VEHICLE PREP
We are driving a 1994 Toyota Landcruiser 80 Series DX. Having watched the car markets for a long time, we found and bought Toy with 220K on the clock from a very knowledgeable guy in Sydney.
Toy had already been setup for fairly serious 4WD'ing. 4WD capabilities depend on three things - power, traction and clearance.
Power - being a 4.2 litre diesel, Toy may not be punchy on a highway climb, but packs enough grunt to go places in low range 4WD. Toy left the factory with a reliable 1HZ engine, but lacks a turbo charger. Ideally we would have loved to pick up a model with either the 1HD or HDFT turbo charged engine, but for caution's sake we specifically did not want an aftermarket (non-standard) turbo charger, which might prove a handful for the local mechanic to fix with a Leatherman and some donkey entrails.
Traction is determined by at least 3 things. Firstly, tires. Toy was already wearing Mickey Thompson Baja Muddies (285/75 R 16) in decent condition. We use Staun tire deflators to drop tire pressure for certain driving conditions, and have an air compressor mounted in the boot for re-inflation. We are carrying 1 spare on the Kaymar rear bar, and 1 on the roof, but have never had a flat (other than 2 during the shipping process).
Secondly, suspension articulation - Toy is coil sprung with TJM heavy duty coils and TJM Series 2000 shocks, plus steering dampner, 3rd's Productions panhard rods and a caster correction kit.
Thirdly - the ability to lock the diffs (see here for an idiots guide to differentials). An ARB rear differential lock would have been nice, or a cheaper alternative is a mechanical locker like a Detroit or Aussie Locker, but we had other priorities for our limited budget.
Clearance - The TJM suspension has lifted the car about 3 inches. The big tires also increase ground clearance. The spare, when located under the vehicle at the rear, restricts the available exit angle. This limitation has been overcome by moving the spare to a rear wheel carrier on the Kaymar Rear Bar.
Other good stuff - Toy came to us with a bunch of other equipment that we need, including bullbar, 9000lb winch, Spotlights, dual battery + isolator, snorkel, roof racks, cargo barrier, drawer system, tinted windows. Bought individually, these items cost an absolute packet.
RUST REPAIR
Toy had some rust in the usual spots - in the door jams, in the rear window frames, and in a variety of gouges and scratches it has picked up from passing branches, rocks and soccer mums. Rust is like cancer; it needs to be cut out or it will spread. There was not a lot of rust, but this was a lot of work! See right for some photos of rust repair on the driver's door jam.
Our process: sand to bare metal --> rust converter --> primer --> paint. On visible/external surfaces there are further steps: the new paint needs to be feathered in by wetsanding --> clear coat --> wetsanding --> polish --> buff.
MECHANICAL
We are spending a lot of money getting Toy into top shape. Our mechanical and servicing work is being done by Jason Dymock at Total Care 4WD in Seven Hills, including:
1. Complete gearbox rebuild.
2. Front end diff/axle rebuild.
3. Rear end diff/axle rebuild.
4. Serviced the 9000lb Warn winch.
5. Installed a winch isolation switch (the controller can easily be shorted with paper clips - there are several stories of people coming back to their vehicles and finding that the winch has been used by some hooligan to drag and sandwich 5-6 cars into the bullbar, or has been dragged over the roof, attached to the rear bar and used to fold the car in half).
6. Full servicing including hose and belt replacements.
7. Changing the dual battery (positive terminal should be closest to the engine to reduce the chance that a fender bender will cause the positive terminal to touch the earthed chassis and short the electricals or start a fire) and cleaning up electrical connections.
8. New tail pipe (severely bent courtesy of rock) and welded our muffler.
9. Minor additional stuff like adjusting the dodgy handbrake, etc.
Does that sound expensive?
We are driving a 1994 Toyota Landcruiser 80 Series DX. Having watched the car markets for a long time, we found and bought Toy with 220K on the clock from a very knowledgeable guy in Sydney.
Toy had already been setup for fairly serious 4WD'ing. 4WD capabilities depend on three things - power, traction and clearance.
Power - being a 4.2 litre diesel, Toy may not be punchy on a highway climb, but packs enough grunt to go places in low range 4WD. Toy left the factory with a reliable 1HZ engine, but lacks a turbo charger. Ideally we would have loved to pick up a model with either the 1HD or HDFT turbo charged engine, but for caution's sake we specifically did not want an aftermarket (non-standard) turbo charger, which might prove a handful for the local mechanic to fix with a Leatherman and some donkey entrails.
Traction is determined by at least 3 things. Firstly, tires. Toy was already wearing Mickey Thompson Baja Muddies (285/75 R 16) in decent condition. We use Staun tire deflators to drop tire pressure for certain driving conditions, and have an air compressor mounted in the boot for re-inflation. We are carrying 1 spare on the Kaymar rear bar, and 1 on the roof, but have never had a flat (other than 2 during the shipping process).
Secondly, suspension articulation - Toy is coil sprung with TJM heavy duty coils and TJM Series 2000 shocks, plus steering dampner, 3rd's Productions panhard rods and a caster correction kit.
Thirdly - the ability to lock the diffs (see here for an idiots guide to differentials). An ARB rear differential lock would have been nice, or a cheaper alternative is a mechanical locker like a Detroit or Aussie Locker, but we had other priorities for our limited budget.
Clearance - The TJM suspension has lifted the car about 3 inches. The big tires also increase ground clearance. The spare, when located under the vehicle at the rear, restricts the available exit angle. This limitation has been overcome by moving the spare to a rear wheel carrier on the Kaymar Rear Bar.
Other good stuff - Toy came to us with a bunch of other equipment that we need, including bullbar, 9000lb winch, Spotlights, dual battery + isolator, snorkel, roof racks, cargo barrier, drawer system, tinted windows. Bought individually, these items cost an absolute packet.
RUST REPAIR
Toy had some rust in the usual spots - in the door jams, in the rear window frames, and in a variety of gouges and scratches it has picked up from passing branches, rocks and soccer mums. Rust is like cancer; it needs to be cut out or it will spread. There was not a lot of rust, but this was a lot of work! See right for some photos of rust repair on the driver's door jam.
Our process: sand to bare metal --> rust converter --> primer --> paint. On visible/external surfaces there are further steps: the new paint needs to be feathered in by wetsanding --> clear coat --> wetsanding --> polish --> buff.
MECHANICAL
We are spending a lot of money getting Toy into top shape. Our mechanical and servicing work is being done by Jason Dymock at Total Care 4WD in Seven Hills, including:
1. Complete gearbox rebuild.
2. Front end diff/axle rebuild.
3. Rear end diff/axle rebuild.
4. Serviced the 9000lb Warn winch.
5. Installed a winch isolation switch (the controller can easily be shorted with paper clips - there are several stories of people coming back to their vehicles and finding that the winch has been used by some hooligan to drag and sandwich 5-6 cars into the bullbar, or has been dragged over the roof, attached to the rear bar and used to fold the car in half).
6. Full servicing including hose and belt replacements.
7. Changing the dual battery (positive terminal should be closest to the engine to reduce the chance that a fender bender will cause the positive terminal to touch the earthed chassis and short the electricals or start a fire) and cleaning up electrical connections.
8. New tail pipe (severely bent courtesy of rock) and welded our muffler.
9. Minor additional stuff like adjusting the dodgy handbrake, etc.
Does that sound expensive?
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