Northeast Overland 2010 FJ Cruiser TTSE

03rubicon

Adventurer
Well it was around August of 2013 when I knew I wanted to upgrade from my older 2003 Rubicon TJ to something that was much better on ride quality and could get me places with a lot of gear and do so with a little better gas mileage than the 12 I was getting with the Rubicon with just 33's and a 4" lift.

The search began for a Trail Teams Fj that I knew would most likely be a little out of my price range but I decided it would be neat to go the route that a fellow co worker had gone and obtain a salvage vehicle from a southern state and have his boy Sergie rebuilt it for me so that I had a solid platform to go off of. I knew I wanted to customize this vehicle and it may take a few months to get there, but so far the time and effort have been very rewarding and it has been the perfect vehicle for our club adventures and advertising platform.

The FJ when it was dropped off to Sergie in August of 2013. He gave me a 2 month deadline and held tight to it, as the vehicle was ready exactly when he said it would be. Let the games begin.

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One of the first items that I was going to get on it was some sliders, so while the truck was in the shop, I began the work on them and brought them back to a much more aesthetically pleasing sight.

Here is how they started. You can see how they ended up later in the build thread.
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Ended up buying a new fridge to install in it as well. Received this item from the scratch and dent online market place and only paid $280 for it, which I thought was a steal. It's and 80 quart.

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And as of 11/26/13, this is how the vehicle came back to me in stock form from the Serge-meister. He is a fantastic fabicator and body guy and would likely go to him again if I ever need to save a bundle on a vehicle that I know I'll be taking off the beaten path and beating up a little as it is. The vehicle has 51K miles on it at this point in these pics and is as close to new as you can get. I'm very happy with it.

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vr4z06gt

New member
can you share a little more on how you obtained the vehicle? Who/What company was the purchase through, how long did you search, how difficult will it be in the state of Maine, I spent a few years there in College at UMM it truly is a great state, to get this car back on the road...and if you don't mind the purchase price and the price to get it running again. I can definitely see the logic in buying a salvage but is the cost savings significant enough to justify the risk of the unknown?
 

03rubicon

Adventurer
Ok so my computer went down a few weeks ago and I have just been able to get back to this thread and get her up and running again. To answer VR4z06GT, the vehicle was purchased through an aquaintence purchased throuough a gentle that works the next town over from me and I got to know him very well throughout the building process. I probably could have done much of the work myself, but he is an excellent body and paint guy so I figured i would just leave the dirty work up to him and he in turn did a fantastic job on everything else. So much so, and he has such pride in his work that he was afraid of the modifications I would be doing to the vehicle as it was going to be ruining his excellent work he did. haha. Anyways, vehicle came from Copart.com and was bought in the State of Georgia and sent up via car carrier, all arrangements made through my guy Sergio. The vehicle arrived in 3 days and he went right to work on it.

I really wanted a trail teams because of the added value and features. In the price range I wanted to stay in (20K) a 2010 with around 40K miles was about the top I was going to find and still stay under that budgeted amount.

As things progressed, I started wanting to add thi add things that were going to be replaced anyways and wanting to change them for uph as the halo headlights with projectors and tinting up the turn signals front and rear and adding some sparkle to the paint to make them one of a kind.

So, I was kept in the loop every week on his progress and how things were going. There wasnt a ton to be ordered but he did need to replace a fender, hood, headlights, grill, both upper and lower, and needed to replace the hood decal (black) and was going to fix a ding on the passengers door as well, in addition to the turn signals. He did quite a bit and the purchase price of the car I believe was $13700 if i remember right.

Fast forward and the work is all done. If the car didnt have an odometer, i would challenge anyone to find that the car wasnt brand new off the lot. Seriously, it was immaculate and he is truly a one out of a million refurbisher/body man. Combine that with the fact that it was from the south and the exterior that wasnt touched was as clean as the day ite day it rolled off the lot and I ad a great vehicle that was going to last me a lifetime.

So I searched for about 10 months to find the perfect vehicle, although I really didnt take a strong hold on searching until about 6 months in as my rubicon was starting to bother me with extended trips and not enough room. Once the vehicle was purchased, it took 5 weeks to complete. All in all, for how much the vehicle was going for at the time of the purchase, I would say that I was ahead of the game around the 8K mark, which for me was well worth it. I dont ever plan on getting rid of the vehicle anyways but know that even if I wanted too, I would have enough equity in it that it could be easily sold for around the price of a non salvage titled vehicle. Especially now with all the work done to it. Understanding that mods will likely never get you a higher sold price, but the vehicle is technically setup the way I think it should have come from the factory. And is simple and well built with quality components that it could sell in no time.


The risk is there but honestly you have to pick the vehicles that appear to have minor damage or pictures that most dont see. Its helpful to find someone in the area you may know that your looking at to go over and see the vehicle to get an idea of what it might cost to fix it. Mine was a running, driving, vehicle (which it states on the website) so I knew that I most likely would just need to replace some panels and hood and do a little paint and would be good to go. The gentleman I had do the work has done 100's of these, as its how he makes his living and has a knack for suggesting the right and wrong vehicles to go for. I just found the ones I wanted and let him make the final call on if he could make it work. I also gave him a budget and he bid accordingly to be able to fix the vehicle and make a profit as well. Win win situation. I will definitely go back to him for my next vehicle purchase when this vehicle is done. That will likely be a duramax.
 

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