2002 HZJ76 Daily Driver & Weekend Tourer (Build Thread)
Finally. After years of watching @Rigster's thread of his wonderful HZJ76 build, I have one of my own. The '76 has always been on my list to one day own. The coil front end, combined with the old school heritage of the narrow nose and round headlights, in addition to a few mod cons such as power windows, A/C, auto transmission AND more than one cup holder; this has to be one of the best Cruisers ever built.
I have owned a couple of 77 Series - the leaf front and rear just wore me down over time (granted, I never tried changing things up and running parabolic springs). Where I live and the type of camping, exploring and access fishing spots that I do, I often drive bumpy riverbeds, hard-packed gravel roads, and the like. Whilst I LOVED the look of both the 77 Series that I have owned, I always longed for a coil front 76.
Finding one was the issue...
Roll on a near two year process; keeping an eye out at Japan auctions, and in constant contact with an agent who had my strict criteria in the forefront of his mind. Some would pop up, but would always have good and bad points: for instance one would have diff locks, but would be high mileage. Another would be my preferred colour, but be manual and no diff lockers. Getting the holy grail was nearly impossible...
...until yesterday.
Finally the dream rig showed up at auction, and Kimmy, my Japanese agent, basically said it's now or never.
- Low mileage, check. - Factory lockers, check.
- Preferred color, check.
- Auto trans, check.
- Rust free, check.
We were both of the thinking that this one would go for mega-money. One of the true gems of this era and also one of the cleanest that had been through auction for some time.
An hour later we had won it. And for reasonable money to boot.
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