1972 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser (Olive)

After saying my goodbyes to our blue 85 FJ60….I set my sites on finding a pre smog FJ40 land cruiser with an SBC Chevy conversion. After searching eBay and Craigslist…I found my next potential rig in Glide Oregon…time for a road trip! My Wife and I headed up to Oregon on 4/21/2011 to take a look at a flat olive & khaki and  1972  FJ40 Land Cruiser with a 327 SBC and TH350 trans. We left ASAP while the weather was decent since we had some snowy mountain ranges to cross that can be a mess if you get caught in a late winter store. We arrived late friday night so we booked a cheesy motel and met with the seller (Scott) on Saturday. The cruiser was very cool, seemed to run well and the seller had done some major work ( new glass, rubber,rebuilt trans, De-rusted and painted the whole rig piece by piece) but I still had some major concerns about the brakes, leaky transfer case, flaky dash wiring etc. After a little negotiation we settled on a price and I paid the man in cash. He was a little concerned about me driving the rig all the way back to California rather than using a trailer to get it home…but I brought all my tools and had my wife and our Corolla as the pit/pilot car. The good news was I made it all the way home without incident…I did encounter a bit of nasty weather over the Siskiyou mountains…the wind blew in the rubber gasket seal between the hard top and the window…so I had a little mist hitting me at 60mph…no problem…stuffed an extra shirt in the gap for the rest if the trip! Once I got here home I made a list of top priority fixes that needed to happen ASAP…these have all been completed of the coarse of the last two years by me with the exception of the disc brake conversion.

New tires,  front bumper, new trailer hitch, new side mirrors, new dash plate and gauges + new wiring harness (hated the cheap fake diamond plate setup!) , new turn signal assembly,  front disk brake conversion, new steering wheel, electric cooling fan conversion, new hi flow water pump, new radiator, new stainless radiator, overflow container, new hoses, new belts,  ARP manifold studs, new exhaust manifold gaskets,  powder coated trim and hardware, stock tire carrier mounted and new Holley carb.