1992 Hiace 4wd RZH119 ex-Firetruck

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That's how the day started in the French Alps

Then passed (and payed) the custom import...

Got my French temporary license plate and finally was able to really drive it!

Drove very well for 500km and it's now officially home!!

Passed a first milestone on the odo on the way

 

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Some news

The Hiace passed with flying colors the French Technical Control (mandatory to get the definitive license plate)

Found where the firefighter horn was xD

Found an analog speed tracker, not sure if I want to keep it for the sake of it or just remove it (but anyway the tap would stay because I would need to replace the whole speed cable otherwise....).

Spotlight !

 

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Made the motopump work




Had to bypass the foam injection system as the hose inside was broken and was leaking badly

Used the reel also, that thing has 100m of hose!
Tried the suction and the pump had no issue self-priming and empty the air, that's a nice pump.

But still it was time for it to go x)

Those things were heavy but the heaviest of all is now to come... The chassis + aluminium tank, not going to be easy to remove it with only man power.

 

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Everything is now out!
The chassis is by far the heaviest thing of all

Lol I got a new lift for free xD
Comparison of before removing everything (and with 1/4 water tank full) and empty:

Both picture with OME spring.

 

[RevISK]

Nice to see you getting right at it.
This thing is going to be a beast.

 

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Went for a first light offroad near by on a new track created to install a Telecom pylon (on our property).

And took the opportunity to have the Hiace empty to get some of the wood cut to make for the pylon...

Now the rear ride height is back at a similar level than the front x)

On those narrow forest tracks with short switch back it really helps to still have a vehicle with a narrow body and kind of short wheel base.
Low range is veeeeery low so can move any weight over any steep slope no problem.

 

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Some new toys for the Hiace dropped in the mail from Japan

(Will need to remove the 12V plug of the projector for it to fit.)

(I was missing the passenger headrest so had to find something, let says it matches with the headliner and they are way more confy than my original x) )

 

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Speaking of the projector, before its plug gets removed:

 

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I think this thread was still missing at least a picture of my 2 Toys together.

On the progress side things didn't go as fast as expected, mostly because it has been raining 90% of the time those 10 last days...

But still the the inside of the Hiace is almost empty now... Only the main central divider is still resisting all 20 5mm steel rivets are gone, the glue is gone but it's so tight in place that I can't find a way to get it out........... So I will have to cut it.
All the other dividers are out but also gave a lot of resistance, it has been the great rivets war... and even after they were all stuck together like tetris, was a pain to extract them out. This inside setup wasn't falling part by itself for sure

Blue lights are out also!.. Still have them and can reconnect them quickly for now to please people but couldn't keep driving around with them just covered.

The next 10 days I will be out with my FJ40 so nothing will happen on the Hiace side but I just ordered my tires so I will have them fitted when I'm back!
Took me a long time to decide myself and this model in this very particular weird size wasn't in stock before... 8 of them showed up back in EU stock... And I immediately grabbed 5 of them (sorry for whoever will have to deal with this stock of 3 uncommon tires in a weird size ).

 

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The Hiace got its new shoes!

Looks proper offroad ready now, even if still a bit low

 

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Wanted to remove the hitch and the steps (for ease of parking).

And had the surprise to discover that the tow bar was full of water.....

 

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I'm soooo late on this topic.... so quick updates.

The Hiace made the trop back to Paris, it's a tight fit but it's able to maneuver in my garage in a tight courtyard.

 

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Very recently I received the definitive registration as a collecter vehicle, so it's finally fully legal in France!

Chose old style license plates with the less frequent white over black (instead of chrome over black) because it matches with the Toyota emblems

 

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Installed the snorkel... so now it really is an adventure vehicle

And the shades on the front windows to protect me against sun but also wind on the road, and rain when when sleeping in.

 

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I think I had already mentioned it but with the lift, in the front, it's almost running on low bump stops, which means almost no down travel for the front wheels (not targeting to lift more the front but to have some down travel).

So I sourced some low profile bump stops, but as the Hiace is almost riding on the bump stops I had to compress the suspension to be able to remove the bump stop. So I started with driver side quite simply driving on a ramp...

Original:

Low profile:

But then when I tried to do on the passenger side I didn't get enough clearance to remove the bump stop, as the driver side was able to drop more instead of compressing the passenger side...

So I needed to wait for a 2nd ramp to do some cross axle and force the passenger side to compress.

Honestly the bus looks cool like that even if it is not much

Rear could still compress a lot more but definitively need a lot more weight in the cargo area for that.

 

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Otherwise, started the woodworking for a basic test setup. Target is to have something ready to go to BuschTaxi and probably followed by a test week in the Alps.

Also, on the 4 original cargo points, only 2 were kept through the checker plate floor (to bolt down the water tank and pump). So I went under to locate the 2 missing ones and drilling them back to life. Target is to fix everything on the floor with those 4 mounting points and no extra holes in the floor.

For some reason there are 2 levels of checker plate at this point of the floor -_-

(Missing OEM cargo loops and bolts soon to arrive, see 4 pics up for an example)

BTW, on the Hiace the cargo points are held down by M10 bolts while on Land Cruisers they use M6, definitively made to hold down a lot more weight!

 

[Spike Strip]

Love the Bus!

 

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Some new improvements of the last weeks.

Got a little car package from Japan with a used spare tire caddy (which was missing on mine).

Was relatively cheap to buy on Yahoo auction Japan... But paid 4 times the price in shipping -_-'

All the little hardware are readily available at Toyota (but not the main caddy part).

Cleaned it and a coat of rust converter, it's rough but will do for now and it's not like you can see it...

My wheels are slightly too tall to fit.

But with a little massaging of the 3 tabs it goes in ok.

Putting the wheel in the caddy when the caddy is attached under the vehicle is a giant PITA. I don't see any way to do this in a dignified manner if I ever need to change a wheel on the road...

Fits nicely under the fuel tank even with the extra diameter of my tires.

Got multiple report that the spare in the caddy was hanging too low and often hitting ont he tracks. I'll see for the hitting offroad but I find it ok for how low it is. It's flush with lowest part of the trailer hitch. Having kept the original width for the tires obviously helps here...

 

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Started working on the ply sidewall and some sound insultation for the side and roof (thermal insultation will come later).

Comparison of the left with only the wood and the right with the sound insulation, what a difference it makes!


Then other side and roof.

To fix the sidewall I decided to re-use the holes already made by the firefighter to fix the aluminium walls... Except I'm upgrading the holes from rivet size to M6 rivnuts. Probably far too many of them and not all the placements were well chose... If I would restart I would let the rivet holes as they are and chose more carefully were I put my rivnuts but now it's done.

Got a little scared when I saw that through my hole -_-

At first I was afraid not being able to access this cable but hopefully this one was placed right by the external ventilation.

Mhhh that rally needed to be fixed before a catastrophe...

We will pretend I was never here.