FJ43s on eBay!

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

seems most SA 40's had the stock turn signals replaced with 70's series signals......your right NO way they came that way new......70's series not out untill 1984/5. Suspect as the 70s are sold in SA....its just easier to replace the stock lights with 70's stuff.......also I imagine the 70's are less prone to bust off in the bush.. Body work is cheap down there...

or maybe....the 40's didnt' come with turn signals at all when new? at some point they were required.......70 series lights added

Sellers seems pretty sure 100% made in Japan.......but pretty sure thats not correct. Where is Henry C ? :)

cruiseroutfit said:
Well, I'll be... your absolutely correct... I was thinking the pics were the same Cruiser here in the US.

Jimbo (Rusty79) is the guy bringing them into the US.

Landpimp, I'm with you on the bodies... I'd guess they were assembled in the local market some years ago.

The turn signals are the thing that baffles me... Jim mentioned that every FJ they looked at down there had the 70 Series type t-sigs... but the 70 Series didn't come out until well after these rigs were built. I looked all over for signs of a patch on the fender... nothing.

Neat rigs for sure...
Click to expand...
 
Landpimp,
You're exactly right, those turn signals are definitely not factory for the FJ43. In Central and S.A. you see lots of 40 series vehicles w/ 70 series turn signals for two reasons, in my opinion...
1. They are readily available and cheap
2. They are less likely to rattle loose
 
Corect spelling

Wether this rigs are original or not( in my opinion they are not) we should at least agree on the correct spelling ;
It is not Columbia but Colombia
It is not Bagata but Bogota
And yes there are plenty of this rigs there, I owned a few and they were all rigged except for a 1980 Fj45.
Just for the record.
 
mANFREDI said:
Wether this rigs are original or not( in my opinion they are not) we should at least agree on the correct spelling ;
It is not Columbia but Colombia
It is not Bagata but Bogota
And yes there are plenty of this rigs there, I owned a few and they were all rigged except for a 1980 Fj45.
Just for the record.
Click to expand...

Glad we got that out of the way :)

Now lets work on our grammar and sentence structure... ;)
 
maybe some Aussie can pipe in here ....but those turn signals are on alot of fj's down their way...i don't know when (date) but many pics of fj's from down under have those same marker lights
 
a 40 series never left japan new with 70 series turn signals........just didn't happen

JohnnyC said:
maybe some Aussie can pipe in here ....but those turn signals are on alot of fj's down their way...i don't know when (date) but many pics of fj's from down under have those same marker lights
Click to expand...
 
Landpimp said:
a 40 series never left japan new with 70 series turn signals........just didn't happen
Click to expand...

...did i say they came from the factory that way? no...i was saying that i have seen some pics of fj's down under with those same lights on them...did they ship that way to aussie? none came here (US) thats for sure...Bandies never came that way...maybe in other countries they were installed (AU) ? :D
 
once again.......they(4X series) did NOT ship(same as leaving japan) to AUS that way ANYPLACE with 70 series lights........but FJ's did........FJ70's! :D

they were all installed(by shop or owner or whoever, but NOT sold new like that) at some point after 1984.....which is when the 7X came out


JohnnyC said:
...did i say they came from the factory that way? no...i was saying that i have seen some pics of fj's down under with those same lights on them...did they ship that way to aussie? none came here (US) thats for sure...Bandies never came that way...maybe in other countries they were installed (AU) ? :D
Click to expand...
 
I'm going to beat this dead horse into the ground...

On my travels throught the middle east (Oman, UAE, and Yemen) and central america looking for cruisers, along with pics from Eshan in Pakistan, most 40 series cruisers use 70 style turn signals in those countries.

As an early pointed out in a post, cheap knock-off Taiwan turn signals are available on the order of $10-$15 each... OEM stock are much more (as we all know).

When bolted up they look clean, so guys run the 70 stuff all day long. If the going wage is $3 an hour or less in your country, what would you run?

They aren't stock!

There, I've done it. The horse has been beaten into the ground.:grinpimp:
 
Landpimp said:
ya know.......maybe I should buy one.....with tops like that.....maybe John Delorean had something to do with them ;)

Kurt......would you agree.......those did NOT come from Japan like that?
Click to expand...


I agree, here is my reasoning...

1. The tops are different, they have a different shape to them.
2. Windsheild hinges, softop parts on the inside, etc. Toyota had "fake hinges" on the w/s that they were using on early non-removable top 45's, why would this one have hinges?
3. The rear doors look a bit home-brew, definitly not OEM that I've ever come across for sure...
4. The bodies have a different lines to them, one has the raised part down the side, the other doesn't, I can't imagine Toyota doing that on nearly the same era rigs?


However, there are still a couple of things that puzzle me...

1. If the entire rear tub (such as a cab/chassis model) was manufactured in the local market, why does the side glass have the OEM Toyota stamp on all the glass? The wheel wells and rear bed are the OE stamped... I can't imagine a fabricator matching that if he wasn't concerned with maintaing the OE look.

2. Why would some local fabricator install softtop post brackets in the tub?

3. Every 43 this buyer has found in Columbia is very similar, body wise

4. The "hard top" to lower to lower tub integration looks pretty darn OEM, but not seeing it sans paint makes it anyones guess.

My synopsis...

I think they WERE removable tops, and for whatever reason sometime in their life the tops were integrated into the sides, and worked so you can't tell. While I can't figure out why, its the only theory that explains the OE side glass, the legit looking stamped bed & wheel wells, etc.

They are VERY cool rigs and exceptionally clean for their age. Its a hard market to be selling Cruisers in, and likely not a market most of us are in (I have no use for a high-dollar FJ43 that I don't dare to wheel) BUT, there are many, many, many that will pay for a rig like this if they find it. I have plenty of customers that have paid more for less (not from me ;)

I wish the sellers the best... I don't know Ernesto personally, but I'm told they plan to bring these in once in a while as they are real Cruiserheads and just like the cool non-US stuff. Props to them :cool:
 
soooo...they were installed later on in other countries...middle east, central america, aussi...as a replacement to the oem signals.

we have to pay full price for every thing :)
 
yup.......would say thats the case

if the US market has cheap 70 series light.....I can bet you would see more of them here.

JohnnyC said:
soooo...they were installed later on in other countries...middle east, central america, aussi...as a replacement to the oem signals.

we have to pay full price for every thing :)
Click to expand...
 
I am planning on taking these down to Cruise moab. I should be down there mid week. PM me for details if interested. These rides are both very cool, and very clean. I think that some people (Americans) have an idea that cruisers are and should be a certain way, build, equipped, etc. And when they are not, people have a hard time with that. I haven't posted commenting on these two riggs (except the link mentioned above) for the sake of avoiding the image of a salesman. I am happy to point out some of the interesting or unique facts about these two cruisers. The 70's series turn signals are very common in some of the south american countries. I have seen plenty of SA 40 series cruisers with the 70 series turn signals mounted as aftermarket. This is mostly due to the fact that it is an inexpensive toyota made alternative to the original turn signals. The 43' s in my possession were infact manufactured in Japan. I have the matriculation numbers to prove it. It does not mean that the fiberglass work/hard top was made in Japan. All of my sources believe that it is a toyota production hardbody hard top done by toyota in south america. As I had been looking with my Bro-in-law for cruisers in south america we came across dozens of these hardbody hard tops as well as many soft top rigs. I have yet to find any with removeable hard tops. They refer to these solid hardtops as camperos. It is something that is specific to a particular market. This is the short version. I would be more than happy to answer any other questions.
If I don't know the answer I have some good resources that I can ask.
 
Last edited:
FJ43 intro

Hi there,
I am the owner of the two FJ43s that were listed recently on Ebay and given the debate over their originality I thought I'd introduce myself and provide a little more info on these cruisers.
I am originally from Colombia and have lived in Utah for the past 10 years. I am an Ecologist, work in environmental consulting and enjoy the outdoors. I was introduced to the land cruiser world by Jimbo (Rusty79) and to this site by him and Kurt. After talking to Jimbo about rare land cruisers, I decided to search for a couple to bring to the US. It was a family effort. FJ43s are not uncommon in Colombia and other South American countries. The difficulty is to find them in a condition that would appeal to US cruiser enthusiasts and more so to actually export them. The whole process took about a year. And that was possible only because my parents; who live there, are retired, are knowledgeable of the import/export process, and have the time to do this, put it a tremendous effort finding these two, fixing them up, getting all the paperwork done, and getting the cars shipped to the US.
To inform the debate over originality, I had my dad do more research on the condition in which these FJ43s arrived from Japan in 77 and 78. It turns out that the 78 (green) came from Japan as a non-removable hard top. I actually now have the original import documents from back in 78 that show that. The 78 (red) on the other hand, came from Japan with a removable soft top (campero) and the hard top was added on at some point in time. Anyway, I hope that resolves this issue. I have not sold them yet. I got over 15000 hits on the Ebay listings but no reasonable offers. Like Jimbo mentioned on another posting, we'll be taking these cruisers down to Cruise Moab if anyone is interested in checking them out. Let me know if you have any questions.

Ernesto
 
Thanks Ernesto,
Do you think you could post up a pic of the VIN Plates located on the passenger's side of the engine compartment? I'm especially interested in finding out more info about the 1978. I find it almost impossible to believe that Toyota made these vehicles with a non-removeable hard top. but who knows, maybe I'm wrong.
Thanks and Welcome to the site!
 
Latin_cruiser said:
...I had my dad do more research on the condition in which these FJ43s arrived from Japan in 77 and 78. It turns out that the 78 (green) came from Japan as a non-removable hard top. I actually now have the original import documents from back in 78 that show that. The 78 (red) on the other hand, came from Japan with a removable soft top (campero) and the hard top was added on at some point in time...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update Ernesto :cool:

That actually answers many of my questions... the red one was the least "OEM" like when I had a chance to crawl around them. Interesting to say the least...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom