Last time, I mentioned at the end of my article that I thought somehow my Land Cruiser was used as a Park Ranger vehicle in or around the Santa Fe, NM area. The mint green paint on the underside of the hood is one of those distinguishing features that lead me to believe that it could have been a Park Ranger vehicle.

There is no doubt that every vehicle has a history that comes with it. Some may be good and some may be bad. I’m thinking that the history of my Land Cruiser is good. It’s seen many miles of terrain, both paved and unpaved. Wouldn’t it be cool to go back in time, when this vehicle rolled off the assembly line, was put on a ship, trucked to it’s final destination where it was sold to the government and put into use. There were so many different hands, working as one to get the vehicle from factory, to ship, to port, to train, to truck, to dealership for delivery. We forget all too often the amount of time and money it takes to get from factory to final destination.

Going back to the pre- Rowdy history of my Land Cruiser, is it possible that it was used in a search and rescue mission to save someone’s life? What if it had to drive over rocky terrain to help put out a forest fire? I don’t know, there are so many things it could have done, but I guess we’ll never find out.

Once I got my Cruiser back to Lubbock, I unloaded it off the trailer and took it for a spin. The engine started up immediately and it took very little time getting used to the three speed transmission.

After driving it around for about 10 minutes, I put it in 4 Wheel Drive and locked the hubs. It all worked perfectly.

The body on the other hand was completely rusted out. The wheel wells had holes big enough for my hands to fit through. The bed was rusted through on the back part, enough for me to bend it upwards to expose the rear axle. WOW, I had no idea it was in this bad of condition.

I began to clean it out from top to bottom. The previous owner, who worked at a Lemon Orchard, had left tons of lemon tree leaves under the seats and under a rubber floor mat. That floor mat was also used to keep his feet from falling though the floorin the bed. LOL.

As I was cleaning the inside, I found some cool things about it. On the dash, it says “For Official Use Only, US Government.” The previous owner had said the guy he bought the Cruiser from had bought it at a Government Auction and was used as a Park Ranger vehicle up near Santa Fe. Hmm, I wonder how I could find out if that’s true?

After we left Ojai, California, we made our way through the hills to Victorville, California. It’s kind of like being in Presidio. There isn’t much out there but greasewood, sand and a scorching sun.

After Victorville, we headed off to Vegas where we spent the night at Treasure Island. Before we made it to the Nevada state line, we hit this huge hill where we start out at 115 ft above sea level and at the top of the hill, it’s 4000 ft above sea level. We wasted more gas climbing that hill and when we got to the top, they were selling gas for $5 bucks a gallon! Highway robbery!

We parked the Tahoe pulling the LC in the garage at TI and headed out at 6 am the next morning. It was surprising to see the sun shining at 5 am but nonetheless, we headed out.

Somewhere between Hoover Dam and Kingman, Arizona I noticed something going very wrong. The fiberglass top on the LC was starting to come loose. All of the sudden, it comes off, lands on the highway and busts into a hundred pieces. I couldn’t believe it. We turned around and got out to find it in such disrepair that we left it on the side of the road.

After that, it was a long, long ride back to Lubbock.

After getting the winning bid, my wife at the time, now my ex, and I decided to make a trip out to California to pick up my new purchase.

We headed out west and stopped at a friend’s house where we stayed the night in Las Cruces, NM. We got up at 6 a.m. and took off driving again. At 6 p.m. we arrived in Santa Monica, CA, were we stayed with another friend for a couple of days. We did some shopping, saw some celebs, felt the ocean and took pictures near the Hollywood sign.

A few days later, we drove up Pacific Coast Highway 1, the famous highway that runs along the coast from San Diego to Northern California. We traveled through beautiful towns like Malibu and Ventura and just north of Santa Barbara, we arrived  in Ojai. We visited for a while about the history of the Cruiser and loaded it up on the flatbed trailer being pulled by our Chevy Tahoe.

After we get it strapped down, he hands me the keys and spent the next 5 hours on the road to Vegas.

In 2006, I bought a 1966 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40. I was watching the show, Pimp My Ride on MTV, where West Coast Customs was pimping a FJ40 for this female yoga instructor from LA. After watching them take it from trash to treasure, I knew I wanted one. I had this idea that I’d like to restore it and have it as another vehicle to cruise around in with the family. Who’s up for restoring a cool ride!

Considering a classic FJ40 isn’t commonly sold, I searched locally and found nothing. I proceeded to hit the internet and found this 1966 FJ40 on ebay. There were quite a few online; some that had been fully restored, some that were heavily accessorized and some that were in need of desperate repair. Wanna take a guess at what I chose? I must say, Ebay is a great place to find a specialized vehicle, but not great for finding the daily driver. (If you are looking for a daily vehicle, checkout Texas Auto Guide or www.texasautoguide.com.)

After watching it on ebay for a couple of days, I made my move with just a couple of minutes to go. I placed my bid at $1250
and proceeded to hit the refresh button. Suddenly, someone bumped my bid. I entered $1500. Still not the winning bid.
Finally, I entered $1750 and walked away the winner.