Just picked up a 79 FJ40 from AZ and towed back to Indianapolis with my amazing girlfriend Brittany, want to use this to document the trip/build/travels with it as I wasn't very good about doing so with my last.
First I'll start with a bit of background on how I ended up back in an FJ40. My love for cruisers started with my dad buying a 71 when I was 9. He had it a couple years, not really turning it into too much of a project (solely keeping it running was project enough at the time!):
A few years went by with us cruiser-less, when we decided to get one as a project to work on together/first ride for me (can't thank my family enough for this...directly lead to my livelihood today and was involved in what are easily my fondest memories as a kid). Cruiser two in hindsight started with few redeeming qualities other than a healthy 350 and lack of rot. Unfortunately don't have many pictures of how it started, 33s, inch-thick add a leafs and Peterbilt bubble-gum blue
. Through HS built it into a very capable rig, and sadly had to sell it in college:
Went several years without any sort of off-road rig, dabbling in cars. With my last project starting to come to a close, I initially planned on getting something that would be a good daily/weekend trail rig. Tacoma and Jeep JK were at the top of my list, the Tacoma not fitting my want to be able to drop the top/doors, and the Jeep simply not being acceptable being a cruiser guy.
Long story short I decided to start looking for a new FJ40, something more original than the others I had involvement with. I stumbled upon pbr streetgang's 79 which seemed to be very much what I was looking for; fairly original, not necessarily perfect body ($$$), but solid mechanically and with a good history. Biggest problem with this rig was the distance/inaccessibility, I'm in Indy and it was in Southern AZ. Ultimately, I looked into several other rigs that seemed interesting, even significantly increasing my purchase budget, but pbr's 79 remained a front-runner.
Finally decide I needed to go check it out...and ultimately end up buying it sight-unseen to avoid losing it! With that out of the way, Brittany had the amazing idea of towing it back via the Grand Canyon and Moab (both of which neither of us had been). Ended up being the trip of a lifetime!
We had 4 days to fly out, pick up Tortuga2 (John [pbr streetgang]'s name for the 79), drive up through the GC and Moab, and then straight-shot it to Indy.
We flew into Phoenix, grabbed a Uhaul in Tuscon, drove down to Elgin, grabbed the cruiser, and headed back up to Flagstaff in day 1. Totally kicking myself now, didn't even get a single picture at John's place. I know I was too thrilled to be back in the possession of an FJ40 and overwhelmed with John's fleet (amazing 80 with pretty much everything you could need from the sahara to the hammers, two FJ40s, a Tacoma, a 100...all armored out and in various levels of build), I don't know what Brittany's excuse is
! Actually, Brittany did get a pic of my s***-eating grin on the test drive:
Here it is in tow shortly after picking up:
Woke up very early the second day (our big day, GC sunrise, drive to Moab, and hopefully a couple trails all planned) and got to the Grand Canyon which was amazing:
We then quickly hit the road and made our way up to Moab, amazing sights along the entire route. Had a run-in with a wild horse on this leg, hence Brittany renaming Tortuga2 el Caballo. He'd actually walked away by the time we grabbed a camera, we could have reached out and pet him!:
Made it in time to hit a trail or two...ended up doing Gemini Bridges given we'd driven the cruiser a total of about a mile and hadn't made a full assessment of reliability yet:
Had an absolute blast on that, got to teach Brittany how to not only drive off-road, but how to drive stick (she did awesome!). But with that out of the way, and the reliability tested (somewhat!), had to do a little bit on a real trail so hit the first part of Metal Masher:
Cruiser did absolutely awesome, wish we would have had better circumstances that would have allowed us to spend more time on some more challenging stuff, but had to grab a quick bite and a pint at the Moab Brewery and head toward Grand Junction.
The first half of our drive the next day was absolutely amazing, going through Western Colorado and seeing some of what it has to offer. Still can't get over stopping at a rest stop and seeing this:
Made it to Denver by lunch and stopped at Station 26 Brewing (a pretty cool place built in an old fire house) for another bite and a pint:
Unfortunately the rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, ended up pulling into Uhaul with loads of time to spare Sunday afternoon:
Absolutely awesome trip, over 4 days did ~2700mi, caught the sunrise at the Grand Canyon, hit some trails in Moab, went to 5 breweries in as many states, and got to do it all with the most amazing girl in the world! As if that weren't enough, I also ended up with an awesome cruiser at the end of it all!
Again thanks so much John, so awesome to meet you, your wife, and the dogs. Hope to one day have a collection of cruisers half as impressive as yours!
Have started to tear into a few little projects, will update tomorrow, also have a few questions about factory skids and things.
Chase
First I'll start with a bit of background on how I ended up back in an FJ40. My love for cruisers started with my dad buying a 71 when I was 9. He had it a couple years, not really turning it into too much of a project (solely keeping it running was project enough at the time!):
A few years went by with us cruiser-less, when we decided to get one as a project to work on together/first ride for me (can't thank my family enough for this...directly lead to my livelihood today and was involved in what are easily my fondest memories as a kid). Cruiser two in hindsight started with few redeeming qualities other than a healthy 350 and lack of rot. Unfortunately don't have many pictures of how it started, 33s, inch-thick add a leafs and Peterbilt bubble-gum blue
. Through HS built it into a very capable rig, and sadly had to sell it in college:
Went several years without any sort of off-road rig, dabbling in cars. With my last project starting to come to a close, I initially planned on getting something that would be a good daily/weekend trail rig. Tacoma and Jeep JK were at the top of my list, the Tacoma not fitting my want to be able to drop the top/doors, and the Jeep simply not being acceptable being a cruiser guy.
Long story short I decided to start looking for a new FJ40, something more original than the others I had involvement with. I stumbled upon pbr streetgang's 79 which seemed to be very much what I was looking for; fairly original, not necessarily perfect body ($$$), but solid mechanically and with a good history. Biggest problem with this rig was the distance/inaccessibility, I'm in Indy and it was in Southern AZ. Ultimately, I looked into several other rigs that seemed interesting, even significantly increasing my purchase budget, but pbr's 79 remained a front-runner.
Finally decide I needed to go check it out...and ultimately end up buying it sight-unseen to avoid losing it! With that out of the way, Brittany had the amazing idea of towing it back via the Grand Canyon and Moab (both of which neither of us had been). Ended up being the trip of a lifetime!
We had 4 days to fly out, pick up Tortuga2 (John [pbr streetgang]'s name for the 79), drive up through the GC and Moab, and then straight-shot it to Indy.
We flew into Phoenix, grabbed a Uhaul in Tuscon, drove down to Elgin, grabbed the cruiser, and headed back up to Flagstaff in day 1. Totally kicking myself now, didn't even get a single picture at John's place. I know I was too thrilled to be back in the possession of an FJ40 and overwhelmed with John's fleet (amazing 80 with pretty much everything you could need from the sahara to the hammers, two FJ40s, a Tacoma, a 100...all armored out and in various levels of build), I don't know what Brittany's excuse is
! Actually, Brittany did get a pic of my s***-eating grin on the test drive:
Here it is in tow shortly after picking up:
Woke up very early the second day (our big day, GC sunrise, drive to Moab, and hopefully a couple trails all planned) and got to the Grand Canyon which was amazing:
We then quickly hit the road and made our way up to Moab, amazing sights along the entire route. Had a run-in with a wild horse on this leg, hence Brittany renaming Tortuga2 el Caballo. He'd actually walked away by the time we grabbed a camera, we could have reached out and pet him!:
Made it in time to hit a trail or two...ended up doing Gemini Bridges given we'd driven the cruiser a total of about a mile and hadn't made a full assessment of reliability yet:
Had an absolute blast on that, got to teach Brittany how to not only drive off-road, but how to drive stick (she did awesome!). But with that out of the way, and the reliability tested (somewhat!), had to do a little bit on a real trail so hit the first part of Metal Masher:
Cruiser did absolutely awesome, wish we would have had better circumstances that would have allowed us to spend more time on some more challenging stuff, but had to grab a quick bite and a pint at the Moab Brewery and head toward Grand Junction.
The first half of our drive the next day was absolutely amazing, going through Western Colorado and seeing some of what it has to offer. Still can't get over stopping at a rest stop and seeing this:
Made it to Denver by lunch and stopped at Station 26 Brewing (a pretty cool place built in an old fire house) for another bite and a pint:
Unfortunately the rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, ended up pulling into Uhaul with loads of time to spare Sunday afternoon:
Absolutely awesome trip, over 4 days did ~2700mi, caught the sunrise at the Grand Canyon, hit some trails in Moab, went to 5 breweries in as many states, and got to do it all with the most amazing girl in the world! As if that weren't enough, I also ended up with an awesome cruiser at the end of it all!
Again thanks so much John, so awesome to meet you, your wife, and the dogs. Hope to one day have a collection of cruisers half as impressive as yours!
Have started to tear into a few little projects, will update tomorrow, also have a few questions about factory skids and things.
Chase
. Do you by chance know or can you ask your buddy what paint he used on the rig? Looks like it could just be rustoleum camo tan or something, but figured I'd check, I'm going to do the dash and touch up the chipped stuff.
