Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 FJ62 restorations have become very common at Proffitt’s Resurrection Land Cruisers. We’ve restored many of them over the last 20 years, but within the last 5 years, the number of 60 series Land Cruisers we restore had caught up to and surpassed the number of FJ40 restorations we do each year.  Not only that, but the scope of our 60 series restorations has increased significantly. Many of them have joined our 40 series restoration level of “stage 3” or “body off” (others use the term “frame off” but that really doesn’t make sense to me) It’s easy to see why as the 60 series Land Cruiser retains the classic styling we love about older Land Cruisers, but can be far more practical.  Here is a little background information about the series, right off the top of my head.

Toyota released the 60 series Land Cruiser in the US in 1981, 2 years before they suspended production of  the FJ40 for the US market.  Even though mechanically, the FJ60 was almost identical to the later FJ40, the larger wagon offered far more in terms of comfort, passenger seating, and cargo space than its predecessor. Just the extra 2 doors on the FJ60 and FJ62 were a big improvement, but a superior heating and window defrost system, optional but common air conditioning, and superior sound deadening made possible by carpet, set the model aside from the much cruder FJ40. The Land Cruiser brand was maturing along with its fan base, and many Land Cruiser owners upgraded to the newer models as they came out. Toyota kept the FJ60 virtually the same, making only small changes all of the way until 1988, when they released the FJ62. Cosmetically, the FJ62 didn’t differ much from the FJ60, with only 3 outward appearance differences. The first was a few different  color choice options, including a couple of  two tone metallic paint schemes. They also changed the side view mirrors to a much larger, nicer, and sometimes power mirror option (all of the US versions were chrome). The last and most controversial (still) difference was the change from single 7” round headlights on each side, to the 4 smaller, rectangular headlights with separate high and low beams. Mechanically, the FJ62 was very different. Toyota introduced fuel injection to the US model and changed the long lasting 4.2l 2F to the 4.0l 3FE (my favorite Toyota engine) The 3FE was coupled to an overdrive transmission (the first offered in the US) and it was an automatic to boot. There are many other less known  mechanical differences between the FJ60 and the FJ62, like a change from 4:11 to 3:73 gearing (because of the overdrive) and even a small caster angle change in the front end. I could go on for days, but I’ll end it there for now.

If you ever want to talk about either US model FJ60 or FJ62, or even about all of the other non-us variances, feel free to contact me. I love them!