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SILVER Star
I have waited a long time to start this thread.
About two years ago I was minding my own business, scrolling through Facebook, and all of a sudden a suggested ad popped up. It said “you like diesel Land Cruisers, you might like Canarian Land Cruiser Exports.”
I thought that was on point, and only a little creepy from a digital overlord sort of way, so I threw a message into the ether saying “If you find a late model HDJ80 with an FT, I’d love to talk.”
Shane messaged back almost immediately and we began a conversation.
We started looking at a bunch of trucks, early and late 80s series, HJ61’s, HZJ73’s, a couple of KZJ78’s. They were all awesome but not quite the right one.
Why Tenerife? The Canary Islands are an absolute jewel. Even though it’s one of a series of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Western Africa, Tenerife itself is quite dry. For some reason, in the late 80s and 90s, there was an upswing of Toyota activity and these trucks are very well preserved and pretty well cared for.
And one day he sent me a white 1997 HDJ80. One owner, who had owned another 1993 HDJ80. He had sold the previous truck to Shane so they had an established business history. This truck was white, triple locked, H151, air conditioning, left hand drive (of course), cloth seats. Rust free and almost completely original except for an aftermarket radio. 246,000km on the 1HDFT, and completely unmolested.
We did phone calls, video calls, hundreds of pictures and videos, had it inspected by an independent local shop, got a compression test… Shane was incredible and helped me gain the courage to buy a truck sight unseen from halfway around the world in the middle of a pandemic. I sold Marilu my other HDJ80 and wired the money into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean…
And then I waited.
When Shane showed it to me, the truck was only 23 years old. It now had to sit until it turned 25, with first date of registration September 24, 1997. Shane volunteer to store it in a secure location for a nominal fee.
That location was awesome. It was a dugout garage carved into in the side of a rocky hill up in the rural hills of Tenerife. Thus, I called this truck the Cave 80 because it sure looks like it was sitting in a cave. Shane kept tabs on it, firing it up regularly and keeping a close eye on it and its other vehicular friends.
Weeks turned into months turned into nearly 2 years, and we finally prepared it for shipping. I stated at my phone a hundred times a day, watching a series of shipping vessels slowly inching their way across Europe and the Atlantic ocean. No hurricanes sank the ship, and Friday morning, the truck cleared customs in Galveston….2 years and 1 day after I learned about it for the first time.
I canceled my workday at 10:30 AM, raced to my ranch just west of Austin, hooked up the trailer, and made a beeline for Galveston. Problem was, port closes at 3:45 PM and I was scheduled to get there at 3:32 PM. FAAACK.
My good friend Bill Stayner happened to be working in Houston. He cut his workday short, borrowed a trailer from Duggy’s Garage, and headed for port. The truck fired up without a hitch, he threw it on the trailer, and I squealed up to port literally as he was rolling back out through the gates.
It was pretty hard to contain my excitement. I fired it up, rolled it off the trailer and swapped it onto mine. Pretty sure I confirmed my love for the truck right then and there.
Bill and I had beers and dinner at a seafood place right off of the boat ramp, and said our goodbyes. I chugged back to Austin and arrived back home at 11:30 PM.
The Cave 80 had arrived.
About two years ago I was minding my own business, scrolling through Facebook, and all of a sudden a suggested ad popped up. It said “you like diesel Land Cruisers, you might like Canarian Land Cruiser Exports.”
I thought that was on point, and only a little creepy from a digital overlord sort of way, so I threw a message into the ether saying “If you find a late model HDJ80 with an FT, I’d love to talk.”
Shane messaged back almost immediately and we began a conversation.
We started looking at a bunch of trucks, early and late 80s series, HJ61’s, HZJ73’s, a couple of KZJ78’s. They were all awesome but not quite the right one.
Why Tenerife? The Canary Islands are an absolute jewel. Even though it’s one of a series of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Western Africa, Tenerife itself is quite dry. For some reason, in the late 80s and 90s, there was an upswing of Toyota activity and these trucks are very well preserved and pretty well cared for.
And one day he sent me a white 1997 HDJ80. One owner, who had owned another 1993 HDJ80. He had sold the previous truck to Shane so they had an established business history. This truck was white, triple locked, H151, air conditioning, left hand drive (of course), cloth seats. Rust free and almost completely original except for an aftermarket radio. 246,000km on the 1HDFT, and completely unmolested.
We did phone calls, video calls, hundreds of pictures and videos, had it inspected by an independent local shop, got a compression test… Shane was incredible and helped me gain the courage to buy a truck sight unseen from halfway around the world in the middle of a pandemic. I sold Marilu my other HDJ80 and wired the money into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean…
And then I waited.
When Shane showed it to me, the truck was only 23 years old. It now had to sit until it turned 25, with first date of registration September 24, 1997. Shane volunteer to store it in a secure location for a nominal fee.
That location was awesome. It was a dugout garage carved into in the side of a rocky hill up in the rural hills of Tenerife. Thus, I called this truck the Cave 80 because it sure looks like it was sitting in a cave. Shane kept tabs on it, firing it up regularly and keeping a close eye on it and its other vehicular friends.
Weeks turned into months turned into nearly 2 years, and we finally prepared it for shipping. I stated at my phone a hundred times a day, watching a series of shipping vessels slowly inching their way across Europe and the Atlantic ocean. No hurricanes sank the ship, and Friday morning, the truck cleared customs in Galveston….2 years and 1 day after I learned about it for the first time.
I canceled my workday at 10:30 AM, raced to my ranch just west of Austin, hooked up the trailer, and made a beeline for Galveston. Problem was, port closes at 3:45 PM and I was scheduled to get there at 3:32 PM. FAAACK.
My good friend Bill Stayner happened to be working in Houston. He cut his workday short, borrowed a trailer from Duggy’s Garage, and headed for port. The truck fired up without a hitch, he threw it on the trailer, and I squealed up to port literally as he was rolling back out through the gates.
It was pretty hard to contain my excitement. I fired it up, rolled it off the trailer and swapped it onto mine. Pretty sure I confirmed my love for the truck right then and there.
Bill and I had beers and dinner at a seafood place right off of the boat ramp, and said our goodbyes. I chugged back to Austin and arrived back home at 11:30 PM.
The Cave 80 had arrived.