Buying an 80 advice needed please (1 Viewer)

[JoeCova]

The rust appears mostly on the rear axle and above the tire carrier and hitch. This is generally where most of your rust issues will be and rust around those areas of the frame is expected due to retaining both salt and moisture from road spray. I had some rust up in there and my 80 was in Utah and CO 100% of it's life. For me those are no issue areas (as long as you cant push a finger through it). Rust scaling on the axle is obviously not very attractive but it's also not that big of deal being on the axle. Rust areas I am concerned with is up under the body, that would be a pain to fix but depending on how bad it is you can likely paint it as well to minimize further rusting.

Paint on frames and axles are kind of a double edged sword, on one hand paint can prevent further rusting but if not applied correctly or using the wrong type of paint or compound may actually trap moisture and make things worse.

Red Flags for me:
Leaking Birfs, probably needs a complete axle service.
Check Engine Light. This is OBD1 so the code will blink at you when you run diagnostics with a paperclip. This could be anything.
235k Miles - Likely close to needing a rebuild
Lockers don't work - Lockers probably just need the actuator rebuilt but again could be anything.

If it were me I would offer maybe, 6k with the expectation of putting in maybe another 6k worth of work and parts but hard to say without pics of the engine or the interior.

 

[Broski]

Life's to short to deal with rusty cars !!

 

[SoTexCruiserDoc]

The undercarriage black paint may be lipstick on a pig. Good spectrum here of responses indicating different tolerances of risk and reward. Also note, he said the speedometer wasn’t working, so who knows how many miles are on this thing.

 

[simple]

Geez the hate is strong in here today. If you are asking here, you already know you are scared of it. I don't think you are serious about buying it and the seller knows that.

To me, this is a partially finished truck. Lots of work done to clean up the frame, new bushings all over, and overall a nice starting point. Not showing interior or engine so hard to judge. It's no rust bucket like the silk sheet princesses here are making it out to be.

 

[Old Nick]

Geez the hate is strong in here today. If you are asking here, you already know you are scared of it. I don't think you are serious about buying it and the seller knows that.

To me, this is a partially finished truck. Lots of work done to clean up the frame, new bushings all over, and overall a nice starting point. Not showing interior or engine so hard to judge. It's no rust bucket like the silk sheet princesses here are making it out to be.

Thank you for writing that. Where I am, finding an 80 with that little rust would be a miracle. If I was looking for a solid base from which to build a triple locked 80 (even with the mechanical problems that have been noted), and assuming that the interior is in ok shape, and that the engine isn't puking oil all over the place, heck, I'd buy it.

My wife wanted a beater to fix up. We found a triple-locked 94 FZJ80 locally for a good price (read cheap). It's got body rust to repair; it needs the rear lower shock hangers to be cut off and new ones welded in; the entire interior needed to be pulled because it was trashed. As a base point, the truck in question above, I'd be all over it.

Just depends on the ops available time and budget.

 

[Broski]

The OP asked for options!!
You can’t call people heaters for giving them !!
There was never even a price posted as to how much the seller was asking.
So how could you say you would be all over it.
It’s be said many times before on this forum
You way ahead to spend more up front to get a clean well sorted reg then to by a rusty beater and try to bring it back.
WHERE not heaters were realists

 

[WhitePhoenix]

@JoeCova laid it out pretty well. Birfs will 100% need servicing with how much goop is leaking out the rear wiper seal. Does the owner have any records of work being done to the vehicle?
I'd also point attention to your first post, photo 9. Looks to be that whatever was put over the vehicle frame and components is starting to crack and wants to flake away from the rear sway bar, indicating not a properly done job.

Did the owner say anything about the exhaust? Looks to be some type of single aftermarket catalytic converter with a hole cut in the bottom and potentially gutted?? Not saying that would be your issue, but the check engine light could be an exhaust code due to that. Of course that light as others have mentioned could mean a whole slew of things.

 

[Old Nick]

The OP asked for options!!
You can’t call people heaters for giving them !!
There was never even a price posted as to how much the seller was asking.
So how could you say you would be all over it.
It’s be said many times before on this forum
You way ahead to spend more up front to get a clean well sorted reg then to by a rusty beater and try to bring it back.
WHERE not heaters were realists

Come on. You know there is a certain charm in making mistakes... lol.

 

[Azca]

Here is one more option, go to Bring A Trailer, they have at least one 80 series from Texas for sale now. I am in no way affiliated with the seller and the only reason I know it was there is because I get alerts for ALL Land Cruisers for sale. Watch that site, and others obviously, for them as they come up.

 

[KDAWG97m3]

I passed on the truck…he wanted 18, i offered well below that…on the next…one in PHX is gaining steam….

 

[Devils Paw 80]

I passed on the truck…he wanted 18, i offered well below that…on the next…one in PHX is gaining steam….

18 grand he wanted? Good move!

 

[JoeCova]

I passed on the truck…he wanted 18, i offered well below that…on the next…one in PHX is gaining steam….

He’s looking for a sucker that can only see the lift kit. Good move and glad we have Mud.

 

[Kernal]

Yeah, no way is that worth 18K, maybe 1/3 of that with the rust and other unknowns.

 

[simple]

Definitely not worth 18k. Definitely worth more than 6k.

Answer is somewhere in the middle and someone will buy it, looks to be a nice truck.