Well I guess it’s my turn to step up to bat for ROTW.
My beloved 80 is a 4/94 Toyota FZJ80 Land Cruiser, affectionately dubbed “The Elephant” by a few of my misguided friends, but it seems to have stuck.
First a bit of history on the rig:
The 80 was purchased as an ‘extra vehicle’ for my dad as his current ride, a ’99 Yukon, was approaching 150k miles, and he had always wanted an 80. He had been looking for an 80 for over a year, and he finally found one that met our criteria. When he first talked about buying one, I mentioned that he had to buy one with lockers because I had a feeling in my gut that I would end up with the truck sooner or later. He wanted a clean, relatively low milage truck that would be problem free for years to come at his anticipated yearly mileage rate of 6k/year.
My dad finally found one that met all the criteria, and what would become my 80 was purchased by my parents in June of 2003 w/ 136k miles for $9500 from a Navy Pilot. The rig was his wife’s ride and was in immaculate condition. There was not a single scratch, dent, or ding on the entire body. The interior suffered from sun damaged cracked leather, but was otherwise in excellent condition.
The reason we got it so cheap was because it was VERY sluggish and hesitated off idle. Shortly after taking possession of the rig, I was recruited to diagnose and remedy the problem. My first call to CruiserDan ensued.
At this point I was still very much a Jeep guy and didn’t really know anything about cruisers, but was very active on Jeep related forums. Someone turned me onto ‘mud, and I diagnosed the problems as clogged vacuum lines and bad O2 sensors. After replacing these, the cruiser drove like new, and that was the last I would touch it until October of 2004. In the meantime my mom would get a new car, my brother would destroy the transmission in her old camry(his ‘new’ ride), and my brother would take over daily driving of the 80 to and from high school.
Now for a bit of history on me. In 2001 I was the fortunate recipient of a new 2001 Cherokee as a HS Graduation/ Eagle Scout/ going away to college present. This was the rig that ultimately got me hooked on 4 'wheeling as well as forums like ih8mud
This was the beginning of the end as my parents like to think. I transformed this vehicle from stock to wild over the course of 3.5 years, causing great distractions from my studies and ultimately causing me to leave school for a period of time.
In August of 2004 I decided that being a college drop out wasn’t for me. I also decided that in order to get my act together and my butt back in school, I needed to cut the Jeep loose. I advertised for 2 months and finally found a buyer. The plan was for me to sell the Jeep and use the funds to purchase the 80 from my father. Well, the day before the new owner of the Jeep was to take delivery, my brother was in a wreck with the 80.
This seemingly bad turn of events turned out to be one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. Geico deemed the truck ‘totaled’ due to a bit of persuasion on my part, and as it turned out I would take possession of my 80 at no cost to me, my dad would get the $9000 I was going to pay him for the truck, and a call to www.cruiserparts.net and $75 later I had the rig safely back on the road
My beloved 80 is a 4/94 Toyota FZJ80 Land Cruiser, affectionately dubbed “The Elephant” by a few of my misguided friends, but it seems to have stuck.
First a bit of history on the rig:
The 80 was purchased as an ‘extra vehicle’ for my dad as his current ride, a ’99 Yukon, was approaching 150k miles, and he had always wanted an 80. He had been looking for an 80 for over a year, and he finally found one that met our criteria. When he first talked about buying one, I mentioned that he had to buy one with lockers because I had a feeling in my gut that I would end up with the truck sooner or later. He wanted a clean, relatively low milage truck that would be problem free for years to come at his anticipated yearly mileage rate of 6k/year.
My dad finally found one that met all the criteria, and what would become my 80 was purchased by my parents in June of 2003 w/ 136k miles for $9500 from a Navy Pilot. The rig was his wife’s ride and was in immaculate condition. There was not a single scratch, dent, or ding on the entire body. The interior suffered from sun damaged cracked leather, but was otherwise in excellent condition.
The reason we got it so cheap was because it was VERY sluggish and hesitated off idle. Shortly after taking possession of the rig, I was recruited to diagnose and remedy the problem. My first call to CruiserDan ensued.
At this point I was still very much a Jeep guy and didn’t really know anything about cruisers, but was very active on Jeep related forums. Someone turned me onto ‘mud, and I diagnosed the problems as clogged vacuum lines and bad O2 sensors. After replacing these, the cruiser drove like new, and that was the last I would touch it until October of 2004. In the meantime my mom would get a new car, my brother would destroy the transmission in her old camry(his ‘new’ ride), and my brother would take over daily driving of the 80 to and from high school.Now for a bit of history on me. In 2001 I was the fortunate recipient of a new 2001 Cherokee as a HS Graduation/ Eagle Scout/ going away to college present. This was the rig that ultimately got me hooked on 4 'wheeling as well as forums like ih8mud
This was the beginning of the end as my parents like to think. I transformed this vehicle from stock to wild over the course of 3.5 years, causing great distractions from my studies and ultimately causing me to leave school for a period of time.
In August of 2004 I decided that being a college drop out wasn’t for me. I also decided that in order to get my act together and my butt back in school, I needed to cut the Jeep loose. I advertised for 2 months and finally found a buyer. The plan was for me to sell the Jeep and use the funds to purchase the 80 from my father. Well, the day before the new owner of the Jeep was to take delivery, my brother was in a wreck with the 80.
This seemingly bad turn of events turned out to be one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. Geico deemed the truck ‘totaled’ due to a bit of persuasion on my part, and as it turned out I would take possession of my 80 at no cost to me, my dad would get the $9000 I was going to pay him for the truck, and a call to www.cruiserparts.net and $75 later I had the rig safely back on the road
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