This is my pride and joy; a 1969 FJ-40 Toyota Land Cruiser. I have owned 4-wheel drive vehicles off and on for my entire driving life. This is the most fun vehicle I've ever owned. I picked it up from my best friend in Las Vegas, Nevada. He proved he was my best friend by letting me have it for a pittance sum, I won't tell you how much, it would just upset you.

After a very trying trip ( see Vegas Vacation here on RockCrawler ) to get my baby back to my driveway, I went to work on it. It was already a very capable vehicle when I picked it up; a faded powder blue Cruiser with 33x12.50 Big "O" Tires ,1½" extended shackles and an auxiliary 22 gallon gas tank. Since that time, with the help of my friends, I have done some major improvements to an already great vehicle. I first found some gray leather seats out of a '90 Celica that fit beautifully with very little modifications. After that came the change of color. I chose a Royal Maroon color to match my truck that I was going to tow it with. It's complimented on the inside with a Gray Durabak bed lining material. Pro-comp 9000 shocks on all four corners help keep my kidneys in place. Bushwacker cut-out fender flares keep the tires from rubbing. A full custom Roll bar protects me and my passenger from my antics while blazing the trails. A 5 point harness will be added soon, and a Ramsey RE 8000 winch sits up front, bordered by dual 150 watt KC Daylighters.

For the "Go" power I have the original 6 cylinder "F" engine expelling it's fumes out of a Man-a-Fre Header with 2½" exhaust running thru a Flowmaster muffler. Only engine work beside maintenance I have done is a valve job. This winter it will be in the garage getting fitted with a V-8. It runs it's original 3 speed transmission and a vacuum controlled transfer case putting power to the original 4.11 gears.

Now for the real goodies. I saved my pennies until I was able to afford a full front and rear ARB Air Locker system for it. While we were at it, an 85 4-Runner disk brake set-up was installed up front and a TSM disk brake kit was put on the rear replacing the nasty drum brakes. I have an air tank mounted in the bed to hold air from the on-board compressor and reseat tires if necessary. Communications are handled with a Kenwood 2 Meter VHF radio, Cellular phone and a Uniden CB radio. Other electronic toys include a Garmin GPS, Federal Siren and a AM/FM Tape player. All these items are in a weather-proof military box acting as a center console.