1976 Toyota Land Cruiser

SUV

6 - Cyl.

Manual

FJ40213518

Gasoline

Oh, my Lordy, but it pains me to put my 1976 Toyota Land Cruiser on the auction block! I bought this vehicle in August 2010 from an eBayer in Pennsylvania for $4,000 with the assurance that it only needed a few body patches to pass inspection....So 40 days and $5,000 on my credit card later, it DOES have an inspection sticker! Take note that this isn't any 'special' inspection sticker, like 'antique auto' or 'custom vehicle.' It is a straight-honest-to-goodness inspection sticker, legal for all roads! A lot of older vehicles in Maine are losing their inspections right now, because Maine used to have an 'antique auto' registration that essentially let you have a dangerous rust-bucket on the road provided it was more than 20 years old. However, the law changed this year, so now vehicles have to really and truly be inspected for safety, and this one has passed with flying colors! As the fates would have it, 10 days after I finally got this thing back from my mechanic, I got laid off!!! I have been trying since October of 2010 to find a way to make this work with my budget and income, but I just can't do it. Luckily, I found another job, but I went into this purchase thinking I would only have to spend maybe $5k, and I have doubled that and am still accruing the interest on my card. My mechanic is an expert with old Toyotas, and he always wants to make sure I have a safe car, so he had this thing in the back bay of his garage for more than a month fixing all sorts of things. Here is a partial list:- he rewired all the gauges, wiper motors and dash lights- most of the electrical in the motor was corroded- replaced body mounts and fenders - he had to weld in all new sheet metal in the back and all along the floor boards because all that metal was rotted away (what you see on the pics is the primer that is left over from that)- brake master cylinder- clutch master and slave cylinder- new stainless steel brake lines - the previous owner had installed some front-end components upside-down, so he had to fix all that- new front directional lights- new distributor cap- new hinges for the doors- brake shoes, pivots- new rear door gaskets- the front seats aren't original. I think the last owner put them in. They are in very good condition with no rips, tears, stains, etc.- the front fenders have been replaced and primed You can see from the pictures that there are plenty of rust spots and some holes, but none of them go through the body.The rust, at this point, is all cosmetic, and once you take care of that and get this rig a new paint job, this thing will be ready to go for years and years! The prior owner told me that this had been sitting in his barn for a couple of years because he wanted to fix it up with his son, and from the low miles and beautiful condition of the interior, I think it had been sitting around for longer than that, waiting for someone to show it some love. I want to make sure you know about the title- the title I have from Penn from the prior owner says RECONSTRUCTED on it. I honestly don't know what that means, if it had been in a wreck or not. My mechanic didn't see any damage that would indicate it had been in a wreck. Perhaps it had been rebuilt enough that the title needed to be marked RECONTSTRUCTED. I have put in a rush order with the State of Maine to get a title for this vehicle for buyers out of state (Maine does not require a title if the vehicle is more than 10 years old) and the new Maine title will say RECONSTRUCTED on it too. Now that it is all legal and inspected, I drive it every day to work (7 miles round trip) and the thing runs, in the words of my mechanic, "slicker than a smelt!" *** I also want to tell you that it does not leak any fluids, does not blow blue smoke, and runs perfectly well. Keep in mind that since this is a 1976, it smells like a two-stroke lawnmower, but if I recall the 70's correctly, all cars did back then! The lowest temperature that I have had to start it in is -6f, and it had no problem whatsoever dealing with that. It has a heater in the dash and one on the floor between the seats, and they both work great! The motor itself runs smooth, but since it has a manual choke, you gotta listen to what it is telling you and let it warm up for a minute! The four-wheel drive runs perfectly! It has manual locking hubs, and it has no problem shifting in and out of 4X4. So besides the obvious rust holes in the body, there are a few minor issues that I want to make sure you know about:- the back door doesn't lock- the driver window rolls down fine, but when you roll it back up, you have to pull the glass toward you gently to keep it running smooth- when the welding was done around the bottom of the left rear door, the bottom ring that the door latch grabs onto was not replaced, so that door rattles a bit. All the hardware is there on the door itself, but someone will need to weld that little arch of metal back on so that the door can grab it.- as with any 35 year old vehicle, there are creaks and noises, but nothing else comes to mind that would be worth mentioning. Well, the radio is essentially garbage, but you could probably guess that. I tell you, I have wanted one of these things for more than 20 years, and every time I drive it, I feel like the sun is shining only for me! The first time I drove it, a guy on the sidewalk yelled, "I LOVE YOUR LANDCRUISER!" and almost every time I take it out, folks wave, smile, point, and people stop me in parking lots just wanting to take a look at it! I really mean it that it hurts me to sell this, but goshdarnit! I have to! So if you buy this, you are going to benefit from the hard work of my mechanic and a you will get a Toyota that will run forever! Oh, and by the way, I don't have a reserve price on this auction because I think that is manipulative bullcrap. I have $10,000 in this thing, and I am starting it at $7,000, (I just changed it from $7,700) so please don't bother to ask if I will take less, because I really can't take more than a $3,000 loss on this thing! If you purchase the vehicle and need it shipped, I can arrange to be at home to help load the vehicle.