C6H12O6
SILVER Star
This will likely get moved to chat for its very limited tech slant, but here goes:
My dad wants to get a Cruiser as a fun secondary rig to his new 4Runner and told me to keep an eye out for a good starting point for a moderate build. 1993 80 came up on Craigslist. Pictures looked good, new tires, "front and rear differential locks", etc. 162K miles, only $6K. Sounded a little too good to be true.
We got to the guy's house and he was out running errands. When he pulled up, it looked and sounded pretty good. Definitely not new tires, and a few scratches, but pretty dang good for $6K. A quick look at the interior showed the following:
• multiple tweeter holes in doors
• cheap vinyl covering glued sloppily onto the door panels in different places to hide other holes
• really bad fake wood grain
• huge hole in driver's seat
• cracked, dirty leather throughout
• holes in the carpet
• rear window off the track ~ "it goes down fine, but will only go up that far."
Exterior showed an upper tailgate that had been repainted (not well) with what appeared to be rattlecan emerald pearl metallic-ish spraypaint. The latch wouldn't close all the way, but no big deal. Just a little out of alignment.
Hey, still not too bad for $6K for a locked rig. Nope. No lockers. I asked about it and the guy didn't know what the hell a locker really was. He then went on to explain to me how the locker light came on when you put it in low and how Land Cruisers have a neat feature whereby they adjust their height automatically when put into low. Um... no. I schooled him up on lockers and suggested that he should change his Craigslist ad before he got every Cruiserhead in the Portland Metro area pissed off.
A quick look in the back revealed two 12" subwoofers mounted in the floor behind the third row seats. Flush. Yes, two giant holes cut into the floor and the subs wood screwed into the sheet metal. I climbed under the truck to see just how they managed that feat and saw what I thought was a completely rusted-through floor. Huge pieces were falling away and you could push your finger through the soft spots in the... what? particle board? WTF?! Yes, indeed: the particle board speaker box was mounted above the spare tire on the exterior of the truck, held to the floor of the Cruiser with rusted wood screws. Awesome.
I tried to raise the third row seats to get a better look and found that they only thing holding them in was the floor hooks. The side bars were absent. I should have known from the funky angle the seats were cocked at. I kindly suggested removing them or at the very least telling people not to sit there. Ok, it wasn't that kindly of a suggestion. I said anybody sitting in them would become a "200lb. death projectile" in the event of an accident.
Popping the hood revealed the intake hose wrapped in duct tape, but very few other obvious problems, save for neglected fluids. As I was asking him about the tape job, it was obvious he had never opened the hood in the three months he had owned it. He revealed that he paid $6K and was looking to break even. In my kindest words possible, I told him he might not get asking price.
Yikes.
I know that probably isn't the worst story, but it definitely made for an interesting evening.
My dad wants to get a Cruiser as a fun secondary rig to his new 4Runner and told me to keep an eye out for a good starting point for a moderate build. 1993 80 came up on Craigslist. Pictures looked good, new tires, "front and rear differential locks", etc. 162K miles, only $6K. Sounded a little too good to be true.
We got to the guy's house and he was out running errands. When he pulled up, it looked and sounded pretty good. Definitely not new tires, and a few scratches, but pretty dang good for $6K. A quick look at the interior showed the following:
• multiple tweeter holes in doors
• cheap vinyl covering glued sloppily onto the door panels in different places to hide other holes
• really bad fake wood grain
• huge hole in driver's seat
• cracked, dirty leather throughout
• holes in the carpet
• rear window off the track ~ "it goes down fine, but will only go up that far."
Exterior showed an upper tailgate that had been repainted (not well) with what appeared to be rattlecan emerald pearl metallic-ish spraypaint. The latch wouldn't close all the way, but no big deal. Just a little out of alignment.
Hey, still not too bad for $6K for a locked rig. Nope. No lockers. I asked about it and the guy didn't know what the hell a locker really was. He then went on to explain to me how the locker light came on when you put it in low and how Land Cruisers have a neat feature whereby they adjust their height automatically when put into low. Um... no. I schooled him up on lockers and suggested that he should change his Craigslist ad before he got every Cruiserhead in the Portland Metro area pissed off.
A quick look in the back revealed two 12" subwoofers mounted in the floor behind the third row seats. Flush. Yes, two giant holes cut into the floor and the subs wood screwed into the sheet metal. I climbed under the truck to see just how they managed that feat and saw what I thought was a completely rusted-through floor. Huge pieces were falling away and you could push your finger through the soft spots in the... what? particle board? WTF?! Yes, indeed: the particle board speaker box was mounted above the spare tire on the exterior of the truck, held to the floor of the Cruiser with rusted wood screws. Awesome.
I tried to raise the third row seats to get a better look and found that they only thing holding them in was the floor hooks. The side bars were absent. I should have known from the funky angle the seats were cocked at. I kindly suggested removing them or at the very least telling people not to sit there. Ok, it wasn't that kindly of a suggestion. I said anybody sitting in them would become a "200lb. death projectile" in the event of an accident.
Popping the hood revealed the intake hose wrapped in duct tape, but very few other obvious problems, save for neglected fluids. As I was asking him about the tape job, it was obvious he had never opened the hood in the three months he had owned it. He revealed that he paid $6K and was looking to break even. In my kindest words possible, I told him he might not get asking price.
Yikes.
I know that probably isn't the worst story, but it definitely made for an interesting evening.
