This Land Cruiser 40 is a Toyota Fortuner underneath

When it comes to choosing a weapon for going off-road, the 40-series Land Cruiser comes to mind. We all know Toyota made a modern interpretation of it with the FJ Cruiser, but have you ever wondered what it would be like if the exact original 40 series had modern underpinnings and running gear?

Well, a Filipino 4x4 enthusiast has made it happen and aptly calls it the BJFortuner. Ronald Araga and his team have successfully fused the body shell of a Land Cruiser 40 to the chassis and drivetrain of a 2007 Toyota Fortuner donor car.

It wasn’t a simple plug-and-play conversion either. They had to chop off a few inches in the ladder frame of the Fortuner to fit the BJ40 body shell. Among other things, the owner shared with us they also had to relocate the Fortuner’s OEM gas tank, shorten the prop shaft, as well as the original Fortuner exhaust system. But other than that, the suspension mounting points of the Fortuner were retained, along with the mounting brackets for the 3.0-liter 1KD-FTV engine.

Inside, they were able to retrofit the Fortuner’s instrument cluster to the place where the original BJ40 gauges used to be. The steering column also houses the Fortuner’s keyhole, stalks for the lights, turn signals, and the wiper mechanism.

Since the Fortuner has a slimmer gearbox casing, space was opened up in the transmission tunnel. Araga and his team fabricated a trellis-style shifter housing to place the 4-speed automatic gearbox lever, along with a foot-mounted parking brake. For better interior ergonomics, they took inspiration from the first-generation Pajero in designing the BJ40’s floating chairs. A custom A/C system was also fitted to keep the occupants cool.

With the new double-wishbone front and coil spring rear suspension, the BJFortuner should have better road manners than the original. The owner told us that the BJFortuner is already in a running condition, and everything is working as it should – including the 4x4 system.

What do you think of the retro-modern 4x4 swap? Are you inspired to build one yourself? Let us know in the comments.