UPDATE: The return!

It has been roughly two and a half years since I last posted on this blog. And because of that, one might conclude that my FJ55 project plans had completely gone awry. 

Nay, my plans were only significantly derailed.

In the months that followed my last post, it had become evident that my relationship at the time wouldn't last much longer if things continued along has they had been. Sure enough, my then girlfriend and I parted ways in the spring of 2015. 

My health was also becoming a major concern for me. After a heart attack scare, I decided to focus my efforts on losing weight and getting myself in better shape physically. My then girlfriend wasn't as supportive of those efforts as I had wished, which is one of the reasons we parted ways. 

Coming into the summer of 2015 then, I found myself newly single again and in need of some significant changes in my life. My writing career had stagnated while still in my last relationship. My waistline was as big as it ever had been when I weighed an astounding 360 pounds in February of 2015. And between poor physical health, a stagnated career, and a recent breakup; my mental health was in a perpetual state of depression and self-doubt. 

While this was all going on in 2015, the original owner of the FJ55 was still holding the Land Cruiser for me...unaware of what had been transpiring. 

Through the summer of '15 I managed to start cutting out unhealthy foods from my diet. I was gradually trimming weight, but was still significantly struggling to get over the hump. Then in the fall of '15, after viewing a series of documentaries on Netflix, I made the decision to adopt a dietary vegan lifestyle for the sake of my health. I began on that journey on November 9th, 2015; weighing 342 pounds. I did very little in the way of exercise aside from walking, and by the summer of 2016...I had slimmed down to 257 pounds; a total of over 100 pounds lost since February of the year prior. 

With my fitness levels returning to me, I set about to return to the work force again. I accepted the fact that my writing career was in the midst of a rebuilding period, and it was no longer viable to be considering myself a full-time writer. So back to work I went in March of 2016. 

During that period of time, I touched base with the owner to fill him in on what had been happening in my life and why the purchase of his FJ55 had been delayed. I was pleased to hear from him that he still was holding the pig for me, and that he was still willing to honor our original deal. At that point it just became a matter of when was I going to finally make my way out there to close the deal and pick it up. 

That is where I'm at right now: trying to figure out the details of my trip back to SoCal to get the "baked pig" and bring it home. 

I am tentatively looking at the spring of 2017 for making that trip, as it best seems to correlate with my job and my finances around then. There are still a ton of things to figure out between now and then, but at least we are back on track with these plans and heading in the right direction.

Stay tuned!

Finding a "barn find" 1979 FJ55! (Part 2)

The thing about classic and collectible cars and trucks is....anybody with money can buy one. For a small percentage of those people, they can afford a rare or unique vehicle. And for a very few lucky individuals....they can stumble upon that rare vehicle in some long forgotten resting place and bring it back to life for the world to see and enjoy.

This story....or "Project Iron Pig" as I've dubbed it....is an example of that last option.

Some car guys have made it their ambition just to find those "barn find" treasures. The buying and selling and collecting of classic vehicles may have become too mundane for them....though I can't imagine why. Classic cars have always thrilled me to be around, and they likely always will. But like any addiction I suppose...you eventually build up a tolerance and need to get more extreme with your fix. So people make it their work to find "barn find" vehicles and nothing more.

Often times you can go months without a solid lead. Unless you're one of the pesky types traveling the back roads of America, snooping around the yards of car hoarders or other people too lazy to properly dispose of their old vehicles. Call yourself a "picker", or call yourself an asshole....it's about the same. I take issue with the "picker" types who make it their business to disturb people who otherwise would be minding their own business. But I understand some of these pickers are responsible for helping to facilitate the bringing back to life of so many forgotten or abandoned classics.

I won't pass much judgement here because truthfully....if I happened to be driving down an old country back road here in Wisconsin, and see some broken down classic sitting in the yard of some rickety dwelling....I might have a hard time resisting the temptation to pull over, knock on their door, and inquire about said vehicle.

But I wouldn't make a business out of it...

So for me, stumbling on a barn find vehicle like this was almost assuredly going to be a matter of sheer dumb luck.

Recently I made a cross-country trip out to California to meet my girlfriend's family for the first time. It was also my first time being in the state of California, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Being somewhat of a small town guy from Wisconsin, the idea of L.A. and southern California seemed a bit out there for me to grasp. I just told myself to keep an open mind about the whole trip and see what happened.

Well a few days into our stay in southern California, my girlfriend's father and I are hitting it off pretty well it seemed. He had an appreciation for motorcycles, but also the right kind of car or truck. We spent hours upon hours discussing cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Finally, one morning while I'm enjoying some coffee....he slides over a couple old photo albums of his that he had dug out prior to my waking up. Unsure of what they contained photos of, I cautiously pulled them closer to me. Upon doing so, I saw a central photograph on the cover of one album that answered my question. There was a picture of an old Jeep CJ5 in the hills of southern California, doing some off-roading with other 4x4's in line behind it.

Turns out my girlfriend's father was into off-roading kind of seriously back in the early 1980's, and the CJ5 had belonged to him. As I gladly paged through the album looking at photo after photo of 4x4 rigs trying to scale steep grades or climb over boulders....we began a conversation about his days spent as a Jeep owner and off-roading enthusiast. I mentioned to him that I had always had a soft spot in my heart for Jeeps and 4x4's in general, and that as a teenager in high-school I had always dreamed of having a nice 4x4 rig of my own some day. His response to that admission caught me off guard quite a bit....

"One of my friends has an old Land Cruiser he'd like to get rid of..." came his serious sounding reply.

"Really?" I said with some reservations.

Now I'll be the first to admit here....that I've never been a Toyota guy. And I've never been a Land Cruiser guy either. But that didn't mean I didn't have a ton of respect for the Land Cruiser's place in the 4x4 community. I knew they had a devoted and loyal following, and I knew they were plenty capable off-roading rigs. Aside from that...all I knew about Land Cruisers was what an FJ40 looked like. And I only knew that from seeing all the tricked out FJ40's in the pages of the 4x4 and off-road magazines I had read as a teen. So naturally, my first thoughts of "an old Land Cruiser" was that of an FJ40.

"One of the old FJ40's?" I inquired confidently.

"No" he began. "It's an FJ55."

At that point I was totally lost. I had no idea what an FJ55 even looked like. Probably because I had never seen one....anywhere. Not in the pages of magazines as a teen. Not at local car shows. Nowhere had I ever seen an FJ55. In fact, before he said "it's an FJ55"....I was unaware that designation even existed for Land Cruisers.

Making a long story short, my girlfriend's father tried as best he could to explain what an FJ55 looked like to me. When that appeared to be failing, he finally uttered in frustration..."Well, we can just go over there and look at it some day!"

Now the wheels were turning in my head. I kept racking my brain to try and remember what an FJ55 looked like...and I just couldn't! So for the next couple of days it ate away at me. I would pester my girlfriend's father for more information about his friend's Land Cruiser so I could try and gauge in my mind what to expect when we finally laid eyes on it. I knew enough to know not to build it up in my mind as going to be some magnificent find, only to arrive and discover a wreck totally beyond saving.

From what I could gather from my girlfriend's father, this friend of his was an off-road enthusiast who had purchased the Land Cruiser new....but never really did much off-roading with it. In fact I was told his off-roading with the rig never amounted to much beyond driving on dirt roads. I was also privy to the knowledge that he'd been trying to figure out what to do with it for the past few years. It had been sitting since 2000, which was when he finally stopped driving it with 119k original miles on it. It was parked and left alone. It had been offered to his sons during that time, but neither of them had any interest in spending the money to restore it apparently. (What I would find out later, is that the son who knew the most about the FJ55....knew how near impossible parts for it would be to get!) So it remained parked for 14 years....until I was informed of it's existence.

Finally the day came when we could drive over and see the old iron pig for ourselves. I still had no idea what it would look like, as I was on vacation and adhering to a strict "no internet" policy for my own enjoyment. Where as I would have Googled an FJ55 had this all happened at some other time, I went into this viewing blind. As we made our way to the resting spot of the FJ55, and the owner unlocked the gate and swung it open....there I laid my eyes on an FJ55 for the very first time in my life.

These pictures were taken rather rapidly, as when I turned on the digital camera I had brought along...it signaled to me that the battery was about to wear out. So I scurried around the FJ55 in the narrow lot it had been parked in, and snapped as many pictures as I could before my batteries died. What you see above is all I could get taken before the camera shut itself down. But as you can see, there is definitely some work that needs to be done....primarily on rust repair. The owner seemed to think the engine would turn over and start with only some minor tinkering. 

The good news is....the owner assured me he would be holding onto this FJ55 for me until I could return at a future date and finalize the sale. 

The better news is....because he is a long-time friend of my girlfriend's father, I can likely trust him to keep that promise to me. 

The bad news is.....(there's always bad news!)....for reasons I will go into at another time in the future....this FJ55 is unable to be driven out of it's current location. 

Make sure to subscribe to this blog to keep up to date on getting this rare pig back here to Wisconsin. It's going to be one helluva journey!

RECAP: 1st Car Show of the season!

I just got back from my first car show of the season today, and only a couple things stuck out at me. Unfortunately, the turn out of cars and trucks wasn't as plentiful as I had anticipated....even with the near perfect weather for it.

Surprisingly, there was a small row of 4x4's at the show today. Usually the trucks are limited to classic pick-ups, and/or slammed 2wd trucks. The 4x4 crowd doesn't seem to get much attention at these local shows. But that might be changing...

When you see 4x4's at car shows, you tend to get a lot of Jeeps. And for what was actually at this show, the only 4x4 I saw that wasn't a Jeep....was this recently restored IH Scout! This Scout was good enough (in comparison to what else was there) to take my vote for "Best In Show" for trucks.

 

Having seen a lot of Jeeps in my day, and having owned one as well, the only one that stood out to me was this clean looking CJ5. 

Something tells me that if I had had the Baked Pig FJ55 finished and at one of these local shows....I'd have a really great shot at "Best In Show" in the truck class. Jeeps are fun, but plentiful. Scouts are less common, but you have to like the shape/look of them. 

But a 1979 FJ55 Land Cruiser? Well....that would be hard to beat in my opinion. 

Finding a "barn find" 1979 FJ55! (Part 1)

For most of us car crazy guys out there, we dream of the classics with a never-ending fervor. Whatever your preferences may be in the auto world, you no doubt have had your share of daydreams in which you are the lucky person who stumbles upon a neglected and forgotten classic...long hidden away from the prying eyes of the world around it. This sort of find has come to be known in the car world as a "barn find".

In my lifetime, I've seen plenty of YouTube videos about such finds, and I've read countless articles about the lucky guys who are unearthing a rare muscle car in a barn, or an ultra-rare exotic in some long forgotten storage. For as many stories as there seems to be coming to light with every passing year, there seems to be as much variety in the circumstances surrounding these amazing finds. But one thing is always the same: somebody, somewhere, had a particular vehicle that they thought enough of at one point in time....to store it away instead of getting rid of it....yet didn't think enough about that vehicle to keep it on the road. Whether for health reasons, financial reasons, or mechanical ones....these "barn find" vehicles are allowed to stay tucked away in time.

And then for whatever reason...that changes all of a sudden.

Sometimes it is the death of someone that facilitates the sale. Other times it's nothing more than a realization that they will never see their vehicle back onto the road...and know it deserves to go to a better home with someone who will. Most of the time, it seems, the guys bringing these "barn finds" out into the light again...are professional car guys of some sort. Guys who work around cars in one manner or another, and who always seem to have their ear to the ground for a lead on the next great "barn find" classic.

Then there is me. A life-long "car crazy" guy, who isn't a professional car guy by any means....but who also appreciates a good treasure hunt when given the map. Unfortunately, that method relies heavily on sheer dumb luck. And sheer dumb luck was exactly what I had when I found this rare 1979 FJ55 Land Cruiser hidden away for the last 15 years.

1979 Toyota FJ55 Land Cruiser "Iron Pig" (1 of only 250!)

To be continued...

Welcome to my FJ55 Land Cruiser blog!

Welcome Land Cruiser junkies, "Iron Pig" fans, and FJ55 aficionados!

This blog will serve as a chronicle of my attempt to rescue a "barn find" U.S.-spec 1979 FJ55 Land Cruiser from its sunny southern California resting place, and return it to its former glory here in beautiful Wisconsin.

If you know about FJ55 Land Cruisers then you know just how rare this pig is; being 1 of only 250 imported into the U.S. for 1979. 

Sign up to subscribe by email, or follow me on Google+ to stay updated on my adventure trying to bring new life to this scarce Toyota.

Be blessed Land Cruiser fans!

-"Big Bacon"