I have been drooling over this truck for years and finally had a chance to buy it.
The story of how I came to own this truck is pretty sad. When I was in high school a local cruiser fanatic got me into Toyotas. I loved all of the FJ40's he owned and soon had one of my own. He taught me to wrench my way around the truck before I left for college. We stayed in touch until about 5 years ago when I heard that he took his own life after being put through the ringer by his ex-wife. So sad and nobody saw it coming. I was shocked and I thought that his entire estate was sold off to fund a trust fund for his young son. My friends favorite truck was an 84 FJ45 with nothing more than surface petina for wear. No real rust to speak of and the truck ran like a top.
As fate would have it, I placed an ad on CL a few months ago selling used cabinets from a huge remodeling project. The ad was answered by a guy who turns out to be my old cruiser buddy's brother. His brother kept my friends FJ45 and we struck up a deal. Here is the first pic. More to follow later today. The plan is to do a valve job/tune up and drive it for a year or so before beginning a full frame off restoration. All of the parts and pieces are here and in great shape so it shouldn't be too bad.
The story of how I came to own this truck is pretty sad. When I was in high school a local cruiser fanatic got me into Toyotas. I loved all of the FJ40's he owned and soon had one of my own. He taught me to wrench my way around the truck before I left for college. We stayed in touch until about 5 years ago when I heard that he took his own life after being put through the ringer by his ex-wife. So sad and nobody saw it coming. I was shocked and I thought that his entire estate was sold off to fund a trust fund for his young son. My friends favorite truck was an 84 FJ45 with nothing more than surface petina for wear. No real rust to speak of and the truck ran like a top.
As fate would have it, I placed an ad on CL a few months ago selling used cabinets from a huge remodeling project. The ad was answered by a guy who turns out to be my old cruiser buddy's brother. His brother kept my friends FJ45 and we struck up a deal. Here is the first pic. More to follow later today. The plan is to do a valve job/tune up and drive it for a year or so before beginning a full frame off restoration. All of the parts and pieces are here and in great shape so it shouldn't be too bad.
