I guess this is actually a tale of four Pigs if we really circle back to the beginning. The first time I'd laid my eyes on one I had to be about six years old. I remember my father telling me he'd seen one on campus at UT and that he'd left a number and note expressing interest in purchasing it. At this time he had two 40s and we all know they're a gateway drug.
About a year later, I'm riding my bike around the neighborhood after school and realize my father is late. Like, WAY late. And then I hear it.. the sound of a small block Chevy being rung the **** out with rev matched down shifting and the sounds getting closer. I KNEW it was him, but I had no idea what IT was. And then it popped around the corner; a white and grey 1974 FJ55 with my Father behind the wheel wearing a smile that went past his mustache.
It had been soft rolled on a soft dirt road and needed a little body work on the roof and passenger a-pillar, but had a really healthy 307 in it. After squaring the roof, it got printed until my father showed up with a picture of Ted Nugent's bronco and some paint and rollers and set me and my cousin to work. We ended up with this. I must've been right at this point. It was the summer before 3rd grade.
We lived a lot of life in that truck. My father sold our '77 40 and started his pest control business out of that truck to put food on our table. For years it was a West Campus staple. I can still see it in front of Ruby's BBQ if I close my eyes. I learned to drive at PINS in that thing at 9 years old. It carried us to Tellico and back 1994 through 1996. It tackled School Bus, it made Helicopter Pad, but most importantly it made memories and the type of friends that you just can't make if you don't have a Landcruiser.
(Look at how young Edwin @greengrasshopper was lol)
Eventually the Pig was hit head on by a distracted driver and the front axle housing was bent. By this time my father had acquired an Isuzu pickup for work, and just dailied the 55 for everything else while building a mini truck for wheeling and life moved on for a year or so until the Pig call got louder and he had to find another one. Coincidentally it happened to be another white/grey one, but a 72 with the vent windows.
Some time goes by, we talk about building out the 55, and my father dies and leaves me scrambling as a minor that belongs to a single father. I make a deal with Edwin Kincaid to store my 55 and my mini truck while I try to navigate my life being turned upside down. The deal was he gets ALL of my father's hoarded parts (ptos, hard tops, the kind of hoard someone that loves this s*** has), ALL of my father's parts trucks (three 4wd pickup rollers) , my 71 fj40 project, and a running fj60 with a fresh rebuilt engine with Cam and header and cold ac. Shortly after his business is going under, he's planning to go back to being an electrician and he tells me I need to find a place for my stuff. I make a deal with a fellow named Paul Willis (goes by Crow) for the 55 with the catch being I get first dibs, or just get it back when I'm a legal aged adult and not where life is at for me. Cool. Come back to get my pickup and find Edwin helped facilitate an illegal sale for it with my mother, a woman that hadn't had custody of me since 1989 and had zero claim to me or my father's belongings, and things just went south for me for a while in life seeing as it left me with nothing to lose and the only things I cared about gone.
But life finds a way, right? October of 2025, fresh off a trip to the San Juans I started eyeballing job listings and properties in Southern New mexico. It was the second trip I'd made there with the practice kid and I had been really missing my father, especially realizing the fact that the apple is starting to be a little closer to the tree. As it happens, I find a 1973 Orange Pig. It's got a small block Chevy and what I assumed was a 3spd. A week after getting back from Silverton we're back in Santa Fe.
So we drug it home and found the small block had never run. It was rigged in there with the worst possible execution. I was hoping it would just need a carb and hydraulics, that wasn't the case. It's been sitting 30 years. It needs everything lol.
So it turns out this August of 1973 built Oinker had been equipped with a 4spd from the factory. So I stole the 3fe from the trusty 80 series and started looking for a bellhousing since I didn't have one with the truck. I still need an early 4spd bellhousing as I have a later model one without the trans mount provisions built in.
About a year later, I'm riding my bike around the neighborhood after school and realize my father is late. Like, WAY late. And then I hear it.. the sound of a small block Chevy being rung the **** out with rev matched down shifting and the sounds getting closer. I KNEW it was him, but I had no idea what IT was. And then it popped around the corner; a white and grey 1974 FJ55 with my Father behind the wheel wearing a smile that went past his mustache.
It had been soft rolled on a soft dirt road and needed a little body work on the roof and passenger a-pillar, but had a really healthy 307 in it. After squaring the roof, it got printed until my father showed up with a picture of Ted Nugent's bronco and some paint and rollers and set me and my cousin to work. We ended up with this. I must've been right at this point. It was the summer before 3rd grade.
We lived a lot of life in that truck. My father sold our '77 40 and started his pest control business out of that truck to put food on our table. For years it was a West Campus staple. I can still see it in front of Ruby's BBQ if I close my eyes. I learned to drive at PINS in that thing at 9 years old. It carried us to Tellico and back 1994 through 1996. It tackled School Bus, it made Helicopter Pad, but most importantly it made memories and the type of friends that you just can't make if you don't have a Landcruiser.
(Look at how young Edwin @greengrasshopper was lol)
Eventually the Pig was hit head on by a distracted driver and the front axle housing was bent. By this time my father had acquired an Isuzu pickup for work, and just dailied the 55 for everything else while building a mini truck for wheeling and life moved on for a year or so until the Pig call got louder and he had to find another one. Coincidentally it happened to be another white/grey one, but a 72 with the vent windows.
Some time goes by, we talk about building out the 55, and my father dies and leaves me scrambling as a minor that belongs to a single father. I make a deal with Edwin Kincaid to store my 55 and my mini truck while I try to navigate my life being turned upside down. The deal was he gets ALL of my father's hoarded parts (ptos, hard tops, the kind of hoard someone that loves this s*** has), ALL of my father's parts trucks (three 4wd pickup rollers) , my 71 fj40 project, and a running fj60 with a fresh rebuilt engine with Cam and header and cold ac. Shortly after his business is going under, he's planning to go back to being an electrician and he tells me I need to find a place for my stuff. I make a deal with a fellow named Paul Willis (goes by Crow) for the 55 with the catch being I get first dibs, or just get it back when I'm a legal aged adult and not where life is at for me. Cool. Come back to get my pickup and find Edwin helped facilitate an illegal sale for it with my mother, a woman that hadn't had custody of me since 1989 and had zero claim to me or my father's belongings, and things just went south for me for a while in life seeing as it left me with nothing to lose and the only things I cared about gone.
But life finds a way, right? October of 2025, fresh off a trip to the San Juans I started eyeballing job listings and properties in Southern New mexico. It was the second trip I'd made there with the practice kid and I had been really missing my father, especially realizing the fact that the apple is starting to be a little closer to the tree. As it happens, I find a 1973 Orange Pig. It's got a small block Chevy and what I assumed was a 3spd. A week after getting back from Silverton we're back in Santa Fe.
So we drug it home and found the small block had never run. It was rigged in there with the worst possible execution. I was hoping it would just need a carb and hydraulics, that wasn't the case. It's been sitting 30 years. It needs everything lol.
So it turns out this August of 1973 built Oinker had been equipped with a 4spd from the factory. So I stole the 3fe from the trusty 80 series and started looking for a bellhousing since I didn't have one with the truck. I still need an early 4spd bellhousing as I have a later model one without the trans mount provisions built in.
