TOYOTA CONNECT


CRUISER FANATIC GERHARD VICTOR DECIDED TO GIVE HIS 44-YEAR-OLD FJ45 A NEW LEASE ON LIFE AND CREATED A CAR THAT HAS ALL THE TECH, BUT RETAINS THE DURABILITY OF A TOYOTA CLASSIC


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erhard (52) has had a passion for modifying and rebuilding cars since he was a teenager. It not only helped him earn money, but enabled him to


create something unique. His passion’s always been Land


Cruisers and he’s owned two FJ45s, the new FJ, two 80-Series, a 79 and a GX 200 – but the FJ45 remains his favourite. Five years ago, Gerhard and fellow


Cruiser fanatic Milton Slabber were sitting around a fi re when Gerhard


suggested building the ultimate FJ45 Extra Cab 4500 EFI. “The dream was to take the 44-year-old vehicle and remake it as if it had been built today – but that was a lot easier said than done,” he recalls. Two years into the project, Gerhard changed his mind and told Milton that


he’d decided to transplant the FJ45 body onto his VX 80 chassis and drive- train. Milton hoped his friend would abandon the idea as a crazy one and return to the original plan, but Gerhard was already off and running. “So off the VX 80 body went and the


work started again from scratch,” he recalls. “Moving the engine back 76mm was the easy part, but extending the cab by 270mm and shortening the loading bay were tricky. We then decided to make use of the original VX 80 cluster


BUILDING THE ULTIMATE FJ45


WORDS: KIBO NGOWI. IMAGES: SUPPLIED


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