Am I nuts? high mileage '97 40th Anniversary questions (1 Viewer)

[dogfishlake]

You are not crazy.

And with "my wife absolutely loves this rig",
you are also lucky

 

[White Stripe]

Was it worth it to give so much time and effort? It has been for me. Tough in many ways yet we are better for it. We, as in the 80 and I. Wife is still jelly.

Im just finishing up with it now. I think it will be worth it if it lives up to my expectations. Far more work than I anticipated though. I didn't anticipate having to rebuild all 4 doors, rebuilding the transfercase, removing all the windows to fix leaks, the steering was in pretty poor shape. I still have to fix the wipers being slow. Lotta small things are killing me.

 

[Pascoscout]

If your wife loves it KEEP IT! It’s usually the other way around. My wife hates mine with a passion. So it sounds like you are winning the major battle already. PM is the easy part.

Sounds like ya'll may want some counseling. Pretty sure they offer it at your local Toyota dealership.

I have to fight my wife to keep her out of mine. She'll wear the tread off the tires if I let her drive it whenever she wants. We're looking at a new car for her and she wants another 80 series... for me to drive...

 

[nickmike]

Thanks a ton for all of your responses! It’s helped so much to hear some numbers from guys that have actually done exactly what I want to do to my LC. Thanks again

 

[Haspin FJ]

How does it run? Is it rust free? I bought mine at a time when they seemed impossible to find I'm my area or they were rust belt shot. Rust is a deal breaker unless its just starting and then I'd wool wax or fluid film it. I drove a number of them before I bought and wound up heading south and getting my 97 non locked with 319k for 4k. Probably too much but it drove and ran the best out of all I'd seen, body was in good shape and rust free. Needed some love though as I think an entire youth baseball team travelled for some time in this thing. Nicknamed her "sweet tea" from the carpet condition from lack of cupholders. Wife wouldn't get near it then, lol. I could see the potential as now it back in good condition. Had the head gasket go out shortly after I brought it home which I was planning to redo anyway with the lack of history and where I planned to take it. After the new HG it has run perfect and burns no oil now with 352k. I've done a good amount of just preventative stuff and new brakes, fan clutch mode, etc. but other then that it's been great. Taken it off roading numerous times on medium to "black" trails and on numerous family vacations, some packed with 6 decent sized people (and maybe dogs on one), RTT, and hitch carrier. If it runs good and winds up being reliable related to that and is clean, all the other items seem like commonalities your going to have to deal with if you own an 80 series. All my real money has been in add on's.