It's a Jeep!

I was 18 or 19 and decided I wanted to own my own truck. I was working for my dad who was and still is an electrical contractor. I was the 'office manager' but I spent most of my time picking up and dropping off materials at job sites. We lived in Los Angeles and we worked all over SoCal. I was averaging almost 1000 miles a week between work and school ( and social life!). I mostly drove a 1993 Ford F-250 but sometimes I ended up in one of our Dodge Ram V-10s.

I should also mention I had horses. And I had a horse trailer. When I was not towing around a trailer full of material I towed around a trailer full of horse. Also I took my dog with me everywhere. Being a college girl with a boyfriend we had quite the social life as well, often driving out to the late LACR to watch classmates race their muscle cars.

When I decided I wanted my own truck I had a list of requirements:

• It had to have four doors
• It had to have a tow package
• It had to be able to tow at least 5000 lbs
• It had to be an automatic
• And decent gas mileage would be nice
• Last but not least I had little (no) money

I did a lot of research and decided I wanted either an International, a Toyota Land Cruiser, or a Jeep Grand Wagoneer. All from the '80's, all similar in ability and body style. I looked in newspapers, magazines, online and just drove up and down the Valley's streets looking for any for sale.

The International was my favorite but proved to be hard to find and the parts even more elusive. Therefore it was scratched from the list.

As much as I loved the old Land Cruisers, they proved to be a dog. My boyfriend worked at a car repair shop and had the opportunity to drive a couple and he was not impressed.

So began the search for a Grand Wagoneer. The more I looked the more I fell in love with the truck. It had everything I wanted and more!

Living in Los Angeles there were a number for sale. They ranged in price from $500 (not running) to $15000 (completely restored). I found mine on EBay. It was near by, running, not salvaged, good condition and in my price range! So I picked up my boyfriend and off we went for a test drive.

I had hoped to have a truck that was blue or green, and I knew if it passed the boyfriends tests and was either of those colors I would have a new truck by the end of the night.

And it was! It had one bonded spot on the rear right panel, a missing (stolen) (original) radio, and damaged crome on the driver's side door from the stolen radio. I paid the whopping $1600 for it and drove it home.

My beautiful blue Heep

 

 

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