Builds Golden Boy / was 'an as-yet unnamed gulf spec diesel 1991 HZJ pickup' (1 Viewer)

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Here was kind of a cool thing:
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For about 750 bucks this shop will take the head liner out of your vehicle and load it up with fiber optic point light sources. Emirates Airlines has this on some of their planes. Kind of nice at night. Not sure I really want it in my car, but to each his/her own...

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Here is an extremely ugly SUV (I cannot stand these things--something about the roofline makes me shudder) getting wrapped. I kind of like the matte look. Might do that sometime. About 1K USD.

Half-way through my stroll I thought to start looking for a bed liner for the pickup. Stopped in several places and eventually was sent to a place called Hard Top accessories. Quite near it I saw--
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I REALLY want one of these. I'm pretty sure it is OEM Toyota. Never saw one in person before. I have asked my parts guy to see if it is available new.

Brace yourself. The cost is staggering.
 
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Amayama only wants 2,700 bucks for the canvas however. That's much better. :lol:
 
Brace yourself. The cost is staggering.
Holy crap. If ToyoDIY is to believed thats getting very close to what I paid for the entire truck! I just did the math after sending the part numbers off to my parts guy. That is so strange for such simple items.
 
I had to drive down to Abu Dhabi yesterday--the local Ikea did not have the storage units I wanted. I friend of mine (who is restoring his own Emirates Auction Model 80) had sent some photos of a 70 series station wagon and the location was only 25 minutes away from Ikea so I headed down there to a section of AD that is nothing but car repair, paint, body shops, accessories, car washes and so forth. I hunted up and down but no joy on the 70 series. Saw a bunch of Patrols and a bunch of 100's and a few 80s. I decided to get my LX washed and went in one of the places ( Google Maps ):
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That's my LX on the right, and yes, that is a 75 pickup up in the back. I mention the car wash because the price was 37 AED, exactly 10 bucks. For that they do the standard and and vacuum out the inside, and then they clean the engine bay, put it up on a lift and wash the underside. Took almost 2 hours. I'm used to paying this same price for a simple 'wash' with not-so-clean water up here in Dubai. I will be going back.

Luckily I had a cigar with me so I lit up and had a really nice stroll stopping in and seeing some interesting things.
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This poor old 100 had been set up as some kind of desert racer with a roll cage and fuel cells.
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I saw and heard a 6 cylinder 100 in another shop really belting out the noise, again seems to have been set up for racing.

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That desert tent-like thing was a hand-built structure clad in sheet aluminum. Looked pretty practical.

This post has made me completely homesick for Abu Dhabi... you were in Musaffah. Man... haven't really felt it this bad since returning.

Thanks for sharing this!
 
That is an excellent idea. I don't much like the windows in the OEM top anyways. The hardware was not really that awfully expensive. Hopefully local parts guys can do better than ToyoDIY.

Way better than ToyoDIY. Better than Partsouq. Best part is my guys are located there in Musaffah near where you were looking at the truck bed liner.
 
It's midnight here in Dubai. Just got back from Abu Dhabit--in the pickup.

I left work a little early and headed over to the garage. The guys said it was ready to drive and an hour each way to Abu Dhabi seemed like a good idea. The first thing I noticed was that the gearing is lower than I remember it--it has been a couple of months. And this is the first time I have driven it after the transmission and transfer case transplant. At 100km indicated, Google Maps says I am going 88 km per hour. And it feels like I'm pushing the engine a little to get there. There is no tach in the truck at present, but it feels like it is closing in on 3000 rpm to me--it feels high to me.

Currently it has 31x10.5 R15 tires on it. I think a 33 would fit just looking at it. I am wondering if I shouldn't be looking at changing the gear ratio in the differentials. 1st seems very low, even in high range, and I kept wishing there was a 6th gear--90 kph (56 mph) was about as fast as the truck liked to go. It still had plenty of power, but I just didn't want to spin the engine faster. I wonder now if the transmission I swapped in might have had different gearing. I'd be grateful for any advice. The truck is usable now, but I really would like the engine turning a little slower.

I got down to Abu Dhabi in time to stop in and look at this old model 40 I had seen but not asked about on my last drive down there:
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2F engine
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The top is completely rusted out.
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I need another project like a hole in the head, but I had to ask about it. Turns out it is owned by an older local gentleman and he intends to restore it, which I am glad to hear.

I got to Hard Top, the place that said they had the bed liner on Friday, but the owner came out and said that they had the liners for the beds that started in roughly 2000. Entirely predictable, so I was not really too upset. Especially when the owner suggested I try his neighbor a couple of doors down, Maamoura Accessories. The owner of this shop came to look at the pickup and said, yes he had one, but it was in tan. I had decided by then that tan really was not going to work now that the truck was a sort of silvery gold--the color was just going to clash. He called around and found one in black and said he can have it tomorrow, so I left a deposit. I had help from a nice guy who spoke English and Farsi I think, and I told him about this hobby, and even suggested he look at mud. It is important to be relaxed about these things--Yes I had driven all the way down to AD and not been able to get the bed liner, but it was a nice drive and I did actually find a liner--I just have to make another trip.
 
On the way out, I saw this interesting animal a little down the block:
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Here's a view looking in the back window and the rear drivers side corner--I was trying to see if this was OEM
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I think this is original.
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I went back to the shop where I had found the liner and asked the owner if he knew anything about this truck. He said it was owned by the same guy who had the pickup with the canvas back that I posted about above. Again, the owner is a local farmer--and the same guy who owns this. Interestingly, I was told that while this -was- the original factory top on this 75 (I think) with the bronco body style, the pickup was -not- equipped with an OEM top. I was told that the pickup's top was made by a local blacksmith, and that if I wanted one he would take me over to the guy and we could talk about it. Maamoura had actually made the canvas top for the pickup.

If I can get off work early tomorrow I think I will drive down and explore the option of having a top made. It is kind of an interesting idea. If I can get the Toyota OEM parts for the frame I think it probably would be better to do that, but there is something kind of fun about having a 'blacksmith' make one.
 
John , you have a very nice pick up truck :)
what I don't understand is if it is a diesel or gas engine .

bye Renago
 
i
John , you have a very nice pick up truck :)
what I don't understand is if it is a diesel or gas engine .

bye Renago
Diesel!

a big part of why I bought this particular pickip was the 1HZ diesel engine
 
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Hello,

You have found the very elusive soft top 73 Series with jump seats.

Very few of them out there. Almost all the other examples had a rear bench seat.

Now that is a 70 Series worth buying for a project.






Juan
 
You have found the very elusive soft top 73 Series with jump seats.
Very few of them out there. Almost all the other examples had a rear bench seat.
Now that is a 70 Series worth buying for a project.
Thank you for that info, Juan! My photos may not have been all that clear. It had two bench seats along the driver and passenger sides, folded up. Not sure if that is the jump seat configuration or not. I did ask Maamoura to let the owner know that if he ever wanted to part with it, I'd be interested in talking to him. This one was a real beauty up close...
 
So I drove back to Abu Dhabi after leaving work a little early yesterday. This time I listened a little more carefully and got it up to 100 kph per google maps, some of the time. It did not sound too bad. I really need to get a tach on this thing. I also did a careful mileage loop using distances measured on google maps. A round trip on the route I took was 236 km and it took 26.8 liters to top off the tank(s). Which works out to 8.8 km per liter or 20.7 mpg. Which is not too bad--at least it says to me that nothing major is wrong.

I have learned a couple more things. There is something wrong with the fuel switch thing. All the fuel seems to coming from the rear tank regardless of the position switch or the light indicator on the dash. Looks like the valve or the wiring or both need attention. I also learned to take an ibuprophin before I set out on a long to get back to where I started last night. There's 'adequate' but not generous leg room in the cab. Oh, one more thing, the little side windows in the cab, just like the one's from my dad's old 60's station wagon, are fantastic! They create a suction effect which causes the cigar smoke to be sucked right out of the cab! Here's a spectacular and spectacularly unsafe video of this in action.
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Yeah the little warning light is on, but I choose to believe it is the sensor wire on the seat belt. And the timing belt light is on. I know that is just a timer, but the dash cluster is screwed up anyway, and I -think- I had the guys change the timing belt already--I know I did on the diesel 81.

The trip was successful, and I got the bed liner in. Had to stop a guy from drilling into the box even though I asked the owner to use trim tape and not screws. It was necessary to cut the liner around the spare tire mount and they did it to eye and the workmanship was not as careful as I would have done. But when we have it back in Virginia my sons and I will take it out and cut it more carefully and put it back and seal it all with black silicone--a nice little project. Here are a few photos:
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All they had to do is drill 6 holes. Of course you’ll never see it behind the tire.
THe particular bed liner they got did not fit as well as I would have liked against the front of the bed. It did not have, for example, the outline of the spare. I can seal it up well enough, I think, but it would have required cutting for the wheel rests on the bed and a slot for the hanger in any event. I considered myself lucky finding one that would fit at all for this 1991. Compromise, I know.

Now I'm looking for taller tires that will go on a 15 inch by 7 wide rim...
 
I really want to do something about the high-speed driveability. I mentioned above that I swapped in a 5 speed transmission, also an H55.
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The transmission and transfer case came either from Japan or AUS--it was off of another diesel. I had assumed that the gear ratios would be the same from my old transmission but now I wonder... The data plate says 082 and the transmission I swapped in says 083. Hmmm... I googled it but without success.

I'm hoping for some advice--I read a little about changing the 5th gear in a 55, but it was really expensive. I wonder if changing the gears in the two differentials would be more cost effective--and help address the fact that 1st gear is very, very low, even in high range.

I'm also thinking about bigger tires. I've got 15x7 Toyota split rims on it now. I've read that the upper range for tire width for 7 inch wide rims is roughly 10 inches. The tires on the truck right now are 31 x 10.5 R 15 (and the spare is toast BTW). I'd like to go 33 or even 35 but at 33 the narrowest tires I can get here for either is 12.5 inches wide which seems way out of range for a 7 inch wide rim. I really like the existing rims and would prefer to continue to use them. Does anyone have some wisdom in this area to share?
 

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