Recently, one of our regular customers dropped off a right hand drive FJ45 for restoration. It was as rusty as anything we get, it smoked like a chimney, and it had peeling, bubbling, purple window tint on all the glass. He didn't give us much information on the truck, only stating that he bought it from a guy in Norman, OK, and he'd like to address the motor, fix the body rust, do a paint job, spray-on bed liner, new wheels and tires, seat covers, and a headliner. Basically, just a "refresh" of an old Cruiser. He wanted a driver. We do this kind of stuff every day, so no problem.
There was a story that came with this one, (like they all do) that it was possibly one of the last ones ever produced. There was supposedly a magazine article written about it quite a few years ago, but nobody could come up with said article. With no provenance, unfortunately, it's just like any other RHD FJ45 out there.
Unbeknownst to us, our customer started digging after he bought the Cruiser. He posted this thread, and got a few promising replies, but forgot to check on it, and the thread died. https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/th...south-africa-in-oklahoma.804361/#post-9178141
Also, the previous (original) owner was able to provide the magazine containing the article about him and his cruiser, which he could not find at the time of the sale. All the while, our customer says nothing to us about this. It was his intention to surprise us after we had completed our "refresh."
Luckily, for us and the Cruiser, as we were trying to pick a color to spray the truck, he spilled the beans, and let us know about the article. He texted pictures of what he had in his possession. We skimmed through the images, and decided to halt all work on the cruiser immediately! This job was on hold until more research could be done.
We did some searching on Mud, and found this discussion from a couple years ago about production numbers and VINs, in addition to the thread our customer started and forgot to check on. https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/production-numbers-fj45-lwb.769734/#post-8963353
Both of the links show records from the last month of FJ45 production, in 1985, frame numbers starting with 421310. Forum member Bear surmised that since monthly production numbers had fallen so low, that the highest frame number should not exceed FJ45-421390. Our example is actually titled as a 1986 (2 years after the closure of the South African plant) with a frame number of FJ45-421399!
This, combined with the original owner's story and magazine article is astonishing to us. We are convinced that our customer is having us restore THE last Toyota-produced FJ45! As a result, this project has turned from a refresh to a full frame-off restoration. No bed liner! Ha ha! We will post pictures here as the build progresses, and should have a photocopy of the original article to post shortly.
Here is a teaser pic of the firewall VIN tag:
There was a story that came with this one, (like they all do) that it was possibly one of the last ones ever produced. There was supposedly a magazine article written about it quite a few years ago, but nobody could come up with said article. With no provenance, unfortunately, it's just like any other RHD FJ45 out there.
Unbeknownst to us, our customer started digging after he bought the Cruiser. He posted this thread, and got a few promising replies, but forgot to check on it, and the thread died. https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/th...south-africa-in-oklahoma.804361/#post-9178141
Also, the previous (original) owner was able to provide the magazine containing the article about him and his cruiser, which he could not find at the time of the sale. All the while, our customer says nothing to us about this. It was his intention to surprise us after we had completed our "refresh."
Luckily, for us and the Cruiser, as we were trying to pick a color to spray the truck, he spilled the beans, and let us know about the article. He texted pictures of what he had in his possession. We skimmed through the images, and decided to halt all work on the cruiser immediately! This job was on hold until more research could be done.
We did some searching on Mud, and found this discussion from a couple years ago about production numbers and VINs, in addition to the thread our customer started and forgot to check on. https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/production-numbers-fj45-lwb.769734/#post-8963353
Both of the links show records from the last month of FJ45 production, in 1985, frame numbers starting with 421310. Forum member Bear surmised that since monthly production numbers had fallen so low, that the highest frame number should not exceed FJ45-421390. Our example is actually titled as a 1986 (2 years after the closure of the South African plant) with a frame number of FJ45-421399!
This, combined with the original owner's story and magazine article is astonishing to us. We are convinced that our customer is having us restore THE last Toyota-produced FJ45! As a result, this project has turned from a refresh to a full frame-off restoration. No bed liner! Ha ha! We will post pictures here as the build progresses, and should have a photocopy of the original article to post shortly.
Here is a teaser pic of the firewall VIN tag:
