I'm sure it doesn't take too long for people to find out that I have a soft spot for Landcruisers. Up until last year I had owned three BJ60 series Landcruisers. This will be the story of my 4th Cruiser.
The first was a 1982 Blue super rusty Cruiser with armstrong steering and a 4spd tranny. This rig was a catalyst for many adventures in my late teenage years. It shlunked its way up mountains to take us snowboarding on the peaks of Mt. Washington, Forbiden Plateau, and Mt. Cain. It was the tow machine up Mt. Arrowsmith for an adventure which miraculously ended happily. It took us to lakes and rivers and backroad map locations for camping and exploring. It was a rusty heap, which eventually developed an air leak into the fuel line causing intermittent stalling, so it had to go.
The second Cruiser was a 1981 Beige not very rusty rolling chassis that I was going to swap onto the running gear of my '82. I sold both to the same person after my first year of Bible College.
The third was an '84 Brown solid rig, 5spd and power steering. It was our first Cruiser as a married couple and it was really nice. Not too many adventures with it, but the few it led us on did make some memories. We sold it because seminary apparently isn't cheap.
Then there was a long dark silence...
A little over ten years long...
Owning another Cruiser seemed a distant reality, but the dream was still alive.
Then "it" happened. No, the "it" isn't a Landcruiser, but rather a season of life which forever changed our family's life. Our youngest son, Jaxon, at the age of 5 was diagnosed with Leukemia. That "it" meant that a new normal would have to be realized and how we operated as a family would change in many ways. The good news is that Jaxon's diagnosis, prognosis and treatment have been very positive (in Cancer terms anyways), and each day we thank God for his grace in our lives.
Ever since we have been married we've essentially been a one vehicle family. There were a few times where we had two vehicles, but it either wasn't for long or it was because of my work that I could have a company vehicle. The reality was that we simply couldn't justify owning and maintaining two vehicles...until this last year.
After Jaxon's diagnosis we learned that when we were at home and Jaxon struck a fever, we had 30mins to get him to a hospital. When you live 27mins from the hospital it means you don't have time to call an ambulance or think of alternate arrangements...you just need to get in the vehicle and GO! And when I say we have 30mins, I mean his life actually depends on us getting to the hospital in time to receive a general antibiotic so they can then take blood samples and see why the fever has spiked. This is literally life or death kind of stuff, so we haven't shy'd away from investing into our vehicle.
We own a 2003 VW Jetta Wagon TDI. This would be our primary vehicle for transporting Jaxon to his clinic appointments and the hospital in an emergency. We have had to do some fairly extensive maintenance on the VW to make sure it's in top running order and reliable. Yes, it's a used car and yes it still has things go wrong with it, but overall it's a very nice vehicle for our family.
One day in December 2014 I took the car into Duncan (about 30mins from our home) and realized that if I had the car in Duncan and Jaxon started trending a fever at home, we could be in big trouble. It was then that I realized we could no longer be a single vehicle family; I needed something that I could take into town without taking the family wagon and also something that would work well as a backup vehicle if/when the VW needed repairs.
So in January 2015 we went to the credit union and secured finances to purchase a second vehicle.
Now, based on the above information it's obvious that we bought a Landcruiser. And you may be asking yourself why we didn't buy something newer or more modern. These are good questions.
Here are my responses:
1. I've owned Landcruisers before and was comfortable enough to wrench on them, ultimately (hopefully) saving our family money in expenses.
2. The vintage I was familiar with have almost no electronics, so not much can go wrong with them outside of mechanical parts wearing out, so most problems are easily diagnosed.
3. Landcruisers are notoriously rusty. Yup. You're right. Can't argue that one. So my hope was to find one that was well taken care of mechanically and then one day in the distant future find a decent body from some magical place and swap the bodies; old one in the steel bin and new one on the rolling chassis.
4. How reliable is a 30+ old vehicle. Well, outside of normal wear and tear and some rust, pretty stinkin' reliable actually. Essentially, if it starts, you're good to go. There is a reason these rigs are known globally for being one of the best vehicles for getting you to where you need to go.
So yeah, there's no warranty when you purchase a 30+ yr old vehicle. There's no guarantees. But what there is is a cult-like following of people around the world who are more than eager to share their wisdom and knowledge if you ever need help. In fact, there's a Club right here on Vancouver Island which has proven to be very helpful. And, add to that, there is a specialty Landcruiser shop just 30mins away in Duncan!
So January 2015, after a solid month of looking for a decent rig, I stumble upon this:
I called a friend who used to custom build these rigs and it just so happened that he had built this rig about 20 years ago. He had bought it off an SFU professor and then modified it accordingly! He then sold it to a friend 3yrs later (for similar familial circumstances as our family) to a good buddy of his. I then bought it from him.
So the history of the vehicle is very well known. In fact, the PO (previous owner) gave me three rubbermaids full of spare parts, mechanical manuals, and a binder with hand written details of every single thing ever done to it for the past 17yrs. Pretty awesome as far as known history goes.
Needless to say, it was rusty. I spoke to my buddy who built it and he said not to spend any money on fixing up the body as it should just be replaced in like five years or so.
So that was the plan...five year plan...five...year...plan...
We drove the "Camo" rig for most of this year and worked out a couple little issues here and there with it, but overall were very happy to have it as part of our family ;-)
On September 22nd, we all piled into the VW to go into Duncan and by the end of the driveway I could smell electrical burning. Lifted the hood. Smoke. Alternator was done. Parked it and we all jumped in the rusty trusty Landcruiser. We usually don't take the Cruiser because it's not as good on fuel (even though it has very good fuel economy) and it's slower than the turbo diesel vw.
Regardless, we all jumped into the Cruiser, glad that we had a second vehicle we could rely on to get our family where it needs to go.
Rachel dropped the boys and I off at their drum lessons and took the Cruiser out to run errands; something she isn't able to do by herself very often!
I got a call from her about 45mins later and she said that she had got into an accident.
She was okay. It was a very slow speed accident. She had rear-ended someone.
In her defence, the intersection where this occurred is notoriously bad for those turning right onto Trunk Rd in Duncan. What happens is the light turns green and at the same time the crosswalk also turns white to allow pedestrians to cross. Obviously that's a common traffic signal occurrence, but at this intersection people are often trying to turn right and are delayed because of the pedestrians. This results in a long backlog of traffic in that slow lane, which inevitably is also the turning lane.
So, Rachel was about five cars back sitting at the red light.
Light turns green and the first two cars advance straight through creating a good amount of space to accelerate.
Third car advances to the intersection and wants to turn right but can't because of pedestrians so they stop.
Fourth car advances and has to stop because of third car.
Rachel advances and while checking her mirrors in preparation to turn right she doesn't see that the fourth car has stopped suddenly in front of her. She's likely just getting out of first gear and realizes that our bushbar has nicely landed into the back of a service van.
It's a rear ender. Let's just say the bushbar did its job! I'm pretty sure that thing was a write off.
And this is what the front of the Cruiser looked like. That's the glass on the ground is from the back window of the van, not from our Cruiser. Not even a light was busted!
You can't see it, but there is a crack in the bushbar just left of the winch.
The other thing you can't see is the severed engine mount which caused the cooling fan blade to rub on the shroud. I fixed that in the parking lot at the school by removing the shroud altogether.
At the time I didn't notice the engine mount was sheared so we drove it home. No problems.
Out of curiosity I took the truck into an ICBC shop to see if there was anything out of the ordinary that they felt ICBC would take care of if I made a claim. As we looked under the Cruiser by the engine that is when we saw that the engine mount had sheared and was being held in place by the other mount and the transmission mount as well. The man advised me to not drive the vehicle any longer and to get it fixed asap.
I started the process of making a claim and when ICBC called me they said that they were not going to write the Cruiser off. This was good news for two reasons: (1) the running gear (frame/engine/wheels/etc) is in very good condition and (2) I didn't want my VIN to show either rebuilt status or have to go through the inspections to get it road legal again. So at the end of the day I took a payout (Which was fair, but nowhere near what I was hoping for!). I could use that money to buy new engine mounts and get the bushbar fixed.
Problem solved.
Cruiser should be back on the road in a couple weeks after waiting for parts from Australia. OEM engine mounts from Canada were $200ea, and the Australian ones are supposed to be more reasonable.
So I drove the Cruiser over to my Landcruiser Mechanic in Duncan (RADD Cruisers) and had him put his professional eyes on the rig.
Let's just say we found more results from the accident because my truck body was just so rusty.
Essentially the entire rear seat area was done and half the body mounts we bent, which is not supposed to happen!
The body was done. Not safe as a family vehicle. And ICBC will not fix anything that is not part of the accident, and I guess rust isn't covered under such rules!
John (RADD Cruiser owner) said that it wasn't impossible to make all the many repairs necessary to cut out all the rusty parts and paste in new pieces, but it would be much easier to just drop a new(er) less rusty body on my existing running gear.
I agreed. In fact, that was my five year plan for this truck, but I didn't have a spare rust-free body laying around nor the money to buy one if one was available!
John said we should go look out back in his yard and see if there was anything there that might work.
I wasn't sure what he meant by that but I followed.
Indeed, there was a RHD HJ61 import from Japan sitting there without an engine in it, but on a rolling chassis. It had been sitting outside for awhile and some parts were missing, but the actual body looked really good underneath the moss and gunk caked on from sitting there.
Something you need to know about John at RADD Cruisers. He's a very generous, compassionate man. He looked at me and said that this would be a good donor body. I looked at him and said I didn't have any money. He looked at me and said that I didn't really have any other choice but to throw my old body away and drop a new(er) body onto it, and this body would work well.
He then said that he would give me the body...for free. For...Free!!! Free-ninety-nine is my kind of deal :-)
John had done some work on our VW previously and knew the importance it played in making sure Jaxon had a reliable mode of transportation because of his Cancer. John had already extended generosity towards our family by giving us a break on parts & labor costs, knowing that our financial situation was pretty tight. I've helped him with a couple electrical jobs here and there, but his generosity with this new(er) body is simply amazing. Seriously, try and find a great condition 60 series body on the Island period, never mind how much they want for it! So for John to have this sitting there is, for me, nothing short of a miracle. I pray that God extends His generosity to John and his business just as freely as John has done for our family.
So, the five year plan was now the RIGHT NOW PLAN!
I've spent the past couple weeks sourcing parts and pieces and making plans to get this donor project under way.
Don't get me wrong, this is no overnight ordeal.
This is what I'm starting with as a donor rig:
Although some body swaps are as simple as undoing the body mounts, removing parts from the firewall, disconnecting the wiring harness and dropping the new body on, this swap will not be so simple.
This new donor body is RHD so there are a few quirks which need to be figured out; some upgrades and others just time consuming...
Upgrades include:
- Almost rust free body.
- High roof
- Rear seats are 50/50 split (my original is solid with no split).
- No factory roof racks. Although this may seem like a downgrade, the factory racks are not very strong and often interfere with adding better roof rack systems, so people usually cut them off and they can tend to leak afterwards. So having no roof racks is actually a bonus!
The time consuming aspects will be:
- Cutting out the firewall and RHD dash and installing my LHD firewall and dash in its place. This also allows me to keep my VIN.
- Sourcing the missing doors, fenders, rear hatches missing from this donor.
- Completely stripping the interior, painting all interior surfaces, power cleaning the carpets.
- Completely painting the exterior of the truck. I want to do a half decent job of this as it will actually add considerably to the value of the truck.
- Swapping parts and pieces from my original Cruiser onto this one. Seems simple but I want to do it in a way that doesn't leave us without a second vehicle for very long so it will need to be quick. Things that will take time are removing my firewall and dash, priming and painting it, then reinstalling it.
At the end of the day the truck will be solid, safe and have added value.
I will be documenting this journey as it is something I've wanted to do for a number of years and simply could not afford to do it, and now, by necessity, I have this opportunity in front of me and I really want to do as good of a job of it as I can with the resources available to me.
Thanks for looking. I'll update with pics and info as the project moves along.
