The Omani started life as a 1HZ diesel so the fuel lines all should be fine. That is, unless they are obstructed like those in the Holy Truck.... Thank you for mentioning this.
It has been a while since I last updated this. The Omani Diesel has taken a back seat to the Holy Truck (a petrol 80) because I am trying to ready the Holy Truck for shipment to Florida. Part of that was trying to figure out where we went wrong on the Terrain Tamer springs for the rears of the...
It's more like they own me... It's too many to be sensible. I'm embarrassed about it I really only started getting into them after moving to Dubai about 10 years ago actually now that I think about it it was 12 years ago...
So we've had some goings on with the Holy Truck. The rear suspension was equipped with new and quite heavy duty Terrain Tamer springs and shocks. While I did not notice anything complaints were raised by others that the rear was unreasonably bouncy. This will be a daily for my younger boy so...
Now wrapped up until re-installation
I also took the time to take the clock and face panel apart and clean both with plastic polish. The amount of dust -inside- the clock module was really surprising. Glad I opened it up to clean inside.
It's not perfect but the overall result was pretty nice looking, I think.
This evening I spent my time cleaning the plastic dash and doing a small repair.
At some point in the history of this truck some bonehead had actually cut this bit of support. I fixed it with some wire and then...
I started with the front edge:
And while it was drying I was able to move it around and mould it to the countors of the dash pad.
After the front was secure I gave a nice coating of PVA glue, which is water washable until it cures, BTW., and worked my way back.
Then it was time to sew the edges. I played with a contracsting thead:
But in the words of a friend in Japan:, yeah that look a little too racing" so black thread it is.
Sewing took a good long time over a couple of days to do it carefully., but it turned out nicely.
Then disaster...
Then I gently lifted up the edges and put some more thin cardboard under the edges and cut to the edge of the tape. Here's the end result:
Fortunately I found a large and nice piece of camel leather at the tannery outside Abu Dhabi to use for this project.
Before cutting out the leather I...
It also dries petty clear.
It took a few coats but ended up smooth and level.
The next step was to decide where the pad edges would be. I used a water washable pen to mark by hand first
And then I started making the pattern by using masking tape to define the edges.
Then to give the...
First I sanded. The goal to get to a level surface. The edges of the cracks are raised up and needed to be knocked down.
And I gave it a real try with the RTV gasket material.
I ended up sanding it all off again.
What DOES stick really well and remains flexible is PVA glue. The same...
Here's the pad itself:
This pad was not as bad as the Omani, but still really unsightly.
I thought I would try RTV gasket sealer. This was a mistake.
RTV gasket stuff does not really stick.
Ok, so it has been a while.
The dash on the Omani 80 has gotten a bit soiled. In retrospect using such a light color was a bit of an error. I am going to dye it or redo it.
Meantime, the Holy Truck dash was taken out to deal with the heater core (yes every SINGLE 80 in the Middle East has...
Aside from the fun of the new rear view 200 series mirror, the guys have been busy in the engine bay. They found an age-cracked hose that appears to have solved the slightly rough idle. Before I went on a short trip to the US, The Swede (kind of an Ancient Mariner sort of guy) and I looked...
The guys did have some trouble with the substitute valve: "Functionally [its workable]. And we can get it to mount however cause of the orientation the one pipe is now up against the chassis" What they ended up doing was cleaning up the old valves, which now seem to be working after the...
I decided to look at the diagram for my 12/1997 HZJ80L-GCMNSV
And compare it to the Holy Truck, which is a 9/1996 FZJ80L-GCMNUV from the same source, japan-parts.eu:
The gasser sure looks more complicated....
I am going to take a flyer and just get the parts and try them. Worst case, I will...