About – The forty Collection

Founded 2019 / East Fort Lauderdale, Florida

A Shop, Not a Studio.

Three people. One bay. Six FJ40s a year. The chassis shop next door is also ours.

The Origin

Two Garages, One Idea, Six Years.

Forty Collection started in a single-bay shop with two FJ40 frames in pieces on the floor. The thesis was simple. Every other restomod shop adapts an existing chassis. We thought the chassis was the wrong place to compromise.

Six years later, the chassis side of the business spun off into Rolling 40, a separate shop with its own crew, building frames for our FJ40 program and a few outside clients. The Forty Collection side stayed small on purpose. Six builds a year. One vehicle at a time. The way it should be when each truck takes over a year of someone’s hands.

Founding story

Forty Collection started with a Toyota FJ40 and a passion that runs through South America, where these trucks were a part of growing up. Luis and JD restored the first ones in Colombia. After the third build, the idea changed. Instead of restoring trucks one customer at a time, they would re-engineer them: keep the look that made them legends, and rebuild everything underneath to drive like a modern vehicle. That idea became the Forty Collection. The name comes from the FJ40, the truck that started it. What began as a Toyota company grew into something larger. Today we build vintage Toyota FJ, Ford Bronco, and Land Rover Defender trucks, with our own chassis fabricated in-house through our sister company, Rolling 40.

The People

Three Names on Every Build Sheet.

Larry Sidebotham

Chief Executive.

A lifelong entrepreneur who sets the vision and builds the brand.

Luis Molina

Co-Founder.

Automotive expertise. Runs day-to-day operations across both shops.

JD

Co-Founder.

Leads the Colombia production shop and its crew.

Ju Yang

Finance.

Runs finance and accounting.

Willie

General Manager, Florida.

A banking background brought to the build floor. Organizes the crews and oversees production in Florida.

The Shop

East Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Two adjoining buildings on a quiet block off A1A. Forty Collection on one side, Rolling 40 on the other. Visits by appointment. Local buyers can pick up at the shop. Out-of-state buyers, we crate and deliver.

What we build

We do full frame-off re-engineering. The body is period-correct. Everything else is new: modern drivetrains, independent suspension on our Bronco and Defender chassis, hand-stitched interiors, and paint that belongs on a car worth a quarter of a million dollars. Nothing on these trucks is a shelf part. The hardware is stainless. The components are the best in the industry. The result is a truck that looks like 1973 and drives like 2026.

Mission

We refuse to compromise. Not on the engine, not on the leather, not on the chassis. Every Forty Collection truck is built to separate itself in any room, and to last.