Posted June 2nd, 2008
by admin
We have a 8/80 HJ47 here at the shop. We decided to do some horse trading with a friend and we are now the new proud owners of this monstrosity! There has been a lot of rust fixed, fenders patched, 70 series blinkers installed on the aprons. My theory is that it was built and shipped to Central America, there is no evidence that it came with a heater, putting 70 series land cruiser turn signals on earlier land cruisers is common practice with our neighbors to the south.
There is also some sort of Republic de Panama sticker on the windshield. It looks pretty official. It has been painted red inside and out so we are not sure on the original color. We will dig deeper and find out. As it sits now it looks pretty funky. The huge SOA with the tiny tires really throws off the visual appeal. We plan to change that!
Previous owners did a lot of previous owner type modifications to it. Ripped most of the electrical wiring off of it. Instead of giving you a list of things that don’t work we decided to put up a list of working items. We have also added a vehicle description below.
Description
- 8/1980 Production date
- 2H Motor
- H41 Transmission
- SOA axles
- 1.5 set of OEM rear seats (missing the bottom on passenger side)
- LHD
Things that actually work on the HJ47
- head lights
- tail lights
- glow plug relay
- 2H diesel runs, but needs attention
Stay tuned for more….
Posted in Editorial, HJ45 and HJ47
Posted November 12th, 2007
by bull
Last Febuary we came across a rare ebay gem that couldn’t be resisted. Sunday evening while doing my nightly surf ebay for parts I stumbled across an FJ45LV for sale. Description from the ad:
“Rare 1967 Toyota Land Cruiser Model FJ45“
“This vehicle is extremely heavy duty. Toyota used a 6-cylinder motor based on a Chevrolet 6, so the bolt-in possibilities for changing the motor are significant. This vehicle was purchased new by my father and has spent it’s entire life in Southern Nevada, except when he took it hunting. It has 80,524 original miles, most of which was towed behind his motor home. It has lock out hubs on the front axles and a powerful winch on the front frame. It is equipped with tow brackets and comes with the custom tow bar that bolts on.
My father took very good care of his vehicles and drove this from Las Vegas to his new home in Logandale, NV (About 50 miles from LV) about 3 years ago. My father became increasingly feeble and passed away last September, so the vehicle probably hasn’t been driven in about two years. I am not a mechanic but can vouch that it is probably in running condition with a minimum of attention and that I know it was driven to where it currently stands.
The vehicle is being sold, however, “where is - as is” without warranty expressed or implied, in Logandale, NV. The vehicle has no major body or frame rust, just some surface oxidation so it is in incredibly good shape for a 40 year old 4 x 4. It’s dirty inside but the seats are in good shape. I am selling this vehicle for my mother. Fully restored, this rare find would fetch between $85 - $100k in the collector’s market (per a restoration shop in So. Cal) but my mother isn’t interested in consignment sales or the effort to restore it. Actual restoration is probably only cosmetic. It is equipped with an additional gas tank on the passenger side, filled from within the right front wheel well, but no other major modifications have been made. Please ask any questions and I will try and answer them.”
Needless to say we were very interested. I sent the seller a mail through ebay asking for his contact info. I asked the usual questions. How long have you owned it? Do you have any historical documentst or reciepts? Why are you selling? etc. I immediatley got a mail back with his number, anxiously we I called him and asked the questions above.
-
How long have you owned it? “Oh my father bought it from a Toyota dealership in 1967″
-
Do you have any historical docs or pics? “Yes I have the original sales sheet, title, and a bunch of photos”
-
Anything else? “It has the original license plates, and has lived in Nevada it’s entire life”
By this time I’m trying to breath and not act to excitedly. I tell him thank you and I will be buying it as soon as I get off the phone. Luckily there was a “Buy It Now” button. I yelled at the wife, honey I found a FJ45LV on ebay. It is just like a barn find you always hear about. She being the good cruiserhead wife said “that is way cool buy it!!” So we did..we took the plunge and clicked buy it now and made arrangements to get it up to Seattle from Nevada..
(to be continued)
Posted in Editorial, FJ45
Posted September 11th, 2007
by bull
Photo Courtesy of:Skillet
We have recently become ARB dealers and during one of our visits to their Renton Washington warehouse they had one of their ARB Touring roof top tents on display. I was very impressed with the quality of the material used and how sturdy it felt under my thick frame. One thing leads to another and we are now proud owners of the tent also.
We immediately put the tent to test on this years 45 Run in Deer Valley, California. Attaching the tent to our 1982 HJ47 proved to be pretty easy. The only problem we ran into was that the hardware provided in with the tent lacked the lenght I needed on our custom roof rack. If we were to use Yakima or Thule bars they would have worked just fine. Not to big of an issue.
Installation took about 40 minutes which included having to run to the hardware store. Some hints on installation. Measure how high your mounting surface is, in some instances on lifted vehicles you may need to buy the extension for the ladder (anything higher than 79″). Please note you will have to drill your own holes for the extension. Having an extra person to move and align the tent makes the job quite easy. Do not over tighten the hardware, you can damage the aluminum frame and locking pieces.
Setting up the first time went pretty slow due to the fact it was foreign to us and I didn’t want to mess anything up. Overall it took about 15 minutes from flipping it down to final set up. The longest part was getting all the metal rods situated for the 3 awnings. After doing it several times it take us about 10 minutes to set it up, this is still quicker than our ground tent.
Closing up the tent takes about 10 minutes from start to finish. You have to take all the metal poles holding the awnings up. Attach some bungie cords in the inside so the the sides stay tucked in when folding it up. We had to remove the ladder extension also. Once folded up you use two straps to keep it shut. The hardest part of the whole process is zipping on the rain cover for transit. It takes some patience. Then you use two more straps on the outside of the rain cover to keep everything nice and neat.
What sold the wife on the entire deal was the 3″ mattress and the idea of being elevated off the ground. While sleeping on the ground with thermarests or air mattresses we would use find that our hips or back would find the biggest and baddest rock there is in the whol campsite underneath our ground tent. We will probably still use the ground tent every once and a while, but the RTT was almost too nice to give up. The only real complaint is I wish it was bigger. It will probably fit 3 average size adults snuggly or a Family of 3 snuggly. The wife filled the tent up pretty much completely. It also rained a bit our first night using it and everything inside stayed nice and dry. We will do some long term reviews in the following months.
Overall Happiness: 8 out of 10
Pros
- Soft 3″ mattress
- Elevated sleeping platform fights condensation and unwanted critters
- Saves space inside vehicle or tow trailer
- Covered awning over the ladder
- Quicker set up than our ground tents
- No need for a real tent site
- ARB provides several add on options for the tent, including a vestibule tent add on.
Cons
- Price
- Occupies vehicle while camping
- Rain cover is cumbersome
- Size, we wish it was a little bigger
In closing we are extremely happy with our purchase and look forward to using it for years to come. There is some learning curves to attaching it and setting it up, but once you have done it several times it becomes easy. If you are interested in purchasing a tent and or accessories please contact us at sales@bullsac.com
More Pics: ARB Simpson II RTT
Posted in Editorial, Products