The Reality of Owning A Vintage Truck

About This Video

Van's 1987 diesel Toyota Land Cruiser is our family car in Topanga Canyon. I bought it before our son was born. The deal was I buy the truck, he pays for maintenance. After three years he's put in about the same amount I spent buying it. The heart wants what the heart wants.

The video is Van treating material desire with the moral seriousness most creators reserve for spiritual subjects. He's found TLC 4x4: a company that builds these trucks to museum-quality perfection. Soundproofing, locking diffs, a 420-horsepower Corvette LS3, heated seats, secret compartments. Mr. Ward takes 15 minutes to rattle off the details. The price is somewhere between the annual salary of the President and the Senate majority leader. Van doesn't have that kind of scratch. Not even remotely close. But he won't give up on the dream. He wants to take it overland to Panama for our son's fifth birthday. The question he's actually wrestling with is whether desire at this scale is compatible with the person he claims to be. A man who crowdfunded his YouTube channel. He names the greed, can't resolve it, and builds a shrine. That's the ending. He builds a shrine.

Transcript

this spirited man watched a youtube video that unleashed in him an irrational foolish and embarrassing desire possibly an immoral one an all-encompassing desire akin to the lust for sex or brownie sundays a bloodlust like ahab and the whale [Music] this 1987 diesel toyota land cruiser is this spirited man's family car his main squeeze baby mama domestic partner common law wife saw a similar land cruiser on the show narcos and said let's get one of those before the baby's born then she went out and got it [Music] the deal was she buys the truck he pays for the maintenance

[Music] and now after about three years of fixing this or that old thing they're nearly even he's put into the truck about the same amount of money she spent buying it and yet of all the cars he's ever owned this one is his favorite hands down edges out the f-350 power stroke even there's no rational way to explain his love for this 34 year old truck the heart wants what the heart wants maybe it's the feeling he gets when he sits in the cockpit or wipes it down with a diaper yes yes now this is a car and just a car no computer stuff tons of glass to look out of

plenty of room room under the seats even then there's the camaraderie among the folks in the canyon who own these things folks like buck here who shipped his 75 to texas to rebuild the fuel injectors also diesel bucks there's the white one at the general store the dark gray one up on skyline phoenix's brown one not sure where she is today they all wave to each other when they pass like motorcyclists when you meet folks who've sold theirs they all say the same thing wish i'd have kept it but at times owning one of these things can be a

romantic fool's errand [Music] it's not so much the money parts and service are relatively cheap it's the time searching all over the world for parts finding mechanics what happened to all the mechanics if you don't know what to do with your life please become an old car mechanic k h is virtually the only vintage landcruiser service shop in jesus in all of southern california it seems and they're booked up at least a month out always an eccentric genius named bernie did the electrical work truck was manufactured as a 24 volt system then incorrectly rewired into a 12-volt system

which created a bug in the headlight high beams and on and on bernie's work took five weeks 5600 bucks in a couple of weeks maybe three to rebuild the transmission the diesel engine runs on biodiesel too gets twice the mileage as a stock gas engine but has barely enough horsepower to make it up the mountain road to his home [Music] but there's a team down in that valley who builds these land cruisers to perfection builds what they call a stage 3 restoration to the very rarely achieved standard of excellence [Music] the company is called tlc

4x4 tlc god damn right [Music] few things are still built to perfection built to last and the singular object of this spirited man's desire is one of these tlc land cruisers one that looks like his but built to complete perfection what they call a sleeper [Music] soundproofing rust proofing full float rear axle locking diffs big corvette engine corvette engine 420 horsepower ls3 anyway big anti-lock brakes secret compartments

heated seats powder coated stainless custom-made center console my god it takes mr ward here the vanguard of restoration excellence best in the world it takes him nearly 15 minutes just to rattle off the details his team painstakingly respected in hand building this truck engineered their own wiring looms 42 gallon tank and yet on the outside just looks like a 1980s suv with new paint and tires the care the precision the work the research the experience the headaches the pain the blood the ingenuity the failures the artistry these machines are built with an artist mindset excellence plain and simple artist spec museum quality these trucks are superior to new ferraris or bentleys or rolls-royces

thanks to spirited man these trucks will last 100 years he thinks buy one of these and it's the last car he'll ever buy his unborn grandchildren will drive it one day god willing this spirited man struggles with the desire it feels almost greedy almost like greed these trucks are so expensive that after 17 pages of google searching he was unable to get an actual price for an fj140 or 142 could only find ballpark ranges somewhere between the entire annual salary of the president of the united states and the annual salary of the senate majority or minority leader how much money would he have to have to justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a fifteen thousand dollar truck

but that's it though all he wants is just this one thing he don't need no new boots or clothes or a watch or a new motorcycle maybe a bigger house as his family grows sure but not that big of a house is it moral for this man a man who asked strangers to contribute money so he could launch his youtube channel is it okay for him to buy god willing such an incredibly expensive truck how's that supposed to make everybody feel [Music] would it make him just another rich guy so and so [Music] well doesn't matter because he doesn't got that kind of scratch to begin with doesn't got that kind of class not even remotely close even if he had lived under a bridge and saved every penny he's made over the last six or seven years he still wouldn't have it and yet he won't give up on this foolish stupid

greedy dream [Music] he's up to his old tricks again up to his black magic tricks let's call it blue magic so here he goes again just like with garrett's oscar some sympathetic magic what scheme what fortune will bring this truck into his grasp is this the sort of desire that begets the greedy bad guy is this his confession his indulgence his intentions are pure he thinks he will use this tlc truck on an adventure of the sort for which these trucks are purpose built an overland family trip down to panama for his son's fifth birthday

a little over two years hence [Music] hmm may this shrine deliver unto him the object of his desire we'll settle for a used one if need be you

Products & Tools Mentioned

• 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser (diesel) essential — main subject - vintage truck ownership reality
• TLC 4x4 recommends — restoration company, stage 3 restoration
• Corvette LS3 engine (420hp) mentions — potential engine swap option discussed
• Biodiesel mentions — fuel option discussed for diesel Land Cruiser

People Referenced

Buck, Mr. Ward (TLC 4x4), Bernie