During my earliest days as a MUD member I was fortunate enough to run across a reprinted column by rick_d devoted to LVs. He shares a great deal of knowledge from his personal experiences and ownership of LVs through the years. It was a stroke of luck for this newbie back then and I still refer to it today. It's definitely worth a quick read if you haven't already. Keep in mind that it was written between 20 and 25 years ago, so all those LV parts rigs are likely long gone. Here's a link -
The following page is an email / newsletter that was printed out (between 1995 and 2003) and retyped on 03/29/05 as a courtesy to all Land cruiser enthusiasts. The original newsletter was sent out between 1995 and 2003. There is no date stamp on the original. ‘Mikesta of FJtoys.com...
forum.ih8mud.com
One of the things I paid close attention to was his discussion of areas where rust is a concern on an LV. I had spent a good bit of time going over my LV by that point and hadn't seen much beyond surface rust in the glove box, rockers, floors or window frames that he indicated were frequently problem areas. All in all I was feeling pretty good about things until I got to the section on rear tailgate hinge box and corners. In relation to those areas he described rot attributable to "road crud" slung up by rear tires into the corners and the hinge box, those same corners and hinge box ends corroded and opened up to the elements by "cancer", allowing even more crud to collect. My pulse quickened, my thoughts raced; how am I gonna pay for the body work? can I recoup half my purchase price? And just when I thought things couldn't get worse, I read this - "
If your box section is rotted, I think it is a tough salvage." I caught my breath and went down to the garage to take a closer look. Sure enough there were signs old man rust had been feasting on my LVs hinge box!
A few days later I was scheduled to drop off the LV at the body shop, and I printed a copy of the rust concerns to take with me. We get some preliminaries out of the way before I suggested Brett read the thread and investigate the hinge box. After reading, he crawls underneath, shines a light into the corners, and taps on some metal before crawling out to look at it from the top side. A few more minutes pass while he studies the hinge box from the top before he looks at me and says something like "
seen and fixed worse". After seeing the finished product I have no reason to doubt him and I don't think you will.
Before...
