Builds Sky Blue 76 (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Nov 29, 2016
Threads
18
Messages
605
Location
North Alabama
The story on this one starts in February 2018.

A good friend of mine called to tell me about a house with an old landcruiser in the backyard. He remembered it being there years ago when he tried to buy a different car from the owner. He said the owner wasn't really interested in selling either car and they were both yard art at this point. He gave me a general idea of where the house was located. I was at work so I couldn't go looking around and being February, it's dark when I get off. Of course, I couldn't wait until the weekend to start investigating. Google earth...

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:D
 
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Knowing where the truck was located, I skipped lunch and drove out to see if the guy was home. He was. I asked him about the landcruiser in his back yard and he replied "I'm surprised you know what that Toyota is."

He invited me in and we talked for a while. He shared with me that he had purchased it new in Auburn. His brother was a Toyota mechanic. They had desmogged it at some point and in the process, somehow the oil filter was left loose and the engine seized on the way home. His brother had sourced all the Toyota parts for the rebuild back in the 80's and he said it ran stronger afterward than new. Unfortunately, his brother was no longer able to work on cars and at some point in the 90's, it needed a carb rebuild. Well, he took the carb to a mechanic and said mechanic passed in the middle of the rebuild. He retrieved the carb parts in a bag and there it sat in his yard since the mid 90's.

I told him I was interested and we went outside to take a look. It had 4 flat, 30 year old tires. All the door seals had deteriorated which made access easy for all crawling and flying creatures of the south. The door mechanisms had frozen and the handles were broken from someone trying to strong arm them. There was plenty of rust but not in the places where road salt attacks. Mostly from sitting and rain water pooling. The bottoms of the doors and where the hardtop meets the tub and cap. Under the hood, the carb was missing and there was a sock stuffed in the intake (I live in the, one time, Sock Capital of the World).

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I think he was assuming that the appearance would scare me off. He said he had many people try to buy it over the years but no one actually showed up with cash. During this time when I was crawling all over and under the truck, in the rain, he was telling me about taking his daughter canoeing in his 40 and just generally sharing decades of great memories that he had with this truck. I couldn't help but share some of mine and needless to say, I was late getting back to work from lunch. He asked me if I was serious about buying it and I said that I was. We agreed on a price and I told him that I would be back on Saturday with a rollback to get it.
 
I showed up at his place around lunch time on Saturday with the rollback and cash. He and a few of his friends were busy trying to get the tires to hold air. They wouldn't. We went inside to take care of the paper work. We sat at his kitchen table and he pulled out a file labeled "Toyota". It had all the paper work he had since he purchased it. Window sticker, original bill of sale, yearly tag receipts, oil change receipts from the dealer.

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We got the tires to hold air just long enough to winch in onto the bed. He said that he had lots of spare parts scattered around in his barns and he would let me know as he finds them. Which he has and I enjoy talking with him every time I stop by. Just a good guy that I never would have met otherwise.
 
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When I first looked at it in the yard, I could turn the alternator pulley nut and see the harmonic balancer turn so I knew the engine was free but that's about it.

I pulled the plugs and poured in MM oil to soak.
I drained the coolant from the block which was green and normal looking. Refilled with no leaks.

My plan was to try to lube the cylinders, make sure the block didn't freeze and send the carb to Mark's Offroad to get it started. I boxed up what I had for the carb and sent it to @65swb45. Mark called me and let me know that what I had was more parts than carb and he would just rebuild one of his spares and send it on. Excellent solution and service. Withing the month, I had the carb back, gaskets from @cruiseroutfit, a new battery, soft fuel lines from a gas can to a filter and on to a new fuel pump and was ready to try to turn it over.

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This was the old fuel pump. The spring was just laying in the arm when I pulled it.

I cranked it a few times with the plugs out to force out any remaining MM. Gapped and placed new OEM plugs. Turned it some more. Fuel getting to carb but no fire. Fortunately, I have a good friend and neighbor that has forgotten more about engines than I'll ever know. He's a master mechanic and very generous with his time and knowledge. He pulled the distributor cap, used a piece of emory cloth and knocked the oxidation off the contact point. Turned it over again and it fired up! It blew the oil filler cap in the air (never seen that), but the carb had it running. It had a pretty large exhaust leak at the manifold and a leaking fuel line at the carb but it ran.
 
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I pulled the manifolds and blasted them to see what I had to work with. @FJ40Jim and @65swb45 informed me that the 76 year exhaust manifold was one of the last 1 piece designs and was more prone to warping and cracking. The intake had already had 1 crack repaired and the exhaust had a crack. Given that info, they advised me that it was better to use a newer manifold set.

I have a great machine shop in town. He gets the manifolds bolted together with their surfaces as close as possible before he planes them. That brings the bolting surfaces close enough that you won't need spot facing or step washers.

Blasted, all new OEM hardware, Helix Racing High Temp clear coat on the intake (great products), graphite on the exhaust (I won't do that again) and a Remflex gasket.

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In hindsight, I probably should have used a block off place from @cruiseroutfit instead of the OEM set up between the manifolds since it will be a fair weather driver but I didn't. We'll see if the intake cracks.
 
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Lol your story sounds a lot like mine. 1977 that sat next to a barn for 21 years. Took 2 years to get it up and running and took it out wheeling for the day last weekend. She did fine.



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