fj40offroad
New member
Hello all,
I would like to introduce my baby to the community, some of you may recognize her, and may remember some of the extended story, I hope you enjoy this! I have been asked to put up a thread of this build up for several reasons, most of all I need to keep myself motivated to keep turning the wrenches. I love it, however over the past few years working on a chemical engineering major and life has gotten in the way. I am going to try to use this as a revitalization to finish this project that lives in my dreams, has donated more iron to my blood then anything else, is practically a phlebotomist with how much blood it has taken from me, and left several memorable scars across my body. She has been a work in progress in my hands since 2002. At the age of 15 I begged my father to allow me to start fixing up the Land Cruiser that hadn't been running since the 1980's it had been simply sitting in the yard as an ornament for years. Bringing it back to life, and cruising it down in Moab had been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember.
Growing up I loved to sneak out and sit in the cruiser in which I imagined to be on any number of adventures, driving her down a trail, outrunning banditos in Mexico, or doing recon in the military. The very least I can say it was a very prominent part of my early years.
Well enough of the nostalgia, in 2002 I knew the Cruiser needed:
-New brake lines
-Exhaust
-Complete fluid change
Of course at the age of 15 I was dreaming of doing the basic fixes, getting it registered and having it drivable by 16! YA RIGHT!!!! LOL
Now in 2002 the cruiser was sporting some mods my father had done years before the family put a damper on enjoying the cruiser. He had outfitted it with: an International inline 6 turbo diesel adapted to a 4-speed MT that he replaced the old 3-speed with.
Custom front and rear bumper
I honestly cannot remember all of the modifications he had done to it. You will probably see some in the tear down photos.
Well a couple weekends after first pulling the cruiser out to the driveway, we had new filters and fluids in the engine. Tossed a bucket of diesel under the cruiser, connected the battery, and turned her over. After several attempts, black smoke came billowing out of the chopped exhaust, and the old engine roared to life. I can't say I could have been any happier to see her turn over, see the smoke, and immediately thoughts of having the cruiser as my first vehicle filled my head. How cool could it be to have Land Cruiser, that I could spend time building up and take down to Moab.
Well lets just say reality took a little while to kick in, not to mention I am the son of an engineer, an engineer whose baby had just roared back to life after sitting for 15 years dead under a tarp. To say it lightly the gears in my dads head went into overdrive, and my brain was quickly aligning itself with him to do the rebuild correctly!
So into the axles we dove to fix the brakes. The first obvious modification would be to toss out those old worn out drum breaks of course!! Well this is the beginning of the long haul, here is a photo of when I first pulled out the cruiser and a couple teasers.
Well its getting late so I better be off to sit down with my textbooks!
Cheers
I would like to introduce my baby to the community, some of you may recognize her, and may remember some of the extended story, I hope you enjoy this! I have been asked to put up a thread of this build up for several reasons, most of all I need to keep myself motivated to keep turning the wrenches. I love it, however over the past few years working on a chemical engineering major and life has gotten in the way. I am going to try to use this as a revitalization to finish this project that lives in my dreams, has donated more iron to my blood then anything else, is practically a phlebotomist with how much blood it has taken from me, and left several memorable scars across my body. She has been a work in progress in my hands since 2002. At the age of 15 I begged my father to allow me to start fixing up the Land Cruiser that hadn't been running since the 1980's it had been simply sitting in the yard as an ornament for years. Bringing it back to life, and cruising it down in Moab had been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember.
Growing up I loved to sneak out and sit in the cruiser in which I imagined to be on any number of adventures, driving her down a trail, outrunning banditos in Mexico, or doing recon in the military. The very least I can say it was a very prominent part of my early years.
Well enough of the nostalgia, in 2002 I knew the Cruiser needed:
-New brake lines
-Exhaust
-Complete fluid change
Of course at the age of 15 I was dreaming of doing the basic fixes, getting it registered and having it drivable by 16! YA RIGHT!!!! LOL
Now in 2002 the cruiser was sporting some mods my father had done years before the family put a damper on enjoying the cruiser. He had outfitted it with: an International inline 6 turbo diesel adapted to a 4-speed MT that he replaced the old 3-speed with.
Custom front and rear bumper
I honestly cannot remember all of the modifications he had done to it. You will probably see some in the tear down photos.
Well a couple weekends after first pulling the cruiser out to the driveway, we had new filters and fluids in the engine. Tossed a bucket of diesel under the cruiser, connected the battery, and turned her over. After several attempts, black smoke came billowing out of the chopped exhaust, and the old engine roared to life. I can't say I could have been any happier to see her turn over, see the smoke, and immediately thoughts of having the cruiser as my first vehicle filled my head. How cool could it be to have Land Cruiser, that I could spend time building up and take down to Moab.
Well lets just say reality took a little while to kick in, not to mention I am the son of an engineer, an engineer whose baby had just roared back to life after sitting for 15 years dead under a tarp. To say it lightly the gears in my dads head went into overdrive, and my brain was quickly aligning itself with him to do the rebuild correctly!
So into the axles we dove to fix the brakes. The first obvious modification would be to toss out those old worn out drum breaks of course!! Well this is the beginning of the long haul, here is a photo of when I first pulled out the cruiser and a couple teasers.
Well its getting late so I better be off to sit down with my textbooks!
Cheers