Builds The "Red Rocket" Troopy

[sark]

There's got to be a husk of a donor sitting in the UAE somewhere that is ready to be chopped up for you.

 

[theglobb]

The old Willy’s are just plan cool !! Nice score
My first 4x4 was 58 Willy’s wagon

Agreed! Really anything old is interesting to me. Those old wagons are so cool.

Lol, I would have grabbed that thing too for free. I am amazed you got it home with that tow bar mounted to the sketchy wooden bumper! Good on you, and it looks like it was the highlight of your time off back at home! Don't worry about these little sidelines in your thread. It's your thread after all. Fun to see all the crazy things you get yourself into. Just please don't blow yourself up again.

Yea I wasn't too confident in the tow bar or the old hardware holding everything together, I need to replace/remake the way it is mounted to the rest of the vehicle. I'll try my best not to spontaneously combust again, crazy to think that was over a year ago now.

I couldn't make the maths work on getting a whole new troopy body to the usa, but I considered getting a UTE cab and converting my troopy since my body was pretty bad.

This is something that has also crossed my mind a couple of times... the biggest reason against it is that I already have an Alu-Innovations pop top sitting, just waiting for me to install it. Then again I bet I could sell that at a minor loss and use that money towards a ute cab and everything else. I do think the rear tray buildouts that some people do with those utes are awesome.

Lots of people like old jeeps you might find a bodyman willing to rebuild your windshield frame in trade for that jeep.
If you get interested in old jeeps you might check this out.https://mdjuan.com.ph/
A large number of people in the PI speak English. They might even have a source for a windshield frame. That would be an epic summer trip to go look for parts. Just stay away from Mindanao, Jolo, Basilan.

The Willys was given to me on a personal level by that friend that picked it up for me while I was busy. He had been eyeing it up since he was a little kid and always dreamed of getting it and making it his own. Well, the time finally came but he has since moved to Salt Lake City and didn't have the resources to take it back with him, said the only person he would want it going to other than him would be me. So sadly, wether I like it or not, I'm stuck with this Jeep for the foreseeable future

…if you don’t want to ship a whole vehicle, maybe cut out only the windshield frame and ship that?

This is what I have been trying to accomplish for the past 9 months that the Red Rocket has been down for. Every lead I got, every person I contacted, always led to a dead end. Been through 30 or so people at this point and it just never works out, communication isn't sufficient, or they just eventually ghost me. That's why I have settled on the fact that I'm just gonna have to dive in and fabricate some stuff from scratch to make it work... or buy a ute cab

There's got to be a husk of a donor sitting in the UAE somewhere that is ready to be chopped up for you.

I don't doubt that, I bet there are hundreds out there just sitting. It's just a matter of not having the correct connections to be able to get to someone who would then be willing to go out and scout out a good one, to then go chop it up for me, etc etc etc.

 

[LJRay]

…GoFundMe for a ticket to Dubai, chop what you want and bring it back as cabin luggage…

 

[theglobb]

Well this would be pretty sweet...
High Quality Car Cab Body Shell For Land Cruiser 70 Series Fj70 Lc70 Lj70 Hzj70 Fj73 Bj70 Car Body Parts - Buy Fj70 Cab Shell,Car Cab Body Shell For Land Cruiser 70 Series Fj70 Lc70 Lj70 Hzj70 Fj73 Bj70,Land Cruiser Cab Body Shell Product on Alibaba.com - https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-Quality-Car-Cab-Body-Shell_1600659961876.html?spm=a2700.shop_plser.41413.188.4f637873eXQI2v

only issue is a have to order a minimum of 10 of them anyone wanna buy 9 troopy bodies from me?

 

[sark]

@Meshal, would you be able to help source a windshield frame etc. for the lad?

 

[bj70bc]

Well this would be pretty sweet...
High Quality Car Cab Body Shell For Land Cruiser 70 Series Fj70 Lc70 Lj70 Hzj70 Fj73 Bj70 Car Body Parts - Buy Fj70 Cab Shell,Car Cab Body Shell For Land Cruiser 70 Series Fj70 Lc70 Lj70 Hzj70 Fj73 Bj70,Land Cruiser Cab Body Shell Product on Alibaba.com - https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-Quality-Car-Cab-Body-Shell_1600659961876.html?spm=a2700.shop_plser.41413.188.4f637873eXQI2v

only issue is a have to order a minimum of 10 of them anyone wanna buy 9 troopy bodies from me?

and so starts a business that will last you the rest of your life..... another life path changed by landcruisers

 

[gilmorneau]

I bet there are hundreds out there just sitting. It's just a matter of not having the correct connections to be able to get to someone who would then be willing to go out and scout out a good one, to then go chop it up for me, etc etc etc.

If you want something done, sometimes you gotta do it yourself. Get your passport, pack a bag with some tools, and buy an airplane ticket. Not as crazy as it sounds, and it could be a proper adventure.

The Middle East is one option, though you might need a guide to navigate some of the cultural differences. OTOH, there's lots of Troopies at wreckers in Australia that you could cut up, and the culture shock would certainly be less. I just checked, and round trip from Atlanta to Sydney can be had for under $1000. Rent a car when you get there, make a few calls, and start visiting some dismantlers. Get everything you need, build a crate (or have one built), and ship it home, and as a bonus, you get a trip to Australia out of the deal. The only added expense for you would be your airplane ticket since everything else you'd pay for anyway, whether you do it or you find someone to do it for you.

Trying to get an Australian (or anyone else overseas) to do something like this for you via email or whatever is always going to end in tears. It's just too big an ask for someone who doesn't know you at all. But I think you'll find that if you're face-to-face, people will go out of their way to help you, in Australia or most other places.

 

[prwillard2]

If you want something done, sometimes you gotta do it yourself. Get your passport, pack a bag with some tools, and buy an airplane ticket. Not as crazy as it sounds, and it could be a proper adventure.

The Middle East is one option, though you might need a guide to navigate some of the cultural differences. OTOH, there's lots of Troopies at wreckers in Australia that you could cut up, and the culture shock would certainly be less. I just checked, and round trip from Atlanta to Sydney can be had for under $1000. Rent a car when you get there, make a few calls, and start visiting some dismantlers. Get everything you need, build a crate (or have one built), and ship it home, and as a bonus, you get a trip to Australia out of the deal. The only added expense for you would be your airplane ticket since everything else you'd pay for anyway, whether you do it or you find someone to do it for you.

Trying to get an Australian (or anyone else overseas) to do something like this for you via email or whatever is always going to end in tears. It's just too big an ask for someone who doesn't know you at all. But I think you'll find that if you're face-to-face, people will go out of their way to help you, in Australia or most other places.

All the auto dismantlers in UAE will not work well with you unless you know Arabic. This will be the same in most of the middle east unless you've got a translator. Even then, I didn't have much luck when I went to the dismantlers in Sharjah in UAE.

Australia definitely the place to go! Same language, and lots of people will want to help the silly American.

Bring back a bunch of dash pads to sell and recoup the cost of your trip.

 

[bj70bc]

The Globb Landcruiser Imports, i can see it now.....
you're already famous, leverage that into customers...sorry infamous

 

[Meshal]

@Meshal, would you be able to help source a windshield frame etc. for the lad?

i can help with full car only

 

[theglobb]

ok sooo, I got to looking and yoshiparts.com just so happened to be having a 30% off sitewide flashsale. AND they just so happened to have every single one of the body parts I was looking for in stock whilst other similar sites did not. Just spent the last 4 hours grinding out any possible part that I need and could have missed on their websites diagrams, in combination with the Troopy Hodgepodge thread (thanks @gilmorneau for the reference, especially page numbers to start at) AND I have come to realize if I keep pushing stuff back, waiting on others to maybe fulfill a response/promise, or try to make some roundabout plan to get a whole windshield frame, that it will just never happen and another 3 months will have passed by. Boom, one year of the troopy sitting due to me being stumped at the windshield frame.

What I'm getting at is I just placed a pretty extensive order of $1500 (what would have been plus $2000) of OEM goodness! Gutters, inner/outer pillars, side supports, gaskets, many other odds and ends. Below is a screenshot of roughly half the stuff I just acquired for both sides of the Red Rocket.

I seriously appreciate everyone's input and collective minds working together with me to try to come to some solution! I just saw this opportunity in front of me with 10 hours remaining on the sale and figured why not. Parts will be arriving within 2-3 weeks. Now I gotta figure out which portable Temu carport for me to work in will be the best bang for the buck I'm pumped to finally have some sort of progress made!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

If you want something done, sometimes you gotta do it yourself. Get your passport, pack a bag with some tools, and buy an airplane ticket. Not as crazy as it sounds, and it could be a proper adventure.

The Middle East is one option, though you might need a guide to navigate some of the cultural differences. OTOH, there's lots of Troopies at wreckers in Australia that you could cut up, and the culture shock would certainly be less. I just checked, and round trip from Atlanta to Sydney can be had for under $1000. Rent a car when you get there, make a few calls, and start visiting some dismantlers. Get everything you need, build a crate (or have one built), and ship it home, and as a bonus, you get a trip to Australia out of the deal. The only added expense for you would be your airplane ticket since everything else you'd pay for anyway, whether you do it or you find someone to do it for you.

Trying to get an Australian (or anyone else overseas) to do something like this for you via email or whatever is always going to end in tears. It's just too big an ask for someone who doesn't know you at all. But I think you'll find that if you're face-to-face, people will go out of their way to help you, in Australia or most other places.

All the auto dismantlers in UAE will not work well with you unless you know Arabic. This will be the same in most of the middle east unless you've got a translator. Even then, I didn't have much luck when I went to the dismantlers in Sharjah in UAE.

Australia definitely the place to go! Same language, and lots of people will want to help the silly American.

Bring back a bunch of dash pads to sell and recoup the cost of your trip.

This does sound quite intriguing, and well thought out. I was actually supposed to be living in Australia from Nov 2024 - Nov 2025, my 2 good buds moved over there for the year but I didn't have enough money at the time to pull it off. The Aus trip may had been able to been pulled off at some point this summer but as stated above, I'm just sick of waiting and letting the Red Rocket rot.

The Globb Landcruiser Imports, i can see it now.....
you're already famous, leverage that into customers...sorry infamous

My randomly generated Wizard 101 username from when I was 6 years old haunts me to this day... it's hilarious though, I love it. and TRUE, infamous!

i can help with full car only

I appreciate you responding nonetheless

 

[Knowbuddy]

ok sooo, I got to looking and yoshiparts.com just so happened to be having a 30% off sitewide flashsale. AND they just so happened to have every single one of the body parts I was looking for in stock whilst other similar sites did not. Just spent the last 4 hours grinding out any possible part that I need and could have missed on their websites diagrams, in combination with the Troopy Hodgepodge thread (thanks @gilmorneau for the reference, especially page numbers to start at) AND I have come to realize if I keep pushing stuff back, waiting on others to maybe fulfill a response/promise, or try to make some roundabout plan to get a whole windshield frame, that it will just never happen and another 3 months will have passed by. Boom, one year of the troopy sitting due to me being stumped at the windshield frame.

What I'm getting at is I just placed a pretty extensive order of $1500 (what would have been plus $2000) of OEM goodness! Gutters, inner/outer pillars, side supports, gaskets, many other odds and ends. Below is a screenshot of roughly half the stuff I just acquired for both sides of the Red Rocket.

View attachment 3837692

I seriously appreciate everyone's input and collective minds working together with me to try to come to some solution! I just saw this opportunity in front of me with 10 hours remaining on the sale and figured why not. Parts will be arriving within 2-3 weeks. Now I gotta figure out which portable Temu carport for me to work in will be the best bang for the buck I'm pumped to finally have some sort of progress made!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------



This does sound quite intriguing, and well thought out. I was actually supposed to be living in Australia from Nov 2024 - Nov 2025, my 2 good buds moved over there for the year but I didn't have enough money at the time to pull it off. The Aus trip may had been able to been pulled off at some point this summer but as stated above, I'm just sick of waiting and letting the Red Rocket rot.

My randomly generated Wizard 101 username from when I was 6 years old haunts me to this day... it's hilarious though, I love it. and TRUE, infamous!

I appreciate you responding nonetheless

That’s awesome. Buying parts sucks but I’m excited to see it back on the road.

 

[bj70bc]

that site seems decent

 

[robmobile73]

ok sooo, I got to looking and yoshiparts.com just so happened to be having a 30% off sitewide flashsale. AND they just so happened to have every single one of the body parts I was looking for in stock whilst other similar sites did not. Just spent the last 4 hours grinding out any possible part that I need and could have missed on their websites diagrams, in combination with the Troopy Hodgepodge thread (thanks @gilmorneau for the reference, especially page numbers to start at) AND I have come to realize if I keep pushing stuff back, waiting on others to maybe fulfill a response/promise, or try to make some roundabout plan to get a whole windshield frame, that it will just never happen and another 3 months will have passed by. Boom, one year of the troopy sitting due to me being stumped at the windshield frame.

What I'm getting at is I just placed a pretty extensive order of $1500 (what would have been plus $2000) of OEM goodness! Gutters, inner/outer pillars, side supports, gaskets, many other odds and ends. Below is a screenshot of roughly half the stuff I just acquired for both sides of the Red Rocket.

View attachment 3837692

I seriously appreciate everyone's input and collective minds working together with me to try to come to some solution! I just saw this opportunity in front of me with 10 hours remaining on the sale and figured why not. Parts will be arriving within 2-3 weeks. Now I gotta figure out which portable Temu carport for me to work in will be the best bang for the buck I'm pumped to finally have some sort of progress made!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------



This does sound quite intriguing, and well thought out. I was actually supposed to be living in Australia from Nov 2024 - Nov 2025, my 2 good buds moved over there for the year but I didn't have enough money at the time to pull it off. The Aus trip may had been able to been pulled off at some point this summer but as stated above, I'm just sick of waiting and letting the Red Rocket rot.

My randomly generated Wizard 101 username from when I was 6 years old haunts me to this day... it's hilarious though, I love it. and TRUE, infamous!

I appreciate you responding nonetheless

That website-https://yoshiparts.com/ takes me to a business based in Phuket city, Phuket Thailand. Businesses in Thailand are getting more savvy and streamlined than Alibaba. It is likely they are sourcing from Alibaba and and just offering a more streamlined drop ship advertised price method. You message Alibaba for a part advertised as $300 and $225 shipping and they come back saying it's $900 and $5000 to ship it's almost cartoonish trying to deal. If you want I can enquire into Yoshi parts as my wife is Thai.

 

[theglobb]

That website-https://yoshiparts.com/ takes me to a business based in Phuket city, Phuket Thailand. Businesses in Thailand are getting more savvy and streamlined than Alibaba. It is likely they are sourcing from Alibaba and and just offering a more streamlined drop ship advertised price method. You message Alibaba for a part advertised as $300 and $225 shipping and they come back saying it's $900 and $5000 to ship it's almost cartoonish trying to deal. If you want I can enquire into Yoshi parts as my wife is Thai.

I would really appreciate any more insight you could get about that site. The site said that all the parts would be shipped from a Japanese warehouse, then again obviously they could lie. Reading a few reviews online they have mostly positive reviews with a few negative. Some people saying they got exactly what they asked for being an OEM part and others saying that they were notified a couple days after the purchase that a couple of the parts they had in stock were not actually stocked, and were able to get a refund on their order. I will admit the whole "yoshi" name in combination with the parts supposedly coming out of a Japanese warehouse lowered my guard more than usual with a new site that I haven't heard as much about. The whole parts diagram system they have set up is pretty seamless, or as you said streamlined.

Looking at many reviews online the worst thing people had to say where that they didn't actually have the parts they said they did, which they were then promptly refunded for. However, I would be lying if I said that I'm not worried at all about this being a trustworthy business. Thank you so much for doing a bit more research than I should have originally done and letting me know! Wondering if I should just place a request to cancel my order entirely right now or sit on it and see how it plays out...

(Edit) Looking at all other vouched-for and reputable sites, they don't have really any of the 30 or so parts I ordered available. Yoshiparts also didn't have all of them in stock but gave me updated part numbers that they did have in stock (that the other sites still don't have in stock). I think I'm gonna wait it out and see what happens. Possibly an email saying half of the cart I ordered isn't actually stocked I'm not too worried about losing my money as everyone who this has happened to online said they received a refund the same day they were notified. I won't be too surprised if they don't have these parts in stock as I can't seem to find them anywhere else, but you never know. Maybe they actually do but people have just been too sketched out to buy stuff from them and I end up getting lucky... or scammed

 

[bj70bc]

i looked on that site at 3b heads that i know are nla, and they say they can get them as oem, sooooo idk
i think they are full of it, but i guess you'll see,
keep us updated

 

[robmobile73]

I would really appreciate any more insight you could get about that site. The site said that all the parts would be shipped from a Japanese warehouse, then again obviously they could lie. Reading a few reviews online they have mostly positive reviews with a few negative. Some people saying they got exactly what they asked for being an OEM part and others saying that they were notified a couple days after the purchase that a couple of the parts they had in stock were not actually stocked, and were able to get a refund on their order. I will admit the whole "yoshi" name in combination with the parts supposedly coming out of a Japanese warehouse lowered my guard more than usual with a new site that I haven't heard as much about. The whole parts diagram system they have set up is pretty seamless, or as you said streamlined.

Looking at many reviews online the worst thing people had to say where that they didn't actually have the parts they said they did, which they were then promptly refunded for. However, I would be lying if I said that I'm not worried at all about this being a trustworthy business. Thank you so much for doing a bit more research than I should have originally done and letting me know! Wondering if I should just place a request to cancel my order entirely right now or sit on it and see how it plays out...

(Edit) Looking at all other vouched-for and reputable sites, they don't have really any of the 30 or so parts I ordered available. Yoshiparts also didn't have all of them in stock but gave me updated part numbers that they did have in stock (that the other sites still don't have in stock). I think I'm gonna wait it out and see what happens. Possibly an email saying half of the cart I ordered isn't actually stocked I'm not too worried about losing my money as everyone who this has happened to online said they received a refund the same day they were notified. I won't be too surprised if they don't have these parts in stock as I can't seem to find them anywhere else, but you never know. Maybe they actually do but people have just been too sketched out to buy stuff from them and I end up getting lucky... or scammed

Think about how much you make in a night of shuttling kids to and from the bar. Think about how many nights work it takes to buy those parts. Now compare that to how much you time your spending on this windshield frame. I would take a little risk and see what develops on this order, provided the reviews of refunds bode well. I'll see if I can find a BJ73 windshield frame and some parts and have my wife call them about it to feel them out. There's plenty of Chinese and Japanese people living in Thailand. Probably some dude named Yoshi in his 30's lives in a $300 a month studio a mile from the beach speaks enough Thai to make a business has a lot of contacts with people who have contacts and is wheeling and dealing to make it easier than going straight to the source........I've met more than one foreigner enjoying life in Thailand that made their money selling stuff they didn't own but would buy once the order was made/funds recieved. They'd just refund if something fell through. Companies that specialize in partial container load shipping and remailing here in the US are also becoming more prevalent the past few years.

 

[gilmorneau]

If I was a gambling man, I'd wager you'll get some of the parts you ordered, and you'll get a refund for some others.
Nothing lost except the time. Once you figure out what you've got and what you still need, you may need to take a deeper dive into some parts diagrams.

 

[theglobb]

If I was a gambling man, I'd wager you'll get some of the parts you ordered, and you'll get a refund for some others.
Nothing lost except the time. Once you figure out what you've got and what you still need, you may need to take a deeper dive into some parts diagrams.

The gambling man was right.

As pretty much expected, they only had 8 or so of the 25 parts that I had ordered. AND they said the 8 items were over the shipping weight limit... so my shipping for 25 parts ($300) turned into $2,340 for 8 items hilarious! So obviously I've requested a full refund. Got my hopes up at first not gonna lie! Was finally ready to start tackling and getting a move on with the Red Rocket... NOPE. I will say, even though yoshiparts catfished me into thinking they had parts I will probably use their website in the future to find part numbers, I really like the layout and setup they have in combination with parts diagrams.

Back to stage 1 of trying to figure out what to do next: try to get someone to cut a windshield frame out for me? (not happening) or travel to Australia where I have a place to stay with my 2 good friends, do all the work myself, and then ship it back to me in the USA? (I'll get fired from my job most likely) Or get my hands on a 75 series truck cab and make a cool rear tray buildout? I would then be selling my alu-innovations pop top conversion to help pay for it...

If anyone has any other suggestions or ideas I'm more than willing to hear them!

 

[robmobile73]

The gambling man was right.

As pretty much expected, they only had 8 or so of the 25 parts that I had ordered. AND they said the 8 items were over the shipping weight limit... so my shipping for 25 parts ($300) turned into $2,340 for 8 items hilarious! So obviously I've requested a full refund. Got my hopes up at first not gonna lie! Was finally ready to start tackling and getting a move on with the Red Rocket... NOPE. I will say, even though yoshiparts catfished me into thinking they had parts I will probably use their website in the future to find part numbers, I really like the layout and setup they have in combination with parts diagrams.
View attachment 3842561


Back to stage 1 of trying to figure out what to do next: try to get someone to cut a windshield frame out for me? (not happening) or travel to Australia where I have a place to stay with my 2 good friends, do all the work myself, and then ship it back to me in the USA? (I'll get fired from my job most likely) Or get my hands on a 75 series truck cab and make a cool rear tray buildout? I would then be selling my alu-innovations pop top conversion to help pay for it...

If anyone has any other suggestions or ideas I'm more than willing to hear them!

Sorry it didn't work out. Alot of companies have adds for things they don't have. If for nothing else to drag you in for clicks. This is one of the reasons you pay a premium for US and AU cruiser supply houses, they've done all that work already.
If I could not get another frame for my bj73 I would: grind out all the bubbling filler. Grind down the inside to include behind the dash. Weld some steel bar stock to the inside for strength all the way around the windshield. Weld in whatever new sheet metal I could and then shape/fill with a filler that doesn't absorb moisture. What you had lasted a number of years. Do it again but with some strength reinforcement inside. If you can make it 4 to 5 years into the future you will likely either have more money, or be ready to move on from the troopy.