21NDone
SILVER Star
If you’re reading this strictly for the Landcruiser information skip to the bottom of this post. If you’d like to read through a brief introduction please read on.
Username: Tribute/reminder of my 21 years in the United States Air Force. Had an original username of *“YUB” but decided 21NDone was more appropriate. Paid the $20 to become a silver member and BAM, 21NDone it is!
Me: As alluded to in my username I’m a 21 year veteran of the United States Air Force. Joined early in life with the goal to give something back to my country, make a steady paycheck and “See the world” (I should also add, “to get out of the small town where I grew up in IL”) On the rare occasions I visited IL throughout the years I couldn’t help but notice everyone was still there and doing mostly the same things – Odd but funny. No regrets leaving. Those goals were achieved, and then some, before retiring. Because the *Queen said I couldn’t retire at the age of 39 and before her I had no other option but to seek out my “Second” career. Doing what I believe most people would do, I sought out a job that capitalized on the training and experience gained in the military and now am in the twilight of a very rewarding career with a defense contractor. How much longer I’ll stay in the rat race is unknown, but I think I’m going to take the approach of Walter Payton and continue working until I no longer enjoy what I’m doing or can’t work for reasons beyond my control. We’ll see…
I’m a reserved person and don’t typically open up with people unless they are in the *”Circle of Trust”. Call it a fault, but I’ve been that way most my life. Now, once in the circle, that’s a different story - you now are often referred to as a brother or sister. That said, if you’ve served you are already a brother or sister.
History with the Mud community: Lurked for many years before becoming a member in 2018 and until this post you could say I continued to lurk. Overwhelmed by the amount of information on the site it was hard to pick where to jump in. Why post now? See “The 1972 U.S. Spec Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser” write-up below.
Why all the “*” throughout this post: These are topics that warrant their own thread and may be addressed later, sooner if there’s interest. Although, not sure where it would be appropriate posting those topics.
My 1972 U.S. Spec Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser – Came across this Landcruiser in the small desert town where I lived, go figure! The gentleman that sold it to me actually owned 2. No, I never saw his other truck nor do I know if he was selling it. It wasn’t like I could afford it any way, hell, I could barely afford the $2500 he was asking for the ’72. We took it for a ride, even went offroad to exercise the 4-wheel drive and everything worked! If I recall correctly there may have been a bulb out, not sure. Condition was very solid all the way around and there was no visible *rust. Based on the research I’ve done it’s only been registered in Arizona and it wore current Arizona plates when I bought it in California? < Writing that seems odd it was in California wearing Arizona plates. Oh well, my gain! Absorbed in excitement but putting on my best poker face we agreed on a selling price (See above, I let the cat out of the bag too early) and I took the truck to its new home – for the record this was 1995. Drove it for a year and enjoyed every minute until I decided to “refresh” the engine. I’m sure you can tell where this story is going. Well, life happened, and it sat on the side of my house for over 20 years. Yes, I was ridiculed often but she was mine and that’s all that mattered. While she sat idle I was often asked what my plans are for her and the most frequent response was “Be buried in it if I don’t get around to restoring it”. I use the word “restored” loosely. Go back to when the truck was only sitting for 15 years. In moved a new neighbor from Washington State. He was enamored by the truck and for a couple of years, usually while partaking our favorite beverage, he would try to get me to agree to sell it to him. Once he realized it could very well be used as my casket he gave up trying to buy it. Fast forward a couple of years and the same neighbor came to me and said he had a “Guy” who could restore the Cruiser, to which I replied we all have “guys” I’m not interested. The reason it sat so long is (1) Free cash and (2) someone I could trust to restore her to my expectations. So, every so often the neighbor would remind me about his guy and I always responded the same until this one day when he stuck his phone in my face with a picture of a beautiful ’78? FJ40 and he said this is the type work my guy does. It was a picture of a closed RM Sotheby’s auction and the truck sold for $82K. At this point I responded, “Maybe your guy can be my guy”. From there, and with the green light to proceed from the Queen I would talk with the *builder/perfectionist on a regular basis until we both agreed on the level of restoration, this took well over 6 months. Once we both slapped the table I put ole girl on a trailer and made the ~ 900 mile trek to drop her off to be restored. For the record this was December 2017. Aside from the level of restoration my only other request was to get the truck back before I retired, which in today’s environment is a slippery date. With Gods good grace I’m hoping to retire for the 2nd time in the 2026-2027 timeframe, we’ll see. Below is a picture of the day I put the Cruiser on a trailer to take her to her temporary home and the other picture is the current state of the truck.
Username: Tribute/reminder of my 21 years in the United States Air Force. Had an original username of *“YUB” but decided 21NDone was more appropriate. Paid the $20 to become a silver member and BAM, 21NDone it is!
Me: As alluded to in my username I’m a 21 year veteran of the United States Air Force. Joined early in life with the goal to give something back to my country, make a steady paycheck and “See the world” (I should also add, “to get out of the small town where I grew up in IL”) On the rare occasions I visited IL throughout the years I couldn’t help but notice everyone was still there and doing mostly the same things – Odd but funny. No regrets leaving. Those goals were achieved, and then some, before retiring. Because the *Queen said I couldn’t retire at the age of 39 and before her I had no other option but to seek out my “Second” career. Doing what I believe most people would do, I sought out a job that capitalized on the training and experience gained in the military and now am in the twilight of a very rewarding career with a defense contractor. How much longer I’ll stay in the rat race is unknown, but I think I’m going to take the approach of Walter Payton and continue working until I no longer enjoy what I’m doing or can’t work for reasons beyond my control. We’ll see…
I’m a reserved person and don’t typically open up with people unless they are in the *”Circle of Trust”. Call it a fault, but I’ve been that way most my life. Now, once in the circle, that’s a different story - you now are often referred to as a brother or sister. That said, if you’ve served you are already a brother or sister.
History with the Mud community: Lurked for many years before becoming a member in 2018 and until this post you could say I continued to lurk. Overwhelmed by the amount of information on the site it was hard to pick where to jump in. Why post now? See “The 1972 U.S. Spec Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser” write-up below.
Why all the “*” throughout this post: These are topics that warrant their own thread and may be addressed later, sooner if there’s interest. Although, not sure where it would be appropriate posting those topics.
My 1972 U.S. Spec Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser – Came across this Landcruiser in the small desert town where I lived, go figure! The gentleman that sold it to me actually owned 2. No, I never saw his other truck nor do I know if he was selling it. It wasn’t like I could afford it any way, hell, I could barely afford the $2500 he was asking for the ’72. We took it for a ride, even went offroad to exercise the 4-wheel drive and everything worked! If I recall correctly there may have been a bulb out, not sure. Condition was very solid all the way around and there was no visible *rust. Based on the research I’ve done it’s only been registered in Arizona and it wore current Arizona plates when I bought it in California? < Writing that seems odd it was in California wearing Arizona plates. Oh well, my gain! Absorbed in excitement but putting on my best poker face we agreed on a selling price (See above, I let the cat out of the bag too early) and I took the truck to its new home – for the record this was 1995. Drove it for a year and enjoyed every minute until I decided to “refresh” the engine. I’m sure you can tell where this story is going. Well, life happened, and it sat on the side of my house for over 20 years. Yes, I was ridiculed often but she was mine and that’s all that mattered. While she sat idle I was often asked what my plans are for her and the most frequent response was “Be buried in it if I don’t get around to restoring it”. I use the word “restored” loosely. Go back to when the truck was only sitting for 15 years. In moved a new neighbor from Washington State. He was enamored by the truck and for a couple of years, usually while partaking our favorite beverage, he would try to get me to agree to sell it to him. Once he realized it could very well be used as my casket he gave up trying to buy it. Fast forward a couple of years and the same neighbor came to me and said he had a “Guy” who could restore the Cruiser, to which I replied we all have “guys” I’m not interested. The reason it sat so long is (1) Free cash and (2) someone I could trust to restore her to my expectations. So, every so often the neighbor would remind me about his guy and I always responded the same until this one day when he stuck his phone in my face with a picture of a beautiful ’78? FJ40 and he said this is the type work my guy does. It was a picture of a closed RM Sotheby’s auction and the truck sold for $82K. At this point I responded, “Maybe your guy can be my guy”. From there, and with the green light to proceed from the Queen I would talk with the *builder/perfectionist on a regular basis until we both agreed on the level of restoration, this took well over 6 months. Once we both slapped the table I put ole girl on a trailer and made the ~ 900 mile trek to drop her off to be restored. For the record this was December 2017. Aside from the level of restoration my only other request was to get the truck back before I retired, which in today’s environment is a slippery date. With Gods good grace I’m hoping to retire for the 2nd time in the 2026-2027 timeframe, we’ll see. Below is a picture of the day I put the Cruiser on a trailer to take her to her temporary home and the other picture is the current state of the truck.
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