Chopped FJ Cruiser is the world's coolest farm truck

The styling of Toyota’s FJ Cruiser wagon was polarising at the time of its launch.

It was one of those 4x4s that you either loved or hated, and it remains so to this day. For Melbourne fabricator Les Camilleri, the FJ Cruiser fell into the first group, and he just loves the quirky looking rig.

“When I first saw the FJ Cruiser I said, ‘I’ll own one of them, someday’,” Les told us when we were checking out his latest creation.

Les is the bossman and chief floor sweeper at Tinman Fabrications, a business that specialises in chopping 4×4 wagons and turning them into utes or tray backs. Most of his business is converting Nissan Patrols including late model Y62s but there’s been a fair share of LandCruisers through the shop as well. Among Les’s own past personal vehicles are a couple of 60 Series Cruisers, one a twin-cab ute, the other asingle-cab ute with a 30mm chassis extension.

A few vehicles featuring Les’s handiwork have graced the pages of 4X4 Australia over the years and this FJ is just the latest.

This is the first FJ Cruiser Les has chopped and he says it will be the last. It’s not that the FJ was a particularly difficult job to carry out, just that it took a while to get right, and his time is better spent on the more popular conversions. That, and the fact that Les says he’s thinking of packing up the grinder and welding gear and retiring in the near future.

While we’ve seen other FJs cut and transformed into utes they have never looked quite right… but this one does. The key to finishing up with a good-looking rig is to get the proportions right and to do that Les added 300mm into the FJ’s chassis between the axles. The extra wheelbase makes it look like it should, and perfectly suits the trayback that has been fitted.

1

It has resulted in something that looks like a quirky farm truck and judging by the comments of those who have seen it, Les has got it spot on.

A standard FJ Cruiser rides on a shorter wheelbase version of the Prado 120 Series chassis so increasing the wheelbase back again was relatively easy, but even with the extra 300mm in the chassis the wheelbase is still 10mm shorter than the Prado. Les cut the chassis and fabbed in the additional length, then plated it up for extra strength and to accommodate the possibility of a future GVM upgrade. The rear body mounts had to be cut out and moved, and this required a frame to be made with additional strengthening.

More strengthening plates are used in the back of the chassis where eight mounts were fabricated into place to hold the100mm x 1840mm Eureka aluminium tray. The flares, spare-wheel mount and small toolbox in the tray show more of Les’s handiwork.

1

A clue to the way Les uses the FJ is that the toolbox and spare tyre are lifted up off the floor of the tray so that he can carry large sheets of metal in there unhindered. The FJ is a daily workhorse and weekend getaway rig for Les and his family.

While the body was off the chassis Les cut the rear section of the cab off, removing the rear suicide doors, back seat and rear compartment. Les uses genuine Nissan GU ute rear panels when doing the Patrol chops and was able to work one in to seal up the back of the FJ. The rear window is also a factory Nissan piece. The integration is so neat that you could swear it came like this from the factory.

The roof is another work of art. After being cut down to length Les hand formed the edges and corners for a factory look and radius at the rear to meet up with the GU panel.

1

Another neat piece of custom work from Les is the way he repurposed the factory roof rack mount to become the mounting point for the lightbar, which is a 30-inch double row item that complements the quartet of 7-inch LED spotties on the front bumper for impressive night vision.

Once all the custom fabrication was completed, the cab was sent to Autosmart Body & Paint to give it a fresh coat of the factory Voodoo Blue hue with contrasting roof. That colour has also been matched on the recovery points and accessories on the Hammer front bumper. The side rails coming off the bumper are custom made by, you guessed it, Les himself.

Giving the FJ the stance to accentuate its newfound proportions is a set of MAXXIS RAZR 35s on Fuel Vector wheels. They tuck nicely into the wheel wells thanks to a Dobinsons suspension setup comprising adjustable front coil-overs, adjustable rear shocks and Panhard rod, Dobbo’s coils and upper and lower links. The suspension install was done by the team at A&K Automotive.

1

As he’s done with the custom wheelbase and bodywork, Les has the FJ sitting just right for both looks and performance. It’s proved its mettle on our day out with it, easily negotiating the tracks and rock steps along the way.

The powertrain uses the standard Toyota 4.0-litre petrol V6 and automatic transmission with the only modification to date being the four-inch stainless steel snorkel made, of course, by Les. He told us that a Harrop supercharger kit is on his wishlist to give the V6 more grunt when towing his ski-boat or camper.

Such is the dual personality of Les’s custom built FJ ute; it’s his work truck during the week and tow mule when getting away on the weekends.