Thoughts on starting a 40 series VIN registry

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

Nope. Without the 55 registry, 40 registry would be useless. Just saying...
 
If you wanted historical info for your vehicle, would carfax be a good option?

No; our 10-digit VIN's don't work on Carfax.


What's the downside of publishing your VIN? VINs are technically already known since they're sequential, right?

I could see a possible downside of publishing a physical address associated with a vehicle. That would be up to the owner.

Yeah, I don't see the logic in smearing license plate numbers in photos either.
 
When I saw this thread start last week I was pretty excited about the idea and have been surprised at the lack of discussion it has generated -though it has attracted a good number of onlookers - like me :-)

Anyway, even though I'm the original owner of my FJ40 and have no questions its prior ownership, I think this would be a great resource to all of us with an interest in the history of our Cruisers. As the years go by I often wonder how many of these beasts are still out there running around and every time I see a 72 come up on MUD, I wonder how closely related to my 40 it is - may sound wierd but I figure there are close cousins out there. I have noticed that owners are reluctant to share VINs though - kind of like the licence plate phobia - so that may account for the limited interest in the database/Registry concept. I'm not sure why the concern unless all you other guys obtained your 40s by theft.

Anyway, I think this is a great idea and encourage you to keep this moving. As soon as it's up, I plan to post my info and start searching for long lost relatives of my Cruiser.

Now that I think of it, I bet it's the lack of photos on this thread that's killing it!
 
Yeah, I think it has a lot of potential too. I registered a domain name yesterday and I'm designing the system. My ideas might be a bit grandiose at the moment but I envision a place where you can register a vehicle, supply it's details--data plate information--and then add events and status changes to it over time. It's easier to scale things back than add later so I'm going to go down this road for awhile and see where t leads. I'm also working on getting up to speed on some new technology I hope to use for this project.

There must not be a big downside to publishing VINs. If you go to most car sale sites you'll see the VINs published. E-bay right now is a great source of info. At any given time there are 20 or so FJ40s listed with VINs.
 
the arguement i've heard is that it makes car shopping easier for thieves. now they can see what they get and with a little research, they can get your address. well, guess what....they will find a way to get what they want anyways. some paranoia is good, but it also goes to the extreme.

would be neat to know what happened to my first fj40, too bad i can't remember the dang vin. i do have a pretty good photo album of vins tho.
 
What information would we want to track? I was looking at the data plates for an FJ40 for example. I could have fields for all of that data, but specifying a 2F for example should be enough to populate number of cylinders, stroke, etc.

A user can register a vehicle. What basic info should be stored for that vehicle?

1) Model (FJ40, FJ55... what models should we list here?)
2) VIN (same as Frame # right?)
3) Engine Serial Number
4) Manufacture Date
5) Motor
6) Color Code
7) ???

The idea is to record what the vehicle was like when it was manufactured. What other items changed per model? And is this model specific?

For an FJ40 for example maybe we keep track of:

1)PTO? Winch?
2) Seat type - 2 piece bench, 3 piece bench, buckets
3) tach?
4) roll bar
5) rear seats - short, long?
6) rear heater y/n
7) 2nd fuel tank
8) Front wheel hub type
9) Rear axle type? float?
10) Brakes, front drum/disc
10) Hitch? Step?

?? other options from the factory per model?

Once a vehicle is registered then people could add events to it. Events could be modifictions, ownership changes, photos, etc.

The idea then is we can show a vehicle's history. A history might be as simple as its stock VIN entry or as detailed as a complete restoration with and entry or photo of each change.

Can we detemine by VIN what plant or where the vehicle was manufactured?

Ideas?
FJVinPlate.webp
Toyota_vin_pillar.webp
FJFrameVINTag3.webp
 
Yeah, I don't see the logic in smearing license plate numbers in photos either.


In this day and age of freedom of information doesn't make any sense to post any personal info you don't have to. It isn't to hard to track down a address off a license plate. Any law inforcement can do it. Probably not to hard for someone with good computer skills either. A locking steering column or hood were never a option on a FJ40 in the US market. Open the hood, a few jumper wires and the vehicle is running. Now if you park in a driveway or street do you want to make it any easier for someone to figure out where your cruiser is at night. Just because my license is in public view when driving doesn't mean I want to post it on the web for everyone to see. Even if every mud member was honest it's still a public website that anyone can surf.
 
What information would we want to track? I was looking at the data plates for an FJ40 for example. I could have fields for all of that data, but specifying a 2F for example should be enough to populate number of cylinders, stroke, etc.

A user can register a vehicle. What basic info should be stored for that vehicle?

1) Model (FJ40, FJ55... what models should we list here?)

I think all variants of 40 series and add the 55. So... B/F/H---J---40,41,42,43?,44,45,45,46,47 etc.

And then add the 55 at the bottom for Pighead.:D
 
Yeah, I thought so. I just didn't take the time to check my facts :lol:

edit: And I had 45 twice!
 
... Just because my license is in public view when driving doesn't mean I want to post it on the web for everyone to see.

I understand the desire for privacy in the ever more invasive society we live in today. It just seems funny to me worry about something like a license plate that is on constant public display every day. But obviously YMMV and that is OK; everyone gets to choose their own things to worry about.
 
Sliderjack any further thought on doing this?

Big things for the registry would be:
Year
Vin#
Model
Manufact date
Engine #
Country originally imported

On the posts people could list any known option on their cruiser

It didn't seem like there was too much interest. It's been a year already since I registered the domain. It expires in two days.

I would work on it if you guys think people would actually use it or see some benefit from it.

I have a bunch of ideas. If people show some interest here I'll put something simple together that would allow people to register and see if it takes off from there.
 
I'm still interested. I've been watching for some progress and this is the first I've seen in about a year. Hope there's enough interest to make it happen.
 
Last edited:
Registry started here >>>> 40 Series Registry - https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/771909-4x-series-registry.html

Something better could be created possibly later with the info collected here... The vins will be posted at the top separated from model as to show incomplete vins in first post

See link... Suggestions?
Johnny C.....I finally found the site and uploaded my info. Has there been any consolidation on the list yet? Let me know if I can assist with updating the current list into 1 page. Maybe a spreadsheet that would be updated annually.
 
Back
Top Bottom