FJ55 Iron Pigs Rehomed
The two Toyota Landcruisers from 1970 were rehomed! It took quite a lot of work to cut them out of the saplings and blackberries, but once we freed them I began to research what to do with them.
We learned that without title the scrappers didn’t want them. Apparently there are laws preventing this due to Methamphetamine and other drug abusers scrapping cars they don’t have title to for the money.
Even though the home’s purchase and sale agreement clearly showed that we gained possession of everything left behind, this wasn’t enough for the scrappers. They wanted something they were familiar with – a car title. Ok, so how was I going to get a car title?
We were told that we would have to first contact the police/sheriff to declare the cars abandoned. Weeks after that we would be able to file with the state licensing department. It sounded like it could take a couple of months, which was time we didn’t feel we had.
Contacting the former owners was also an option. But the more we looked into these cars the more we were convinced they were part cars, used for their parts, and would have to be gotten rid of the same way. I began to doubt the former owners had title.
In the end, we contacted a few professional Landcruiser rebuilders for their advise and posted the cars to Craigslist. One of the groups we contacted was in Eastern Washington and he came out to look at them and make arrangements to pick them up.
It felt so good to know that these FJ55s were going to be rehomed and reused, which is in alignment with our beliefs. Though we were hoping they could be restored, and we definitely didn’t want them scrapped, being broken down and reused was what they were intended for and they were back on their journey.
