Monday, April 21, 2008

Early Black-Plate Toyota FJ40 in SoCal

One of our favorite stops every morning on the computer is Bring A Trailer. It's great to spend hours looking at eBay, Craig's List, Auto Trader, and others, but sometimes it's nice to let someone else do all the work. Our friend Randy N. of Bring A Trailer scours the Internet looking for old/interesting/unusual vehicles for sale. His site can be addictive and we find ourselves longing for many of the cars he discovers.

Yesterday he featured this deliciously-patina'ed 1962 Land Cruiser FJ40. While we generally focus on sports cars, we really like the vintage feel of this early FJ, which still sports its original paint and California black plates.

FJ40s are relatively plentiful in the marketplace as they have a strong collector following and many of them have survived through the years, but it's rare that such an early example comes on the market. This '62 dates to one of Toyota's more difficult periods, in between the failure that was the Toyopet and the launch of the wildly successful Corona. During this period, the Land Cruiser was the only thing keeping Toyota afloat in the US market.

It's a non-runner at this point and restoration costs can be astronomical. However, the $5500 asking price doesn't seem out of line with the current market for FJ40s, which is very strong. If it were ours we'd like to preserve as much of the original feel as possible while making it mechanically sound.

Find it here on TLC!

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