2004 JDM UZJ100 Africa Build (1 Viewer)

[Diplodocus]

I was lucky to score this 2004 JDM UZJ100 from the Japanese vehicle auctions in May.

It has less than 39K kilometers (25K miles) and is absolutely pristine inside and out!

And thanks to the Cathcart Brothers who run www.getcarsjapanauction.com I was able to get it for only $14,200 including commission!

I swear the Get Cars Japan brokers are the best bang for the buck when looking at the Japanese used vehicle market. The owners are real professionals born and raised in Australia but have called Japan home for over a decade. The final price on this auction was certianly an anomoly (they mentioned perhaps the best deal they've ever seen on a landcruiser) but isn't that what auctions are all about?

They arranged transport to Durban and then I got it the final leg up to Harare Zimbabwe where it will be based for the next three years.

 

[Diplodocus]

I finally got to see it in person just two weeks ago and it is even better than the photos (above) taken at the port in Japan. The undercarriage looks like it just rolled off the assembly line.

Unfortunately, and much to my dismay, this truck does not have the ATRAC / VSC ECU.

For our travels around Southern Africa the ATRAC was all I was going to need, but as it stands it looks like my best course of action at this point is to install an ARB in the rear.

In a few more weeks my shipment from the U.S. will arrive. It will be an early Christmas here in Harare as I unpack my Slee rear bumper, belly skid set, 2.5" OME lift, WKOR sliders, 255/80R17 KM2s, ARB front bumper, Safari snorkel, Long Ranger aux tank, etc. Then the real fun begins.

 

[Bloomer]

That is beautiful!

 

[VidereStudios]

That is beautiful!

I concur. Very nice rig. Love the cloth seats. And it does really look like it just came off the assembly line.

I am surprised that it is missing the ATRAC and VSC ECU...that is unfortunate. However, your speeds will definitely be slower than here in the States, so the lack of VSC is probably not a huge hit. And getting an ARB locker in the rear is a good, mechanical locking solution and would be recommended over the ATRAC in my opinion. I don't think you lost anything on this rig...add the locker and don't look back!

 

[LostAfrican]

Lekker man! I agree don't sweat the ATRAC/VSC, get an ARB or other and enjoy. I was surprised you ordered a Long Ranger from the US. I just received a couple of Front Runner aux tanks from CPT (in Phoenix) - unofficially-like.

 

[Hedgepig]

I am running a build thread here on the UK forum to pretty much the same spec as yours. Mine also is a low miler but UK spec which has a bit more on it. Yours looks like it came out of a showroom. I had a bit of surface rust as it spent some of its life near the sea

http://www.landcruiserclub.net/forums/showthread.php/52211-Hedgehog-LC100-build-thread

 

[r2m]

Kind of odd seeing a cloth interior! But it works!

 

[tucker74]

That's awesome, I picked up an '06 a few months back with 22k miles in similar condition and am loving it. Really jealous of the manual AC controls that aren't integrated into the stupid NAV :-( Digging the cloth seats as well, my '94 80 had cloth and I loved it. Good luck with the build!

Tucker

 

[Landsharkman]

looks brand new, have fun putting it all together

 

[Diplodocus]

I got a call yesterday morning from my wife, she was beggining to turn left onto a side road and a taxi was zooming by on the shoulder and he was going straight...boom. If that doesn't make sense, remember that we drive on the left side of the road here. And here is Africa.

No injuries at all and the local police were actually rather pleasant, apparently. But so much for that "brand new" feeling I was enjoying:

Thankfully our household shipment just arrived, so I guess now is the right time to put that ARB front bumper on...

Luckily Harare has a specialist body + parts shop named "Mr. Cruiser" and they are supposed to be the best in town - certainly better than the dealership. They have all the parts in stock, but looks like $4K for them to fix it up right. Hopefully insurance comes in soon and we can get on our way again.

 

[LostAfrican]

Ouch! Sorry DS! I am impressed they have the parts in stock, that is awesome. $4k sounds really high though, considering they have an ARB to put on there!?

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

That totally suck!
Hopefully it just requires trading some parts on your end.

Im loving the cloth seats! when my when mine wear out

 

[Diplodocus]

Insurance is intended to get me back to where I was when the accident happened, so the quote does include the cost for a new OEM bumper. Here is the actual quote:

Supply Repair

ü Front Bumper With Head LightWashers $ 700.00

ü Front Left Front Bumper Bracket $ 200.00

ü 2 x Head Lights $ 750.00

ü 2 x Corner Lights $ 237.00

ü 2 x Valance $ 130.00

ü Grill $ 737.00

ü Left Fender $ 605.00

ü Washer Bottle $ 77.50

ü Headlight Washer Motor $ 137.50

Refit Description:

Remove and refit Trims $ 180.00

Wheel Alignment $ 70.00

Paint $ 100.00

Sundries $ 121.00

Grand Total $ 4,045.00

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Insurance is intended to get me back to where I was when the accident happened, so the quote does include the cost for a new OEM bumper. Here is the actual quote:

Supply Repair

ü Front Bumper With Head LightWashers $ 700.00

ü Front Left Front Bumper Bracket $ 200.00

ü 2 x Head Lights $ 750.00

ü 2 x Corner Lights $ 237.00

ü 2 x Valance $ 130.00

ü Grill $ 737.00

ü Left Fender $ 605.00

ü Washer Bottle $ 77.50

ü Headlight Washer Motor $ 137.50

Refit Description:

Remove and refit Trims $ 180.00

Wheel Alignment $ 70.00

Paint $ 100.00

Sundries $ 121.00

Grand Total $ 4,045.00

Interesting how the vehicle cost is low but the parts are priced high.

 

[Diplodocus]

Interesting how the vehicle cost is low but the parts are priced high.

The low purchase price is due to the vehicle being purchased at auction in Japan on what turned out to be a very good day for the buyer (me). Three land cruisers with less than 50K kilometers were sold the day I bought mine. The other two sold for ~25K. I seriously just got lucky on this one.

The high price of the parts has to do with where the vehicle is located right now. Importing anything into Zimbabwe takes time and a whole lot of money, which of course gets passed on to the final consumer.

 

[Diplodocus]

Just before Thanksgiving my friend and I got some work done one the Cruiser.

First up was the installation of the 160 liter (42 gallon) Australian-built Long Ranger Automotive auxiliary tank (P/N TLC100AX) purchased from www.outbackproven.com in the U.S. and shipped with my household effects to Zimbabwe. For having already travelled ~25,000 miles the tank was in pretty decent shape .

The LRA engineering team really went out of their way to use every last available square inch for this tank. We ended up having to use a jack, two guys pushing from below, and some BFH persuasion just to get it squeezed up between the frame rails. Talk about a tight fit! Continuing on that same theme, all of the new hoses as well as the transfer pump are stuffed inside the fender below the filler hole and behind the plastic shield. After a lot of finagling (and cursing) everything was routed and bolted the way the instructions indicated.

Unfortunately the electric pump supplied with the kit (courtesy of Fuel Flow New Zealand) has no flare on the "out" side of the pump. This has resulted in the hose blowing off during the transfer process. Why would a company design a pump with absolutely no flare on the pressurized side??? . If it keeps blowing off (despite what is now an excessively tight hose clamp) I will have to look at alternative pump options.

Here you can see the transfer in process. Left hole for the main tank fill, right hole for the aux tank fill. Aux tank fuel is pumped into the main tank fill tube. The main tank fill tube breather outlet is routed to the aux tank, so if the pump is left on after the main tank is full it just circulates the fuel back to the aux tank. Luckily pump attendants here are familiar with aux tanks so saying something like "20 liters in the left hole, 80 liters in the right" doesn't cause heartburn.

We mounted the transfer switch / gauge in front of the shifter. It's within easy reach, not distracting, and doesn't get pressed accidentally. Here you can see it showing 3/4 of a tank.

 

[Diplodocus]

Next up we installed the Slee "Special" Rear Bumper. This was a promotion Slee had running last summer. Reduced pricing for a pre-made bumper that only had one swing out. Not much to say here. Extremely well designed, extremely clear directions. No hiccups, no cursing, just admiration for an excellent product all around.

Installed Slee's "Heavy" 2.5 kit in the rear and then moved to the front to install some SPC upper control arms with OME HD torsion bars and shocks as well as the Slee dif drop and wheel spacers.

At this point I had to leave for a work trip so I decided to drop the truck off at Mr. Cruiser's for two weeks so they could do the body work to fix up the accident damage and install the ARB bumper while they were at it...

When I dropped off the truck I also dropped off all of the parts I had just removed from this sub-25,000 mile truck. I told the son of the owner "I know you guys have a good reputation, so I trust you'll give me a fair price for these parts. Just subtract that from my invoice."

...

 

[Diplodocus]

I was away for three weeks, but after two weeks the truck was "ready" and my wife went and picked it up.

A couple notes that might help explain my response to seeing the truck when I finally got home:

1. This shop is supposedly "the best" in THE COUNTRY for Land Cruiser parts and service.
2. They sell and install ARB products on a regular basis.
3. I took the time to print out the ARB instructions, three-hole punch them and deliver them in a binder when I dropped the truck off.

The owner's son explained to my wife that "the installation of the ARB was a lot more difficult than we expected." This translated to three additional hours of labor ($150) over the original quote.

That is four hours of shop time to install an ARB. This is a bolt-on piece of kit. So after four hours of labor, how did they do?

Well...

-They forgot to install the splash guard (and didn't give it back to me either...)

-They forgot to install the indicator lamps (and didn't give them back to me either...)

- They misaligned the frame brackets, so I can't fit a shackle pin through my URBs

-They forgot to DRILL THE REQUIRED HOLES IN THE FRAME to SECURELY MOUNT THE BUMPER (and didn't give me back the hardware required to do this... ) oh and cut the body mount bracket for some unknown reason

-AND DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO STRAIGHTEN THE THING!!!

If all of THAT wasn't enough...


Remember those parts I had dropped off? The parts this shop routinely trades in and sells to customers for 50% of the MSRP for new parts? The parts that a 4X4 club member has since offered me $1,000 for (to return his worn-out high mileage Cruiser to a factory ride)?
On the invoice they wrote "swap parts for extra labor to install bull bar"

To top things off the entire town shuts down for the entire month of mid-December to mid-January, so I can't get this resolved until the shop opens up again after the new year. Plan is to simply demand all of my parts (old and new) back and get the hell out of there before they can lay their hands on my truck again.

 

[Keowee]

Congrats on finding such a nice truck. The interior looks factory new. What grill and headlights did you use to update to the 06-07 style. OEM or aftermarket?
Maybe you need a big stick to negotiate terms with that shop owner.

 

[Diplodocus]

Thanks. The facelift did turn out nice. Those are OEM lights and grill.