Thursday, April 21, 2011
long-term update
i havent posted anything on here for a couple of years since i finished the rebuild of my FJ40. once the rebuilding process was over, there wasnt much left to document or share, and although i really enjoyed the process, i was honestly glad to finally wrap it up and have a working vehicle again.
now that a couple of years have passed and i have not had the landcruiser to tinker on, i have started to miss the hours spent in the garage figuring out how the whole thing went back together. i was looking back over the previous posts and thought i should do a follow up now that some time has passed.
surprisingly, i havent had hardly any issues with the landcruiser since i finished the rebuild. i thought for sure there would be lots of little things that needed re-addressing or that i would discover i just hadnt done quite right. actually though, the list has been quite small and very minor: the horn button some times shorts when the weather is rainy, causing the horn to go off on its own; one of the headlight relays developed a short so the light would stay on all of the time; the motor in the after-market windshield washer pump quit working - pretty trivial stuff in the grand scheme of things.
i dont drive the landcruiser a whole lot - i dont even drive my 'normal' vehicle very much either - and it can be pretty rainy here for a good portion of the year, so with the top off, that is not fun. but when the weather is nice, i look forward to taking it out and enjoying the drive. it drives surprisingly well and other than being pretty loud, it is quite enjoyable. i mainly make short trips to the store or whatnot, but i did take a long trip down to my dad's and back not long after everything was complete. if you have ever set out on a long trip in a vehicle that you essentially built yourself, then you know the anxiety it can cause. all kinds of thoughts of wheels falling off or catastrophic engine failure crossed my mind, but the landcruiser did great and the trip went off without a hitch.
so all in all, i am very happy with how everything turned out. i learned a lot in the process, and have been mainly happy with all of the decisions made during the rebuild. if i had it all to do again, i cant say there is much i would change.
