Just sat in a $250,000 FJ40. Is it still a Land Cruiser?

[brian]

Back in the day when I was into model railroading it was the same thing... Folks who wanted to just watch the trains go round got judged by the folks who went to great pains to simulate real freight/passeger operation. At the end of the day, its still old men playing with trains

Yeap, ive gotten that one already.

 

[wchevron]

I had that same Star Wars poster when I was a kid.

 

[charliemeyer007]

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.
Don't love things that can't love you back.
When you get your ticket home, you don't get to take anything physical with you.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

Is it an FJ40? No. It's an ICON, which is the spiritual successor to the Bandeirante based FJ Cruiser Prototypes TLC built back in the early 00s.
I still feel like Toyota pulled a bait and switch on the FJ40 guys when we'd seen those prototypes, but then released the production FJ Cruiser.

Personally, I WANT a modern FJ40.
Give me the same (or very similar body) with a removable top, solid front axle, an interior I can hose out, along with modern linked and coil sprung suspension, 6 speed manual or 8 speed automatic transmission, and either a fuel injected motor designed for low end torque, or a hybrid system like in the J250 platform.

IMHO there are only 2 ways to get the FJ Cruiser Toyota SHOULD have built.
1. Buy an ICON (or pay someone to build the vehicle).
2. Build it myself.

If I was in the market for buying a $250k+ car, I'd buy an ICON, FJ Company or Proffitts resto mod, without any second questions.
Yes, over a Ford GT40.
Yes, over a Porsche 911 Turbo GT4 RR Factory Race S Eagle Double Llama Thrust edition.
But I am not in that demographic. So I am building it myself.
Slowly...

 

[Jdc1]

Is it an FJ40? No. It's an ICON, which is the spiritual successor to the Bandeirante based FJ Cruiser Prototypes TLC built back in the early 00s.
I still feel like Toyota pulled a bait and switch on the FJ40 guys when we'd seen those prototypes, but then released the production FJ Cruiser.

Personally, I WANT a modern FJ40.
Give me the same (or very similar body) with a removable top, solid front axle, an interior I can hose out, along with modern linked and coil sprung suspension, 6 speed manual or 8 speed automatic transmission, and either a fuel injected motor designed for low end torque, or a hybrid system like in the J250 platform.

IMHO there are only 2 ways to get the FJ Cruiser Toyota SHOULD have built.
1. Buy an ICON (or pay someone to build the vehicle).
2. Build it myself.

If I was in the market for buying a $250k+ car, I'd buy an ICON, FJ Company or Proffitts resto mod, without any second questions.
Yes, over a Ford GT40.
Yes, over a Porsche 911 Turbo GT4 RR Factory Race S Eagle Double Llama Thrust edition.
But I am not in that demographic. So I am building it myself.
Slowly...

The Icon recipe isn’t tough, he’s got some really cool details on top of it, but it’s mostly all available to the home builder.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

The Icon recipe isn’t tough, he’s got some really cool details on top of it, but it’s mostly all available to the home builder.

No, it's not tough at all, aside from the time sink.
Theres a bit of $$$ tied up in the Art Morrison chassis they use.

 

[Jdc1]

No, it's not tough at all, aside from the time sink.
Theres a bit of $$$ tied up in the Art Morrison chassis they use.

It’s a ton of time- especially to get right- but if you do a few a month, it’s probably a lot quicker once the process gets sorted out. Art Morrison saves a ton of time too, and I’d imagine some money if you have to pay someone to build.

 

[peesalot]

IMO thats just stupid money, you can build an FJ40 for much less, wether you are building an oem stocker or a rock crawler. There isnt anything great or special about those $250K FJ40's. Now if they had cantilever coil overs and a hybrid drivetrain or came with fridge, solar, overlanding equip then it would be interesting.
I do not see anything about an Icon or FJ Co. that you cant do at home or is unique, proprietary, original. Would much rather have Georg or Mudrak put together a sano ride.

 

[1MOA]

I don't even have any friends like that or know anyone like that.
Let alone have a car(s) like that.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

IMO thats just stupid money, you can build an FJ40 for much less, wether you are building an oem stocker or a rock crawler. There isnt anything great or special about those $250K FJ40's. Now if they had cantilever coil overs and a hybrid drivetrain or came with fridge, solar, overlanding equip then it would be interesting.
I do not see anything about an Icon or FJ Co. that you cant do at home or is unique, proprietary, original. Would much rather have Georg or Mudrak put together a sano ride.

Is there anything great or special about the hotrods that Chip Foose builds?
What about the Porsches that Rauh-Welt Begriff ruins builds?

I'd consider the ICON or a Proffits Resurected Land Cruiser to be on the same shelf as Foose or RWB.
It's stupid money, any way you slice it, and yeah, you can do something similar for a LOT less.

My point is, if I had the kind of disposable money for a Foose or RWB build, I'd RATHER have an ICON (though I'd have those weridly proportioned louvers eliminted) or a Proffits Resurection.

 

[pb4ugo]

For a lot of folks buying an Icon it's not a lot of money. They're buying a new hand made vehicle. They probably have other high end cars in their collection, like the OP mentioned in his 1st post. The Icon is probably not he most expensive car in their collection either. Their daily driver probably is probably high end too. Other buyers maybe buying one for their ranch, and others just to look at. It seems a better deal would be to buy a used one. They sell on BAT for mush less. The Icons' are cool, but to me they seem very cookie cutter. I see the same thing with the other builders/rebuilders in this market. They seem to be set in their ways on how they want build them, and they don't seem to deviate much.

As for if its a Land Cruiser or not doesn't matter. You hear or see it here all the time. New owners post here saying they saw one when they were kids and always wanted one. Then they come here to find out they bought a hacked up import or a POS hack. I've found the purist have exceptions too. It's all stk, but...... In the end It's all good, most folks enjoy and are proud of what they have. They are usually trying to make them better and creating their own look.

 

[TreadingLight]

I have never seen an icon up close but some of the other big-name builders mentioned in this thread cut some corners on their very expensive rigs. The show:go ratio just isn't there for me.

I'd much rather have a 40 built by one of the shops that you find posting here on mud.

For well under $100k you could have a rad 40/43/45 with nice paint, seats, lighting, AC, engine swap, 60 axles, coil springs, linked suspension, power steering, etc.

 

[Ditcherman]

It’s a ton of time- especially to get right- but if you do a few a month, it’s probably a lot quicker once the process gets sorted out. Art Morrison saves a ton of time too, and I’d imagine some money if you have to pay someone to build.

It hasn’t sped up any for me, been at it anywhere from 4 to 18 hours a day for over a year with very few exceptions.
Everything seems like it is hand built, hand fitted by a guy who has never done any of it before. Lots of redo.
The top took us two days to bolt on. But it started with a drip edge all new from fresh steel with no holes pre punched. Won’t make that mistake again but had to work through it this time. Everything’s like that. Hanging doors today will be two guys all day and we might not get done.

 

[47coeman]

It hasn’t sped up any for me, been at it anywhere from 4 to 18 hours a day for over a year with very few exceptions.
Everything seems like it is hand built, hand fitted by a guy who has never done any of it before. Lots of redo.
The top took us two days to bolt on. But it started with a drip edge all new from fresh steel with no holes pre punched. Won’t make that mistake again but had to work through it this time. Everything’s like that. Hanging doors today will be two guys all day and we might not get done.

!Ya I hear ya am doing a semi custom and have a good part of 10 hours on the fiberglass top (extended fiberglass top for the extended tub 45) getting it fit the way it should be. people don’t realize the time it takes to put these trucks together right.

 

[Jdc1]

I have never seen an icon up close but some of the other big-name builders mentioned in this thread cut some corners on their very expensive rigs. The show:go ratio just isn't there for me.

I'd much rather have a 40 built by one of the shops that you find posting here on mud.

For well under $100k you could have a rad 40/43/45 with nice paint, seats, lighting, AC, engine swap, 60 axles, coil springs, linked suspension, power steering, etc.

…If you build it yourself and start with 0 rust.

 

[Jdc1]

It hasn’t sped up any for me, been at it anywhere from 4 to 18 hours a day for over a year with very few exceptions.
Everything seems like it is hand built, hand fitted by a guy who has never done any of it before. Lots of redo.
The top took us two days to bolt on. But it started with a drip edge all new from fresh steel with no holes pre punched. Won’t make that mistake again but had to work through it this time. Everything’s like that. Hanging doors today will be two guys all day and we might not get done.

There’s a certain amount of time that has to go into the unmolestation. Estimates can go out the window very fast. If you do the math- I don’t know if a decent builder that’s less than $100/hr, 1000 hrs goes pretty quickly. I’ve noticed that most guys are doing restomods, far cheaper than a restoration.

 

[cruisermatt]

For well under $100k you could have a rad 40/43/45 with nice paint, seats, lighting, AC, engine swap, 60 axles, coil springs, linked suspension, power steering, etc.

Maybe built by a guy in his garage doing it as side work as a hobby business, there is no way to do all that with actual overhead in 2025 though. Not at a high quality point and actually being profitable anyways.

 

[OGBeno]

This was at my niece's wedding a few weeks back, being used as the drive away car. It is owned by a friend of my brother in laws, but didn’t get to talk to him. It’s pretty impressive as far as build quality goes, made by Fj Co, had an automatic transmission with a faux stick to look manual. I believe it had an Fj Cruiser engine in it. Felt like it lacked a bit of the fj40 soul, but I’m sure it is super fun to drive.
View attachment 3941503
View attachment 3941501

They are using GRJ71 base model trucks out of Oman for their builds.

 

[peesalot]

Thats right, for some its not alot of money at all. I guess more to my taste is that if I were spending $200K or more I much prefer to see what WFO or FC187 would produce. Also not impressed with the drivetrain.

 

[TreadingLight]

Maybe built by a guy in his garage doing it as side work as a hobby business, there is no way to do all that with actual overhead in 2025 though. Not at a high quality point and actually being profitable anyways.

Maybe not going crazy with the suspension, and of course there are a lot of variables, but I've seen plenty of LS/SBC-swapped 40s with power steering, decent paint, axles, comfortable seats, vintage air, and nowhere near $100k spent.

Choose a good starting point (we're lucky on the west coast), build it over time, and outsource the heavy lifting to a competent shop and it's quite doable.

But more importantly, it would be more capable than anything from one of the Instagram turnkey builders