Junkyard Find: 1974 Toyota Land Cruiser

by Murilee Martin

April 4th, 2016 5:41 AM

The Toyota Land Cruiser has been around since the Sengoku Period (OK, since 1951), and all varieties of this truck tend to have plenty of obsessively devoted single-interest fanatics here in Colorado. You’ll see the occasional FJ60 Land Cruiser in junkyards here, and I’ve even seen a well-stripped FJ40 in a Denver yard. Today’s well-thrashed Junkyard Find is the first example of an FJ55 Land Cruiser I’ve found.

Is there rust? Yes, there is rust. Is there body filler over rust? Definitely.

Look, air conditioning! This would have been fairly luxurious by 1974 truck standards.

Front drum brakes could still be found on a few Detroit cars, and the Land Cruiser, in 1974.

Toyota did a lot of license-building of GM technology in the postwar era; the GM-developed PowerGlide was the basis of the Toyoglide automatic transmission, and the F engine used in this truck was a cousin of the good old Chevrolet straight-six OHV engine.

It was rough when it showed up in this yard, and many parts-hungry Land Cruiser owners have picked it over since then.

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Corollaman on Apr 04, 2016

It's no wonder used ones demand such a high premium.

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Sobro on Apr 04, 2016

A buddy of mine with a lawn service in Colorado had one of these. The above model is in better shape than the one he would tow trailers with. Since he didn't live where his customers were he would park his beast in their neighborhoods overnight and commute home in something that was a little better on fuel. One Sunday morning the Boulder County Sheriff's office called him about the truck. He was "invited" to come and discuss it in person. When he arrived the Bomb Squad was there along with 10 or 15 other law enforcement vehicles. It seems he parked his old Toyota with external trailer light, chassis brake light, and maybe even fuel pump wires, a sheet of plexi for a back window, and non-working door handles and missing window cranks in front of Federal Judge Richard Matsch's house during the Timothy McVeigh trial. All's well that ended well, especially since the LEOs didn't question the three 50lb bags of fertilizer in the back.

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- Kirala on Apr 05, 2016
  
  Man, that was hilarious!
  
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- Wstarvingteacher on Apr 05, 2016
  
  Your friend was lucky. I lived in the Woodlands which is a snooty community near Houston. I got a 260Z on a friday. It was to be used for a class project and I parked it in front of my house until Monday. Saturday, it was towed. Now I live in the woods and have less discipline in that regard. Promised myself to live somewhere that nobody else much minded my business. 20 years now and working good so far.
  
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