Rockymtnreaper
Colorado.Cruiser
Hello fellow mud members(thats how we say hello), I think its time I started a build thread, between college and work I have been hesitant to start a thread. Its time,
My name is Tucker, and this is the story about my 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 named Taro.
The story: This FJ60 is one of two that I have spent my childhood in, my parents bought this from the original owner when we lived in Big Bear Lake, California back in 2003. The original owner was a local retired high school teacher, and this was his daily driver. He was actually my mothers teacher in High School! Anyways... back to the story. My dad bought this as a weekend adventure and project, he was missing the one we owned previously.
First thing we did was tore out the old worn interior, got an SOR carpet kit, and sent the seats off to be refoamed and reupholsted with a new fabric kit from SOR. We put a replacement dash in (old one was ate by the sun and cracked.) After doing some wiring and engine work we got all the bells and whistles working. We lifted the cruiser 2-1/2" with a BDS lift kit and put some tall and skinny 33" BF Goodrich T/A Mud-Terrains. She was ready for short trips!
Shortly after we decided to pack our things and move to Colorado.
The cruiser got some love, but not much with a new house being built and trying to make connections and start a new life. In the next couple of years I would take the cruiser out with my dad and learn how to drive stick, at a young age on dirt roads in rural Colorado. I was hooked!!
After my parents got divorced the cruiser soon became an asset that ended up being my mothers, as part of a divorce settlement. It sat for years, only driven a handful of times. When I was a senior in High School my mother called me one day and decided that she was interested in selling the 60. Being a good son I agreed to sell the cruiser for her, I cleaned it up and drove it for the next few weeks with for sale signs in the back seat that I never wanted to hang up; I fell in love with the cruiser again. Old memories of weekends spent traveling in her flooded my mind. I wanted to buy it. I had a conversation with my dad about buying the cruiser, but I was heading to college soon and decided I needed a "reliable vehicle" something that wouldnt need work and I could focus on school...
I ended up selling the 60 to a family friend who had an eye for it when I was driving it around.
This is the state it was in when I sold it.
After the cruiser was gone and I was in College, I couldnt stop thinking about what it would have been like if I bought the cruiser.. I wasnt happy with my reliable fuel efficent car. I never was going to be.
Two years later after having life-changing spine surgery (two 22" rods and 28 screws.) I had this idea in my head that life is too short to live by someone else's idea of what your life should be. I called up the family friend and asked if he would sell me back our families 1986 FJ60 and will some time to think he decided that he would sell it back to me, with only one condition "IF I sold the 60 I could only sell it back to him." We both knew I had no intentions of selling the Land Cruiser EVER. It's going to die with me.
My name is Tucker, and this is the story about my 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 named Taro.
The story: This FJ60 is one of two that I have spent my childhood in, my parents bought this from the original owner when we lived in Big Bear Lake, California back in 2003. The original owner was a local retired high school teacher, and this was his daily driver. He was actually my mothers teacher in High School! Anyways... back to the story. My dad bought this as a weekend adventure and project, he was missing the one we owned previously.
First thing we did was tore out the old worn interior, got an SOR carpet kit, and sent the seats off to be refoamed and reupholsted with a new fabric kit from SOR. We put a replacement dash in (old one was ate by the sun and cracked.) After doing some wiring and engine work we got all the bells and whistles working. We lifted the cruiser 2-1/2" with a BDS lift kit and put some tall and skinny 33" BF Goodrich T/A Mud-Terrains. She was ready for short trips!
Shortly after we decided to pack our things and move to Colorado.
The cruiser got some love, but not much with a new house being built and trying to make connections and start a new life. In the next couple of years I would take the cruiser out with my dad and learn how to drive stick, at a young age on dirt roads in rural Colorado. I was hooked!!
After my parents got divorced the cruiser soon became an asset that ended up being my mothers, as part of a divorce settlement. It sat for years, only driven a handful of times. When I was a senior in High School my mother called me one day and decided that she was interested in selling the 60. Being a good son I agreed to sell the cruiser for her, I cleaned it up and drove it for the next few weeks with for sale signs in the back seat that I never wanted to hang up; I fell in love with the cruiser again. Old memories of weekends spent traveling in her flooded my mind. I wanted to buy it. I had a conversation with my dad about buying the cruiser, but I was heading to college soon and decided I needed a "reliable vehicle" something that wouldnt need work and I could focus on school...
I ended up selling the 60 to a family friend who had an eye for it when I was driving it around.
This is the state it was in when I sold it.
After the cruiser was gone and I was in College, I couldnt stop thinking about what it would have been like if I bought the cruiser.. I wasnt happy with my reliable fuel efficent car. I never was going to be.
Two years later after having life-changing spine surgery (two 22" rods and 28 screws.) I had this idea in my head that life is too short to live by someone else's idea of what your life should be. I called up the family friend and asked if he would sell me back our families 1986 FJ60 and will some time to think he decided that he would sell it back to me, with only one condition "IF I sold the 60 I could only sell it back to him." We both knew I had no intentions of selling the Land Cruiser EVER. It's going to die with me.
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