It's still almost hard to believe. Looking out my window at the sweet little diesel '87 HJ60 sitting there. Almost two months ago, I went to Ontario with my brother to take a look at two nonrunning diesel landcruisers, an HJ60 and an '84 BJ60 that I had seen on ebay, but the owner told me for a guaranteed sale he'd cancel the auction. So we left the next morning, of course. We got there after seven hours on the road and much eager anticipation. The HJ, we were told, had a blown motor and the BJ had been sitting in a barn for 9 years, and was parked when its oil pump went out. The body and interior on the HJ were in really good condition, the transmision (5 speed) felt great, good tires, brakes felt good. The body was really rusty on the BJ and the interior smelled like every mouse in that barn had pissed in it for the last nine years. But, we were in love. So I gave the guy $1500 for the pair, and we drove back home to northern michigan, to try to figure out how the hell we were going to get them here. First I called Toyota in California, you all know how that goes. Then I called a Registered Importer, but it would've cost $1200 total in importation fees to do them both. I'm young, I don't have rich parents, I make a living selling artwork that I make, so, it seemed like a little much. Well, when we came through the border after buying the landcruisers, we asked customs how we should go about bringing them in - they told us that we needed to get letters from Toyota, and that "they see them (the letters) all the time". So we called them, and asked, "if they see these letters all the time, where are people getting them?". "From local dealerships", they told us. Bingo! So we called our local toyota dealership and told him our story. He was like, "diesel landcruisers? Hell yeah! A letter from me is really good enough?" So we called customs and made sure, and everyone seemed to agree, any letter on toyota letterhead and signed by a representative of toyota is sufficient. They told us to have him put something in there about the EPA too. So we wrote up a couple of nice letters, exactly what it needed to say, took it to the dealership and he printed it out on toyota letterhead and gave it his John Hancock. We picked up the '87 two days ago, got to the border at about 8 a.m. Went inside, gave them the letter, my title, a bill of sale for $200 (duty free baby), filled out their paperwork and they gave me some new paperwork with a big fat red stamp on the front: Meets EPA and DOT as per letter of conformity. They never inspected the vehicle or anything. Home free! Tomorrow we will go pick up the '84. Fxxx Yeah! And come to find out, the HJ60 doesn't have a blown motor at all, it just needs a new head gasket! I'm thanking my lucky stars right about now!
. now lets see some pic's
