Archie 1962 FJ25
Autocrat
VIN : 9FJ25-XXXXXL (Marshal) Built in early 1959, Registered in 1962 (Possibly "The Last Registered" FJ25) - No. 76 in count thread.
Finally decided to start my build thread. Next year it will be 10 years since I bought 25 and joined this forum and got to know some fantastically "CRAZY" bunch of cruiser lovers. First of all "FJ25 Owners Group" is a very special place and MUD website itself is a great source for information and knowledge for anyone who is looking to get into this stuff.
In last 9 years a lot has changed, I moved to NZ had 2 lovely sons, got busy with jobs, changed locations with in NZ, then was based in Melbourne for a year and along the way I grew a little older and wiser (May be
) than what I was in 2005. Good thing was I held on to FJ25 and kept passion alive, even though progress was very slow after moving out of USA. Mainly because folks here are not as passionate about cruisers and then there are no early cruisers here
Well for the background, I first came across of a FJ40 in 2002, when I was posted in Tanzania and ever since I always wanted to own one just because of their cool factor. I had no knowledge about them and didn't know their history at all, also at that time I didn't even know that 20 series was also in existence.
I moved to USA in 2003 and saw couple of them on the streets around Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, where I used to live. I stated dreaming again to own one, just didn't know where to find one. Then in 2005, I accidentally come across one for sale while I was at a military surplus store around Burbank - CA, looking for some collectibles (I also happen to own a Ford GPW in India). They had one mint Willys MB on display (NOT FOR SALE). I started the conversation with an elderly gentleman there on how I know these vehicles and now I am looking for a FJ40 Land Cruiser and he said that he used to drive a very very early one when he was in service when most people were not even aware of Land Cruisers in USA. He loved it so much that after retirement he ended up buying from the army, however now it belongs to his grandson who was building it as an off-road truck but ran out of funds and he might be interested in selling.
I took the address and went to look for very next day, It was in reasonably nice condition straight body no rust at all anywhere and I liked the round door openings and the fact that it was a factory soft top. So after a little negotiation I bought myself an "EARLY FJ40" (Later to realize that it was in-fact a FJ25) and thought little by little I will get it customize to my taste later on. Also later I found out his grandson got rid of almost all the original retro cool things in order to built an off-road rig, luckily he ran out of funds.
Honestly I didn't even know what it was missing when I bought it and how all the stock and "unobtainable" bits and pieces looks like until I joined this forum, besides at that time I was far from a purist guy and just wanted a cool looking truck for fun, but credit to you guys I got converted after seeing some of the stock rigs of Jim (Cruiser_Nerd), John (Living_In_The_Past) and Mike (FoxFab). Also at that time there were only handful of FJ25's on this forum and this exclusivity factor was a big motivation for all of us. Although later on more surfaced and I think now we know almost all of them ever built by Toyota so its not as exclusive any more. However its more enjoyable now with bigger crowd.
So my cool looking "British Racing Green 25" arrived home along with couple of boxes of spare parts and missing stock items at the same time - LOL.
Here is what it came with -
1) Very cool looking wooden steering wheel (There was one jeep style rusty and bent wheel in the box)
2) Big fat tyres on white spoke rims.
3) Strange steering system but not power steering.
4) Strange rear bumper with some funky light mounted
5) Bucket seats at the front and a confer forward facing seat at the back mounted on top of wheel wells.
6) Roll cage.
7) Aftermarket soft top bows, but no soft top (There was a bikini top though)
8) No stock Doors but came with later modified FJ40 Hardtop to fit which contributed to more unwanted holes in the tub.
9) Windshield was scratched in places but had original FJ25 markings, rubber gasket was shot and painted over.
10) Lots of holes (And I am still fixing) due to mounting various accessories some were military and some thanks to his grandson
11) Chevy straight 6 motor attached to stock tranny.
and after 9 years I am still discovering strange things here and there.
After joining MUD I discovered FJ25 in its real sense and got rid of all non FJ25 stuff on eBay such as hard top which was sold for good $$ and that got me hooked up on eBay and in general doing more research on cruiser stuff
. However by this time I already threw that broken and bent steering wheel along with rear bumper and now I am thinking it could have been an early stock wheel since my horn button is under the dash . Soon I got rid of so much that more holes started showing up and my cool looking 25 suddenly started to look like a project vehicle and not so drive-able.
And then madness started, I was spending more time on internet, talking to people and driving crazy for miles and miles just to collect rusty brackets, clips, early dash switches and more and more junk started piling up in my Apartment and our laptop hard disk was full of pictures of old land cruisers and rusty bits and pieces. This was the beginning of the arguments with my newly married lovely wife and we continued in the same fashion till today
. More so she was so heart broken since I kept telling her all these years that I am going to buy a Land Cruiser and she misunderstood for a fancy and luxury one (Not my fault, I guess?) Then she saw FJ25 standing below the apartment with lots of holes and in not so drive-able condition (Not her fault either, I guess?)
Progress so far while in US -
1) Scored lots of new spares such as wiper motors, mirrors and arms........ and the last pair of NOS tail lights in the world at my local Toyota dealership in Thousand oaks.
2) Found the Stock soft top doors 80 miles from where I used to live in Thousand Oaks, apparently the guy I bought it from is big into 60 / 70 mussels cars and had some nicely restored early FJ40 AND 45's and funny part was he was unaware of 20 series Land Cruisers. For the doors he had no idea what they were doing in his Barn and always thought they must be for jeeps, since he had lot of friends with jeeps. I also collected lots of bits and pieces along with NOS windshield rubber gasket.
3) Paid few visits to SOR and met Marv, and realized how all the unobtainable pieces looks like and how easily he makes them even more valuable and out of your reach
. Well on one lucky day at SOR I was able to buy stock pintle hook along with all the hardware, front passenger seat in good condition, rusty driver seat frame, some more bits and pieces and 2 stock 25 rims ( Which I left in USA before moving out in very safe hands ). Why it was a lucky day? "Because Marv was away" .
(Humor aside, I remember Marv as one of the finest businessman and a humble gentleman. In Fact he was first person I called for parts and after knowing what I got, very fondly he invited me over to visit him. He took time out of his busy schedule to walk with me and show me around his place. Meeting him was an experience and I was lucky enough to meet him many times since I was local then and soon he knew me by name because I used to call him every other day with stupid questions and he would answer them very patiently. He was an unmatched legend in cruiser community and a reason why so many of us are glued to vintage Land Cruisers.)
4) Big thanks to Jeremiah - Proffits Cruiser, who made the repro "correct" soft top bows "A - Type", and rear forward facing seat. I found the original bow brackets in one of the boxes.
5) Replaced windshield glass with new Toyota, while it was still available.
6) Big thanks to Phil @FJnotCJ for shipping me a driver seat frame which needed some work and with mix and match with SOR frame, finally I had a driver seat. Then bought seat covers from SOR and recovered all the seats and finally it started to look like an FJ25. Although SOR driver frame had a flat back just like passenger seat and Phill's one had a little curve.
7) Scored a complete stock steering system from a guy from Phoenix (Mandy's) and installed it.
8) Just before living USA, reconditioned wheel cylinders and replaced brake shoes ( Thanks Jim)
After reaching NZ -
1) Scored stock Toyota gas can holder and my 2nd TEQ gas can, they are still sitting on shelf and I am still unsure where I can mount them on 25 , some more bits and pieces such as TEQ marked heater made by Nippon Denso, I have seen same heater on one of the 25 (Light Blue / Green with interesting parking brake lever set up) in CA and I posted the pics of it here in forum (No. 79 in count thread). Though I believe Toyota made this heater for later models, and may not be period correct. Well who knows?
2) Found a nice set of 16 inch rims and bought new Dunlop Supper Grippers (7.50 R16), Looks nice on 25 IMHO.
3) Found F.5 motor (Finally after looking for 3 years) and big thanks to Phill @FJnotCJ again for shipping me the FJ25 bell housing and unobtainable cradle type engine mount. Finally motor is in and sounding just right.
In next 3 months I will be focusing on fixing all the remaining holes and fabrication. Sorting out steering wheel (Yes I am still missing one), soft top channels goes along the door frames, reconditioning radiator and sourcing bits and pieces such as motor mounts, brake and clutch hoses, body mounts etc and then by March it will be a frame off.
Well from here the target is getting it somewhat restored and start driving by next year on its 10th anniversary (with me). It won't be a 100% "Stock Restoration" since I am still missing lots of stuff and motor itself although a F but not period correct. Positive side is this will allow me some minor mods such as dual circuit brakes, 3 point seat belts (May be) and few here and there. Although "Sheriff" will not change its stock look for sure.
So far in this journey many people have contributed on and off this forum with their knowledge and parts ("PRICELESS"). After 9 years all of you made me understand early cruisers way more then I would have ever imagined and I am still no where close to any of you. Going forward I will look up to your continued support and guidance even more in this build. 
There are more folks who deserve appreciation in this forum and made valuable difference in this journey so far. I will thank them at a appropriate time when I will get to that section of my build.
Keeping its service heritage in mind, I initially named him "Sheriff" - (Now kids are grown up and are part of the build so on their demand we decided to rename him “Marshal”)
Finally decided to start my build thread. Next year it will be 10 years since I bought 25 and joined this forum and got to know some fantastically "CRAZY" bunch of cruiser lovers. First of all "FJ25 Owners Group" is a very special place and MUD website itself is a great source for information and knowledge for anyone who is looking to get into this stuff.
In last 9 years a lot has changed, I moved to NZ had 2 lovely sons, got busy with jobs, changed locations with in NZ, then was based in Melbourne for a year and along the way I grew a little older and wiser (May be
) than what I was in 2005. Good thing was I held on to FJ25 and kept passion alive, even though progress was very slow after moving out of USA. Mainly because folks here are not as passionate about cruisers and then there are no early cruisers here Well for the background, I first came across of a FJ40 in 2002, when I was posted in Tanzania and ever since I always wanted to own one just because of their cool factor. I had no knowledge about them and didn't know their history at all, also at that time I didn't even know that 20 series was also in existence.
I moved to USA in 2003 and saw couple of them on the streets around Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, where I used to live. I stated dreaming again to own one, just didn't know where to find one. Then in 2005, I accidentally come across one for sale while I was at a military surplus store around Burbank - CA, looking for some collectibles (I also happen to own a Ford GPW in India). They had one mint Willys MB on display (NOT FOR SALE). I started the conversation with an elderly gentleman there on how I know these vehicles and now I am looking for a FJ40 Land Cruiser and he said that he used to drive a very very early one when he was in service when most people were not even aware of Land Cruisers in USA. He loved it so much that after retirement he ended up buying from the army, however now it belongs to his grandson who was building it as an off-road truck but ran out of funds and he might be interested in selling.
I took the address and went to look for very next day, It was in reasonably nice condition straight body no rust at all anywhere and I liked the round door openings and the fact that it was a factory soft top. So after a little negotiation I bought myself an "EARLY FJ40" (Later to realize that it was in-fact a FJ25) and thought little by little I will get it customize to my taste later on. Also later I found out his grandson got rid of almost all the original retro cool things in order to built an off-road rig, luckily he ran out of funds.
Honestly I didn't even know what it was missing when I bought it and how all the stock and "unobtainable" bits and pieces looks like until I joined this forum, besides at that time I was far from a purist guy and just wanted a cool looking truck for fun, but credit to you guys I got converted after seeing some of the stock rigs of Jim (Cruiser_Nerd), John (Living_In_The_Past) and Mike (FoxFab). Also at that time there were only handful of FJ25's on this forum and this exclusivity factor was a big motivation for all of us. Although later on more surfaced and I think now we know almost all of them ever built by Toyota so its not as exclusive any more. However its more enjoyable now with bigger crowd.
So my cool looking "British Racing Green 25" arrived home along with couple of boxes of spare parts and missing stock items at the same time - LOL.
Here is what it came with -
1) Very cool looking wooden steering wheel (There was one jeep style rusty and bent wheel in the box)
2) Big fat tyres on white spoke rims.
3) Strange steering system but not power steering.
4) Strange rear bumper with some funky light mounted
5) Bucket seats at the front and a confer forward facing seat at the back mounted on top of wheel wells.
6) Roll cage.
7) Aftermarket soft top bows, but no soft top (There was a bikini top though)
8) No stock Doors but came with later modified FJ40 Hardtop to fit which contributed to more unwanted holes in the tub.
9) Windshield was scratched in places but had original FJ25 markings, rubber gasket was shot and painted over.
10) Lots of holes (And I am still fixing) due to mounting various accessories some were military and some thanks to his grandson
11) Chevy straight 6 motor attached to stock tranny.
and after 9 years I am still discovering strange things here and there.
After joining MUD I discovered FJ25 in its real sense and got rid of all non FJ25 stuff on eBay such as hard top which was sold for good $$ and that got me hooked up on eBay and in general doing more research on cruiser stuff
. However by this time I already threw that broken and bent steering wheel along with rear bumper and now I am thinking it could have been an early stock wheel since my horn button is under the dash . Soon I got rid of so much that more holes started showing up and my cool looking 25 suddenly started to look like a project vehicle and not so drive-able.And then madness started, I was spending more time on internet, talking to people and driving crazy for miles and miles just to collect rusty brackets, clips, early dash switches and more and more junk started piling up in my Apartment and our laptop hard disk was full of pictures of old land cruisers and rusty bits and pieces. This was the beginning of the arguments with my newly married lovely wife and we continued in the same fashion till today
. More so she was so heart broken since I kept telling her all these years that I am going to buy a Land Cruiser and she misunderstood for a fancy and luxury one (Not my fault, I guess?) Then she saw FJ25 standing below the apartment with lots of holes and in not so drive-able condition (Not her fault either, I guess?)Progress so far while in US -
1) Scored lots of new spares such as wiper motors, mirrors and arms........ and the last pair of NOS tail lights in the world at my local Toyota dealership in Thousand oaks.
2) Found the Stock soft top doors 80 miles from where I used to live in Thousand Oaks, apparently the guy I bought it from is big into 60 / 70 mussels cars and had some nicely restored early FJ40 AND 45's and funny part was he was unaware of 20 series Land Cruisers. For the doors he had no idea what they were doing in his Barn and always thought they must be for jeeps, since he had lot of friends with jeeps. I also collected lots of bits and pieces along with NOS windshield rubber gasket.
3) Paid few visits to SOR and met Marv, and realized how all the unobtainable pieces looks like and how easily he makes them even more valuable and out of your reach
. Well on one lucky day at SOR I was able to buy stock pintle hook along with all the hardware, front passenger seat in good condition, rusty driver seat frame, some more bits and pieces and 2 stock 25 rims ( Which I left in USA before moving out in very safe hands ). Why it was a lucky day? "Because Marv was away" .(Humor aside, I remember Marv as one of the finest businessman and a humble gentleman. In Fact he was first person I called for parts and after knowing what I got, very fondly he invited me over to visit him. He took time out of his busy schedule to walk with me and show me around his place. Meeting him was an experience and I was lucky enough to meet him many times since I was local then and soon he knew me by name because I used to call him every other day with stupid questions and he would answer them very patiently. He was an unmatched legend in cruiser community and a reason why so many of us are glued to vintage Land Cruisers.)
4) Big thanks to Jeremiah - Proffits Cruiser, who made the repro "correct" soft top bows "A - Type", and rear forward facing seat. I found the original bow brackets in one of the boxes.
5) Replaced windshield glass with new Toyota, while it was still available.
6) Big thanks to Phil @FJnotCJ for shipping me a driver seat frame which needed some work and with mix and match with SOR frame, finally I had a driver seat. Then bought seat covers from SOR and recovered all the seats and finally it started to look like an FJ25. Although SOR driver frame had a flat back just like passenger seat and Phill's one had a little curve.
7) Scored a complete stock steering system from a guy from Phoenix (Mandy's) and installed it.
8) Just before living USA, reconditioned wheel cylinders and replaced brake shoes ( Thanks Jim)
After reaching NZ -
1) Scored stock Toyota gas can holder and my 2nd TEQ gas can, they are still sitting on shelf and I am still unsure where I can mount them on 25
, some more bits and pieces such as TEQ marked heater made by Nippon Denso, I have seen same heater on one of the 25 (Light Blue / Green with interesting parking brake lever set up) in CA and I posted the pics of it here in forum (No. 79 in count thread). Though I believe Toyota made this heater for later models, and may not be period correct. Well who knows?2) Found a nice set of 16 inch rims and bought new Dunlop Supper Grippers (7.50 R16), Looks nice on 25 IMHO.
3) Found F.5 motor (Finally after looking for 3 years) and big thanks to Phill @FJnotCJ again for shipping me the FJ25 bell housing and unobtainable cradle type engine mount. Finally motor is in and sounding just right.
In next 3 months I will be focusing on fixing all the remaining holes and fabrication. Sorting out steering wheel (Yes I am still missing one), soft top channels goes along the door frames, reconditioning radiator and sourcing bits and pieces such as motor mounts, brake and clutch hoses, body mounts etc and then by March it will be a frame off.
Well from here the target is getting it somewhat restored and start driving by next year on its 10th anniversary (with me). It won't be a 100% "Stock Restoration" since I am still missing lots of stuff and motor itself although a F but not period correct. Positive side is this will allow me some minor mods such as dual circuit brakes, 3 point seat belts (May be) and few here and there. Although "Sheriff" will not change its stock look for sure.
So far in this journey many people have contributed on and off this forum with their knowledge and parts ("PRICELESS"). After 9 years all of you made me understand early cruisers way more then I would have ever imagined and I am still no where close to any of you
. Going forward I will look up to your continued support and guidance even more in this build. There are more folks who deserve appreciation in this forum and made valuable difference in this journey so far. I will thank them at a appropriate time when I will get to that section of my build.Keeping its service heritage in mind, I initially named him "Sheriff" - (Now kids are grown up and are part of the build so on their demand we decided to rename him “Marshal”)
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