On October 2, 2018 I sold my last, most recent Cruiser...an 87 FJ60 named Chunk to Patrick of Bowfin Cruisers. At that time and for a long time after, the market for Land Cruisers went through the roof. I'm a Freelance Graphic Designer in a smallish town and my wife is a Social Worker (Childhood Behavioral Specialist and Attachment expert) and we have a boy who just turned 8 so it's safe to assume that we aren't just raking in the cash. For all intent and purpose, we were priced-out of replacing the 60 with another LC.
I ended up picking up a 1998 Suburban in real good condition (Named Blanco) with a recently replaced rebuilt 350 for $4000
It was our plan to make this our primary camping rig so we could get out into the mountains and expose our son to wilderness.
I squirreled away money to make sure all the necessary stuff was taken care of...preventative maintenance and front suspension stuff like ball joints, a-arm bushings, shocks, etc. took a while but finally got it done.
On May 20th of last year (2022) we ran into a little problem, or should I say a little problem ran into us.
A guy going 50+ swerved into oncoming traffic and hit us head-on in our lane.
Many Mudders are familiar with this story because many of them donated to our GoFundMe to help keep the lights on
and help our family stay above water while I was up in Lakewood at St. Anthony's Hospital and then in Littleton at a
skilled nursing facility healing and doing PT/OT in preparation to be able to be released to go back to Durango.
I had broken my Pelvis in two places, my femur in two places and my left forearm. My wife broke a couple ribs, cracked
her sternum and herniated her abdomen.
I only bring this up again to thank everyone who gave us well wishes, helped my wife and son out at home, donated to
keep our family secure and offered to bring me/us things (Subway, Starbucks, Smashburger, Meal Trains, etc.) while I was laid
up and I wanted to be sensitive to those who carried us for nearly a year and to express our gratitude before delving into being
finally able to re-enter the Land Cruiser community.
For better or for worse, as either a quality or a flaw, being a Land Cruiser owner is an integral part of my identity. Not just owning the vehicle, but what I see as what it means to be part of this community. It's a little like being a Boy Scout. Seek to be kind, seek to be self-sufficient, seek to be helpful to others, be prepared, to tread lightly and advocate for our access to National Forests and BLM, to set good examples of responsible, safe wheeling. I missed being a part of all that.
Once we got back on our feet a little bit, figuratively and literally, we waited for the legal aspect of what happened to resolve.
Part of that resolution was an incredible damage settlement that our lawyers secured on my behalf. They secured an amount that, along with a certain Mudder's generosity, equated to my being able to responsibly afford getting back into a Land Cruiser.
(Flashback)
In 2010, I sold a beautiful 83 FJ60 (Ingrid) to a guy in North Carolina to help pay for my and my wife's wedding...
A fellow Mudder named Brett ( @shellb ) bought it and had it shipped out to the East Coast.
I got married (May 15th, 2010) used some of the proceeds for that and also bought a 94 fzj80 (Norman) out of Arkansas to replace the 60.
(picture is after extensive build-out, not day one delivery)
The wife broke her 4Runner and she works out in the world while I work from home, so again..I realized the equity in
the 80 to replace her vehicle with a decent Forester and bought Chunk, the 60 that Patrick bought on Oct. 2nd, 2018.
So, for 5 years I was NOT a Land Cruiser owner...
After the lawyers got us our medical and property damage settlements, we were back on solid footing and I was able to
finally go shopping for a Cruiser again...but the market was/is bananas. Luckily, the platform I had been wanting to get into
ever since selling Chunk was the 100 Series, the most affordable LC segment on the market right now. Everything else is either a
project, a basket case or WELL out of my reach. So I was scouring the market. I was looking at some FJ Cruisers, First Gen
Sequoias and 98-02 100 Series. I located a decent, but high mileage 100 in Denver with an admittedly spotty Carfax history
and reached out to a Rising Sun member to see if he could go take a look at it for me. It was Brett (@shellb) who had moved
to Denver a while back. The guy I sold Ingrid to in 2010.
He said, "Why don't I just sell you my 100?" - A 99 UZJ100 in 4P3 Metallic Desert Bronze that had just experienced a pretty heavy hailstorm but was otherwise in completely serviceable shape...a little high mileage (287K) but with a TB/WP 17K ago. Just the perfect rig to be priced within my grasp from a friend and fellow Mudder that I had done business with 13 years ago. Serendipity!
Let me just say that Brett has been incredible in helping make this happen for me...he took it in for a PPI and took care of THOUSANDS of dollars worth of service just to get it in shape for delivery to me. Rear brakes, power steering lines, new windshield and he took care of the labor to install new CVJ of Denver CV axles. He picked up a bunch of parts for me that I bought from Slee, he got the truck detailed...just a Grade A+ individual.
And here's the kicker...
Cloth Interior!!! So friggen rare and so great for living in the Southwest...and basically in perfect shape.
So many cool add-ons too:
BIOR Sliders
BIOR skid plates
OME Lift
Fox Performance Series shocks
Gamiviti roof rack
Rear air bags
It had a v1 Dissent front bumper on it, which wasn't really the direction I would go, so while it was still up in Denver I sold the front bumper to another Rising Sun Member up there and Brett helped facilitate the removal of that bumper.
I bought an ARB off of Amazon and had it delivered to me here in Durango...It'll be the first project of any magnitude to take place
next.
I just want to wrap up this first post of this build thread by Thanking everyone who helped get me back on my feet, kept our family out of the poor house and me back into the Cruiser community. It means the world to me.
And my deepest Thanks to Brett for giving me such an extraordinary Bro Deal on this 100 Series, hereby christened "Penny"
I ended up picking up a 1998 Suburban in real good condition (Named Blanco) with a recently replaced rebuilt 350 for $4000
It was our plan to make this our primary camping rig so we could get out into the mountains and expose our son to wilderness.
I squirreled away money to make sure all the necessary stuff was taken care of...preventative maintenance and front suspension stuff like ball joints, a-arm bushings, shocks, etc. took a while but finally got it done.
On May 20th of last year (2022) we ran into a little problem, or should I say a little problem ran into us.
A guy going 50+ swerved into oncoming traffic and hit us head-on in our lane.
Many Mudders are familiar with this story because many of them donated to our GoFundMe to help keep the lights on
and help our family stay above water while I was up in Lakewood at St. Anthony's Hospital and then in Littleton at a
skilled nursing facility healing and doing PT/OT in preparation to be able to be released to go back to Durango.
I had broken my Pelvis in two places, my femur in two places and my left forearm. My wife broke a couple ribs, cracked
her sternum and herniated her abdomen.
I only bring this up again to thank everyone who gave us well wishes, helped my wife and son out at home, donated to
keep our family secure and offered to bring me/us things (Subway, Starbucks, Smashburger, Meal Trains, etc.) while I was laid
up and I wanted to be sensitive to those who carried us for nearly a year and to express our gratitude before delving into being
finally able to re-enter the Land Cruiser community.
For better or for worse, as either a quality or a flaw, being a Land Cruiser owner is an integral part of my identity. Not just owning the vehicle, but what I see as what it means to be part of this community. It's a little like being a Boy Scout. Seek to be kind, seek to be self-sufficient, seek to be helpful to others, be prepared, to tread lightly and advocate for our access to National Forests and BLM, to set good examples of responsible, safe wheeling. I missed being a part of all that.
Once we got back on our feet a little bit, figuratively and literally, we waited for the legal aspect of what happened to resolve.
Part of that resolution was an incredible damage settlement that our lawyers secured on my behalf. They secured an amount that, along with a certain Mudder's generosity, equated to my being able to responsibly afford getting back into a Land Cruiser.
(Flashback)
In 2010, I sold a beautiful 83 FJ60 (Ingrid) to a guy in North Carolina to help pay for my and my wife's wedding...
A fellow Mudder named Brett ( @shellb ) bought it and had it shipped out to the East Coast.
I got married (May 15th, 2010) used some of the proceeds for that and also bought a 94 fzj80 (Norman) out of Arkansas to replace the 60.
(picture is after extensive build-out, not day one delivery)
The wife broke her 4Runner and she works out in the world while I work from home, so again..I realized the equity in
the 80 to replace her vehicle with a decent Forester and bought Chunk, the 60 that Patrick bought on Oct. 2nd, 2018.
So, for 5 years I was NOT a Land Cruiser owner...
After the lawyers got us our medical and property damage settlements, we were back on solid footing and I was able to
finally go shopping for a Cruiser again...but the market was/is bananas. Luckily, the platform I had been wanting to get into
ever since selling Chunk was the 100 Series, the most affordable LC segment on the market right now. Everything else is either a
project, a basket case or WELL out of my reach. So I was scouring the market. I was looking at some FJ Cruisers, First Gen
Sequoias and 98-02 100 Series. I located a decent, but high mileage 100 in Denver with an admittedly spotty Carfax history
and reached out to a Rising Sun member to see if he could go take a look at it for me. It was Brett (@shellb) who had moved
to Denver a while back. The guy I sold Ingrid to in 2010.
He said, "Why don't I just sell you my 100?" - A 99 UZJ100 in 4P3 Metallic Desert Bronze that had just experienced a pretty heavy hailstorm but was otherwise in completely serviceable shape...a little high mileage (287K) but with a TB/WP 17K ago. Just the perfect rig to be priced within my grasp from a friend and fellow Mudder that I had done business with 13 years ago. Serendipity!
Let me just say that Brett has been incredible in helping make this happen for me...he took it in for a PPI and took care of THOUSANDS of dollars worth of service just to get it in shape for delivery to me. Rear brakes, power steering lines, new windshield and he took care of the labor to install new CVJ of Denver CV axles. He picked up a bunch of parts for me that I bought from Slee, he got the truck detailed...just a Grade A+ individual.
And here's the kicker...
Cloth Interior!!! So friggen rare and so great for living in the Southwest...and basically in perfect shape.
So many cool add-ons too:
BIOR Sliders
BIOR skid plates
OME Lift
Fox Performance Series shocks
Gamiviti roof rack
Rear air bags
It had a v1 Dissent front bumper on it, which wasn't really the direction I would go, so while it was still up in Denver I sold the front bumper to another Rising Sun Member up there and Brett helped facilitate the removal of that bumper.
I bought an ARB off of Amazon and had it delivered to me here in Durango...It'll be the first project of any magnitude to take place
next.
I just want to wrap up this first post of this build thread by Thanking everyone who helped get me back on my feet, kept our family out of the poor house and me back into the Cruiser community. It means the world to me.
And my deepest Thanks to Brett for giving me such an extraordinary Bro Deal on this 100 Series, hereby christened "Penny"
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