Hi, I live up in Fairbanks Alaska. I am relatively new to Cruisers but I have been thrashing 4x4s all my life.
So last summer I bought a very sweet FJ40 from a retired gentleman who had come over to my place to look at an old Sno-cat I was selling. He noticed my buddies FJ55 parts car that I was storing and we started talking Land Cruisers. I confided in him that I was selling stuff so I could buy an old jeep to beat on. He took me to his place and showed me his restored 40 that was just to pretty for words. After some negotiating I wound up with a 76 FJ40 that is just way to nice to rally. However he threw in a "parts car" for an extra $200 and that is the subject of this thread.
Parts car is a complete 78 55 with cancer that hadn't run in 15 years and it had a "bad motor". That's what the guy said anyway. After it sat in my back yard for a few months I decided to throw a battery and some fresh fuel at it to see what would happen. It ran and a compression test confirmed it's ability to convert gas into noise and smoke. I am still working out all the bugs but I have put over 1,000 miles on it and so far it is an absolute blast to drive. I added a winch and some tunes and even got the back window to go up and down.
It's to hammered to ever restore but it is way to cool to let die. The main issue it has is rust. The body is not structurally compromised but it does need some work on the floor between the front body mounts and the seat brackets. I'm not planning to do anything to the exterior except scratch it up on trails.
So last summer I bought a very sweet FJ40 from a retired gentleman who had come over to my place to look at an old Sno-cat I was selling. He noticed my buddies FJ55 parts car that I was storing and we started talking Land Cruisers. I confided in him that I was selling stuff so I could buy an old jeep to beat on. He took me to his place and showed me his restored 40 that was just to pretty for words. After some negotiating I wound up with a 76 FJ40 that is just way to nice to rally. However he threw in a "parts car" for an extra $200 and that is the subject of this thread.
Parts car is a complete 78 55 with cancer that hadn't run in 15 years and it had a "bad motor". That's what the guy said anyway. After it sat in my back yard for a few months I decided to throw a battery and some fresh fuel at it to see what would happen. It ran and a compression test confirmed it's ability to convert gas into noise and smoke. I am still working out all the bugs but I have put over 1,000 miles on it and so far it is an absolute blast to drive. I added a winch and some tunes and even got the back window to go up and down.
It's to hammered to ever restore but it is way to cool to let die. The main issue it has is rust. The body is not structurally compromised but it does need some work on the floor between the front body mounts and the seat brackets. I'm not planning to do anything to the exterior except scratch it up on trails.
