Every once in a while we find a project car so good, that it would be a shame to not give it the attention it deserves, as is the case with this Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser appropriately called Project Sniper.

Project Sniper may be the most unique vehicle we have ever encountered. Although it is an FJ40 shell, it has been remade into something else entirely.

Owner Mike Francis, who lead the development of this off-road project dream car gave us the inside scoop on how it was made and what makes it tick.

Mike grew up in a paint and body shop, and since childhood he was fond of vehicles, but his affinity for the FJ40 came from the family car, a restored 1969 FJ40 Land Cruiser that they took on road trips from Washington to Mexico and everywhere in-between. In fact it is still in the family today.

As Mike got older, he continued working in the paint and body industry and got an FJ40 of his own. He realized no one in the industry was interested in what he had in mind. He went in his own direction, and in the process founded Rock Solid Off-Road in April 1999. The company specializes in engine swaps and custom builds for vintage 4x4s, modern 4x4s, classic cars, and hot rods.

With a few creative desires the build started and was called Project Sniper. Mike made connections with several of companies starting with Aqualu industries based in Canada, who helped remake the FJ40 body frame into a four door, something they never offered.

The whole car is widened seven inches including an extended three inches on the front end to fit an 80 series chasis. Designing in AutoCAD allowed for plenty of other unique and awesome changes to be made while still keeping the Land-Cruiser body. Once it was complete it was shipped down to Moab, Utah where Mike picked it up to begin working on it, from a raw build of the custom aluminum shell.

Mike first took the body to a polishing shop referred to him by Zephyr Products, who do the polishing for aluminum stainless tanks on gas tanks. Zephyr polished the entire vehicle and after Mike brought it home, after leaving it in the sun for a bit, he noticed the reflection of the polish had melted the tailgate trim panel and bumper trim panel off his Dodge.

Right away it established its attitude as a vehicle before it had any guts, it was a real testament to the pristine polish that it received.

The mirror-like reflection taking a camouflage appearance of its surroundings was the motivation for the given name, Sniper, as you couldn’t take any pictures of it from how mirror-like the reflection was; it was almost like it couldn’t be seen. “It was mean, it liked to burn up stuff. You couldn’t see it, it was a sniper,” Mike said.

This video shows what the Sniper looked like when it was just the shell of the body.

https://youtu.be/ab9uzKEawsQ

The Build Process and Modifications
As they began to make it come together, they noticed the over-polished surface was a bit intense. With the dash and center console also polished they wrapped it over as well as the center of the hood to try and eliminate the super-glare of the reflection.

Mike did a partial wrap by Gatorwraps in Ontario California, to give it an eye catching design yet retain a decent amount of its reflective aluminum polish. The red and black wrap is a mixture of real fire flames, carbon fiber, and sinister and smoky skulls, to match the logo color of Rock Solid Off-Road.

After the wrap, Mike needed a fresh way to mount the body instead of using the factory rubber bushings. With Energy Suspension‘s universal polyurethane body mount bushings, the teams was able to get the body a firmer mount against the chassis.

The interior is also pretty sleek, with PRP seats, Rally Venture front recliners, and Livorsi Marine gauges and senders. Livorsi Marine manufactures marine gauges designed to take abuse and handle harsh environments, witch is perfect for off-roading.

There is a hidden compartment under the dash that houses the Centech wire fuse panel and Quickfuel ECM for the EFI. It is a good use of space and makes for easy access to the fuse panel.

Staying with the old school feel of the truck, Mike went away from the light bar style that is so popular. On top they put up five visionx 9-inch cannons with various diffusers, and two more 9-inch cannons put up on the front. The steering is handled by an AGR Rock Ram kit, they used ididit for a tilt column and the steering wheel is by NRG.

The Land Cruiser sits on 20 inch Method Race Wheels with 105 beadlocks, holding Interco Tires 41 inch Iroks. The front suspension of the chassis is a three link, with the rear being a four link. Both are equipped with Bilstein 9100 series rock crawlers for rugged, rocky terrain.

The hiems and mounts were done by Rough Stuff Specialties. For the bumper lights, they installed Vision X Optimis round driving lights and iron cross flush mounts for back up on the rear.

The Sniper is powered by a Chevy V8, cast iron four bolt main ZZ3 block, with a 3.750 stroke crankshaft. The camshaft is a Crower hydraulic roller 286/292 duration and .549/.559 lift. It’s has combustion chambers, aluminum cylinder heads, with 64cc, and 2.02 inch/1.60 inch valves. The air intake manifold is an aluminum Edelbrock RPM air gap, with an EFI system made by Quickfuel technologies. The stainless steel headers, muffler and exhaust were made by Gibson performance,

The stainless steel tubes and install was done by Speedway Muffler. The truck has an MSD billet HEI distributor, and Turbo 400 built by Blues Transmission in San Jacinto, California. The shifter was designed by Art Carr, a company that makes transmissions for race-cars.

It is one hell of a ride. Looking at all the modifications this beast has it’s fair to say there is nothing else like it out there, and that is exactly what Mike was going for. The engine alone is a work of art. It is an off-road masterpiece to say the least.

The Sniper was built more for overland cruising, as it is a “Land Cruiser,” rather than a rock crawler, but that doesn’t make it any less capable of navigating over rough trails. While it won’t be jumping over any mountains, you can be sure the Sniper can overcome just about any terrain that it might encounter.

Over the course of more than year, 7,000-8,000 man hours were put into the Sniper to shape it to what it was meant to be. “For roughly four months I worked non-stop while my guys handled the day to day stuff in the shop,” Mike said.

So what exactly did all this effort cost? Try upwards of $150,000 in total investment. That’s a price tag worthy of some new model sports cars on the market right now, and it’s not even finished! But really, when is a project car like this ever truly finished?

Mike was motivated to do this project for his love of the Land Cruiser, but what inspired him was the desire to have more room for his family and gear, while being flashy and versatile on or off the road. “Once we received the body, we decided to go over the top. I wanted something that just screamed “look at me”, a truck that you couldn’t help but look at. I wanted a truck that was a compromise of go anywhere and still streetable to a point,” Mike Said.
Mike and his crew brought the Sniper to SEMA 2014, and despite some minor issues with the fuel injection and ECM they had a great show, getting some well deserved attention.

Mike plans to make a return to SEMA this year displaying the Sniper again, with higher expectations and better additions,  to make the car perfect before moving on to something else. The car was also featured this year at the 2015 King of the Hammers event in Johnson Valley California, where it initially caught our attention.

Mike and his company, Rock Solid Off-Road, have been keeping up with other projects. Their focus is mainly on detailing body work for customer vehicles, and maintaining the shop to make projects like the Sniper possible. For the most part, the Sniper FJ40 is the definition of how he approaches project cars, building originals that no one else has.

When we asked Mike what advice he would give to new-comers in off-road culture, his response was this, “Off-roading, literally, has something for everyone. You don’t have to be a hard core crawler to have fun. In fact, my true passion would be overlanding. I really enjoy packing up and just exploring for days at a time. Figure out what kind of off-road style peaks your interest and go for it!”

Mike did what he wanted and it got him a bad-ass vehicle worthy of the attention. Project Sniper is, and will, continue to be an ultimate off-road vehicle that is a notch under monster trucks and a tier above pretty much everything else. We tip our hats to Mike for his effort and creativity in building this off-road beast. Well done, Mike, keep up the good work!