Where do I start…
My first recollection of a Land Cruiser was from when I was in college. I knew a girl that had moved from NJ to Florida and she would drive her father’s FJ-45 to school sometime. At that time, I wasn’t into trucks, heck I was young and in Florida and muscle cars was where it was at
We would go to the beach after class and it was cool, fast forward a few years and I was stationed in South Dakota. A coworker had an FJ55 and it was ugly but in all the right ways. It was his winter and hunting rig, it had rust and was slower than molasses, but it was cool. I know the 55 is polarizing but I am of the minority that actually likes them for all their flaws. At that time, I had an Explorer and it served its purpose but I ended up rolling in Wyoming and bought a slightly built F-150 and had that for another 10 years. Looking back, it was the most reliable low maintenance vehicle I have ever owned, and I would probably still have it today except…come on you knew it was coming.
I was stationed in WA and had a friend that had an 89 62 series that was a hand me down from his grandfather. I got the bug to start doing more off-road stuff and the F-150 was good but it was big and had the turning radius of a city block. While deployed one time he and I were talking, and I expressed interest to find a 45 or 55 (remembering the trucks from my past). He would search the ads and email possibilities, but they were almost non-existent as you could imagine. He did find a 97 40th in the sage green and I liked it and it fit the bill for what I wanted. I had him go look at it and over several conversations he struck a deal with the man for me to purchase. My buddy let him know that I was deployed, and he would be doing the purchase on my behalf but had to wait for a power of attorney. Turned out the guy was a retiree and knew the hardships of military life and just asked for a contract and non-refundable deposit and I could buy the car when I returned. That was and still is my wholly grail of the 80 series. I sold due being a new parent and having no time not to mention I was being deployed again and not want the wife to have to deal with everything. My consolation is the 97 went to a Mud member, and he has enjoyed it and given it the love that I could not at the time.
As many can understand, I regretted selling almost immediately. Upon my return I found a 94 that was listed with a bad motor. Upon disassembly, I found the HG was bad and the head was all that needed serviced, the seller was given a quote to rebuild the engine. I fixed that one and drove it for a couple months until I was on base, and a lady walked up to me while I was pumping gas and said her husband had seen me on base and really liked the “truck”. She wanted to buy it for him as a retirement gift and offered me enough to make it a no brainer to make his and her dreams come true.
Fast forward a couple years and I was deployed again and was searching CL for a Volvo V70R (what can I say I like Swedish bricks
). I was doing a search of my local area and saw a clean 80 listed. I reached out but the seller really didn’t want to deal with me if I couldn’t buy in the next couple days because he had “a lot of interest”. I returned home but the market for the 80 started gaining steam and rigs that would have sold for $10k earlier in the year where $15k. I knew what I wanted and would wait. I was looking for an 80 with cloth interior and possibly a bad engine because during my deployment I read all the engine swap posts and was dead set I wanted an 80 with an LS. A year later (2020) I found out my shop was closing at my location and due to my medical profile (hurt while deployed) I would be forced to retire sooner than I had planned.
I had no job prospects, due to COVID, and wanted to focus on taking on an 80 while I was retired. At that point cars were stupid priced around here and not what I wanted to spend. As luck would have it, I had a buddy that was looking for a Tacoma and joined one of the social media groups in hopes of networking and finding like minded people. He told me about a kid that had received an 80 due to a relative passing away and he wanted a Tacoma instead. I talked with him, but the truck was running and short of maintenance seemed to be all there and way more than I could justify spending. About a month later I got a text from him out of the blue that asked if I would still buy the 80. He said he was driving it and the front wheel just fell off and he didn’t want to fix and remembered talking with me and knew I would bring it back to life. I declined but he said I could have it for a song and what can I say I couldn’t resist.
So here I am…I have a 94 FZJ80 with 328K and it runs well, and I am getting all the items together for an LS swap, but it runs so well I am finding myself dragging my feet. I did the typical Mud baseline (plus just getting the truck roadworthy and safe) and have since taught my daughter to drive in it and she takes it to school when she can afford the gas
. I secretly hope she ask me if it can be her daily instead of some s*** box the wife wants her to have but I know if this happens I would need to help with the gas because on a good day it gets 12 mpg.
