Do not buy anything form this business or these people. They ripped me off for a good faith deposit on a motor vehicle I was purchasing.
Here is his ad and then the I will tell you the truth.
Here is Brett Shankers ad for starters:
"1978 Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser: Beautifully Restored. Need Nothing."
<a href="/cto/1607104505.html" target="_blank">http://albany. Craigslist.org/cto/1607104505.html</a>
1978 Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser: Beautifully Restored - $8950 (Latham)
Date: 02-18,5:09PM EST
Reply to: [email][email protected][/email] [Errors when replying to ads? ]
This beautiful '78 Toyota Land Cruiser has been restored top-to-bottom. It sports a hand-built aluminum body tub ($4,000), new fenders, new soft-top and doors and new corvette yellow paint. The chassis was fully detailed and painted, brakes are all serviced.
The interior was re-upholstered and the dash features all stock instrumentation, knobs and switches. This truck has only 46,000 original miles! The straight 6 and 4-speed transmission function flawlessly.
Tires are nearly new Maxxis Bighorns. A pair of excellent condition factory rear jump seats were just installed, and the carburetor was rebuilt by a toyota specialist. The exhaust is new with a stainless muffler.
This FJ40 is ready to drive and enjoy today! Needs nothing.
Brett 518-852-2858
Now the truth:
Anyone who knows me realizes I am no mechanic. Far from it and I readily admit that.
So, being the mechanical moron that I am, I trusted Shanker as a Member of local FORUM (www.ih8mud.com) that I am a member of. I am a trusting soul because I am an honest man. I can see that I will have to be more careful in the future.
So here is the story.
I was told by Brett Shanker that this truck was in excellent condition and that he had done all sorts of work to it and it needed nothing... He claimed it also had a lot of work done to it by the previous owner including a recent Carb rebuild by some noted GURU on that does this sort of work. He also claimed that repairs were completed and it really needed nothing.
I looked at the truck and not knowing any better, left a deposit with the intention of checking out the truck further.
After showing the pics to a Land Cruiser expert I know, he immediately told me not to buy the truck because it had issues and what Shanker had told me did not equate to an honest appraisal of the vehicle.
This made me research both the Vehicle and Shanker a whole lot more.
Here is what I found out. Please note that these are FACTS... This is not conjecture or my opinion... But hardcore facts based on a lot of research I did.
These are the facts:
The vehicle needs serious frame repairs. None of this work was actually done. The frame was heavily painted to cover up all the issues. I was not aware of this until I showed it to someone who is an expert on 40 Series Cruisers. They pointed out the issues and further research indicates the repairs required are very serious.
All of the undercarriage rust and running gear problems were covered by heavy coats of paint. It was a pretty good paint job I guess but the truth is, there were layers of rust to the point of needing metal repair under all of the paint.
The carb rebuild that was claimed to be just recently done was actually done over 4 years prior. Shanker made it sound like it was done very recently in fact.
Very little to no work was done to this truck to prepare it for sale. 95% of the effort went in to covering up the issues with the vehicle instead of putting the same effort in to fixing them properly.
There is strong evidence that Shanker has a long history of selling junk and strictly focus on making cosmetic cover ups to sell the vehicles him and his Dad try to pawn off on unsuspecting victims. All they do is flip junk on a variety of forums on the internet.
Shanker is just a kid who has been raised to think these practices are acceptable. I feel sorry for him in that he does not really seem to know any better. This type of thinking and behavior will ruin his chances for building a good business or associating with good people in the future. Not to mention the bad Karma it will bring to his life. Good things happen to good people and vice versa. I truly believe in this which I why I ALWAYS do the right thing. I do not need any Bad Karma heading in my direction..!!!:)
I do not lie and I do not cheat anyone ever... And if anyone is unhappy... I go out of my way to the point of taking losses to assure they are satisfied. I do not want anyone saying bad things about me that are based in fact or truth. I have been business successful in business for over 30 years now due to my approach to handling clients and by being picky about my circle of friends as well..:)
BUYER BEWARE..!! This is not an honest or reputable seller.
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