Buddy's '72 FJ40 to Sell (1 Viewer)

[SgnDen]

Starting a new thread here since the previous on the topic was getting long. He sent me some pics today. I don't know how many pics I can post here but I'll attach a few. Not really ready for prime time as far as detail and beauty shots are concerned but sharing here. He spent an obscene amount having this frame-off rebuild completed. He wants to sell and asked me to help for a number of reasons. Here's what I know so-far:

1972 FJ40
All body part taken down to sheet metal and professionally repainted in British racing green (?)
Rebuilt 2F w/ 2,000 miles
New front axles
Front disc brakes
Webber carb
Rebuilt four speed
Power steering
Custom seats
Custom stereo
Interior lights from one of his helicopters
Winch

He built this to be a driver and spent an absolutely crazy amount of money. Accordingly, there may be a chasm between his view of what he may get for it versus reality.

I haven't posted for sale yet but have looked at BaT's scatter plot and surveyed the usual mainstream selling sites to get a range of realistic selling prices. What do you experts on these cruisers think this would bring?

When I have better pics, what site would you recommend to post detailed pics and link to them on sites like this?

Thanks in advance...

 

[sedonut]

Funky air cleaner , Harbor Freight winch, extra vents in the hood, billy goat hood ornament. Those item scream cheap. The paint on the passenger door has a ton of orange peel, not the hallmark of a high dollar paint job. I'm not saying your friend didn't spend a lot of money.

It really needs the original hubcaps.

More pictures will get more comments, not just from me.

It's not a restomod like the ones that are bringing high dollar on BAT and its' not show quality original restored. It makes me go hmmmm.

 

[SgnDen]

Funky air cleaner , Harbor Freight winch, extra vents in the hood, billy goat hood ornament. Those item scream cheap. The paint on the passenger door has a ton of orange peel, not the hallmark of a high dollar paint job. I'm not saying your friend didn't spend a lot of money.

It really needs the original hubcaps.

More pictures will get more comments, not just from me.

It's not a restomod like the ones that are bringing high dollar on BAT and its' not show quality original restored. It makes me go hmmmm.

Thanks. I agreed to help him but feared this sort of stuff. He’s in for a rough ride selling, it sounds.

 

[Firemedic831]

Put some OE hub caps on and take the winch off and it will be worth more

 

[middlecalf]

What are those extra hood vents for? The horn sound? They will let water in, not good. Wiring is not high end resto. GLWS.

 

[SgnDen]

What are those extra hood vents for? The horn sound? They will let water in, not good. Wiring is not high end resto. GLWS.

It’s part mermaid. Good to know re the wiring. I’m sharing bits of info with him and thinking wiser of it. It sucks to have people tell you that you have an ugly baby…

 

[SgnDen]

What are those extra hood vents for? The horn sound? They will let water in, not good. Wiring is not high end resto. GLWS.

It’s part mermaid. Good to know re the wiring. I’m sharing bits of info with him and thinking wiser of it. It sucks to have people tell you that you have an ugly baby.

 

[Skreddy]

I would venture to guess this is in an odd position in the market. Too much non-correct stuff for a purist to get excited about but not enough value added add-ons for the resto mod crowd (AC, EFI, Dakota Digital gauges, just guessing there). Not to beat a dead horse but a harbor freight winch and miles of corrugated wire loom screams budget rebuild. I think that should be a split hood year(?).
In the current market, if I were looking for one, I wouldn’t even contact the seller if it were more than mid $20’s. And at that I’d be holding out for negotiating room down.

 

[SgnDen]

What are those extra hood vents for? The horn sound? They will let water in, not good. Wiring is not high en

I would venture to guess this is in an odd position in the market. Too much non-correct stuff for a purist to get excited about but not enough value added add-ons for the resto mod crowd (AC, EFI, Dakota Digital gauges, just guessing there). Not to beat a dead horse but a harbor freight winch and miles of corrugated wire loom screams budget rebuild. I think that should be a split hood year(?).
In the current market, if I were looking for one, I wouldn’t even contact the seller if it were more than mid $20’s. And at that I’d be holding out for negotiating room down.

Excellent input. I think you’ve stated it accurately. I’m probably going to recommend he just keep it as a future “real” project. He was severely ripped off, I think, and that’s hard to tell someone.

 

[middlecalf]

The baby isn’t ugly, it’s just not Miss Universe contender (actually I would avoid any Miss Universe ) so there needs to be an appropriate expectation (e.g the glass is neither half full nor half empty but really just twice as big as it needs to be). In any case, your buddy has a good friend in all that you’ve done to shepherd this through for him, good on you .

 

[SgnDen]

What are those extra hood vents for? The horn sound? They will let water in, not good. Wiring is not high en

I would venture to guess this is in an odd position in the market. Too much non-correct stuff for a purist to get excited about but not enough value added add-ons for the resto mod crowd (AC, EFI, Dakota Digital gauges, just guessing there). Not to beat a dead horse but a harbor freight winch and miles of corrugated wire loom screams budget rebuild. I think that should be a split hood year(?).
In the current market, if I were looking for one, I wouldn’t even contact the seller if it were more than mid $20’s. And at that I’d be holding out for negotiating room down.

Excellent input. I think you’ve stated it accurately. I’m probably going to recommend he just keep it as a future “real” project. He was severely ripped off, I think and that’s hard to tell someone.

The baby isn’t ugly, it’s just not Miss Universe contender (actually I would avoid any Miss Universe ) so there needs to be an appropriate expectation (e.g the glass is neither half full nor half empty but really just twice as big as it needs to be). In any case, your buddy has a good friend in all that you’ve done to shepherd this through for him, good on you .

Thanks man. He definitely appreciates it but needs some time to realize that he has probably taken a nearly six-figure bath. He needs a rich college kid in our town to have daddy drop some cash for such a driver.

 

[sedonut]

If I were going to flip. it, I would find a correct hood and have it painted. Have it re-wired with a correct loom. The aluminum radiator is cool, but it will bring more with a stock radiator. Correct hubcaps. Remove the inside lights. Remove the winch. Maybe find a set of correct seats although the seats that year kinda suck. Original steering wheel. Correct carb and air cleaner. You would probably spend $10,000 and add $20-30,000 to the value.

As it sits I think you are looking at a $25,000 cruiser. If you bring it to restored stock, and he is not far away, you can get close to the market price for a restored one.

Resto-mod is a whole other category. Those $200,000 plus ones on BAT are not a comp.

 

[70fj40]

I would agree with the above post. Go back with proper loom, stock steering wheel, hubcaps and factory hood for sure. A new carb, air cleaner set up and radiator would also go a long way. The winch wouldn’t bother me as much as the rest but it would not be too difficult to go period correct with it. I wouldn’t mess with the seats at this point. That truck could be back to very close to stock without much trouble. It would be tough to please the purists without more but it will have a market of buyers for sure.

 

[SgnDen]

I would agree with the above post. Go back with proper loom, stock steering wheel, hubcaps and factory hood for sure. A new carb, air cleaner set up and radiator would also go a long way. The winch wouldn’t bother me as much as the rest but it would not be too difficult to go period correct with it. I wouldn’t mess with the seats at this point. That truck could be back to very close to stock without much trouble. It would be tough to please the purists without more but it will have a market of buyers for sure.

Makes sense. Really appreciate the detail. Super helpful. I’ll share with him in the morning…if he hasn’t pushed it off the cliff nearby by then.

 

[middlecalf]

…if he hasn’t pushed it off the cliff nearby by then.

Well, what’s he got it insured for?

 

[pb4ugo]

It seems the builder was not very familiar with 40's. I dont understand why they painted the firewall black and added louvers in the hood along with a lot of other choices that were made. The paint looks average. There's orange peal on the windshield frame too. It sounds like your buddy spent a lot of money, but some more needs to be spent. At this point I'd complete the resto mod with rear disc brakes, cleanup the wiring, add a stock carb or do sniper injection, cleanup the plumbing, paint the rad blk, loose the rear speakers or clean up that wiring too. and loose the winch or offer it separately. Hub caps are cheap. Since it's basically done your buddy is stuck with a lot of what he has. Cleanup some of the offending issues and drive and enjoy it. We really need more pics.

 

[SgnDen]

It seems the builder was not very familiar with 40's. I dont understand why they painted the firewall black and added louvers in the hood along with a lot of other choices that were made. The paint looks average. There's orange peal on the windshield frame too. It sounds like your buddy spent a lot of money, but some more needs to be spent. At this point I'd complete the resto mod with rear disc brakes, cleanup the wiring, add a stock carb or do sniper injection, cleanup the plumbing, paint the rad blk, loose the rear speakers or clean up that wiring too. and loose the winch or offer it separately. Hub caps are cheap. Since it's basically done your buddy is stuck with a lot of what he has. Cleanup some of the offending issues and drive and enjoy it. We really need more pics.

Thanks! You'd be surprised (or not) by the whole story. My pal took someone's advice to go to a guy who apparently was dedicated only to T4R and LC rebuilds but ended up scamming him. That's where he lost the hood. The guy essentially tried to steal the truck from him and never did anything but disassemble some of it. It was a real sh*t show. I told him he's probably fortunate that the guy didn't do anything though he trusted and paid more than a nicely sorted original driver would sell-for today to this dirt bag. The guy who ended-up doing the work had a shop where he had four very high-line vehicles in various stages of rebuild. All Euro.

When I heard the types of things he was adding, I encouraged him to do NONE of the "but it's cool" things...I disagreed with all of it but he didn't ask me and it's his money...of which he has plenty. Now here we are. I'm in an odd position because I am the messenger and don't pretend to know more than the basics around these rigs. I'll help take good pics next weekend with him and post it as-is to see what kind of attention he gets (I won't post here as a pain-avoidance measure). However, I'll be the lucky recipient of the "Are you NUTS??" responses if I agree to post it with a number he thinks he can get. I may not agree to do it now that I've learned what he really has, actually. However, it isn't complete crap and he really just wants room his garage so could end-up as an opportunity for someone. Who knows?