We debuted our first ICON prototype at SEMA back in 2006. It is a great show and a perfect match for us because, simply put, custom vehicles like this would be all but impossible without the SEMA member community. So ever since, we make sure to cook up another unique ICON variant or two each year for the show, in addition to our OEM projects.
In 2007, we debuited the first ICON SCORE Baja 1000 Limited Edition , and a one-off FJ45 long bed pick up ICON. Here it is in CarDomain orange (you guys want one?:) ). This rare ICON now lives in Greece and London.
This year, we decided to do another FJ45, and if you give a darn, check out my ride as we build it from start to finish. This time we decided to go for our New School Build package and to style it off of the more streamlined FJ45 short wheel base Land Cruiser design.
Here is a rendering of what we have in mind.
We started with this FJ45 long bed. Floors rotted out, lousy vintage derelict V8 conversion, bandaids on hemorrhages... the usual.
We tore it apat down to the bare frame, made some improvements and revisions, eliminated the ravages of harsh use and abuse...
Next we started the prefit process of attaching our new assemblies in the raw before finish coats...
Make sure everything fits and the ergonomics are all good....
Build the exhaust, factor all the plumbing, get it all figured out now so that when everyting is pretty, it all fits together by design.
That all went pretty smoothly, which allowed our minds to wander (Uh Oh). We contemplated then decided to build a roll bar for the bed with mounting provisions for surf racks and a pair of vintage Land Cruiser inspired (but oversized) side facing jump seats. Maybe throw in a set of 70's style big round lights (but H.I.D IPF's). In retrospect, not sure why I willing volunteered myself for a good 40+ hours to fabricate it all, but I like how it came out. Should look good!
So now it was time to tear it all apart and start making it pretty. Here is the freshly reassembled chassis...
And here is the body coming back from our powder coaters and Poly Urea coaters...
You may notice we changed our minds and decided to finish it in our ICON Mocha color instead of the Rocky Mountain Gray as rendered.
Now time for final assembly of the cabin and bed...
It is starting to look like an actual truck now.
Got the top and uper door halves tailored over the weekend. Came out great. Now back to electrical, then we can start to assemble the front clip.......
Now we fit the front clip, continue onto the cooling system and engine bay electrical details. Almost done!
Almost done! We still need to finish the gauges, the cooling and intake system, cargo seats and other details, but we are getting close!
