“BEFORE”

Truman is a classic 1986 Land Rover Defender 90 (“D-90″), and now he’s our official 30A mascot.

Truman was first put into military service on August 29, 1986 (Registration ID: 61KF77), and the last unit he served was the Royal Wessex Yeomanry, an armored regiment of the British Territorial Army. He was found abandoned on a military lot, so we bought him in August 2012 and immediately began a major restoration project.

The vast majority of the restoration work was done overseas, and we asked our 200,000+ 30A fans for input and help throughout the entire process, including what color we should paint it (we opted for Light Stone, one of the British Ministry of Defense’s official colors).

We incorporated many of your other suggestions as well, including adding a 12,000-lb winch, a rear-mounted British MOD water can, a snorkel, a tone-on-tone 30A logo emblazoned on each door, new seats and more. We even let 30A fans choose its name … and they voted for Truman, after our community’s most famous — if fictional — resident. After much nervous anticipation (and bureaucratic paperwork), our D-90 eventually cleared U.S. Customs in Jacksonville. Then on March 29, 2013 — after 8 long months of work and waiting — Truman finally rolled into Santa Rosa Beach, where he’ll live out the rest of his days basking in our Florida sunshine.

Check out these photos of Truman’s transformation from a military workhorse into semi-retired ‘Sand Rover’:

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