Builds 1995 HZJ77 wagon build - Japan sourced (1 Viewer)

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Im with Greasemonkey on his first post about registration. Living in Nagoya also, and aside from paying 1,000,000 Yen for a DPF system, registration isn't possible. IF there is another way I would love to know, so i can get one sooner and use it here before I take it back home :) as for User shaken, there are a few websites with tips on in for Gaijin. Im no expert, but it seemed fairly straight forward. however, as I mentioned above, unless you know some other secret or live in a prefecture without the requirment (I think Tahara area in aichi is exept as well) you wont be able to complete registration without visiting a shop who will install a Diesel particulate filter and catalyst system for around 600,000 yen for parts, and 400,000 yen for certification and testing. thats the only way you can pass emissions on an older diesel.
I registered mine through a friend in Gifu. (Which doesn't have the diesel restrictions) It's kind of sketchy legally, but no questions were asked when I registered it... so whatever. (and you can still be listed as the primary owner even when registering it this way)

Ok, well I guess I'll just bumble through the User Shaken testing facility and ask a lot of questions~ haha ^_^
(My spoken Japanese is fine, but written is a mixed bag... )

Thanks for the info!
Also, where are you in Nagoya? I'm just north of Nagoya Station. We should meet up sometime if you're interested~
 
You lucky man!! My only friends in Gifu are Japanese coworkers and when I hinted at this, no one took the bait HA.

Here are 2 websites with some into(if nothing else a list of minimum documents!) and some links for user shaken. https://tokyocheapo.com/living/guide-to-user-shaken/


I did a lot of research on it, but my spoken AND written Japanese is terrible, couple that with every person I asked about anything related to cars and “DIY” resulted in people completely confused at why you wouldn’t pay a dealer to do everything, and I ended up buying a cheap commuter via a dealer for my time here HAHA.

Yeah I’ll have to come check out the rig sometime! I’m planning on getting one as well to take back to the states! I live over off Issha station and work in Tajimi. What company are you over here with?
 
You lucky man!! My only friends in Gifu are Japanese coworkers and when I hinted at this, no one took the bait HA.

Here are 2 websites with some into(if nothing else a list of minimum documents!) and some links for user shaken. https://tokyocheapo.com/living/guide-to-user-shaken/


I did a lot of research on it, but my spoken AND written Japanese is terrible, couple that with every person I asked about anything related to cars and “DIY” resulted in people completely confused at why you wouldn’t pay a dealer to do everything, and I ended up buying a cheap commuter via a dealer for my time here HAHA.

Yeah I’ll have to come check out the rig sometime! I’m planning on getting one as well to take back to the states! I live over off Issha station and work in Tajimi. What company are you over here with?
Darn... That's too bad. Yeah, I'm lucky I have a pretty good friend who didn't mind helping me out with it.
Thanks for the websites~

Well if you want some help on the spoken front when dealing with cars, let me know. I'm not perfect, but I've had pretty good luck thus far. (I can probably help out with the written to an extent too)
Yeah... Everyone here just wants to pay someone else to do it... it's ridiculous. especially when they can save hundreds of dollars by doing it themselves.

Ok, Issha is on the Higashiyama line, I'm a 10min walk from Kamejima station on the same line.
I work for an English teaching company called ALTIA Central here in the city. I also do private lessons to some of the engineers at Kawasaki in Kakamigahara, and mid level directors at Nippon steel down by the port.
 
@Blomdala, I had the same situation none of my friends in Gifu seemed willing to let me use them for registration.

Also I used to live just south of Issha station, small world. If you haven't tried them MINA is good Indian food around there. It was just a few blocks from me and I was there so much that they would start my order when I walked in the door.
 
Sorry for the late update, I just got back from a month kayaking/camping in the Philippines, so I haven't been working on the HZJ recently.

Shaken (the mandator car check here in Japan) ended up being surprisingly easy.
The paperwork took me a while... and several trips between the different windows to pay, get stamps, get a paper filled out, etc. but that was kind of expected. (Japan loves it's paperwork)

After that, I just had to wait in line for the actual physical inspection. I parked near the inspection shed and walked over to watch some other people do it for 20 minutes or so. Then I drove over and got in line myself. The attendants were pretty friendly and helped explain each of the steps I needed to do. It was actually a plus that I was in a diesel because it's a separate machine and the attendant just did it for me (and all the other diesels I saw go through). After the exhaust check was the alignment/tracking check. Then the brakes, emergency brakes, speedometer, and headlight alignment checks. I got dinged on the headlight alignment and they told me to go over to the garage down the street and they'd fix it for me. It turns out that the PO's LED headlights are a bit odd.. and don't have a central focus on one of the beams so it was messing with the auto-alignment checking computer's reading. The garage tech just put some turtle wax on the headlight lens and that darkened it enough to pass. (but I had to go all the way back to the checking shed and wait in line again... T_T)

Other than that I've just been doing some rust maintenance.
I stripped both front windshield and the rear window wiper arms and painted them with black rust stopper. Replaced the nuts that hold the arms on (they were disgustingly rusty). And replaced the windshield fluid nozzles on the hood as well (the old ones were clogged. I'll clean them and keep them as spares).

I touched up a few spots of frame rust while I was at it.

I replaced the fender flare weather stripping. (but I found that although these are the OEM fender flares, the guy who installed them didn't use the OEM hardware and it's pretty sketchy... so I'm probably gonna have to redo it eventually with some stainless hardware) - (I don't thing the OEM mounting hardware is available anymore?)


Finally, I found a friend who can bring me a set of the rubber LandCruiser mats (the ones everyone here on ih8mud seem to like) from Australia the next time he's here to visit~ ^_^

Next on the list-
More rust maintenance - license plate mounting bracket (remove, strip, paint)
Make a headliner mounted console to mount a swivel map light, a brighter rear light, some misc storage, and have a space for a CB radio.
Find someone that will let me borrow their welder so I can make the frames for the rear drawers that I want to put in the back.
 
(not quite sure which pics you want, so here's a few~)

Being a Govt. facility, I wasn't really able to take pics of the Shaken garage.

The Philippines on the other hand:
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Here're some pics of the sketchy fender flare mounting...
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Here's a pic of the de-rusted and rust-inhibitor sprayed wiper arms
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Here're the mats that I got from Toyota Australia. (The rear bench mat isn't shown in this picture, but I grabbed one of those as well) I'll post pics when I get them from my friend in the next month or so. (when he makes his way back to Japan)
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Finally, something to write about!

As I mentioned before, I believe the previous owner was rather short (due to the steering wheel spacer and shift stick extension) and that meant he/she slid off the seat whenever they were getting in/out of the truck. So, there was a lot of wear on the drivers seat. It was getting pretty threadbare and needed to either be repaired or replaced pretty soon. As such, I started looking for seat covers. I found one of y'all's builds on here (Trump's?DiveMedic's?) that highly suggested the Escape Gear seat covers out of South Africa. So... I bit the bullet and ordered a set for the 76 series. It took a couple of weeks for them to arrive, but they finally got here!
IMG_3408.jpg

It didn't take too long to fit them, and other than the head rest covers not fitting very well (the newer headrests must be taller) they fit nice and tight.
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I have to say, the quality of these things is impeccable. The only thing I can really complain about is that their "Charcoal" option in the Tuff canvas isn't a black base color, but a brown one... so it's more like a dark chocolate than a charcoal (and I imagine will become more brown as it wears/ages). I'm a little bit disappointed by this because it doesn't match my Toyota grey interior as well... but I guess I'll have to take the durability of the Tuff canvas over an exact color match in grey.

Other than that, I was able to take advantage of a hiccup in some JP online retailer's pricing and grab 2 sets of Max Trax for 30000yen each, with with the exchange rate means $270 per set, so I saved almost $130~ ^_^ (This is very surprising, because usually import goods like this cost quite a bit more than the US.)

Now I'm just waiting for my ARB snatch strap and some other goodies to show up in the mail. Though none of it's particularly useful by myself... So I need to find some friends with 4x4s to hit the trails with. X_x
 
Ah, also had a slight mishap while teaching a friend how to drive manual....
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Always buckle up kids. (cause you never know when your friend's gonna pop that clutch)

The particular bit of bad luck in this instance was that my head hit RIGHT on a rock chip in the windshield... so... crack!

Toyota wanted $700 JUST for the glass... ($900 all up) I nearly laughed at them. So I found the glass on MegaZip and had it and some other hard to get parts shipped from the UAE for almost 200 less than the cost of the glass here in Japan. I'll just have to find a garage here that will put it in for me. (Anyone done their own windshield before?)
 
I watched the guy put mine in , looks pretty easy with a few simple tricks. Probably lots of videos on youtube. My windscreen was $200AUD + fitting but I now know where I can get them even cheaper
 
Ah, also had a slight mishap while teaching a friend how to drive manual....
View attachment 1984203

Always buckle up kids. (cause you never know when your friend's gonna pop that clutch)

The particular bit of bad luck in this instance was that my head hit RIGHT on a rock chip in the windshield... so... crack!

Toyota wanted $700 JUST for the glass... ($900 all up) I nearly laughed at them. So I found the glass on MegaZip and had it and some other hard to get parts shipped from the UAE for almost 200 less than the cost of the glass here in Japan. I'll just have to find a garage here that will put it in for me. (Anyone done their own windshield before?)

With a few simple tools and patience its not too bad. A little fancier tools go even faster. Luckily your replacing glass so the harder part you don't have to be as careful to not crack the glass. Amazon product ASIN B0002SRDR8 something like this and a couple suction cups and you will have sore arms and no windsheild after a little while. Low investment also, but not as nice as some other tools. Then its just cleaning the old adhesive good with a knife, and following the new adhesive instructions! This guide has 92% good reviews lol: How to Replace Your Automobile Windshield

I just checked the RM for it, and its a little different, I've never done a windshield like that. See below:

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b.jpg


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d.jpg
 
With a few simple tools and patience its not too bad. A little fancier tools go even faster. Luckily your replacing glass so the harder part you don't have to be as careful to not crack the glass. Amazon product ASIN B0002SRDR8 something like this and a couple suction cups and you will have sore arms and no windsheild after a little while. Low investment also, but not as nice as some other tools. Then its just cleaning the old adhesive good with a knife, and following the new adhesive instructions! This guide has 92% good reviews lol: How to Replace Your Automobile Windshield

I just checked the RM for it, and its a little different, I've never done a windshield like that. See below:

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Wow, thanks a lot! What's the RM #? Do you have a digital copy you wouldn't mind sending me?
 
I finally got my floor mats!
Although I ordered them at the end of February, I've been waiting for my friend to be able to bring them back from Australia with him. They're a Toyota Australia only product, so they're pretty hard to get anywhere else... (though I believe Beno has them available from time to time for those of you in the US)

The old mats that came out
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The awesome new 76 series mats from Australia
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The part numbers for front & rear
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In place in the front & rear
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They fit really nicely and seem to be super durable and thick rubber. Hopefully they'll last a while~ ^_^

AAAAAND bad news... X_x

When I put in the driver's front mat I noticed the old one was wet on the bottom. We had some rain last night, so I assume it's from that. I pulled up some of the carpeting/insulation and found this:
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It looks like there's water in what I assume is the hole to access the body mount bolt. I'm not sure if it's coming from higher up the firewall or if it's just here... but there was about 1/4-1/2" of water in the hole when I pulled the cover off.

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I checked the passenger side and it's not wet, and I don't see anything on the firewall. So hopefully it's just the driver's side.

Any thoughts on where this is coming from? Anyone else had it happen to them? Any thoughts on what to do about this?
 
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Hello,

There are two drain slots where the floor plate is welded to the side panel. Over time, they get plugged, and water from the windshield grille accumulates.

These slots are outside the frame rails. You have to clean them with a toothpick or a piece of wire (No. 8 I think, not sure about this) and wait for the water to drain.

Hope this helps.





Juan
 

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