[Steve Carlton]

I was with my uncle Robert when he bought a new '77 FJ40 in Santa Rosa. He soon moved to Bellevue, ID, a very rural small down near Sun Valley. He felt self-conscious about being a new doctor there with a new Landcruiser, so he spray painted a fender and the vents on the hood and fenders flat black to give it some fake patina. I was shocked, but can appreciate it now. His little house there turned out to have the bones of a cottonwood log cabin my uncle discovered when he removed some sheet rock. Much nicer inside with a lot of the sheet rock removed!

After many years, he parked it in an open air car port and let it rot. My brother, who was into Jeeps and such big-time for years, kept trying to buy it from Robert. My uncle kept rebuffing him with super high price offers, referring to others that sold for this or that. We couldn't figure out why he was being so unreasonable. It became clear when he gave it to my brother as he was dying of cancer. He always played us, and this was classic.

The FJ is a little rough, but has great real patina now (including the flat black areas). My brother put a plate on it- UNKL BOB. He always liked being called Bob, but I never gave up calling him uncle Robert.