We recently covered a group of four Land Cruiser projects, but they were all the closed version. This pickup-style FJ45L seems a little more rare around here and is also in better shape. After being stored since the 1980s in a barn, it’s now for sale here on eBay and is located in Santa Cruz, California. Bidding has already reached $14,000 and any reserve has been met, so this truck will have a new owner soon.
As the real workhorse of the Land Cruiser line, this truck could be both a cool classic and a useful one. The long bed version makes it roughly comparable to a mid-size modern pickup and the legendary toughness of the design has led more than one person to exclaim that FJs will be around with the cockroaches when nothing else is left. The lack of extensive significant rust reflects the northern California life of this truck; some rain but not salt-driven corrosion.
I don’t know about you, but this picture just did it for me. I’m not used to seeing the long bed version and I love the styling, which to me is reminiscent of the old Willys pickups that I like so much but are too small in the cab for my oversize body. I know an FJ cockpit isn’t exactly spacious either but I do fit.
Can you believe how solid the underside looks? There are more pictures like this one in the auction and they are all encouraging. The seller tells us that “…the roof has rusted through in the forward two corners” but that seems relatively minor compared to most FJs I’ve seen.
Okay, so we need an upholstery kit. It took a little searching but you can get one here that looks to be a quality reproduction (if that matters to you).
Based on the webs, spiders are the only life this engine has seen in a while and the seller admits they haven’t even tried to turn it over. We are told that the previous owner did drive it to go hunting but the seller knows nothing else about the history of the truck. I know it would be nice to be the next person making history with it! What do you think?
I love these trucks !!!
I wish it was a convert truck too..
I have a FJ convert truck on my bucket list.
a great strong 💪 vehicle with lil work needed on body other than paint 👍👍👍
😍😍😍😍 But can’t afford 😫😫
Those were some critters that got in there………had a topless FJ to bomb around in one summer back in 1990……a co-worker gave it to me ! for the summer as he had no place to keep it till it was time to give it to his son…I drove the snot out of it….I felt like Jungle Jim!
Wouldn’t you guys like to buy a brand new one? My local dealer has them. Twin cabs too.
Funny, my friend has one with a slush box and luxury wood interior. When I asked at the Toyota dealer, they told me they don’t come like that. Took me a few minutes for me to get out of him they do come like that , but they don’t import them.
please,don’t tell us.
Kinda cool, but….current bid is $14,000???
There’s a lot of work there to start at that price for a non-running, non-stopping, vehicle that has lots of surface rust on the under carriage, old brittle wiring throughout, and probably needs all new suspension components. So just to get driveline, brake, and electrical systems back up and running reliably, how much more is that going to be without addressing all the time needed to clean and preserve the metal surfaces? Not sure what this would be worth when finished, but I bought a big block convertible 4 speed pony car for this price range that runs and drives. Just saying!
When did you buy it? My mom bought a 3 bedroom house for $30,000 once, but that doesn’t relate much to now. Meanwhile, especially in an auction, this is in the ballpark for this, even in this condition. And restoring a Land Cruiser is closer to fixing a toaster than to fixing up a passenger car.
dam sam that’s solid. A testament to the early 4 wheel drive, the Japanese were building these to go the distance. I never saw one with this cab and box configuration. Probably why its up to 14 large. Complete. Sure would be nice to see brought back in white. Good luck to the new owner. Neat neat neat!!!
Cheers
GPC
One thing to keep in mind – Santa Cruz is on the coast, and though the roads don’t get salted, the mist coming off the ocean is salt water vapor, which attacks everywhere, not just on the underside of the vehicle. Any unprotected surface where there is a chip in the paint will rust, and rust never sleeps. Some of the nastiest rust I have seen was on cars that lived in the San Francisco Bay area, where they had the ocean on one side and the bay on the other.
I live in the Bay Area and grew up close to the coast. In most places, once you get a mile inland from the ocean, sometimes less, rust is generally not an issue. If the area isn’t subjected to the ground fog it’s not a big deal. It’s can be an issue with areas directly on the ocean, and is defiantly not an issue for people close to the bay.
This car wasn’t exposed to ocean air, you can tell from the pictures. If it were, there would be a specific pattern of rust. I have friend that live in and around Santa Cruz, once you get off the coast there are many valleys that aren’t exposed to the ground level fog.
Steve R
That is why the roof is rusted through. I looked at a VW bus one time in Santa Cruz. It had lived there it’s while life since new. From the bottom up to about 1/2 way up the bus was perfect. After that height it was a total. You could virtually put your fist through the sheet metal anywhere with just a little effort. You start to wonder if it would be worth the effort to find one with the bottom rusted out and slice it horizontally in half to combine the two. I decided it was not worth the effort. FJ40s have fiberglass tops. ( Mine melted in a wild fire when it was off for some body work) I did not know that the FJ45s had steel tops.
A great truck but quickly getting out of reasonable pricing.
The rust you are describing on the VW van is a typical pattern of a car exposed to the ground level fog in that area. They will tend to rust on any horizontal surface or seam where moisture will collect, it will also rust on any horizontal surface with paint damage. This truck rusted around the gutters, where there was probably poor drainage, combine that with dirt and it will stay wet, even if it was only exposed to normal morning condensation. If this rust were due to fog, the interior of the bed, around the windows, anywhere the paint was scratched and body seams would have rusted also. This came from someplace farther inland than Santa Cruz.
Steve R
The land Cruisers have been around for a long time. When it was said that these and roaches will be the last things on Earth, I own German Mercedes Unimogs and a guy once thaid the same thing about them! I like this pickup just because of what it is and what it stands for, the same reason I like Unimogs!
This brings back memories of my childhood in New Guinea. They’d arrive with no bed (that was locally built) and with the doors, windscreen, and the other cab panels flat packed in a box strapped to the chassis. Just sat out in the weather like that. My mates and I would climb in and pretend to drive. We did shift gears, luckily we never figured out how to release the hand brake.
stout,
never saw 1 this early w/the 4L 6, weren’t most the 4 cyl?
May B came w/the long bed or swaped in?
I like these but it looks like it’s been abandoned in a cave somewhere. In MHO it’s worth about half the asking price.