If you’re looking to repair, install or troubleshoot your original Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40, FJ45, or FJ55 AM Radio, below is a document you can either print out or view online that provides directions for any Panasonic, Fujitsu 10 (Ten Audio), or Matsushita radio. The manual says it’s for a Toyota Carina, but we’re almost positive this is the exact same radio that goes in an FJ40.
TIP: use the “full screen” button in the bottom right corner for better viewing and printing.
TO APPLY: Please fill out the form at the bottom of this page.
Are you looking for a job with a reputable Toyota Land Cruiser repair shop in Colorado Springs, Colorado? Are you passionate about 4×4’s, Toyotas, Land Cruisers, or automotive repair?
Red Line Land Cruisers of Colorado Springs is looking for an experienced Toyota Technician to join our growing team of mechanics, welders, fabricators, and Toyota Land Cruiser experts. 30-40 hours of work per week.
Job Requirements:
Must be passionate about Toyota’s, especially vintage Toyota Land Cruisers
Must have at least 2-3 years experience working on Toyotas
Welding experience a plus
If you have your own tools, that’s a plus, too
TO APPLY – please fill out this form. If you’re on a mobile device, or can’t see the form, use the simple form here.
Whether you’re in the market for an FJ or working on restoring your Cruiser, knowing the quality of the engine is critical. A compression test is an easy way to see if that Cruiser you’re drooling over is a good deal or a bad deal. It’s a fast way to see if that engine you already have is good to go or in need of a rebuild. Justin Robbins at Red Line Land Cruisers walks you through the necessary steps for performing a compression test on your engine (FJ engine or any engine, really). Justin also talks through whether or not your compression test is a passing or failing grade and breaks down how to tell if your engine needs a rebuild based on the results of your compression test.
Take a look at this video and post your questions or replies in the comments section at the bottom of this page.
Are you looking to replace that worn out weatherstripping on your FJ40 doors? It’s tempting to go with the aftermarket weatherstripping. After all, it’s so much cheaper than the Toyota weatherstripping. But if you want rattle-free windows and doors on your FJ40, going with the aftermarket stuff is not the way to go.
Below is a picture of Toyota OEM weatherstripping vs. aftermarket weatherstripping. As you can tell, the one on the left the good stuff from Toyota) is much beefier and fits installs perfectly. The cheaper stuff (on the right) leaves a gap for your window or door to rattle around.
If you’re looking to restore your original FJ40 wheels you may be wondering to use a wire cup brush or media blasting. In a recent blog post, I showed you how to use a 3″ wire cup brush and an angle grinder to clean up your rims. After four hours and two wire cup brushes (which cost $30 total) I wasn’t happy with the results the wire cup brushes gave us. I decided to take my rims over to Dennis Salisbury at C&D Painting and Sandblasting in Ellicott, Colorado (just outside Calhan).
Dennis is your man when it comes to sandblasting or media blasting anything. He had my rims taken care of in 15 minutes. If you’re in the Colorado Springs area and ever need anything media blasted (frame, tub, doors, chest hair…) give Dennis a buzz at (719) 683-4819.
Pictures of the FJ40 Wheels in Their Original Condition
Pictures of the FJ40 Rims After Cleaning With a Wire Cup Brush
I’m working on restoring a 1975 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40. It’s an early 75, so it has drum brakes all around (and thus drum-style wheels). There are a couple different ways to go about restoring these rims. I could have them sandblasted (aka media blasted), which would cost around $100-150. Since I’m on a budget, I decided to go the wire cup brush route. I found a Milwaukee 3″ wire cup brush that screws on to my angle grinder at Home Depot for around $19. It was more than I wanted to spend, but cheaper than having them sand blasted. (NOTE: In the end, I did have them sand blasted. Check out this post about that process.)
STEP 1: Prep
There are some projects where you can cheat and go without protection. This project isn’t one of them (as you’ll see in an image further down the page). Eye protection is critical, so DO NOT run that angle grinder with the wire cup brush without proper eye protection. I also wore a dust mask, as the rust that gets kicked into the air was pretty thick and nasty. To keep myself from going deaf, I also threw on some ear protection (which was a good idea because this process can take several hours).
Step 2: Prepare Working Area
Find a good place with plenty of space to work. It was freezing here in Colorado when I was working on these rims, so I did it in my garage on my work bench. If the weather is decent, I’d recommend doing this project outside where the dust and debris can go wherever it pleases and you’ll have less to clean up.
Here are a few pics of my wheels before I started the restoration process.
Step 3: Attach Wire Cup Brush to Angle Grinder
Screw on your wire cup brush and make sure it’s nice and tight. I used a crescent wrench (while pressing in the spindle lock on my angle grinder) to make sure it was nice and snug. You don’t want this thing coming off at 11,000 RPM.
Step 4: Go To Town
You can see in this pic I’m only wearing one glove. That was only because I was managing the camera to take the pics. Be sure to wear two gloves. As you begin the process of stripping down the rims with the wire brush, little pieces of metal fly all over the place. I had several go through my gloves and poke me pretty good. When I went to shower off, I took off my shirt and found two pieces sticking into my flesh. Those little suckers go flying like crazy, so make sure you’re hands are protected.
Hold the angle grinder tight with both hands, especially when you get around to working near the clips. Don’t hit the clips with the brush. Instead, use sandpaper and hit those by hand. I learned my lesson the hard way when one of my clips broke off because the wire brush is just too powerful and snapped it right off.
Start with the edges.
After tearing down the front, backs and edges of two and half rims, my Milwaukee 3″ wire cup brush pretty much gave it up as there were hardly any wires left. Towards the end of the life of this wire brush, more and more wires were flying off faster and faster because there weren’t as many wires compacted together to hold them in.
As $20 was steep enough for one wire cup brush, I worked a bit harder to find one a bit cheaper. I found another flavor of the 3″ wire cup brush at my local O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store for $13.
I continued on with the new wire brush, but unfortunately (and is usually the case) the cheaper wire brush was…well…cheap. It didn’t last nearly as long as the Milwaukee wire cup brush. It was enough to finish the job, but next time I’ll spring for the better quality wire brush.
Below you can see some of the wires that came off the cheaper brush en-masse piled up on the inside of the rim.
This wire brush wire hit a little too close to home…
Step 5: Finished
As you can see, the wire cup brush did an okay job cleaning up the rims. I couldn’t get in very close where the clips were and in a couple other areas.
At the end of the day I decided to go ahead and media blast these. Below is a video documenting that process.
That FJ40 bottle jack. It’s a thing of beauty. If you’re lucky enough to have the original one in your Toyota Land Cruiser, then it’s probably been scratched up pretty good under the driver’s seat and could use a bit of a refresh on the paint. That orangish yellowish color can be pretty tricky to nail down. It’s not quite yellow and not quite orange, but somewhere in between.
About a year ago we were restoring a 1977 FJ40 and were lucky enough to come across a bottle jack, both jack handles, and the crank for the handle on Craigslist. The color was pretty faded, so we began the search for the right paint. Sure, we could go down and have a quart of the good stuff mixed up at Dale’s Automotive Paint Supply in Colorado Springs, but then we’re talking $60 and our budget was more like $10 (scope creep on this 77′ LC had definitely set in!).
We hit the spray paint isle in a couple big box stores, namely Home Depot and Wal-Mart, but came up with a big goose-egg. Next stop was Pep Boys, who had a massive selection. We honed in on two different paints and found one that hit the jackpot: Dupli-Color Model # DA1663 “School Bus Yellow” General Purpose Acrylic Enamel (12 oz.).
Back at the shop, we sanded and primed the bottle jack, hand crank, and jack rods. After the y dried, we hung the parts up by a wire and went to town with the School Bus Yellow spray paint. It laid on nice and thick and smooth. After three coats, our old, crappy looking bottle jack was now a thing of beauty!
Have you used a different paint or different method? If so, share it in the comments section below.
We recently picked up a 1975 FJ40 out of Alamosa, Colorado. It hadn’t been run in nearly 15 years. We called to inquire about the LC and the owner gave us the run down on the nearly 40-year-old Dune Beige Cruiser. As he described it, he told us there was a rear bench in the back and we went up anticipating a fairly rusted and rotted out bench seat. To our surprise, the rear seat was an original Con-Ferr bench seat in near perfect condition. It even had the underseat storage and rear storage area. The vinyl was in mint condition.
We took it out of the Cruiser and hit it with some Armorall and it looked as good as new. Aside from some surface rust on the bottom of the seat, due to moisture being trapped underneath, this bench seat was practically brand new.
If you’ve got kids or someone that won’t ride in the back of your FJ because the factory jump seats are just way too uncomfortable, this seat is a great alternative to the jump seats.
There is storage under the seat itself and storage in the rear, which is perfect for keeping gloves, tow straps, chains, tools, or other gear. You could also cut holes into that smaller rear storage area and easily drop in some speakers.
Fits perfectly in the back of any FJ40.
Measurements:
39 7/8″ wide (40 1/8″ if you include the bolt heads)
23 3/4″ deep
21 3/4″ high
Red Line is currently working on 2 Resto Mod Landcruisers. As we all know, Landcruisers aren’t competing for quietest rig on the road, especially if you’re running on oversized mud terrain tires. And in the summertime if you’ve got your hard top on, the cabin can heat up quickly turning your FJ into a full-blown sauna.
There are several options out there for trying to quiet your FJ cabin or keep the heat down. There are products that can slip under your OEM front or rear Toyota mats. These are fairly inexpensive but they don’t do a very good job of quieting things down or keeping the heat out.
Over the years, our favorite product that we’ve come to rely on is Dynamat Extreme.
Here’s what Dynamat has to say about their product:
When it comes to making your hot rod ride like a luxury car, Dynamat does the job. Dynamat is used by the world’s top hot rod and custom builders because they know it makes their cars ride cool and quiet. Dynamat makes cars feel solid – doors and trunks slam snug, rain and wind virtually disappear and your interior becomes a quiet, comfortable cruising environment. Use Dynamat on the interior sheet metal of your vehicle to stop vibration and reduce road noise. Add a Dynamat brand thermo acoustic liners- such as Dynaliner, Extremeliner, Tac Mat or DynaPad to fight heat and low frequency hums from big engines and exhaust systems – and you’ve got the ultimate ride. Dynamat is the ultimate automotive accessory.
We typically buy the Dynamat Extreme Bulk Pak, which covers 36 square feet. It includes nine sheets of Dynamat Extreme. Each sheet mesaures 18″x 32″ (457mm x 812mm). If you’re careful, you can do the floors on an FJ40. It takes about XXX boxes to cover the floors on a FJ55, FJ60, or FJ80. But why stop at the floor? This stuff does such a good job of stopping road noise, that we install it behind the door panels and on top of the roof. If you’re wondering about the headliner, there’s no need to worry…your OEM FJ headliner can be easily adhered to the dynamat without and drooping.
Dynamat is about as thick as a nickel and, in our minds, does the best job of keeping you cooler in the summer and affording you a decent conversation in your Cruiser (as opposed to shouting your conversation in the cab).
A box of Dynamat Extreme Bulk Pak runs $169.95 + shipping. Order online through Red Line today or have us install it for you at our Colorado Springs location. Give us a call at (719) 210.0101 or email us for a quote.
