Hi all,
I moved to Salt Lake City from Pittsburgh in October and there was no way I was going to live in this state without owning a 4x4 overlander for taking advantage of this awesome geography. At first the target was a VW Vanagon Syncro, then for a while an 80 series (almost flew to Texas for a locked LX), and then finally, after a little help from this forum, I decided to look for a 100 series. A few weeks back I located a white 1999 Land Cruiser at a dealership an hour and a half north in Logan, and after a test drive and inspection, I was able to buy it for what I think was a pretty good price. I'll post some pictures below.
The real selling point for me was the interior - its borderline perfect - and the fact that the shop that looked at it said that mechanically it was in extremely good shape. Its bone stock - *with* the factory rear diff-lock switch. This was a must for me, not necessarily for extreme off-roading needs, but because, at age 27, its still a must for me that I own a vehicle that's as close as possible to a Transformer/military tank. I understand that buying one already built might have been more cost effective, but I'm comfortable with what I got.
So far I've only done some addition-by-subtraction mods - I've removed the (broken) hood-mounted front wind deflector and taken off the running boards. Of course this example had the Toyota factory 'Donald Trump-Edition' gold package, so I removed all of the emblems, sanded them down, and resprayed them with Rustoleum "Flat Soft Iron". I was aiming for the color of the 40th Anniversary Land Cruiser badges. I also sprayed the chrome grille surround a flat black. I'm not in love with the way it all came together, but I think it'll look good once the factory silver-beige bumper is replaced with an ARB down the line. Inside, I had my girlfriend clean and condition the leather. Next i plan on removing as much of the wood interior trim as possible. I bought a Superskin Steering Wheel Cover on Amazon. I'm hoping to get that on this weekend. I've also got some spots of minor surface rust to clean up - got Navy Jelly and Toyota touch up paint for that.
The first serious mod I'd like to do are tires - I'm pretty set on finding a set of 285/75r16 BFG A/T K02s at a reasonable price, hopefully even used in order to save some $. I'm thinking that's the most bang-for-the-buck mod I can do at this point. The tires on it now are Yokohama Geolanders which I've found to be useless once the pavement ends. The goal is to get to the point where I feel comfortable heading deep into some National Parks and down some easy trails in Moab this summer. Next I want to start learning about cost effective lifts that can 1) add clearance and 2) support added weight and stiffen up the ride.
Sorry for the long first post! I'm a "car guy" but this is my first real endeavor with building up a vehicle in my vision, so I'll be on here a lot taking advantage of all of the good insight, and eventually adding some of my own. I'd love to get to know some local Utah owners too so that down the road I can trade beer or steaks for help with some mods
Also - The puppy's name is Timber and he's a Golden Retriever. He's got a lot of Land Cruiser adventures in his future.
I moved to Salt Lake City from Pittsburgh in October and there was no way I was going to live in this state without owning a 4x4 overlander for taking advantage of this awesome geography. At first the target was a VW Vanagon Syncro, then for a while an 80 series (almost flew to Texas for a locked LX), and then finally, after a little help from this forum, I decided to look for a 100 series. A few weeks back I located a white 1999 Land Cruiser at a dealership an hour and a half north in Logan, and after a test drive and inspection, I was able to buy it for what I think was a pretty good price. I'll post some pictures below.
The real selling point for me was the interior - its borderline perfect - and the fact that the shop that looked at it said that mechanically it was in extremely good shape. Its bone stock - *with* the factory rear diff-lock switch. This was a must for me, not necessarily for extreme off-roading needs, but because, at age 27, its still a must for me that I own a vehicle that's as close as possible to a Transformer/military tank. I understand that buying one already built might have been more cost effective, but I'm comfortable with what I got.
So far I've only done some addition-by-subtraction mods - I've removed the (broken) hood-mounted front wind deflector and taken off the running boards. Of course this example had the Toyota factory 'Donald Trump-Edition' gold package, so I removed all of the emblems, sanded them down, and resprayed them with Rustoleum "Flat Soft Iron". I was aiming for the color of the 40th Anniversary Land Cruiser badges. I also sprayed the chrome grille surround a flat black. I'm not in love with the way it all came together, but I think it'll look good once the factory silver-beige bumper is replaced with an ARB down the line. Inside, I had my girlfriend clean and condition the leather. Next i plan on removing as much of the wood interior trim as possible. I bought a Superskin Steering Wheel Cover on Amazon. I'm hoping to get that on this weekend. I've also got some spots of minor surface rust to clean up - got Navy Jelly and Toyota touch up paint for that.
The first serious mod I'd like to do are tires - I'm pretty set on finding a set of 285/75r16 BFG A/T K02s at a reasonable price, hopefully even used in order to save some $. I'm thinking that's the most bang-for-the-buck mod I can do at this point. The tires on it now are Yokohama Geolanders which I've found to be useless once the pavement ends. The goal is to get to the point where I feel comfortable heading deep into some National Parks and down some easy trails in Moab this summer. Next I want to start learning about cost effective lifts that can 1) add clearance and 2) support added weight and stiffen up the ride.
Sorry for the long first post! I'm a "car guy" but this is my first real endeavor with building up a vehicle in my vision, so I'll be on here a lot taking advantage of all of the good insight, and eventually adding some of my own. I'd love to get to know some local Utah owners too so that down the road I can trade beer or steaks for help with some mods
Also - The puppy's name is Timber and he's a Golden Retriever. He's got a lot of Land Cruiser adventures in his future.