Working on the second year of ownership of my Pig, hope to have it wheeling by the end of summer...bought it like this in October 2013. It's a Jan. 1970, grille lights, three on the floor, vacuum t-case, Weber carb, some rust, ghetto wiring, bad brakes and mostly missing exhaust....what a deal!
Also turned out the driver's door regulator barely works, not a stitch of weatherstripping was any good, and the rear window mechanism was shot.
I built an exhaust fairly cheap, added a booster and dual circuit MC from a 74 FJ, tightened the brakes and started driving it.
Soon I found out that I had to re-wire almost everything between the dash and the radiator and discovered that the thick bedliner covering the lower half of the body concealed Bondo that was 1/2" thick in some spots
At some point Brew8 from Billings MT sold me an SM420 and Warden's adapter for a song (that i have yet to install) I also installed JTO's front disc kit with a T-100 1 1/16" master cylinder. Works great so far.
Somewhere along the way I built this crappy excuse for a rear lift hatch....needs some tuning still sadly
Then came a child/home ownership/family dog and didn't do much with it. Added a set of 34x9.50 Swampers from craigslist, and started a roller paint job with Rustoleum's Sunrise Red. Didn't even finish that!
Re-purposed a bumper my father built for an old Willys project and fitted it to the '55 to round out the frontend as well:
Not too long ago I started a scratchbuilt rear bumper/swingout out of 2x4 box tubing:
And when your 'cruiser sits in a garage for 4+ months, the fuel system and carb tend to dry up, necessitating the gas can strapped to the front in order to pull it out of the "shop" and rotate it 180*
At some point it got a Mini-truck P/S that I need to show also.
Ideally, by the end of the summer i'd like to:
install some type of suspension system,
swap the SM420 in,
finish the rear bumper,
patch the floor,
build rocker replacement/sliders
twin-stick the t-case
and wheel the thing!
down the road:
paint it, but probably not red. maybe CARC "383" green that Rapco Military sells. Roll it on of course.
Try a different carb, like the small body Rochester 2G i have sitting around. Replace as much of the rubber parts as I can and re-do the homemade liftgate also.
The interior/body is missing too much to be a good resto candidate anyway.
Also turned out the driver's door regulator barely works, not a stitch of weatherstripping was any good, and the rear window mechanism was shot.
I built an exhaust fairly cheap, added a booster and dual circuit MC from a 74 FJ, tightened the brakes and started driving it.
Soon I found out that I had to re-wire almost everything between the dash and the radiator and discovered that the thick bedliner covering the lower half of the body concealed Bondo that was 1/2" thick in some spots
At some point Brew8 from Billings MT sold me an SM420 and Warden's adapter for a song (that i have yet to install) I also installed JTO's front disc kit with a T-100 1 1/16" master cylinder. Works great so far.
Somewhere along the way I built this crappy excuse for a rear lift hatch....needs some tuning still sadly
Then came a child/home ownership/family dog and didn't do much with it. Added a set of 34x9.50 Swampers from craigslist, and started a roller paint job with Rustoleum's Sunrise Red. Didn't even finish that!
Re-purposed a bumper my father built for an old Willys project and fitted it to the '55 to round out the frontend as well:
Not too long ago I started a scratchbuilt rear bumper/swingout out of 2x4 box tubing:
And when your 'cruiser sits in a garage for 4+ months, the fuel system and carb tend to dry up, necessitating the gas can strapped to the front in order to pull it out of the "shop" and rotate it 180*
At some point it got a Mini-truck P/S that I need to show also.
Ideally, by the end of the summer i'd like to:
install some type of suspension system,
swap the SM420 in,
finish the rear bumper,
patch the floor,
build rocker replacement/sliders
twin-stick the t-case
and wheel the thing!
down the road:
paint it, but probably not red. maybe CARC "383" green that Rapco Military sells. Roll it on of course.
Try a different carb, like the small body Rochester 2G i have sitting around. Replace as much of the rubber parts as I can and re-do the homemade liftgate also.
The interior/body is missing too much to be a good resto candidate anyway.
I reaffirmed today why i consider it a "trail pig" when working on my rear bumper. I'm using the rearmost body mounts (the frame side) as extra supports for the bumper. There is almost no metal left between the mounts on the frame and the rear floor behind the tailgate. I think i'll make some big UHMW pucks to help with that. Lot's of rot on this pig.
