Older Land Cruisers

[muckraker]

Any one have thoughts on the older Land Cruisers? I saw one that looked like it was a late 70s model on the road last week. Looked wonderful.

Doing some quick research on them, it appears they were a bare-bones type 4-wheel drive, V6, late 70s had AC. Not sure if they all had removeable tops or not though.

How reliable are they to this day? I know they're a Toyota. Is there a few years that are considered better than others?

[dyogim]

I'd love to get a mid to late 70's FJ40 cruiser. Unlike, many owners that has put a SBC V8, I'd want to keep it all yota and put a tundra v8. Now that would be shweet.

The main thing that I would look for is rust on the body and frame. There's a few in my area that I'd like to get my hands on but no For Sale signs on them. A clean FJ40 could easily cost at least 10K.

[muckraker]

I was wondering about the prices. Seems in-line with what I've seen listed. Reliability of a late 70s pretty good? I understand it's an older vehicle, was just wondering if it had a little over 100k miles, but you'd done the maintenance on it if it would stand a several hundred mile trip.

I think I'd love to get one of these for kayaking trips to the beach and maybe to drive to the in-laws farm in Louisiana.

Of course, I've also got my eye on an early 90s MR2 (turbo).

All contingent upon the wife's Avalon and my Tundra getting paid off in the next 8 months!

[nucleus]

The FJ-40 has a well deserved reputation in the northeast as a rust bucket. There's even an outfit that makes an aluminum replacement body for them. The FJ-55 is a tank and was the safari vehicle of choice until the FJ-60.





As far as I know, neither the BJ-45



not the FJ-45 were ever available in the US.

[Matador98]

Originally Posted by muckraker

Any one have thoughts on the older Land Cruisers? I saw one that looked like it was a late 70s model on the road last week. Looked wonderful.

Doing some quick research on them, it appears they were a bare-bones type 4-wheel drive, V6, late 70s had AC. Not sure if they all had removeable tops or not though.

How reliable are they to this day? I know they're a Toyota. Is there a few years that are considered better than others?

The 2F engine, in the mid-late FJ40s (the last import year to US was 1982, when the FJ60 took full market here) is a 4.2L I6 engine. And yes, late 70s had AC, and there are aftermarket PS kits for all of them. Yes tops we're removable.

They are extremely reliable to this day. My FJ60 has the same 2F engine (albeit newer) as the FJ40's of 10 years prior. I have 202,600 miles on mine right now, still running strong. The older FJ40's have no problem going this distance either, with proper maintenance. No years are really better than others, but the 2F engine is better than the 1F, which was in the lat 60s and early 70s. It had some oil distribution issues, but they still run for 250K+ miles.

[dyogim]

Originally Posted by nucleus

not the FJ-45 were ever available in the US.

I wish they were because we'd be seeing more of them modified like these :drool:

[Ground Up]

The years considered the most desirable in the FJ40 are from 1979 to 1984. Finding one with the stock (oem) A/C and P/S is tough, but not uncommon. Finding them rust free is more difficult.

The FJ45 was brought into the US in three main forms. The Long wheel base pickup (shown above), the short wheel base, and the very rare wagon (known as the FJ45LV). All of these can be found in some shape or another.

Some good sights to look at is www.tlc4x4.com -Known for there high end restorations and www.ih8mud a website for enthusiasts. The latter sight has alot of info and the people there are very knowledgable.

[muckraker]

Thanks for the info. I'll definitely check it out. I'm rapidly approaching the problem of having more interests/hobbies than my wallet/wife/garage will allow!