeks/months/ years before tear down. At least in theory.