Hi togehter. Since i'm already spamming the what-did-you-do-with-your-80-thread with pictures i came to the conclusion that i should start a build thread.
About me: I'm currently 25, service engineer for agricultual machinery/automated milking and feeding, living in the countryside near Cologne, Germany. So please excuse me If I f*** something up trying to write somehow entertaining in English.
About the Cruiser: A few years ago, before Brexit and import taxes, a good friend of mine bought a rusty, but mechanicaly sound HDJ80 from England. 96 model, 300k miles, lots of rust, triple locked, AC, 3rd row seats, all the gimmicks. Half of them were broken, but that's something for another day... Oh, and did i mention the rust?
Anyways, that car sat in his barn for few years, because it was No. 25 on a long list of projects, collecting dust and more rust, because the stupid barn started flooding one winter.
A few months ago he offered to sell it to me (he's got like 4 or 5 other cruisers and a heap of other cars that want attention...) for about what he payed four years ago, dirt cheap for todays market value in Germany. Of course I said yes immediatly, despite having no space and time whatsoever for another project car.
A few weeks later i was able to get it home.
So now i owned another wonderful Cruiser with loads of work to do to get it registered and road legal.
One of the main Problems, besides the rust: a weasel (Mustela nivalis) decided to reside inside of this majestic vehicle while it was stored.
At least no rats and mice entered the car alive...
I ripped out the (mostly broken) power seats, the absolutely disgusting carpet (at least the part of it that wasn't used by the former tenants to build a nest behind the dashboard) and started cleaning. I wanted to get the car into a state that you could at least sit in the drivers seat and breathe properly without getting sick.
I made a to-do-list about every other problem i found, and decided to start the build right now, putting my 90% finished BJ73 on the backburner. ADHD makes you take stupid decisions, but life's more fun that way...
To be continued.
About me: I'm currently 25, service engineer for agricultual machinery/automated milking and feeding, living in the countryside near Cologne, Germany. So please excuse me If I f*** something up trying to write somehow entertaining in English.
About the Cruiser: A few years ago, before Brexit and import taxes, a good friend of mine bought a rusty, but mechanicaly sound HDJ80 from England. 96 model, 300k miles, lots of rust, triple locked, AC, 3rd row seats, all the gimmicks. Half of them were broken, but that's something for another day... Oh, and did i mention the rust?
Anyways, that car sat in his barn for few years, because it was No. 25 on a long list of projects, collecting dust and more rust, because the stupid barn started flooding one winter.
A few months ago he offered to sell it to me (he's got like 4 or 5 other cruisers and a heap of other cars that want attention...) for about what he payed four years ago, dirt cheap for todays market value in Germany. Of course I said yes immediatly, despite having no space and time whatsoever for another project car.
A few weeks later i was able to get it home.
So now i owned another wonderful Cruiser with loads of work to do to get it registered and road legal.
One of the main Problems, besides the rust: a weasel (Mustela nivalis) decided to reside inside of this majestic vehicle while it was stored.
At least no rats and mice entered the car alive...
I ripped out the (mostly broken) power seats, the absolutely disgusting carpet (at least the part of it that wasn't used by the former tenants to build a nest behind the dashboard) and started cleaning. I wanted to get the car into a state that you could at least sit in the drivers seat and breathe properly without getting sick.
I made a to-do-list about every other problem i found, and decided to start the build right now, putting my 90% finished BJ73 on the backburner. ADHD makes you take stupid decisions, but life's more fun that way...
To be continued.
