Our 1975 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser

I was working for Air Canada in early 1974 and had saved up enough money in my credit union to purchase my new Land Cruiser. I went to a Toyota Dealer on Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance, California, and ordered a 1975 FJ40. The 75 model was not imported into the USA yet, so I waited for it to come from Japan. At 24, this was my first new vehicle. I managed to get one of the first ones into the country.

Over the next couple of years, I customized it:

• Armstrong TrueTrack large Tires and Rims from Dick Cepek.
• Warn Winch and bumper.
• Multiple performance upgrades from Manafre, they were in the Los Angeles Valley then. They gave me a steep discount (some free) as this was the first 75 they were able to get their hands on. Some include headers, an adapter for a 2-barrel Rochester carburetor.
• 20 Gallon rear Gas Tank from Manfre, still installed in the vehicle.
• Custom Dual shock towers with KYB Gas Shocks in the front after breaking them off in Glamis, California, Sand Dunes.
• Air shocks in the Rear.

In 1978, I purchased an early Chevy 350, 4 bolt main engine from a 1970 C-1500 pickup truck. I bought a kit from Downey Toyota to adapt this to my stock 4-speed transmission and used the stock motor mounts with a saddle mount. Upgraded the Cam Shaft with a low-end torque version, and upgraded the intake with an Edelbrock Torker intake manifold and Holly 650CFM 4-barrel carburetor.

Other than having the bad habit of throwing V-belts, this was a nice setup, the only other problem was that the Holly would flood out at harsh angles.

I used this setup for some time, but my new business got in the way, and the Land Cruiser went into storage in my warehouse for many years.

I started bringing it back to life in 2008, before the 2009 Financial Crisis. Managed to get it grandfathered by the DMV with no real smog equipment based on the engine VIN. There was some rust from sitting for a while, so I started cleaning it all up. I planned to replace the V-Belt system with a Serpentine belt to eliminate V-Belt problems, and replace the Holly/manifold with an early TBI system, to get better mileage and fix the flooding problem on harsh angles.

I ordered a Serpentine system from an eBay seller for a 1995 Chevy Astrovan and a TBI complete system from an eBay seller for a 1992 Chevy C-1500. They were to sit in Boxes until 2025.

In 2024, I gave the FJ40 to our son Chris, who lives in Texas. He decided to take it in 2025, but wanted to bring it back to life here. He started coming out, and we worked on it during the holidays. It’s a work in progress.

I originally started this web page over 15 years ago, this was my Dog TOTO back then. He was the home page for the web site up until December 6th 2025.