Hello fellow Cruiser Heads
Five years ago I was surfing the Internet and on a whim and decided to google "landcruisers for sale". I had been in love with the FJ40 since my high school days and decided to see what was out there. I found an old sawmill auction in a town called Enderby in BC (about 5 hours drive from where I live). They were selling this 1973 FJ40 Landcruiser that was apparently restored by someone in Vernon, BC. Armed with one picture and someone’s word the she was drivable I purchased her in a phone bidding war (still in my skivvies and drinking my morning coffee). I’ll never forget that feeling sitting in my underwear looking out the window. I was over caffeinated causing the clammy jitters combined with the adrenaline rush of an action bidding war and stunned by the reality that I just purchased my high school dream without knowing anything about it!
My next step was "how to I get this thing home"? It was a Saturday morning the auction site was closed on Sunday and it had to be out of the auction site by Monday? My only option was to jump on a Sunday night redeye bus up to Enderby. I was dropped of at the local bus Depot at 1am with a pocket full of cash and an address. At this point I was really starting to questions my intelligence. There I was in a bus depot at 1am surrounded by some very questionably people. I mean what normal person takes a 1am bus anywhere? Let alone me with a lot of cash going to pick-up a vehicle I have never seen in a town I have never been to then drive it 5 hours home.
It was an 8-hour bus ride from hell stopping at every bus stop imaginable. I would have slept put I was too concerned about getting rolled by one of the many sketchy passengers. Fortunately for me I was chatting up with the bus driver and he knew the auction house that I purchased the landcruiser from and pulled the bus over on the site of the highway right in front of the place and let me off.
I paid for and received all my paperwork for my new to me but never seen landcruiser. Now to Transfer ownership and insure my new baby. Because I was out in the middle of nowhere I waited for 1 hour for a cab to come pick me up. What showed up did not suprize me it was and unmarked old beat up Chrysler. The kicker was that the driver still looked and smelt hammered from the night before.
Finally I got to see my new toy. I was pleasantly surprised to find she was in excellent shape and ran like a dream. I drove with my head held high and proud for about an hour until the engine started to sputter and progressively worsened. OK now I was scared again! I pulled over and was checking everything when someone pulled over to ask me if I was willing to sell it… Ok my confidence in my purchase was up again. I can make it through this. I limped along for another couple hours until I needed to fuel up. I quickly found the problem…instead of a gas cap there was a piece of plastic with elastic…. Yeah! As the fuel drained out it created a vacuum to strong for the fuel pump. The rest of my drive was fantastic!
I’ll post some picture in a bit….
Five years ago I was surfing the Internet and on a whim and decided to google "landcruisers for sale". I had been in love with the FJ40 since my high school days and decided to see what was out there. I found an old sawmill auction in a town called Enderby in BC (about 5 hours drive from where I live). They were selling this 1973 FJ40 Landcruiser that was apparently restored by someone in Vernon, BC. Armed with one picture and someone’s word the she was drivable I purchased her in a phone bidding war (still in my skivvies and drinking my morning coffee). I’ll never forget that feeling sitting in my underwear looking out the window. I was over caffeinated causing the clammy jitters combined with the adrenaline rush of an action bidding war and stunned by the reality that I just purchased my high school dream without knowing anything about it!
My next step was "how to I get this thing home"? It was a Saturday morning the auction site was closed on Sunday and it had to be out of the auction site by Monday? My only option was to jump on a Sunday night redeye bus up to Enderby. I was dropped of at the local bus Depot at 1am with a pocket full of cash and an address. At this point I was really starting to questions my intelligence. There I was in a bus depot at 1am surrounded by some very questionably people. I mean what normal person takes a 1am bus anywhere? Let alone me with a lot of cash going to pick-up a vehicle I have never seen in a town I have never been to then drive it 5 hours home.
It was an 8-hour bus ride from hell stopping at every bus stop imaginable. I would have slept put I was too concerned about getting rolled by one of the many sketchy passengers. Fortunately for me I was chatting up with the bus driver and he knew the auction house that I purchased the landcruiser from and pulled the bus over on the site of the highway right in front of the place and let me off.
I paid for and received all my paperwork for my new to me but never seen landcruiser. Now to Transfer ownership and insure my new baby. Because I was out in the middle of nowhere I waited for 1 hour for a cab to come pick me up. What showed up did not suprize me it was and unmarked old beat up Chrysler. The kicker was that the driver still looked and smelt hammered from the night before.
Finally I got to see my new toy. I was pleasantly surprised to find she was in excellent shape and ran like a dream. I drove with my head held high and proud for about an hour until the engine started to sputter and progressively worsened. OK now I was scared again! I pulled over and was checking everything when someone pulled over to ask me if I was willing to sell it… Ok my confidence in my purchase was up again. I can make it through this. I limped along for another couple hours until I needed to fuel up. I quickly found the problem…instead of a gas cap there was a piece of plastic with elastic…. Yeah! As the fuel drained out it created a vacuum to strong for the fuel pump. The rest of my drive was fantastic!
I’ll post some picture in a bit….
