So, I just spent 300+ hours building my dream truck: FJ55, 2UZ, 5 speed manual, dual mini truck cases, FJ80 chassis swap, 55 gallon tank, elockers, 35”s, AC. It is awesome and fun and a hooligan truck and looks cool and cruises at 80mph can go anywhere and all that stuff...
BUT, after putting over 5,000 miles on a FJ55 in 3 months, including a 2,080 cross county trip in my red ‘69, I decided I needed something a little modern to take the fam on long trips in. No matter how nice the blue ‘73 is, no matter how much sound proofing, it’s still old, with hollow doors, above 65mph you can’t talk with your passengers.
SO, I decided to sell out and do a mild build on a 100/470. I love love the 2UZ. Want a 2 week out West road trip, CO exploring, drive to AK kind of rig with the fam.
Looking on auto trader, Craigslist, and FaceBook marketplace for a six weeks, I see a ‘04 with 143k at a dealership for a fair price. The pics are crappy and I can see they haven’t cleaned it up at all. I look on the website and it’s not there. Call the salesman and he says it was just traded in that morning and it’s being cleaned up, new tires, etc. I tell him to stop all that mess and get some better pics.
He calls back an hour later and says they can’t sell it?? He says the “adjustable suspension control” is broken. It’s a $4,000 repair and they are going to send it auction... I’m like “hey hey hey, I’ll buy it”.... “what?”.. “yeah, I’m going to remove it and put a lift on anyway”....
Well, they do the stupid dealer thing where they have to call back and forth and all that crap. It and the stupid “doc fee” piss me off so bad I decide to wait on a ‘06-07 with the VVTi.
BUT, after putting over 5,000 miles on a FJ55 in 3 months, including a 2,080 cross county trip in my red ‘69, I decided I needed something a little modern to take the fam on long trips in. No matter how nice the blue ‘73 is, no matter how much sound proofing, it’s still old, with hollow doors, above 65mph you can’t talk with your passengers.
SO, I decided to sell out and do a mild build on a 100/470. I love love the 2UZ. Want a 2 week out West road trip, CO exploring, drive to AK kind of rig with the fam.
Looking on auto trader, Craigslist, and FaceBook marketplace for a six weeks, I see a ‘04 with 143k at a dealership for a fair price. The pics are crappy and I can see they haven’t cleaned it up at all. I look on the website and it’s not there. Call the salesman and he says it was just traded in that morning and it’s being cleaned up, new tires, etc. I tell him to stop all that mess and get some better pics.
He calls back an hour later and says they can’t sell it?? He says the “adjustable suspension control” is broken. It’s a $4,000 repair and they are going to send it auction... I’m like “hey hey hey, I’ll buy it”.... “what?”.. “yeah, I’m going to remove it and put a lift on anyway”....
Well, they do the stupid dealer thing where they have to call back and forth and all that crap. It and the stupid “doc fee” piss me off so bad I decide to wait on a ‘06-07 with the VVTi.
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