1975 Toyota Landcruiser fj40 4bt cummins diesel restored 2013

1975 Toyota Land Cruiser

I was 16 years old around 1993 when I first understood what a 40 was. A guy down the street from my grandmother had one for sale. it was an original and rusty and 4000.00$ couldn't seem to get my dad on board for the adventure. fast forward to 2008-2009 and I finally got my first 1979. my first one was kind of a turd to be honest and i never really fell in love with that one...in the 10 years since i have had 8 40's or fzj 80's. Wife drives a Lexus lx450 and we still have a 79' 40 that i will keep.
This 40 i found in Nebraska its history since new i don't know for sure. Was told it was originally a Wisconsin vehicle. It had a Chevy 350 conversion done id say in the 90's before the diesel swap was so popular. the small block Chevy conversion made it easy to replace the 350 with the 4bt. It has the rear transfer case mount from the v8 still.
I bought the 79' 2 weeks after I bought this...the 79' was fully restored with a 3.3 Cummins done by Profitts in 2009. i had to have both, but this truck needed restored and once i got the 79' i feared this one would never be restored and of course in 2 weeks i had already started to tear it apart! tearing into these units can be daunting. the problem is that there is nowhere to stop if you are a craftsman and care about your work. So this unit sat in my garage til January 2013, At the time a was divorced and had time but owning a business kept me busy, i knew i needed help. I got commitments from a mechanic that helped me on weekends with company trucks (now he is the head diesel teacher at our local vo-tech) wolfie, another mechanic, my father diesel mechanic for 40+ years knowledge, a body shop guy that worked at local Honda dealer, and of course myself, a landscape/ tree guy that loves trucks.
we committed to every Wednesday evening and Saturday for 6 months and the last week included a few nights til midnight.
its restored from spring pins up and out, the axles are not restored. I have another set of axles too if buyer is interested and you would like the rest done. Also the top, and rear and side doors had been restored about 7-8 years ago by previous owner...an OK shade tree restore but i chose to restore as original and he was going to paint the whole truck a different color. (doors top don't match, not original color) I have thought hard about how to sell this item and I've never sold a restored vehicle, i'm a starting bid .99 eBay seller but that's not the route i'm thinking on these item. I think the problem i have is the different quality of what people call "restored" With this build I did everything I could do to make it original. I bought a "lot" of 40 parts and a complete 40 off eBay as a donor, bought lots of parts used when I could from specter off-road. If the part was working properly and complete like seat brackets or rear heater they were left untouched. I don't think spray painting the rear heater would have made it restored either. everything was removed from frame and body, a few frame brackets were replaced, the frame was not separated. new body mounts I personally welded 90% of the new metal, most metal came from cool cruisers of Texas. Bed sides/Quarters new fender wells new as well as rear sill. hood was in great shap, no issues with windshield frame and only other rust that needed repaired was at the bottom of the cow i guess is how you would say it and driver side body mount needed work. all metal was sanded bare and primed and painted with 5 coats of paint. wet sanded after 3 coats (body guy got a few runs and was very frustrated so he sanded it and repainted again) Wolfie resealed and transfer and transmission. I built a custom cover for over the bell-housing underside. new engine mounts custom obviously. went with electric fan....engine wont get hot though because or how light the truck is and and robust nature of the engine (runs at operating temp, thermostat was replace and works fine). turbo mounting changed used 6bt dodge manifold cut down and welded with nickle rod by Larry brothers. stainless return and feed turbo lines, i'm not a big fan of the air cleaner but it works and didn't want to pipe something. battery located above rear axle to keep clean engine bay. rebuilt vacuum pump. honestly cant remember all details of this build. I have a file with all receipts. I feel that if you are serious we can discuss the details and Id be happy to answer any questions. I have some pictures from my phone of the restore. it has a custom 3" exhaust with just a 3" flex in middle no muffler, wrapped in exhaust wrap and firewall has heat reflective cover to protect paint. truck has pyrometer, and boost gauge. the truck does turns heads, i'm not a showoff guy but it will roll coal of that's your thing. If i was to daily drive it or more often id undo a few mods, timing has been advanced and fuel is turned up. HP about 200 167 measured at rear wheels 3200 rpm valve springs. The factory clutch i installed new of course will slip if you get hard on it in 3rd gear pulling a hill, it has over 400 ft lbs of torque and the Chevy clutch doesn't know what to do with all that at 1600 rpm. I probably have 1000-1200 miles on restoration. Wife and I took it to Baltimore to visit brothers boat in harbor twice, Mechanic that did most along with me took his wife through Gettysburg and I took it to a few car shows. The reason i'm selling is that I'm happily remarried have a beautiful 3 year old daughter now of my own 2 daughters though marriages, RV a business and less time then hobbies. It was truly a labor of love and a ton of fun to restore. I would encourage you to go that route if you have and ability and tools, shop, resources to do so, its fun its rewarding. But the 79' i have (someone else restored) is fun too and sometimes when you do the work yourself you just find its hard to not worry about it, I took me 2 hours to get home one afternoon because a thunder storm popped up and i needed to find cover! it has never been rained on only rinsed off once since restored and toweled just after. I'm not that kind of guy, my daily driver is a Camry with 398,000 miles on it, you wont catch me waxing my car on Sunday. You could buy this and do with as you wish, underside was under coated and rust will probably stay away was long as it did when these were new. (paint is better then 1975 Paint) I don't need to sell it but i feel good about the decision and need to move on. the price I'm asking is the price based on the money I have in parts, materials, and labor, donor fj etc. I could not recover my time i have over 500 hours myself and about 450 more from those that committed to help. You can do the math but 950 hours at 10 and hour is 9,500. Times 950 hours by what the talented guys involved make and you could never build one like this for what i'm asking.
Front locking hubs are new I did replace a wheel cylinder too, fluids in diffs changed. I had more pictures but it cut off the rest I guess I didn't pic the right picture pack. has 4" hfs spring lift, diffs are open, winch was used prior to restore I just think it looks like it belongs on there.

• Make: Toyota
• Model: Land Cruiser
• Type: SUV
• Year: 1975
• Mileage: 135000
• VIN: fj40197227
• Color: Tan
• Engine size: 3.9 cummins
• Number of cylinders: 4
• Fuel: Diesel
• Transmission: Manual
• Drive side: Left-hand drive
• Options: 4-Wheel Drive, CD Player
• Vehicle Title: Clear
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