Why are there so many FJ40's still for sale? (2 Viewers)

[Firemedic831]

Are you saying that I am getting old?

I have to find my glasses so I can see what he said

 

[pb4ugo]

Are you saying that I am getting old?

I'm saying, get your 40's up and running, so you can enjoy driving them while you can. Let them be seen. I finally got my cream puff running 3 or 4 yrs ago and have been enjoying the hell out of it ever since. To my surprise, It had been in storage for decades.

 

[wchevron]

Bought my '77 last February. Was my daily from May until October. I will admit, there were some days I was thinking.....Should have taken the other truck with the a/c. Not sure what was hotter, the sun beating on me or the heat from the floorboards.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

I enjoyed wheeling my 40, and the polarizing opinions I'd get from people who saw me "destroying a priceless classic offroad" vs. just thrilled to see one on the trail, being used for what it was designed to be used for. Then I had kids. They're too young to sit safely in the jump seats, and weekends are now for soccer games...so the truck sits more than I'd like. I still drive it to get groceries, etc. anytime I don't have the kids with me. Now it has an intake leak so I have to find the time to tear down the top end of the 350 . Still no plans to sell, but I wish I had more time to make progress on it, instead of limping it along...

My dream is to one day try and drive this from MD to Rubithon, wheel it for a week, then drive it back. Not sure I'll ever get there but it would be one hell of an adventure.

 

[Living in the Past]

As I think more about the FJ40’s coming out of the woodwork and being sold , here’s a thought. Few guys here will remember this.

1979-80 the Hunt brothers of Texas found a way to manipulate and super inflate the gold and silver markets. Silver rose towards $50.00 and ounce and gold followed. People were bringing their sterling silver ware, coffee and tea sets, gold earrings, bracelets, tie clips, and any metals commodity to these small shops opening rapidly all of the country. For every $1.00 in value that silver rose up…these guys made $100 million. They eventually lost it all

My brother and I rented an 8x10 space with a great scale and some acid to test the gold and a few hundred dollars to buy people gold and silver.
With a sandwich board that said “ We Buy Gold & Silver”. We had a line of people most days. They would bring in anything they thought had value, even broken watches that had some gold parts in them. We stockpiled shoe boxes of jewelry, silverware and anything of metals value and sold it to Englehard. They melted it into gold and silver bars and likely sold it back to manufacturers and other buyers

Land Criisers are the new silver commodity. The resurrection of these trucks is currently bringing cash… when the importers find a niche’, they’ll jump on it and bring as many as they can find to take advantage of the current emotion.

1993 "everybody” had to have a Harley… by 1994 my local dealer had a 2 year wait list. By 1996, accountants, ,lawyers and several other not really riding folks were selling some gorgeous heavily accessorized bikes for cheap and so many I saw hardly had 500 miles on them

Today…there are stores with signs. ‘We Buy Gold” but no where near like it was in 1980.

My 2 cents
View attachment 3881794

Can see the comparison to gold. Plenty of people looked for gold thought struck it rich only to find out it was fools gold. There is a lot of fools gold cruisers out there. A lot of south of the border poorly restored worn of cruisers as well a US imported cruisers quickly restored with fancy new paint job covering shoddy work. Can't totally rely on a magnet to find bondo. Can't automatically think a cruiser was restored correctly just because it's not full of Bondo. It knows how the rear sill was put together up to 1/79 it's fairly easy to tell it it's original or not if you know what your looking for. I have been tempted to clean the back side of an original sill and prime it with gray paint so I could get some good pictures of the details of how it was put together.

 

[dazerb]

My local NAPA counter person said, "I love what you did with that old mail truck!"
Pic for ref, lol

I wheel it, drive it, haul crap around the park...

And i have no idea how much I've spent over the years. I have a binder full of receipts and photos from my years as well as PO who did cosmetic restoration in 2007.

No plans to ever sell. Will keep learning and improving my skills.

 

[whitey45]

I was just towing my fj40 yesterday, and must have had half a dozen people honk, wave, even a fist bump pointing to the cruiser? Something about these old trucks that stir emotions. I have some other pretty cool cars, and nothing gets more attention than my fj45 at a gas station!

 

[FloridaLife]

I was just towing my fj40 yesterday, and must have had half a dozen people honk, wave, even a fist bump pointing to the cruiser? Something about these old trucks that stir emotions. I have some other pretty cool cars, and nothing gets more attention than my fj45 at a gas station!

Indeed. My FJ40 was in Oklahoma and the seller told me when the guys from the shipping company arrived they tried to get him to sell it to them instead, but he had already been paid and I already had the title. When they arrived here in Central Florida they said every time they stopped for fuel, food, or restrooms people came up and asked about it and if it was for sale. I'll be so glad when it is back on the road again. I can't wait to drive it for the first time!

 

[FloridaLife]

My local NAPA counter person said, "I love what you did with that old mail truck!"
Pic for ref, lol

I wheel it, drive it, haul crap around the park...

And i have no idea how much I've spent over the years. I have a binder full of receipts and photos from my years as well as PO who did cosmetic restoration in 2007.

No plans to ever sell. Will keep learning and improving my skills.

View attachment 3881884

LOL "that old mail truck". Great looking rig!

 

[Roastchestnuts]

Indeed. My FJ40 was in Oklahoma and the seller told me when the guys from the shipping company arrived they tried to get him to sell it to them instead, but he had already been paid and I already had the title. When they arrived here in Central Florida they said every time they stopped for fuel, food, or restrooms people came up and asked about it and if it was for sale. I'll be so glad when it is back on the road again. I can't wait to drive it for the first time!

I live in a tourist destination. Some times I have to tell people thank you but I cant talk because I will be late for work. They love the fj40 but usually they have no idea its a toyota. I get the "Nice jeep" all the time. Weirdly mostly from jeep owners. Got ducked once last fall. Then a day later my head gasket went....

Another annoyance is people think its some sort of prop often when I have the top off if I park it out front at work. I have seen people hop in and get their picture taken. really really makes me mad because they never ask.

People try to offer to buy it all the time. A guy said he would trade his gladiator (new one that should have been called the scrambler) for my fj40. I should have done that as I could have turned around and sold the gladiator for more money than the fj40 was worth. but Id hate myself if I sold it.

 

[FloridaLife]

Can see the comparison to gold. Plenty of people looked for gold thought struck it rich only to find out it was fools gold. There is a lot of fools gold cruisers out there. A lot of south of the border poorly restored worn of cruisers as well a US imported cruisers quickly restored with fancy new paint job covering shoddy work. Can't totally rely on a magnet to find bondo. Can't automatically think a cruiser was restored correctly just because it's not full of Bondo. It knows how the rear sill was put together up to 1/79 it's fairly easy to tell it it's original or not if you know what your looking for. I have been tempted to clean the back side of an original sill and prime it with gray paint so I could get some good pictures of the details of how it was put together.

If you do, send me a pic since I have to replace mine. Thanks!

 

[FloridaLife]

I live in a tourist destination. Some times I have to tell people thank you but I cant talk because I will be late for work. They love the fj40 but usually they have no idea its a toyota. I get the "Nice jeep" all the time. Weirdly mostly from jeep owners. Got ducked once last fall. Then a day later my head gasket went....

Another annoyance is people think its some sort of prop often when I have the top off if I park it out front at work. I have seen people hop in and get their picture taken. really really makes me mad because they never ask.

People try to offer to buy it all the time. A guy said he would trade his gladiator (new one that should have been called the scrambler) for my fj40. I should have done that as I could have turned around and sold the gladiator for more money than the fj40 was worth. but Id hate myself if I sold it.

Oh that would trip me out if I looked outside and saw people sitting in it and taking pics. On 1 hand, it's kind of a compliment, but on the other hand what if I got in their vehicle and started taking pics? Oh, that's what you should have done! Gotten in theirs, LOL. Hmm... you've given me an idea... maybe you and I should hook up a REALLY LOUD alarm with an activation button on our key chain and if we see something like that happening... push the button and watch them react. Probably get out your phone and video it as you hit the button, send the video into America's Funniest Home Videos and maybe win $100,000!

 

[WILLD420]

Lots of good opinions. Interesting to see how this pans out. There will always be a niche for old iron, but it's hard to argue with a new Jeep Diesel that can run 37's and get 20 mpg doing it, unless you have a passion for it.

 

[Roastchestnuts]

Oh that would trip me out if I looked outside and saw people sitting in it and taking pics. On 1 hand, it's kind of a compliment, but on the other hand what if I got in their vehicle and started taking pics? Oh, that's what you should have done! Gotten in theirs, LOL. Hmm... you've given me an idea... maybe you and I should hook up a REALLY LOUD alarm with an activation button on our key chain and if we see something like that happening... push the button and watch them react. Probably get out your phone and video it as you hit the button, send the video into America's Funniest Home Videos and maybe win $100,000!

Yeah I tend to park in the back now. My father has a JDM Kai fire truck and they do the same things to that. More so than the fj40 even.

 

[pb4ugo]

I live in a tourist destination. Some times I have to tell people thank you but I cant talk because I will be late for work. They love the fj40 but usually they have no idea its a toyota. I get the "Nice jeep" all the time. Weirdly mostly from jeep owners. Got ducked once last fall. Then a day later my head gasket went....

Another annoyance is people think its some sort of prop often when I have the top off if I park it out front at work. I have seen people hop in and get their picture taken. really really makes me mad because they never ask.

People try to offer to buy it all the time. A guy said he would trade his gladiator (new one that should have been called the scrambler) for my fj40. I should have done that as I could have turned around and sold the gladiator for more money than the fj40 was worth. but Id hate myself if I sold it.

Your a renowned photographer, set up a photo booth. Ask $20 for a signed pic.