After a little research and looking at the various cruisers for sale in these parts, I came across a small ad for an LCII - BJ40. No photo, just that is had sport rims and was a 3.0L diesel. Had to wait a while until the guy came back into town, and met up with him, but by the time he arrived it was dark. The car was about as bad as I thought it was gonna be, but still had some character about it. This was the first BJ I had seen in the tin, so it was a learning experience for me.
Grabbed a flashlight and had a good rummage around, underneath and anywhere else I could look. Apart from a bit of body cancer, the underside looks tough enough and still solid. Bit of an oil leak from the tranny and the steering has quite a bit of free play.
Jumped in for a test drive and rattled down the road for a while. Jeez this thing is noisy! Every hole in the road comes up through the cab and I kept looking back to make sure the doors were still attached!
After a bit of haggling and a 20% reduction in the price....OK - I'll take it! "Are you sure?" the owner asked!
So the next day, we took it to the testing centre - all ok there and transferred ownership. The journey home was........interesting. The temp outside was 30oC (86F), but with ominous black clouds looming. I knew the air-con didn't work, so had the windows down and kick vents open. The drops of water on the screen started to become more frequent....and then the heavens opened with a full monsoon rain! Closing the window just made it hotter and I was sweating buckets! Crawling through a traffic jam was not a good start!
Anyway, made it home as the sun was coming back out, and in half an hour or so, it was drying out. Got up the next morning to see if the beast was still there.......it was!!
It is in the workshop this week, to get the steering and leaky tranny sorted out. After that will be suspension, followed by a few weeks in the body shop. I wish I could do the work myself, but have neither time, space or resources!
I'll keep ya posted as to how it goes!
Cheers,
Ian
Grabbed a flashlight and had a good rummage around, underneath and anywhere else I could look. Apart from a bit of body cancer, the underside looks tough enough and still solid. Bit of an oil leak from the tranny and the steering has quite a bit of free play.
Jumped in for a test drive and rattled down the road for a while. Jeez this thing is noisy! Every hole in the road comes up through the cab and I kept looking back to make sure the doors were still attached!
After a bit of haggling and a 20% reduction in the price....OK - I'll take it! "Are you sure?" the owner asked!
So the next day, we took it to the testing centre - all ok there and transferred ownership. The journey home was........interesting. The temp outside was 30oC (86F), but with ominous black clouds looming. I knew the air-con didn't work, so had the windows down and kick vents open. The drops of water on the screen started to become more frequent....and then the heavens opened with a full monsoon rain! Closing the window just made it hotter and I was sweating buckets! Crawling through a traffic jam was not a good start!
Anyway, made it home as the sun was coming back out, and in half an hour or so, it was drying out. Got up the next morning to see if the beast was still there.......it was!!
It is in the workshop this week, to get the steering and leaky tranny sorted out. After that will be suspension, followed by a few weeks in the body shop. I wish I could do the work myself, but have neither time, space or resources!
I'll keep ya posted as to how it goes!
Cheers,
Ian
