2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser - Something totally different for me

Some of you may remember this from the For Sale section of the forum.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/cars-sale/nmna-2007-toyota-fj-cruiser-6-spd-with-211k-miles/180556/page1/

That was 3 months ago.  It took that long for the title to arrive in Colorado through a series of waits for various finance organizations and DMVs to respond to the owner.  TLDR story is that I posted this not really thinking about buying it, but things quickly deteriorated into me really wanting it.  These have been on my radar since they first came out.  I have read many reviews, but never driven one.  The same thing happened back in 1990 when I saw a Land Rover Defender 90.  Fortunately, I bought a Miata instead and it made for a much better daily driver IMO.  Back then I lived in Virginia, but now I'm in Colorado and truck-like things make more sense.  There are bigger mountains to climb out here.

So here we are with it sitting in my driveway.

I'm not sure how much of a project this will be.  Probably not much for now as I have a TR6 to finish.  And then a Miata, and my Dad's old 1968 Triumph T100C motorcycle.  From what I can tell so far, it needs nothing to enjoy locally except a windshield and some touch-up paint.  With the nearly vertical windshield, I may just order a box of 10 as Colorado tends to be hard on them.  This thing is super clean for the mileage.  I intend to change that.

Congrats! Great truck. We have quite a few FJC owners in the forum 

I have a 12 TT, mazdadeuce also has one 

Yup, we also have a blue 2007, ours is a 6spd and we quite love it. 

One advantage of the long wait was that we had an extended weekend test drive.  The wife got to drive it and I did a back crawl from the front to rear bumper with a flashlight.  CV boots and brake flex lines look fresh and no oil leaks.  These things are built to last.  The rear axle is a tad noisy, and I still need to check the transaxle/diff fluids.  This one is also a 6MT. 

Windshields are very common to get chips, if you can make sure you find a good shop the first time.   I would just baseline all of the fluids so at least you know when they were all done and if it helps the rear whine. 

First problem addressed.  There were some locking lug nuts on the driver's side and spare, but they were missing on the passenger side.  As in there were only 5 of 6 lugs.  A complete set of lugs came with it, so it was just a matter of removing the locking lugs without the key.  My gator grip is too small to fit, so driving a 12pt impact socket on it was the answer.  Caused me all of 30 seconds delay each.  I had forgotten how worthless those things are.

In reply to JoeTR6 :

100% agree on locking lug nuts to be useless. 

I just finished the first mod on the FJ.  It came with a factory urethane steering wheel, and I wanted something a little softer feeling.  So I ordered a leather wrap for the wheel and some body colored spray paint for the side spokes on the horn push.  Here are the results.

The silver paint on the wheel spokes was getting worn, and I think this looks more interesting.  It's been running great for several hundred miles.  The only new thing I've noticed is a slightly noisy throw out bearing.