The Great Gazoo from 1972! (3 Viewers)

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

About 6 years ago I got the illness and bought my first Land Cruiser, an FJ40 - The Mule I called it and the folks over in the STLCA Clubhouse have had the pleasure if chiding me about how long it took me to get it trail worthy. It is still a work in progress but for good reason.

As I had obviously caught the Cruiser bug, I, like many have spent endless hours reading and posting and learning on Mud, watching Craig's List and Ebay for deals and using what little free time I have to work on the 40. One late night a couple years ago I was screwing around and for $300.05 I won a boat load of 40 parts on Ebay. Of course I had been drinking and the wife was not impressed.

That weekend we drove down to Atlanta with a buddies trailer and picked up the stash. As it turns out, the "stash" was the chassis of a December 1972 FJ40 that the current owner had completely disassembled intent on a restoration. Frame, entire drive train, F engine, a bunch of small stuff and the cowl which had been cut from its rusted out New Jersey body. I know it was a New Jersey truck because it came with the title, fender vin plate and matching numbers on the disfigured cowl and frame. The intent was to part what I did not want and keep some other stuff for trail spares or parts for the Mule. It really was nothing much to look at.

During another drunken night at the house I made the comment to the wife that if we put all the spare parts together that we had gotten in the fantastic Ebay deal we would have a rolling chassis and then would just need a body and some odds and ends to end up with a second 40. And of course, it would be for her. Well, she now claims she must have been drunk too because for what ever reason she said, "That's a great idea! I want my own FJ40!" I promised that she could choose the color and the deal was struck. (I had no idea she was going to choose purple and since that was not going to happen I now have to do the vacuuming since I reneged on that little deal.) It has taken us a couple years to finally get that chassis rolling, find that body and other odds and ends and a really long time to get some paint on the truck but after a long road and settling on British Racing Green I DID let the wife pic the name, "The Great Gazoo".
http://imageshack.us

I had not planned on starting a thread until it was covered in a coat of that British Leland GN25 green and since it is, here it goes!

This is where we are as of Christmas Eve with a little progress everyday.

And now I can tell you all how I got there.

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

Here are a couple more pics of the EBay "score" that got us here.

And by the date on the pics I know I picked up that bundle of joy in the summer of 2007 and decided on the build in September 2007.
Did I mention I do not have much free time?

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

The first thing I did was clean everything up and I found a really good and inexpensive sand blaster in Dalton, Georgia and started hauling him some parts.

I did not have much of a plan when things started. The only thing I knew was that I was going to have everything sandblasted and POR15 it, I had met a buddy (sk8salamon on here) who worked at a place that did powder coating cheap so I was going to do a bunch of that, I was going to install a 5 speed because I thought that would be ultimate, I was going to use a Toyota straight 6 (likely the one that had come from the Ebay score). I knew I did not want another wheeling truck. I have one. I wanted something mild that I could take camping, hit a trail and "comfortably" get me and my wife to my next outdoor adventure. Maybe a 2.5" lift, stock steelies with narrow tires....and a stupid Advance Handling shackle reversal kit since I happened to have one that was not doing anything (still do not know why I did that.)

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

Another friend of mine and I spend some time welding the shackle reversal in place and adding a scab plate to mount the coming H55.

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

While we were doing this, we discovered that the frame did not sit flat on the floor, it wobbled. I knew that the truck had been wrecked but I did not know how badly. It turns out the frame was tweaked and later I discovered that the front axle had been bent. I found an old school body shop who told me they could straighten the frame for $100 so I drove on.
I bought a bunch of the black magic and went at it.

And of the course, the frame.

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

A couple coats of POR15 and Chassis black went on. Man did it take a while to get that done.

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

Once the frame was black, I went ahead and dragged it down and got it straightened. $100 and perfect.

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

After all that and getting my straight axles from radioridge, it all went together.

I scored a set of MAF disc brakes for the front for a couple hundred bucks. Not sure why the guy sold them, I think he went with a mini truck set up. After I did that on The Mule I wished I had done it on this rig too.

Drum in the back.

TahDah!

SAWTOOTH 55 LC · Dec 28, 2011

The project is looking sweet.Your wife is a lucky woman

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

Here is a pic of those budget discs.

Two other things were happening. The first was that I had found a body out in Ontario, California. It was close to Monniepoo and she stepped up to help with that. As it turns out, her now boyfriend Art helped paint the inside with bed liner some time before it went up for sale.
It was a California truck and Monnie said she did not see any rust on it, plus, it had been powder coated red. Yep, the whole body was powder coated.

The other thing that was going on is that for free, I had scored a split case so I ordered my H55 and went at rebuilding it. You can read about that <HERE> I studied and copied the stuff in FAQ in Poser's thread and Domsmith's H55 thread. Very helpful.

alberta mac · Dec 28, 2011

Very Nice work happening !

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

Monnie really stepped up for me. I was able to get the tub for a really reasonable price and a friend does some LTL shipping so he fixed me up on that. So all that was left was to put it in the mail! Turns out the guys on the Cali end of the shipping at SAIA became some real dicks but Monnie persevered. So how do you send a 40 body? A big f-ing box.

Thanks again Moonie!

And home it came!

The crate that SAIA required was pretty fxxxed up by the time it got to Georgia and the guys at the terminal in TN asked why it was in a box and not simply strapped to a pallet. I told them the story and all they could do was shake their heads. Initially we were told to bring the body, SAIA would strap it to a pallet and off it would go. When Monnie showed up, they turned her away and said they would not strap it to a pallet. She had that done across the street as they directed and then they said they would not take it unless it was crated. Monnie had it crated across the street. My shipping service was a class act and bore the extra costs to stay within their quote but Monnie was put through the ringer. My only complaint? When they strapped it down it pulled the rocker panel in and really caused me some extra work.

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

I got it home and it turned my place into a three ring circus.

According to the date stamp, that was March of 2009. :doh:

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

For most guys that might do it. Bolt that body down, throw in some seats and go. But I had other plans. Id did not realize it was going to include filling over 200 holes that the PO had put in the body. I did not think I would ever finish.

Although there were all those holes, with the exception of the sill, the body was solid.

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

More of the body

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

The sill was a pretty bad mess. I bought one of the replacements from someplace but only bought the outer piece. The inner ends seemed OK and the rest I fabbed out of a big piece of angle iron from Ace Hardware. :flamingo:

I thought I had a pic of it finished but can't seem to find it. Probably stuck in the 2009 Thanksgiving file. :lol:

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

Next was the all out body work. Getting that body straight and primed was no small feat. Hours turned to days, days to weeks and months. Eventually, it was gray.

Just did it all in my shop with some tarps up and some 19" fans. A friend in the Coast Guard who paint motorcycles came over and showed me the ropes.

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

Going gray....

There is a good one of the sill. Turned out nice.

Hugh Heifer · Dec 28, 2011

Now although I was considering spraying the truck myself, with the amount of time it took to do the body work and the cost of paint, if I screwed it up it would have cost me a lot more than it would to take it some where. Or so I thought. I went to about 6 places and none of them wanted to touch it. All they wanted was insurance work and a project was not going to get in their way. Or, they already had a project in the way and did not want another one. I was actually quoted $7000 by two placed just to shoot it. WTF?? It is already primed - just put color on it! THen I had three different people agree to do it and then cancel for one reason or another. I was getting pretty frustrated and stepped away for a bit.

But the wife came through. She stopped a place in Bartow County, Georgia on Highway 411 we pass frequently. The guy was finishing an old Cutlass and told her he would absolutely do it and asked I bring some pictures. I met him and he gave me a decent price and was willing to do it in pieces giving me the room to start working on the fenders I got from dbrown and the hood.

We cut a deal and off the thing went...

Notice the Nissan from earlier is gone and replaced with a Silverado. That Nissan was a peach. It was a 1995 XE-V6 and it had been a good truck, until a tree fell on it in the driveway. :crybaby: