We’ve had Chester since the summer of 2003. In the early 80’s one of my room mates bought an early 70’s pig to take to his lake house west of Ft. Worth. It was the ugliest damn thing I had ever seen with its blue/white paint job but it would go through almost anything to anywhere we wanted to go. I really liked that truck. Fast forward 15 years…
Looking to replace a wrecked Cadillac for the wife we purchased our FJ62 in 1989 and were hooked on Land Cruisers. It just took me about 14 years to get the itch to have a pig. The stars aligned in the spring of 2003 and the quest began. Hours were spent scouring the internet to find the perfect swine. I wanted a nice pig that was mechanically sound with a strong engine and no rust (yes, I was very naïve in those years).
My first real hit on a nice 79 pig came through VOR in Grosse Point, MI. After a few phone calls with VOR I flew to Detroit to inspect a nice 79 pig. The blue/white 79 pig needed brakes and exhaust work but had factory power steering and non-working factory A/C. The only problem was that Greg couldn’t produce a title for the truck. After screwing around for 5 weeks waiting on a valid title I gave up, got my deposit back, and started looking again.
All of two days go by and this really nice 78 FJ55 pops up on e-bay. Then I get a call from the wife about a really nice FJ55 on SOR’s web site. I tell her about the really nice 55 on e-bay and she tells me to check out the pig on SOR. Damn if they aren’t the same truck! I pick up the phone and talk to the owner in Des Moines to find out more about the shape of the 55. He had the truck for 2 years after purchasing it from a landscape architect who used it an attention getter when he drove from job to job. The landscape architect had purchased it from a company in California and had the local Toyota dealership make over $7k in repairs to the truck including adding power steering. Also added were alloy rims and new custom stainless steel bumpers front and back. All the receipts were available for the work from the dealership.
Looking to replace a wrecked Cadillac for the wife we purchased our FJ62 in 1989 and were hooked on Land Cruisers. It just took me about 14 years to get the itch to have a pig. The stars aligned in the spring of 2003 and the quest began. Hours were spent scouring the internet to find the perfect swine. I wanted a nice pig that was mechanically sound with a strong engine and no rust (yes, I was very naïve in those years).
My first real hit on a nice 79 pig came through VOR in Grosse Point, MI. After a few phone calls with VOR I flew to Detroit to inspect a nice 79 pig. The blue/white 79 pig needed brakes and exhaust work but had factory power steering and non-working factory A/C. The only problem was that Greg couldn’t produce a title for the truck. After screwing around for 5 weeks waiting on a valid title I gave up, got my deposit back, and started looking again.
All of two days go by and this really nice 78 FJ55 pops up on e-bay. Then I get a call from the wife about a really nice FJ55 on SOR’s web site. I tell her about the really nice 55 on e-bay and she tells me to check out the pig on SOR. Damn if they aren’t the same truck! I pick up the phone and talk to the owner in Des Moines to find out more about the shape of the 55. He had the truck for 2 years after purchasing it from a landscape architect who used it an attention getter when he drove from job to job. The landscape architect had purchased it from a company in California and had the local Toyota dealership make over $7k in repairs to the truck including adding power steering. Also added were alloy rims and new custom stainless steel bumpers front and back. All the receipts were available for the work from the dealership.
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