Throwback Thursday: Epic Cruisin' Cruiser

In the third instalment of our Throwback Thursday series, we take a look at this uber-cool FJ45 Cruisin’ Cruiser. And it could be yours for just $27.5k… with a matching trailer!

Owner Peter says the 1974-model Cruiser had absolutely zero rust in it when he bought it about three or four years ago, and that he performed all the upgrades since.

“When I bought it, it was pretty tatty, but it was rust-free,” Peter says. “We took it apart and my mate Mark sandblasted it, painted it and we put it back together.”

“The only bit of rust was in the two front guards, which we replaced with fibreglass front guards; the cabin is like the day it was made, there’s no rust in it whatsoever.”

The six-cylinder petrol FJ has 300,000km on the odo and it sports new wheels, tyres, shocks, brake cylinders, brake booster and four-wheel disc brakes… but it’s currently running 2WD only.

“I put disc brakes on the front and I never bothered putting the axles back into it,” Peter says. “I took the front driveshaft out, and the axles were taken out of the diff housing. It just needs some new axles and put in it. I’ve got the old driveshaft but I haven’t got the axles.”

The Cruiser has towbars front and rear, and it runs a Nissan rear diff beneath that trick-looking custom tray. “I built the tray myself, and I made a trailer out of an old tray,” Peter adds. The matching trailer is included in the sale and it has 10-months rego on it, while the Cruiser itself is on non-transferable club rego.

As you can see from the photos, Peter has also done plenty of work inside the cabin. “It’s been totally reupholstered,” he says. “Everything in it works.”

So why is Peter unloading such a beaut-looking Cruiser? Ill health. “I’ve been in the hospital for the last six months and it’s just been sitting in the shed,” Peter says. “When I was working, I used to take it to work every Friday, but since I’ve been crook it’s been sitting in the shed. My missus can’t drive it, so it’s got to go, even though we love it…”