1997 Daily Driver, 1st car (1 Viewer)

[TX Crawler]

We bought this for my son as his first car -- 1997 Collector's Edition with 167,xxx miles on it. It's in decent shape, everything seems to work, but the paint is pretty much trashed.

I figured I'd start a thread to document some of the stuff we do to it.....

In the month that we've had it, we've had the windshield replaced, bought Weathertech floor liners, and pulled most of the faded/cracked wood trim off the dash and doors. Next up is either recovering the front seats or replacing with the Corbeau sport seats. And then, either wrapping it or having it bedlined. -- I think we're leaning towards having it coated. We'll probably pull the flares and roof rack first though -- I need to read up on how to best fill all the holes.

I'm relatively mechanically inclined and told my son I'll help him doing anything he wants to it but he's going to have to take the lead -- we'll see if he gets motivated to work on it or not. He's a great kid: stays out of trouble; honor student; etc. -- just working in the garage isn't usually his thing.

 

[Road Apple]

Wow, nice find !! Working on the truck will be something you can share with your son. Getting him out on the trail might help get him motivated?

Tons of threads on filling the flare and roof rack holes. Seems the most secure is welding them.

Look forward to your build. What a nice first car!!

 

[D21FJ60]

Looks clean from 10 feet away, why paint it?
Either way, awesome first car, lets hope he gets the cruiser bug

 

[Cactus Camper]

Excellent find! Looks like it’s painted in the blue, Night shadow pearl color. Paint looks good from the picture. Wish my night shadow pearl was in such good condition. My paint is toast all around. Anyway, this seems like a great first car and should provide a great foundation to wrench on together. These land cruisers are infinitely rebuildable.

 

[TX Crawler]

The driver's side is about the only good paint on it. The clear coat is peeling on the hood, cowl, flares, roof, etc. and passenger sides has some rock rash. As far as getting him to wheel it, that's the first thing he said "no, we're not taking it out....." We have this to fulfill those desires:

 

[TX Crawler]

Installed new Corbeau's (spice) this weekend. Not an exact match but they look pretty good.

 

[450LX]

I would just rock the faded paint. Have the bumpers painted, powder coat the wheels, and take it in to a PDR place and have the dings all worked out. High speed polish whatever paint still has clear coat and enjoy! I did this to my truck along with new gaskets and hardware for my flares and I love it. Once you line it you can't go back! As long as the body is clean and straight don't worry about the paint perfection!

 

[RKTINC]

Just found this post about your new 80 for your son. I too bought an old 80 and gave it to my kid. I enjoyed taking an old rig and building it up with accessories and decals. It was a little rough but he loved it and enjoyed it for a couple years. You will find that once they drive a Land Cruiser they really don't want anything else. I lucked into a 2005 with 72k miles last fall so he can finish H.S. with this one and then he gets a beater to go to college in. My 14 year old daughter got a V8 4Runner and has no desire to move 'up" to a cruiser. (Thank Goodness)

Here is my kid's first and second cars. At 17, I advised him his only hope of continuing the trend would a Law Degree or Med School. Maybe he will get motivated. Enjoy your Cruiser.