I'm feeling the Cruiser love.

Just hosted Bob Bancroft, from Oregon for a little while and while he was here he helped me fix the radiator on the 60 (which is for sale. pics here) He also helped me fix my wheel bearings when they loosened up at nearly midnight 2 hours from home. I'm fortunate to have had his help. Oh, he also did about 90% of the work on getting 90% of the dent out of the driver's door. Big improvement. Did I mention that my 1988 HJ60 Land Cruiser is for sale? It is. Buy it. You'll like it.

Bob's visit also instigated a trip down to Nosara to visit my friend Rick, also a cruiserhead. I look forward to some more visits down there as Rick is a great guy to hang out with and I can learn a lot from him. Also he surfs. Bonus. The surf in Nosara that day was a little disorganized, but it added another positive to an otherwise great day. Of course, the road from Nosara is what helped us discover the loose wheel bearing. It would sure have been nice to have found that closer to home!

The bearings are fine, but the adjusting nuts are worn out. Jocelyn is only in Atlanta another day or so, so I was pressed to find the parts I need to effect a better repair. I contacted a shop there called ACC (Atlanta Custom Creations) and they turned out to be the nicest strangers I've met all week. They helped me with the parts, in a hurry, and threw in a sweatshirt and some beer coozies. I have a little bit of a collection of coozies, so I'm doubly stoked!

As much as the vehicle itself is an impressive adventure machine, owning a Land Cruiser is also about the community. The only other vehicle that seems to compare in terms of international esprit d'corps is probably Land Rover (maybe Porche?). It is impressive how many people in the world are willing to help out other people, simply because you both own a 'Cruiser.

Labels: atlanta, land cruiser