The Impulse Buy Toyota FJ40

• September 29, 2024
• Story By
  Mark Masker
• Photos By Tim Sutton

Honestly, I wish my own impulse buys turned out as well as Tim Sutton’s 1971 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40. Sure, they start out innocently enough; I throw some fun money at something I don’t need, courtesy of some poor justification in my head. This is followed up with six months of said item collecting dust in a corner. The story almost always ends with the purchase in a trash can or resold on Ebay. Unlike most of mine, Tim turned this buy into a really cool go-anywhere custom. His Toyota didn’t spend its tenure in a corner. “I bought it as an impulse. I wanted something to cruise around in, both on- and off-road,” he told me. “I redid the wiring, suspension, corrected a few things, and made it a daily driver.”

Basket Case Motivation

The Land Cruiser wasn’t exactly road-worthy when Tim bought it. It was more on the basket case side of the custom spectrum. The Toyota ran in the most basic sense of the term; it had an engine that technically ran, and the wheels would turn.

On top of that, the wiring situation looked like it was put together by three drunk chimps. In other words, he had his work cut out for him. But as the old trope says, adversity is also opportunity. A mess like this frees you up because so much of it gets tossed out that you’re free to build it into what you want. In this case, Tim wanted the stock 1970s Land Cruiser off-road style with modern guts. Part of that meant swapping in a General Motors 8.1L Vortech engine. “I didn’t want the old engine,” he continued. “It was all honked up. The last owners just dropped it into the Jeep so it would run.”

Shocks and Awe

Part of the modernization also meant adding in new shocks while also retaining the leaf spring style of the ‘70s. Seeing as Tim wanted an all-purpose ride; he swapped in Fox 2.0 shock absorbers to give the Land Cruiser a modern edge and better handling.

The Crying Game

Tearing into the Toyota and finding surprise after surprise was the only really challenge to it. It was like peeling an onion with the same amount of crying; once Tim found and fixed one problem, he’d find four more.

The question became, where do you stop peeling the onion? That’s why a clear plan like his is so important on a basket case project. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll lose yourself as you get sucked into the project.

Bad Mudder Lover

In keeping with the modern performance/nostalgia look Tim wanted, he upgraded the rubber to Nitto Mud Grapplers. With over 12 years shooting photos and running Nitto tires, he knows what he’s doing.

“I love Mud Grapplers. Period. I really do. I think the Mud Grapplers are the unsung heroes of the lineup. They’re like my Land Cruiser: big and gnarly. I wanted a big obnoxious tire to go with my big obnoxious vehicle. Plus, they’re great off-road and on. Air them down and they’ll crawl up anything!”

Glory Daze

Once Tim got the Land Cruiser going, he’d take it everywhere. The thing could go anywhere and do anything, yet be quite ridiculous to drive: “My daughter loves it. Back when she was six it was like a big jungle gym for her. I’d take it from the trails to daily driving and back to the beach with a surfboard all in the same day. It’s one hell of a trail rig.”

Hard Facts