Build Salted Pork fj55 family wagon build

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So I got the carb tuned pretty good. id did help some of the surging. I think I can tune the carb a little more and do some tweaking on the timing and it will be perfect. the air cleaner is installed. not perfect, I have a rubber gasket hose clamped to keep it attached to the carb. Ideally I would try and buy a later hood and just use the space ship looking aircleaner to be honest.

I have been dailying my trooper a little more since its been so hot and I have ac! unfortunutly I did find a bad spot in the frame that was hidden in a sneaky way by a previous owner. so I will be welding a few patches in the frame of the trooper. I still think I made a good decesion on it but I would have liked to have not had some hidden frame rust for sure. I think I probibly would have negotiated for 3500 instead of the 4 that I spent but its all good. the good thing is its just in the rear drivers side area around the wheel well. I poked and wacked everywhere else with a screwdriver and a hammer and didnt find any other suspect areas. it will be easy to get there and patch. I have some 3/16s plate coming for the job.

I am hoping to really dive in harder on this project this fall especially since now I have the trooper to daily on bad weather days. But for now here are some epic shots from the beach this morning!


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Margot also loves to sit in my lap in the land cruiser and wait for her mom to get off work.
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Comet said:
Best I could find.

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Yeah @Comet Ill be up your way the week of thanksgiving. I am going to bring some tools and hopefully some tires to mount on those rims. Ill pm you about some other stuff and details soon.
 
Comet said:
@Roastchestnuts sounds like you need my frame too.
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maybe hahaha. I am going to maybe dive into that this weekend….. I am thinking I can repair it. Not happy about that though. Actually thinking the small rear barn door. The bottom of mine is roached out worse that I thought.
 
If mine is in better shape it’s yours. Give me a list and I can pull it off in advance.
 
Comet said:
If mine is in better shape it’s yours. Give me a list and I can pull it off in advance.
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Ill shoot you a list. I'll also bring some tools too. Yeah thats true. but if the door does not have rust that might be one thing i need for sure. I thought I could just weld a patch in the bottom of mine but its actually a mess where the whole bottom is rusted out. I could fix it but it would require a whole bunch of time. The other area that I will need a patch for is the drivers rear quarter. the bottom rusted out from a hole cut for a CB antenna. I could bring a diegrinder to cut that out if your willing to part with that.

All what I am saying seems like its a rust bucket.... it is but its really not that bad. this is one of those cars that I think if it sat somewhere at this point it would have dissolved into nothing. if that makes sense. Like it looks good but I think if you did nothing it would go quick. I think previously it sat where mice got into the rockers and frame and the nest were never cleaned out. thats for sure why the frame is messed up in the rear drivers area. I pulled a big nest out of the rear area too.

I have been daily driving it and I am planning on driving it to Roanoke if she proves reliable. I might do a test drive to Wilmington in it for a wedding next month if I get my frame welding done.
 
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I got you covered for tools but I understand wanting to travel with them. PM incoming.
 
I did a round headlight conversion on the trooper this weekend! It looks soooo much better! This works on this build thread because I used my old land cruiser fj55 seal beam headlights on this and used the isuzu buckets. Happy I am still in the round headlight club with my willys, land cruiser, and trooper. I am planning on redoing the ball joints and the front CVs this coming weekend. I also need to button up my willys jeep. I pulled the engine out to replace the ring gear on the fly wheel and now I just need to retime the engine and hook the radiator back up. I am hoping I can finish that during the week.


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Painted the engine to match the military history of the 1952 willys m38a1
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The wiring in this jeep is a nightmare.... I am planning on buying a new harness and rewiring the whole thing.
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Enjoyed some beach time with Margot and Rachael!
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After I get the jeep back running and the Isuzu troopers Maintenance all done I am going to start cranking hard on the fj55. I need to do some paint work immediately. First on the list is door hinges and paintwork.
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Midgainc

Thread 'Hinge rebuild service - maybe???'

I have thought about this for the past couple of weeks, at the request of Delancy. How many of you guys are interested in having your hinges rebuilt, professionally, by a machine shop?

I am thinking, that there needs to be an agreed upon procedure, and then there would be a standardized repair sequence. I have no experience with the hinges, but I know that I have several that need attention. They are a pain to disassemble, from what I can tell, and then the pin size is rather odd and requires drilling out for bushing acceptance or that you be happy with a little slop when using an off...

Did you see this thread in the pig section regarding hinges?
 
greenbeast said:
Midgainc

Thread 'Hinge rebuild service - maybe???'

I have thought about this for the past couple of weeks, at the request of Delancy. How many of you guys are interested in having your hinges rebuilt, professionally, by a machine shop?

I am thinking, that there needs to be an agreed upon procedure, and then there would be a standardized repair sequence. I have no experience with the hinges, but I know that I have several that need attention. They are a pain to disassemble, from what I can tell, and then the pin size is rather odd and requires drilling out for bushing acceptance or that you be happy with a little slop when using an off...

Did you see this thread in the pig section regarding hinges?
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I have not but I was planning on using Nissan Hardbody truck hinge kit from Napa like I have seen on other posts. Looks like there might be tools available.
 
Hold onto those square trooper headlights to barter with me in a few months.
 
Trooper NOS support is Jerry Lemond. His wife just passed away a few weeks back so not sure his current availability. Old School phone call to 1 (770) 962-0551
 
Comet said:
Hold onto those square trooper headlights to barter with me in a few months.
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Ill bring them with me. you can have the old grill too for barter. its actually in good shape. the drivers headlight has some rust staining that I am going to try and clean out.
Wyatt Pine said:
Nice trooper, I had one for years and loved it. View attachment 4204507

They are definitely cool rigs. Just no aftermarket support. Mine needed felt like it needed a re-gear with 33's, no gears available though.
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Yeah not a lot of aftermarket support at all. Rockauto is great for parts. There is the Isuzu OEM site (cant remember the actual Link) but alot of it is NLA. I do wish I had bought one when I was younger....I remember them being super cheep just 10 years ago. I would have loved this in my 4runner era. Its much more spacious than a 3rd gen. (4runner is made better) the trooper is a poor mans 70 series land cruiser I feel like. Aftermarket suupport is lacking for sure. I am not planning on lifting this or anything crazy making it more a daily. But even things like lift kits only OME and one other company makes them. Isuzu Trooper Premium Lift Kit: 1987-1997 Leaf - INDEPENDENT4x - https://www.independent4x.com/shop/isuzu-store/isuzu-suspension-systems/isuzu-trooper/isuzu-trooper-premium-lift-kit-1987-1997-leaf-spring/

one aftermarket thing mine has thats kinda cool is a holly TBI instead of the GM one. I did'nt know that when I got it. I think it also has a NON factory computer so If that s***s the bed IDK what I will do. Maybe go carb haha.

I am not planning on doing a lift though. My only other upgrade I am looking to do is better roof rack or full basket, and 31x10.50s on factory rims. Ohh and replace my cheep aisin knock off manual hubs with aisins.
 
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Ya, you just need to buy my spare trooper less the 5 speed bits.
 
RevISK said:
Always loved the FJ55 "4 Wheel Drive" emblem.
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Me too! Howler brothers clothing did a line of land cruiser themed stuff and the 4wd logo they used is the 55 emblem. I actually need the Land cruiser emblem though. My passenger side just says Cruiser because the other part broke off. Oddly the early 55s Land cruiser emblem are unique to fj55s
 
Going to be driving the land cruiser alot untill I can finish welding the frame on the isuzu trooper.... womp womp womp... I found alot of rust. like I would not have purchased it if I had seen it. But I can fix it and I have already started. I just wanted this one to be a driver now not a project.... ohh well Ill get it done in a few weeks.
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I still need to finish the bottom. going to buy some strips of 3/16th steel I think to finish this.
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After cleaning out the rust and mouse house that litterally was the whole frame rail from the front leaf hanger to the rear one! no wonder it rusted so bad.
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Back to land cruiser zone: We used it over the long weekend to take my wife Margot and her friend to the beach!
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