1978 FJ40 - RESTORED TO NEW - AC & PS FOR SALE OR TRADE

[geneseemtn]

Hi - I am selling my 1978 FJ40 Toyota LandCruiser that has been fully restored to new with Air Conditioning, Power Steering, OME Suspension and an ARB brush guard upgrades. The price is $45k, or willing to consider a trade or partial trade for a Defender 90 or 110 (any condition - ideally a truck needing some restoration, so I can continue the hobby).

Here is the link:

My inspiration for the vehicle was a red CCOT cruiser completed a few years back (the picture is below included in the slide show). I believe this one turned out a little nicer than the CCOT restoration because of the Vintage Air (an a/c system recognized by the restoration community as vintage acceptable), and stainless steel bolt kit. This vehicle started out as a much better quality vehicle than their donor vehicles – this one only has 46,000 original miles and was from Texas with very minimal rust (I drove it 1,000 miles home to Colorado). I used most parts from Cool Cruisers of Texas – to see their restorations & parts for comparison, click here: http://coolfj40.stores.yahoo.net/fjresproc.html I have seen many CCOT restorations at the car shows, and this one is as good or better.

I recently completed this vehicle, and the break in miles are being put on the rebuilt engine and transmission now (weather permitting). This is a good vehicle for someone who wants a show car, investment quality restoration, or a brand new 1978 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser (with air conditioning, OME suspension, power steering and the ARB brush guard), a few practical and great looking upgrades. I encourage all questions, thanks for you time, enjoy the listing.


VEHICLE DESCRIPTION:
Up for auction is a frame off restoration of a 1978 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser. I took a year and a lot of care to restore to maintain the value of this vehicle not only now but in the future for the next owner. This vehicle will appreciate in value. Why buy a customized cruiser that will depreciate when you could have a cruiser that looks the part but all the steps were taken to maintain its resale value? Why not enjoy a cruiser that is an investment as well as a cruiser! All stock equipment was kept as original EXCEPT the power steering, air conditioning, suspension, and the ARB brush guard. All the old parts to the original vehicle can be included with the sale of the cruiser for the next owner if they would like these items.

This truck was completely taken apart. The frame was sand blasted, coated with POR15, and rebuilt from the ground up with nothing left un-replaced or un-restored. I will list what all has been done briefly below but for more info and complete documentation of the entire rebuild.



Ebay limits the amount of photos, but I have over 100 pictures of various details of the vehicle and during the restoration. (They are included with the auction). Most are prints, rather than digital photos.

Please note:
Most of the work on this restore I did myself, the rebuilt engine was done by a professional machine shop, tires were mounted by the local Discount Tire Store & come with lifetime rotation/balance, paint was done by a professional shop, and everything else was done by myself. This is a hobby of mine not a business. All receipts will be giving to the winning bidder along with all paper work for the restoration, I will provide all photos.

Why am I selling?
I enjoy restoration more than driving. I’d like to sell this vehicle to fund the next restoration project to fuel my hobby. I put on a few miles to make sure everything works, but I’d rather be in the garage working on a project.

This is an investment, even though I have made a couple upgrades I felt made the cruiser much more appealing but didn’t hurt the integrity of a great cruiser this vehicle will only appreciate or hold its value over the years. This is something someone could purchase and drive and have a lot of fun in and probably get the same money out of her down the road. The restore was done in a way in which no problem was buried everything that needed to be addressed was. The engine is basically brand new, the body is basically brand new, most of the steel is new or has been preserved in a fashion that rust will be less of a problem than when this came off the assembly line in 78.

IF YOU DON’T SEE SOMETHING BELOW DON’T ASSUME IT WASN’T DONE PLEASE ASK, I maybe have missed it, tough to get every last thing on here, also please read the text on the web site, other things are explained and laid out there as I was doing them.



What if this Vehicle isn’t exactly what you were looking for?
I would enjoy customizing the vehicle further to your specifications. I built it the way I thought it should be done, but if someone wants some add-ons like a roof rack, rooftop tent, a winch or something else along those lines, I’d be glad to add it after the auction with a deposit.


Drive Train:
• Engine was professionally rebuilt 2F, I have put 150 miles on it to break it in only and change the oil. (odometer reads 46,8XX)
• All new engine gaskets and seals
• Factory carburetor was rebuilt
• All emissions equipment is intact and restored
• All new vacuum lines
• New Air filter (K&N)
• New Spark Plugs
• New Spark Plug Wires
• New Distributor & Rotor
• New water pump
• New thermostat
• New fuel pump
• New 4 row radiator and all new hoses
• New clutch
• New throw out bearing
• New pivot bearing
• New oil pump
• Machined fly wheel
• All breaks have been redone, all soft lines are new, all original hard lines were inspected and either checked and reused or replaced by new custom bent lines.
• New fuel lines
• New fuel filter
• 4-Speed Transmission was rebuilt, the synchros are great & it does not grind any gears (it shifts better than they did new). The transmission is a 4-speed. It is geared low in 1st for mountain driving & the fourth gear is a highway gear.
• Transfer case was rebuilt and sealed (filled with synthetic fluid).
• Frame was sandblasted and POR 15 coated.
• Front and rear differentials were re-built.
• New tie rod ends
• 5 New BFG 33.5” x 10.5” (purchased at Discount Tire – these have about 50 miles on them & still have the “blue goo” to protect the white lettering)
• 5 new OEM hub caps
• Brand new factory wheels were powder coated using color correct Toyota wheel color.
• 1.5” HFS zinc shackles grease-able pins, new bushings, all new hardware.
• New body mounts.
• New rear bumper-etts.
• Class 2 Tow hitch.
• New ARB brush guard front bumper (winch ready)
• New exhaust muffler.

Wiring & Electrical:
• The original wiring harness was restored and reused (what little that was in bad shape was replaced and all factory connections remained the same.)
• All signals and marker lights are new

• New Toyota Turn Signals (the original Toyota design, not a knock off)

• New Sylvania bright white headlight lamps
• New flasher
• New radio antenna

• New radio and speakers (from vintage restorations) so the speakers look stock in the doors.

Interior:
• Vintage Air A/C with controls (fan and temperature)

• New Toyota Rear Heater, powder coated.

• Powder Coated Roll Bars with new pads & stainless fasteners

• New TUFFY center console (lockable – comes with keys)
• All lights and switches were restored or replaced
• All switches restored
• New door handles and pulls
• New upholstery – front and rear seats & door panels
• New door locks
• New door swing arms

• New rearview mirror
• New dash cover
• New shift boots

• All stainless steel fasteners (this took about 40 hours to locate stainless steel bolts for the entire body/interior).
• New Headliner(factory Toyota)
• All misc. interior parts were sandblasted and painting with the factory silver and all black parts were painted black. (everything is correct for a factory interior)

Glass:
• New windshield
• New window rubbers.

• Restored hardware on pop-out windows

Body Work:
The original body had very little rust. The vehicle I began with only had 46,000 miles and spent its life in Texas. I don’t weld or have any body work skills, so any body panel with even the slightest rust was replaced.

• New body tub, everything from doors back is brand new steel. (5k alone )
• New steel rockers from Heritage Steel
• New running boards from Heritage Steel.

• Hard top and gaskets (factory Toyota).

All paints, primers and sealers were PPG. Any parts that were small enough to dis-assemble were powder coated. All colors are factory Toyota color codes. Most of the smaller parts you see were powder coated rather than painted for durability and quality. This Land Cruiser was painted using a base coat clear coat method although all the paint colors are factory matched Toyota stock colors, Freeborn Red body and Cygnus White roof, those colors from the factory were done in a single stage acrylic, on the restore we used the best of today's products and captured the feel of the past with the same colors. This is a $5k paint job, it isn't perfect in every respect if you get out a magnifying glass, but it is very good even looking hard for flaws right up next to the vehicle. After the assembly of the body, I took it back for $800 more work where I though it should be better. There are a few chips from the assembly from bolts and washers and the like that I have touched up.
The underside of the tub was rust-proofed with epoxy primer rust inhibitor for rust prevention and then we used a 3M product called Rocker Schutz, this is a textured undercoating. The inner body tub and floor are also coated with a texture to maintain their durability. The is 3M undercoat was an expensive and quality product. It has texture to it, see web site for close up photos. There are some minor areas where it flaked off during the assembly which were touched up.

Upgrades:
• This cruiser didn’t have Power Steering to begin with but I chose function over form and went with the CCOT Power Steering conversion, this is the best way to have PS on your cruiser, although it isn’t factory it was superior in design and function so when considering how to add Power Steering.


• OME Suspension (2” suspension lift from stock to run 33” tires instead of 31” tires) complete with new springs and shocks. This is one of the best engineered lifts out there for cruisers and it actually corrects the rear end sag and lean you see in so many cruisers.



• Stainless Steel Bolt Kit from CCOT was installed. This basically takes every fastener and replaces it with a stainless one to keep the truck from every corroding. Many of the bolts were not available from CCOT, so I ordered each type of bolt and eventually got them all.



• ARB brush guard. This style of ARB brush guard is no longer available, and I believe adds the rarity of this truck. ARB stopped making this style a few years back. I intended to keep the stock look, but came across this brand new never installed guard during the restoration.


These upgrades are the only thing that isn’t true to a completely stock restore but considering the nature of the upgrades I felt it was worth it for looks and performance. My goal was to make an "STOCK PLUS" type restore here, all the value of the stock vehicle with a few modest and well planned out upgrades that most cruiser lovers will appreciate. I wanted this vehicle to stand out among restorations, this cruiser will get noticed even among cruisers!

Exterior:
• All emblems are new OEM.
• All decals are new.
• All new hooks and latches in stainless steel.
• All new stainless or zinc nuts and bolts throughout, if you can see them they were replaced.

Follow-up Post:

more pictures:

Follow-up Post:

more pictures - 2nd post:

[DJ Menasco]

Awesome.

That is a beautiful FJ. Good luck with the sale.

[mountainviewrover]

was there a price? did i miss it?

[cgalpin]

$45k, second sentence.

[mountainviewrover]

thanks charles. i was anxious to get to the pictures and details. i guess 45k is a big deatail to miss. thanks.

good luck with your sale.

[tkavan01]

man, 45k... when i saw the thread title i actualy considered trading my d for it, but that is way beyond my ability to pay...

[badgerman]

Trevor,

I wish I had the cash. That looks sweet. It would also look great with a Badger top! I need to find a local vehicle to make a top on. The FJ25 top I made for a customer came out real sweet.

Chris
Badger Coachworks

[tkavan01]

Originally Posted by badgerman

Trevor,

I wish I had the cash. That looks sweet. It would also look great with a Badger top! I need to find a local vehicle to make a top on. The FJ25 top I made for a customer came out real sweet.

Chris
Badger Coachworks

i dunno, i've always like the fj hardtops, they look great, however i have never seen an fj with something you've made, so i might be easily convinced!

[badgerman]

Here a link to see the FJ 25 top.

http://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series...-top-pics.html

Chris
Badger Coachworks

[geneseemtn]

The FJ40 is listed on ebay at half the asking price - current bid of $22,500 (no reserve).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...253774913&rd=1

[Cirbo]

I'll trade you my defender for it, but you don't need to give me any extra money.

[themaxx]

Looks like someone got a SONIC deal on the FJ.

[Cirbo]

23 and change... that was a good deal.

[rovertrader]

especially if he trades it for the Tdi...........

[BOBCAT110]

Might be smoke. Check that buyer's feedback. Goose-egg.

[bterpstra]

Originally Posted by BOBCAT110

Might be smoke. Check that buyer's feedback. Goose-egg.

For what it's worth, I saw the vehicle at our local fire protection district pancake breakfast. A very nicely done piece of work. Saw it before I saw this thread, and thought low 20's would be his asking price.

BT