This spirited man watched a youtube video that unleashed in him an irrational, foolish and embarrassing desire, possibly an immoral one, an all-encompassing desire akin to the lust for sex or brownie sundays, a bloodlust like ahab, and the whale this 1987 diesel toyota land cruiser. Is this spirited man's family car, his main squeeze baby mama domestic partner common law? Wife saw a similar land cruiser on the show, narcos and said: let's get one of those before the baby's born. Then she went out and got it the deal was she buys the truck. He pays for the maintenance, and now after about three years of fixing this or that old thing, they're nearly even he's put into the truck about the same amount of money she spent buying it and yet of all the cars he's ever owned.
This one is his favorite hands down edges out the f-350 power stroke. Even there's no rational way to explain his love for this 34 year old truck. The heart wants what the heart wants. Maybe it's the feeling he gets when he sits in the cockpit or wipes it down with a diaper.
Yes, yes, now this is a car and just a car, no computer, stuff tons of glass to look out of plenty of room room under the seats. Even then, there's the camaraderie among the folks in the canyon who own these things, folks like buck here, who shipped his 75 to texas to rebuild the fuel injectors. Also, diesel bucks there's the white one at the general store, the dark gray, one up on skyline phoenix's brown, one not sure where she is today they all wave to each other when they pass like motorcyclists. When you meet folks who've sold theirs, they all say the same thing wish i'd have kept it, but at times owning one of these things can be a romantic fool's errand.
It's not so much the money, parts and service are relatively cheap. It's the time searching all over the world for parts, finding mechanics what happened to all the mechanics. If you don't know what to do with your life, please become an old car mechanic. K h is virtually the only vintage landcruiser service shop in jesus in all of southern california.
It seems and they're booked up at least a month out always an eccentric genius named bernie did the electrical work truck was manufactured as a 24 volt system, then incorrectly rewired into a 12-volt system which created a bug in the headlight high beams and on and on Bernie's work took five weeks: 5600 bucks in a couple of weeks, maybe three to rebuild the transmission. The diesel engine runs on biodiesel, too, gets twice the mileage as a stock gas engine, but has barely enough horsepower to make it up the mountain road to his home. But there's a team down in that valley who builds these land cruisers to perfection builds what they call a stage: 3 restoration to the very rarely achieved standard of excellence. The company is called tlc 4x4 tlc god damn right.
Few things are still built to perfection built to last, and the singular object of this spirited man's desire is one of these tlc land cruisers, one that looks like his but built to complete perfection. What they call a sleeper soundproofing, rust proofing, full float, rear, axle, locking diffs big corvette engine corvette engine 420 horsepower ls3 anyway, big anti-lock brakes secret compartments, heated seats, powder coated, stainless custom-made center console my god. It takes mr ward here. The vanguard of restoration excellence best in the world, it takes him nearly 15 minutes just to rattle off the details. His team painstakingly respected in hand building this truck engineered their own wiring looms, 42 gallon tank and yet on. The outside just looks like a 1980s suv with new paint and tires the care, the precision, the work, the research, the experience, the headaches, the pain, the blood, the ingenuity, the failures, the artistry. These machines are built with an artist mindset, excellence, plain and simple artist. Spec museum quality: these trucks are superior to new ferraris or bentleys or rolls-royces.
Thanks to spirited man. These trucks will last 100 years. He thinks buy. One of these and it's the last car he'll ever buy his unborn grandchildren will drive it one day.
God willing this spirited man struggles with the desire. It feels almost greedy, almost like greed. These trucks are so expensive that, after 17 pages of google searching, he was unable to get an actual price for an fj140 or 142 could only find ballpark ranges somewhere between the entire annual salary of the president of the united states and the annual salary of the Senate majority or minority leader how much money would he have to have to justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a fifteen thousand dollar truck? But that's it, though all he wants is just this one thing: he don't need no new boots or clothes or a watch or a new motorcycle. Maybe a bigger house as his family grows sure, but not that big of a house.
Is it moral for this man? A man who asked strangers to contribute money so he could launch his youtube channel. Is it okay for him to buy god willing such an incredibly expensive truck how's that supposed to make everybody feel? Would it make him just another rich guy so and so well? Doesn't matter because he doesn't got that kind of scratch to begin with, doesn't got that kind of class, not even remotely close. Even if he had lived under a bridge and saved every penny he's made over the last six or seven years, he still wouldn't have it, and yet he won't give up on this foolish stupid. Greedy dream he's up to his old tricks again up to his black magic tricks.
Let's call it blue magic, so here he goes again just like with garrett's oscar some sympathetic magic. What scheme, what fortune will bring this truck into his grasp? Is this the sort of desire that begets the greedy bad guy? Is this his confession, his indulgence? His intentions are pure. He thinks he will use this tlc truck on an adventure of the sort for which these trucks are purpose built an overland family trip down to panama for his son's fifth birthday a little over two years. Hence, hmm: may this shrine deliver unto him the object of his desire, we'll settle for a used one. If need be, you.
Australia is full of them. I really enjoy my Toyota and driving my family from place to place in it. Highlander/Freddie Kluger.
There is a HotWheels Toyota Land Cruiser out right now. 1980. Found today at Target 🎯
When i was maybe 14 I saw an old beat down, diamond plated fj40 on Marthas Vinyard during a fishing trip. It changed my life. Once I was out of school and had the finances, i bought myself a silver 1987 fj60 and drove it daily for over 10 years. Looks just like the one in this vid but it runs on gas, lots of it. This is a 1987 truck with a 4.2 L straight six that redlines at…….4000 rpm. 4 speed manual transmission with NO OVERDRIVE. It has a pull choke like a pushmower. The suspension would fit right in on the Oregon trail. There is a small hole in the body below the radiator meant for an emergency hand crank for starting the engine by hand if your battery dies, although there has never been a documented case of someone actually starting one that way. Dont leave your millennial or younger kids in there on a hot day cus they wont know how to work the windows.
The beauty of these things is in their simplicity. Your senses arent dulled by horespower and all sorts of technology. That allows you to hear the truck whispering to you when something is failing. And because its a landcruiser you can usually put the repair off for 10k miles because sometimes you really are in Botswana, 4 days drive from the nearest electricity. A point not lost on organizations such as the UN, doctors without borders, and basically every military in the world.
Jonathan ward makes amazing trucks and i would certainly be proud to own one. But they are not landcruisers. If you want a landcruiser with a v8 go buy yourself the best 100 series you can find, preferably 05-07, preferably without AHC. Probably cost you 25k. As the owner of an 06 i can honestly tell you its soul is every bit a cruiser in spite of the creature comforts. My 80 with factory e lockers had the best 4wd system out of any model cruiser, but the 100 is the best all around landcruiser in my opinion. Get one and save yourself 200k and the 2 years of your life you would waste waiting for the tlc to be built.
Would heat shield tape work? I used them on motorcycle exhausts that were a little to close to fleshy bits.
As a former owner of an extremely crappy HJ60, I can confirm.
I so regret selling it, not even because in the 6 years since I did they have practically increased in value 5 times, even for the crap one.
No, not the money, the feel of it, the joy of driving it, the simplicity, the workhorse quality.
But I would honesty never give up on the soul for a big engine and coils, no I would stick with the cart springs and the old guzzling 2H diesel, but maybe if I was really rich I would get the 12H-T instead…
My whole thing is, no matter if somebody sees it as greed, if it's something that I enjoy seeing somebody else enjoy I will back that up…and support all I can.
Honestly, i feel the mechanical diesel and relative simplicity of the good old HJ60\2 trucks is what makes them "everlasting", and even though Icon\TLC's trucks are amazing, i fear the longevity might suffer from it, and being custom made, a lot more expensive and difficult to maintain. For power, i'm unsure how much the 4.0 diesel can take, maybe swapping to a Mercedes OM606 with a inline pump conversion would be a power upgrade yet remaining in the fuel economy\fully mechanical diesel supremacy that is that truck's very soul? There's always the 4.2 Toyota diesel from a later model Land Cruiser too
Wasn't expecting to see buck from big thief here of all places this is a pleasant video
I’ve watched this video so many times! I just love it. I absolutely love the way you edit your videos.
Dang… Chinchilla Australia, I've been there and my old boss's father owned and operated a rock melon farm there called 'rob rocks' cause their family name was Roberts (they now operate out of the 'Kimberly's Northern Teritory' … a great family.
2 of the 3 Brothers(Mark – auto electrician and James – engineering mogul – no formal.training) went on to start a very admirable company called rapid rewinding that rewound DC motors, alternators and starter motors in Salisbury, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Now their called rapid power and have been building world class high output at idle alternators to supply not only domestic but also international and commercial applications (including Siberian salt mines)…
I was there when it started with supplying coffee vans with enough power to make espresso on the fly for business offices…
60 series landcruiser's are beautiful in everyway, good on you for wearing the difficulty that is running them daily, I hope the rewards outway the costs and annoyance of the fixes or better yet, go hard on the conversion, I would😁.
I wish nothing more than everything that is beautiful in this world brother, thanks for the inspiration and information 🙏
when u say old school mechanics its not really that people don't know old school cars. It's that the truck is a diesel truck and ur going to want to look for a diesel shop instead of a ur usual mechanic shop, that and most mechanics don't like to fuck around w/ diesel trucks. fixing them is p easy if imma be real, its just time consuming like u said, in terms of injector rebuilds its very costly for diesel and when I helped my brother do it on his 03 lariat, the teardown and rebuild took about 2 days, 1 day for uninstall and letting the injectors sit in fluid to get all the smuck out, then another for the rebuild and install and u can't really do it any faster since u don't want the smuck to sit in their. Then there is always downtime for parts to come in and if its a diesel ur looking at more downtime. on the brightside ur running a yoda, so as long as u keep up with maintenance ur looking at 300k+ miles of a good and strong vehicle.
I also fell in love with these trucks watching Narcos…. lol. But alas, I could only afford a 97 Prado. Here in NZ a decent 80 goes for 40k…..
thumbs up and comment for support! I have the same desires towards an old vw bus that sits in my driveway! Cant wait to watch the trip!
I learned to drive in a Toyota Landcruiser 1980 (60 series) turbo diesel. That vehicle was a lot of fun. I think it got sold in 1997 with over 2 million km on the clock. Thankyou for the beautiful memories.
I used to drive a Land cruiser same year. Loved the honks on Sunset Blvd and riding several friends to clubs in that thing, or coming over this hilly pass to visit my cousin. Those were good times.