Buying another 80 questions (1 Viewer)

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What is this "fluid film," you speak of?

Lanolin. Sheeps oil. You spray it all over underneath. It doesn’t allow anything to penetrate it. Such as salt.

Bonus: It smells like wet sheep.
 
Lanolin. Sheeps oil. You spray it all over underneath. It doesn’t allow anything to penetrate it. Such as salt.

Bonus: It smells like wet sheep.


Yeah...It takes you back to the farm, the tall red rubber boots...... The smell of wet sheep on those cold mornings......... Elsie..........Ewe, Baby Ewe.......:smokin:
 
What is this "fluid film," you speak of?

Yeah, like others have said, it's basically an oil coating to prevent rust. Out here, you need it under the vehicle and inside the frame, body panels and on suspension to keep them from rotting out.
 
Yeah, like others have said, it's basically an oil coating to prevent rust. Out here, you need it under the vehicle and inside the frame, body panels and on suspension to keep them from rotting out.
I used to use Fluid Film and I think it's a great product. However, I switched to using bar chain oil a few years ago because it's 1/6 the cost and that works just fine too. Whatever you choose, it's just smart to spray the snot out of the underside at least twice per year. I have been doing it on my 1997 Tacoma for the 5 winters that it has been in the upper midwest and it's still as rust free as it was the day it came here from Arizona. It works.
 
So glad I live where there is no salt.
 
So glad I live where there is no salt.
So glad I live next to 10% of all the fresh water on the planet. ;)

Yeah, there are pros and cons to most areas in the country but there are good solutions available to combat the salt. That said, since most people don't bother with that, most of the older(and by older, I mean anything more than 3 years old) rigs that we see are pretty rusty. I should start taking pics of some of the buckets people drive around up here. I can't even fathom how they still function, given how rotted out some of them are.
 
I may get flamed for this but at the prices quality 80s are going for you might be better off trying to find a nice 100 series some soccer mom or suit wearing dad drove around without realizing what they had. 100 series here in charlotte are very prolific. Just go to the nice mall in your area and start putting business cards in windshield wipers.
If you really want an 80 though, and it seems like you do, be patient and be willing to travel. You've been here before, you'll be fine. :)
 
I may get flamed for this but at the prices quality 80s are going for you might be better off trying to find a nice 100 series some soccer mom or suit wearing dad drove around without realizing what they had. 100 series here in charlotte are very prolific. Just go to the nice mall in your area and start putting business cards in windshield wipers.
If you really want an 80 though, and it seems like you do, be patient and be willing to travel. You've been here before, you'll be fine. :)

She already has one 80. It is natural to want another. Why take a step backwards to a 100? May as well get a Highlander.
 
Closest place eastern side is the Virginia Maryland Pennsylvania markets.
 
It's not just an '80 thing btw. Landcruisers in general have appreciated substantially in the last 3-5yrs.

I'm in CA, and here they're mostly rust-free and run between unmolested and totally modded out, but overall the basline cost seems to be up.

This year I dropped a few $k on a '60 that two years ago would have been less than half that, and I got a good deal based on the current market.
 
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It's not just an '80 thing btw. Landcruiser in general have appreciated substantially in the last 3-5yrs.

I'm in CA, and here theyre mostly rust-free and run between unmolested and totally nodded out, but overall the basline cost seems to be up.

This year I dropped a few $k on a '60 that two years ago would have been less than half that, and I got a good deal based on the current market.
Thus the reason I have 2. Market in TX seems to be moving too. Maybe you could buy one with Bitcoin.
 
If you bought bitcoin "right". I was going to buy 1 share for $1400. in July. :bang:
 
I second the idea of shopping in the West especially southwest.
Lotta sun beat paint issues out there though. It also seems like the cooling systems and head gaskets take more of a pounding and it also seems like the heat degrades the rubber and plastic bits more. My Tacoma is from Phoenix, and it is 100% rust free, but I have to replace the head gasket at some point and the rest of the cooling system has needed quite a bit of attention. The paint is OK, but not great. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to buff it back to life, but if I thought it was worth it, I would get it painted. I also think all the dust and sand is hard on the motor in general.

I think the PNW has the best trucks but everyone figured that out a while ago with the advent of eBay and CL.

The bottom line is that there are pros and cons to each truck and where it comes from and how it was maintained definitely play a big role, but you can still find trucks that check most boxes all over the country. People move around and I see trucks for sale that aren't from here all the time. Not many of them are Land Cruisers, but you get the point. Traveling to see trucks can be an issue in a hot market. A seller might not want to dink around with waiting for some dude in Maine to make his way out to Santa Fe to pick up a truck that he may not actually buy, when there are 3 dudes right in front of him with cash in hand. Plus you have to tack on the costs of the travel and also the time that it takes to do that. If you can one within a day's drive, that is a plus.
 
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Lotta sun beat paint issues out there though. It also seems like the cooling systems and head gaskets take more of a pounding and it also seems like the heat degrades the rubber and plastic bits more. My Tacoma is from Phoenix, and it is 100% rust free, but I have to replace the head gasket at some point and the rest of the cooling system has needed quite a bit of attention. The paint is OK, but not great. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to buff it back to life, but if I thought it was worth it, I would get it painted. I think the PNW has the best trucks but everyone figured that out a while ago with the advent of eBay and CL.
IH8RUST and that's all I have to say about that.
 
Very few cruisers in maine to begin with

Not a higher income state so not a common vehicle at all.

I agree Most of the Craigslist one now listed around here are rust buckets.

I bought my 80 from a navy lawyer who was at the old Brunswick naval air station

Originally he and the truck were from the Northwest

Be patient I have seen some nice ones but not with any regularity and I am always watching the trucks for sale.

I fluid film all my trucks religiously. I think that is the best we can do in this state with all the salt. The issue is the 20+ year old 80s in this neck of the woods were purchased to use in the snow and salt and very few did anything to prevent rust

Good luck
John
 
IH8RUST and that's all I have to say about that.
So do I. Don't get me wrong. I would take a rust free, well maintained SW truck over 95% of the upper midwest rigs that are left.

That said, when you are talking about a difference of $12,000 or more, that leaves a lot of wiggle room in a budget for replacing a lot of parts that would likely need attention on either truck. If you aren't looking for a show truck or an eventual Barrett-Jackson candidate, a truck with some rust might be worth taking a flyer on for the right price.

If money and time are no object, find the best truck that was maintained by someone that could afford to bring it to the dealership for any and all issues that it may have had over the course of the last 20+ years. Be sure to have your checkbook with you though ;)
 
So do I. Don't get me wrong. I would take a rust free, well maintained SW truck over 95% of the upper midwest rigs that are left.

That said, when you are talking about a difference of $12,000 or more, that leaves a lot of wiggle room in a budget for replacing a lot of parts that would likely need attention on either truck. If you aren't looking for a show truck or an eventual Barrett-Jackson candidate, a truck with some rust might be worth taking a flyer on for the right price.

If money and time are no object, find the best truck that was maintained by someone that could afford to bring it to the dealership for any and all issues that it may have had over the course of the last 20+ years. Be sure to have your checkbook with you though ;)
The 93 I'm running now came from NNE Oregon high desert. No rust and all the rubber, even though I have replaced it, was in unbelievably good condition still. At the risk of sounding like an ass, I will say this. If you have a "budget" then you may want to consider another mode of transportation. I hear Toyota Yaris's are great cars. Granted, not everyone mods the hell out of there rig for more extreme or hardcore wheeling but on any car that is over 20 years old you are going to pay whether you buy the parts and put your own time into the vehicle or you pay someone else, and the PO could be that someone else. I sometimes wonder how much I would have spent on my 80 up to this point had I contracted out every bit of the work. I can tell you that, in that case, I could not afford to play because, as it is, my receipts equal more $ than I care to admit. I did not buy a Landcruiser to save money. If I a person is that concerned about the monthly "budget" (whatever that is?) a vehicle they could not have afforded new is not affordable now.
 
The 93 I'm running now came from NNE Oregon high desert. No rust and all the rubber, even though I have replaced it, was in unbelievably good condition still. At the risk of sounding like an ass, I will say this. If you have a "budget" then you may want to consider another mode of transportation. I hear Toyota Yaris's are great cars. Granted, not everyone mods the hell out of there rig for more extreme or hardcore wheeling but on any car that is over 20 years old you are going to pay whether you buy the parts and put your own time into the vehicle or you pay someone else, and the PO could be that someone else. I sometimes wonder how much I would have spent on my 80 up to this point had I contracted out every bit of the work. I can tell you that, in that case, I could not afford to play because, as it is, my receipts equal more $ than I care to admit. I did not buy a Landcruiser to save money. If I a person is that concerned about the monthly "budget" (whatever that is?) a vehicle they could not have afforded new is not affordable now.
You were starting to sound like an ass but you straightened out there very well :beer:


I will say though that I guess I was assuming that whomever buys an 80 is going to work on it themselves. Paying someone else to do it for you is untenable for most people and undesired by those that can afford to do so. I was thinking about the fact that I am mid level public sector bureaucrat. What we gain in benefits and security sacrifices high pay. I do fine, but I would be lying if I said that the $9000 worth of parts that I have dumped into my 80 over the course of the last 16 months didn't put a strain on my finances at times. The nice part is that you can plan for the projects long before you likely have to do something because of how robust the car is. In the long run, an 80 is a fairly economical vehicle if you keep it mostly stock and you are willing to commit to the work that it takes to maintain it. Even if it's not that economical, it's still an incredible vehicle and once you do all the things that it needs, you know how it all works and you know that you can probably keep it running for the rest of your life as long as parts are available. You just can't say that about many other vehicles.
 

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