Not So New 1981 FJ60 Build

[Hallout]

Here's the frame rot that I'm seeing. Anyone have input on where to go with it? I really want to keep it, and I'm honestly leaning towards just doing a frame-off restomod of it, but I don't know. If I do, it won't be because I ever hope to get money out of it. The Rolling Turd is a hobby vehicle, and the money that goes into it is budgeted as straight spending/fun money. Basically I'm treating it as money spent for the experience, and not for any kind of monetary return. Hopefully these pictures give a decent idea of what's going on, but this has me in a bit of a conundrum. What do you guys think? Is it as bad as I'm thinking it is?

 

[Hallout]

I haven't updated this thread in a bit, but I decided to keep moving forward with it. The frame, while concerning, isn't horrific. So, the current plan is to keep building it. My current goal is to get it to daily drive-able. There's a decent list of things to do for that. I'm continuing with the lift kit, which as of right now, I have almost removed all of the rear suspension components. I also found out that one of the gaskets on the rear axle was bad, as it has evacuated all of my diff fluid onto my carport concrete. When all of those are put back together, the next step is the cooling system, as the temp gauge reads really high on a regular basis. I'm going to get an auxiliary gauge that reads the actual temperature, and then I'll dig into the cooling system if necessary. That should put it at easily DD-worthy, though, so at that point, the Rolling Turd will go on hiatus, and I'll be bringing Lemon-Lime to the forefront for project status. I put videos of my progress up on YouTube, the links for that are as follows, so feel free to check them out and razz me for my incompetence.
and

 

[Hallout]

All right, so it's been while since I updated this thread. I realized that I didn't get good pictures of the frame rust that I'm dealing with, so I've attached some better ones. The frame rails are splitting on both the driver's and passenger side right above the front leaf spring mounts, and I decided that was something that needed to be addressed. So, in the interest of overkill, I've started stripping the interior. The plan is to strip the body as much as possible to make it as light as possible for when I lift the body off the frame so I can replace it. Also planning to sandblast and paint it. I also want to swap the engine while I have everything apart, and am currently leaning towards doing an SBC swap, but am open to other options. My requirements for a swap are ease of repair, ease of install, and at least better horsepower and torque specs than the 2F (I know that's not hard).

 

[Ob1]

You have some body work project there. This is fun and challenging. All you need is patience (and a welder).
I have 3 landcruiser and the 85 60 is my daily driver. I put a 13B-t Toyota turbo diesel with a 5 speed in it and get on a good day 28 mpg. 500k miles in the frame. If you ever change the engine, consider a diesel.

 

[Hallout]

You have some body work project there. This is fun and challenging. All you need is patience (and a welder).
I have 3 landcruiser and the 85 60 is my daily driver. I put a 13B-t Toyota turbo diesel with a 5 speed in it and get on a good day 28 mpg. 500k miles in the frame. If you ever change the engine, consider a diesel.

I've definitely considered a diesel, but I think I ultimately won't get one. It's very difficult to get anything approaching the same bang for your buck as an SBC or LS swap with a diesel swap, and there is significantly less parts availability for diesels than the SBC/LS.

 

[Ob1]

I just got this guy for $3500. It's going into one of our 40 series. Parts are available here, and are less expensive them local Toyota gas engine parts. IH8MUD has a full section and support on this.
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