So I promised some BIG news, and things have panned out. I hope you are sitting down.
Backstory, several weeks ago two more FJ55's popped up locally here in Montana. I haven't seen one for sale locally for years so to have two more pop up so close to home was bonkers. I didn't pay much attention since we have Project Homework rolling with some momentum but after a few weeks of FB Marketplace feeding me a steady diet of piggy pictures I reached out to the owner of a 1972 FJ55 in the same Green/White as Project Homework. I think we exchanged a few messages early on but as things were busy with my real job I didn't move on anything.
Fast forward and I reached out to the owner about selling me the drivers side mirror (figure it couldn't hurt) and he politely declined and shared he wasn't ready to part it out. As I started to price out some parts and realizing how rare some of the parts I need are I started to look at this FJ55 for sale through new lenses... a parts Cruiser. I called the owner and arranged for a meeting. I was greeted by a 200 series in the driveway and a nice 40 and 55 out back, a real Cruiserhead. Nice. I know most of the Cruiser heads in my area, I helped lead the 406 Cruisers TLCA chapter here in Montana for about 3 years and have met a ton of great folks. I hadn't met Travis yet.
We talked Cruisers, looked at the 55, looked over the 40, chatted some more and the FJ55 for sale had a long way to go to be a solid runner again. It appears that the old girl was T-boned on the drivers side and someone had replaced the doors and B pillar with parts from another FJ55. The front door closes the rear door no longer has a striker. Travis said he had driven it before and it had sat for a while waiting for attention. He mentioned he didn't want to mess with shipping the Cruiser or he could have had it sold several times over. He offered it to me at a REALLY generous price too! Being right before Christmas, the business of the season and family coming in and out, I thought my amazing wife would kill me if I bought another project so after some contemplation I politely passed on the FJ55 that was for sale.
A few days later Travis reached out to me and shared how he liked what I was doing with the boys and that he wanted to donate the Cruiser to "the cause" aka illness many of us have! I was floored. What generosity. I shared with the boys and they were stoked. Today we arranged to get some of the older boys out of the class and my 7th grade son and we went and plucked the ol' gal from the field and hauled it back to the school. I have been grinning all day. So rad. Cruiser people are the best people. I encouraged Travis to follow this thread, and I hope he'll chime in or at least get a kick out of our progress or failures.
Here it is... I am dubbing it Pork Rind. I am unsure if she'll run down the road again, but she will ensure Project Homework is as good as she can be by swapping parts to make the best Cruiser we can.
. Ya needs ta opin da Windas Broheim 
