Yes Marc, Do tell us the story.
1973 Restoration (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Ground Up
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
- Thread starter
- #202
OK!
I had the red cruiser out last week as the weather was nice (I am still in the babying mode of it). Any way ran my son to his football practice. Some of the guys looked at it and really did not say anything on that day. Well the next day a few of the dads came up to me at the game and where asking me about it. This one guy says "That is the nicest Land Cruiser he has seen". I said oh thanks. He replies yeah it would be cool to find one like that to buy. I said well you can buy this one (half jokin). Oh relly he says, how much. My answer was that I had it appraised in the fall and it came in at 63, but I would be willing to let it go for 55 cash. He gets all giddy and says really I would give you the 63 as it is pretty sweet. So I replied you do know that I was meaning thousands and not hundreds. At that the guys jaw drops and says he had no idea that they were worth that.
I went on to tell him that I had it appraised by a guy in Cali that really knows Land Cruisers and has appraised a pile of them. He stated in his letter back that he thinks ranks right up there in the top few nicest Land cruisers he has seen. I felt pretty good at that since he does a fair amount of appraisals for TLC.
Kinda a chopped up quickie rundown, but I got a kick out of it.
I had the red cruiser out last week as the weather was nice (I am still in the babying mode of it). Any way ran my son to his football practice. Some of the guys looked at it and really did not say anything on that day. Well the next day a few of the dads came up to me at the game and where asking me about it. This one guy says "That is the nicest Land Cruiser he has seen". I said oh thanks. He replies yeah it would be cool to find one like that to buy. I said well you can buy this one (half jokin). Oh relly he says, how much. My answer was that I had it appraised in the fall and it came in at 63, but I would be willing to let it go for 55 cash. He gets all giddy and says really I would give you the 63 as it is pretty sweet. So I replied you do know that I was meaning thousands and not hundreds. At that the guys jaw drops and says he had no idea that they were worth that.
I went on to tell him that I had it appraised by a guy in Cali that really knows Land Cruisers and has appraised a pile of them. He stated in his letter back that he thinks ranks right up there in the top few nicest Land cruisers he has seen. I felt pretty good at that since he does a fair amount of appraisals for TLC.
Kinda a chopped up quickie rundown, but I got a kick out of it.
krzyabncanuck said:
Now that was good. Would of loved to have seen his face.
I think that would of been priceless.
Honestly though, you have done an outstanding job on this and i am using some of stuff you did on my 45 build. Not all though.
I think that would of been priceless.
Honestly though, you have done an outstanding job on this and i am using some of stuff you did on my 45 build. Not all though.
- Thread starter
- #204
krzyabncanuck said:
Your truck is looking sweet. I need to spend some time and read it from the begining.
I have a 45 lwb bed waiting for a revival of some sort. But I have to say I think that the '73 will be the last totally stock build. Way to much brain damage and I am afraid to drive it to much. I miss the 45 wagon, because at least I dove it.
Looks good!!
I too am in the middle of a frame-off resto on my 73 fj-40 hardtop.
It is about 75% complete. Working on the hardtop and doors at the moment.
They are dissasembled and in various stages of repair and prep for paint.
I did not go with the purist approach, kinda went 50/50.
I changed the color, had rhino lining put in the entire tub, put on different bumpers,bigger tires, suspension lift, different wheels, cut the rear fenders and put on flares, put in a roll bar and padded it with foam and had it rhinoed as well. Fabbed up different seats, lots of little things.
Keept the stock engine and tranny.
Did all the body and paint work myself, in my little 2 car garage.
Happy with the way it turned out.
Overall, I know what you have went through looking for parts, marking parts, documenting as much as you can, then putting it all back together. I too have taken hundreds of pics during the process. Lots of work.
A soon as I can resize pics of the before and afterwork, I will post them. Your truck would look great on display at a show, to show what can be done.
Again, great job.
Rob.
I too am in the middle of a frame-off resto on my 73 fj-40 hardtop.
It is about 75% complete. Working on the hardtop and doors at the moment.
They are dissasembled and in various stages of repair and prep for paint.
I did not go with the purist approach, kinda went 50/50.
I changed the color, had rhino lining put in the entire tub, put on different bumpers,bigger tires, suspension lift, different wheels, cut the rear fenders and put on flares, put in a roll bar and padded it with foam and had it rhinoed as well. Fabbed up different seats, lots of little things.
Keept the stock engine and tranny.
Did all the body and paint work myself, in my little 2 car garage.
Happy with the way it turned out.
Overall, I know what you have went through looking for parts, marking parts, documenting as much as you can, then putting it all back together. I too have taken hundreds of pics during the process. Lots of work.
A soon as I can resize pics of the before and afterwork, I will post them. Your truck would look great on display at a show, to show what can be done.
Again, great job.
Rob.
My god Ground Up I hope you sweep the street before you drive that thing! In my opinion you should have red carpet laid around your block because that is Cruiser royalty
wow thats nice! I have a couple questions, as I have just picked up a 72 soft top model myself. How much work did you have to do to the door frames to get them back to workable, mine are pretty shot, but almost salavagable. Also can you snap a shot of the area just above the 2 bolts (on the bottom) where the door surrounds bolt in? I think I have a non factoy brace scabbed in there. Also, my truck has the long jump seats in the back, were all the 40's of this era equiped with a roll bar? or not these models with the jumps?
^^^
So you DID buy it.
The early trucks had no rollbar and the long jump seats. Not sure the year changeover.
Did it have the right factory soft top bows?
So you DID buy it.
The early trucks had no rollbar and the long jump seats. Not sure the year changeover.
Did it have the right factory soft top bows?
Yes I did buy it, its realy ruogh, but almost workable Ill have pics when my digital is up and runing agin.
Ill have pics when my digital is up and runing agin. 
thecrazygreek
A.K.A. TheCraftyGreek
How can you sell this thing of beauty? I spotted it on Ebay today and thought... wow, just wow...
crushers
post ho
just BEAUTIFUL!! nice job!Ground Up said:
looks like factory...
Wadesters
SILVER Star
Land Cruiser
Hi Marc, As others have said, your work is unbelivable. Thought you might enjoy seeing what I just purchased. See the following site: http://www.fototime.com/inv/C71968C3B6AB491
I'm sure it will bring back memories of how you started. I have always herd of people finding Land Cruisers in barns and I was very scheptical. Well it finally happened to me. It has 35K original miles and runs like a top. Sorry to see you are selling yours.
Regards...
Hi Marc, As others have said, your work is unbelivable. Thought you might enjoy seeing what I just purchased. See the following site: http://www.fototime.com/inv/C71968C3B6AB491
I'm sure it will bring back memories of how you started. I have always herd of people finding Land Cruisers in barns and I was very scheptical. Well it finally happened to me. It has 35K original miles and runs like a top. Sorry to see you are selling yours.
Regards...
