I was going to wait until I had a few more things done to my FJ before I posted this build thread but I'm afraid I will forget something and leave something out and I really want to post this to remember for myself all that I have done and went through to make this exactly what I want to do what I want. There are a ton of nice things out there that you can buy if you have an endless supply of cash but thats not me. Living on a city employee budget I'm going to have to scrape and scratch and put in for some OT in order to try and make this what I want.
So this is the day we saw our "little girl" for the first time.
I had an '08 Ford F-250 that was nothing but a money pit. I have a friend who works as a salesman at the local Toyota dealer and I wanted to go back to Toyota because I loved the last one I had. He had a Tacoma that I was going to look at. But he was late getting there that morning so the wife and I decided to look around. She saw the FJ and said, "I've never seen one of these before. I like this." I had seen them. I had always loved them but never thought I could ever afford one. We looked inside and drove it. The numbers were right so after they cleaned it up it was delivered to the house.
I was working that day but my wife came outside when I met the guy at the house and she snapped a few pics. I was so freaking excited. It was older and had a lot of miles (about 124k), but the CarFax was about 40 pages thick where the previous owner had taken meticulous care of her. Everything was in perfect shape. Bone Stock except for a tow package that had been added. So my dream of building my dream FJ started...
But before it started I had to pay sales tax and buy tags, pay property tax, etc. So there was no money at this time for accessories. But that didn't keep me at home. I had to get out and explore! So on my first day off I headed to the Ozark National Forest in north AR. I went to the Ranger station and got some maps and off down the dirt roads I went. I found the Zing Trailhead and started down an OHV trail and realized very quickly this was not the place for street tires...especially worn out ones. I turned around and headed home very shortly. I arrived at my house and found my front left tire had a stick shoved in it so I went to the local used tire shop and purchased 4 pretty good AT Tires. Much bigger beefier and made for offroad.
Sales tax paid, personal property tax paid, tags paid and first months payment paid. NOW we can start building our "little girl." I found some money that I could use and it was perfect timing. The week of Black Friday was upon us so I started researching deals and seeing what I could get for the most money...what I wanted so bad and what I could wait for. Amazing how fast the money runs out!
The Saga continues...until next post! BROfessor Out!
So this is the day we saw our "little girl" for the first time.
I had an '08 Ford F-250 that was nothing but a money pit. I have a friend who works as a salesman at the local Toyota dealer and I wanted to go back to Toyota because I loved the last one I had. He had a Tacoma that I was going to look at. But he was late getting there that morning so the wife and I decided to look around. She saw the FJ and said, "I've never seen one of these before. I like this." I had seen them. I had always loved them but never thought I could ever afford one. We looked inside and drove it. The numbers were right so after they cleaned it up it was delivered to the house.
I was working that day but my wife came outside when I met the guy at the house and she snapped a few pics. I was so freaking excited. It was older and had a lot of miles (about 124k), but the CarFax was about 40 pages thick where the previous owner had taken meticulous care of her. Everything was in perfect shape. Bone Stock except for a tow package that had been added. So my dream of building my dream FJ started...
But before it started I had to pay sales tax and buy tags, pay property tax, etc. So there was no money at this time for accessories. But that didn't keep me at home. I had to get out and explore! So on my first day off I headed to the Ozark National Forest in north AR. I went to the Ranger station and got some maps and off down the dirt roads I went. I found the Zing Trailhead and started down an OHV trail and realized very quickly this was not the place for street tires...especially worn out ones. I turned around and headed home very shortly. I arrived at my house and found my front left tire had a stick shoved in it so I went to the local used tire shop and purchased 4 pretty good AT Tires. Much bigger beefier and made for offroad.
Sales tax paid, personal property tax paid, tags paid and first months payment paid. NOW we can start building our "little girl." I found some money that I could use and it was perfect timing. The week of Black Friday was upon us so I started researching deals and seeing what I could get for the most money...what I wanted so bad and what I could wait for. Amazing how fast the money runs out!
The Saga continues...until next post! BROfessor Out!
