500K km / 240K miles 1998 LC 100 'Dhanno' in Dubai - a work in progress

[John Young]

So after my misadventure of buying my second LC on ebay I decided to get back on the saddle. This time I thought it might be fun to buy a US spec LC here in Dubai, do it the way I wanted, enjoy it for a while here and then ship it back to the US.

I spent about a month looking. There are tons of 100's here. And quite a lot of US spec versions. Unfortunately, a very large fraction of them were either salvage or really rusty junk from the North East US. Eventually I found one owned by a really nice guy, and coincidently, a reader of this forum with a 1998 that had the rear lockers. More miles than I had hoped to find. 500K km or 340K miles, but he had cared for the truck and it was all there. He even had put a mild lift kit on. Here's a photo as I first saw it:

BTW, that white LC whose rear end you can see in the photo is my 2001 Gulf Spec--which is not eligible to bring back to the US.

Importantly, the truck is essentially rust-free:

And the body is straight:

And has the rear differential locker--which the owner told me was not working but when we drove a bit on sand it freed-up and functioned again.

The thing about Dubai is that there are lots and lots of garages that charge very reasonable prices for working on common cars such as the LC. And I have come to really like one particular, PAB Auto Maintenance in Al Barsha quite close to Mall of the Emirates--the one with the indoor ski slope. (Ask for Mr. Jobin.)

The seller was very simpatico, and even had named the truck "Dhanno" after the most famous horse in Indian cinema (think 'Trigger'). He had bought the truck for fun but ended up using it as his daily driver and it was a bit long in the tooth for that. His fun truck is a Nissan Patrol which we unfortunately do not get in the US. My friend from Singapore was in town and we swapped Land Cruisers for a day or so so I and my friend could drive it a while. I decided I liked it and its quirks; my Singaporean friend...well she thought I was a bit mad for buying a half million km vehicle. Anyways, I came came to an agreement on price with the seller and after some know-your-customer nonsense delaying an electronic transfer I became Dhanno's new owner about a month ago.

It passed the rather thorough and modern inspection at Dubai's Land Transport Authority and title was transferred. I immediately took it over to PAB with the instruction to go through the driveline and also to replace all the bushings, motor mounts, etc., while inspecting.

The front end did need some attention:

It is hot in Dubai in August:

I then left Dubai for a trip back to the US while they did various things including some cosmetic, like removing the decals on the side and some functional, like removing the tint that was just at my eyeline at the windshield. The garage was kind enough to send a couple of progress pics:

And when I got back i bought some slightly oversized General Tire Grabbers--285/70 R17's to fit the 17" Rays Wheels. Here is how Dhanno looked after the tire swap:

Now attention has to be paid to the interior--which is.....interesting. The seller had told me that when he first bought the truck he had had the carpets cleaned but the cleaners had used some sort of bleach product and had ruined the carpets. So the seller had had new sort-of-carpet installed over it. I thought perhaps I might dye the factory carpet but when we pulled it up we found that the overlay had been glued on:

 

[John Young]

As mentioned in my last post, the carpet set was a complete loss...

So I started searching online for a new carpet set. I had the same success that many on this forum have had--not much. I mentioned this to the seller, who by this time has become a friend, and he offered to take me to a LC100/LX470 breaker he knows in Sharja, the Emirate to the North of Dubia. We went and I will leave you now with this photo of nothing but LC100 and LX470 parts:

More later....

 

[looking4lc]

I was going to tell you to go to " junk yard" in Sharjah. Heard lots of things about it. You can find almost anything there with great price. I am planning to go there when weather gets better.
Shop around as I know lots of places for just LC and LX.
Would love to see more pics and tell us about the prices in general in US $ or UAE dirham.

Good luck

 

[bucfl]

All those parts! And that cruiser is turning out real nice! Some day I would like to add a rear locked Toyota axle.

 

[John Young]

I was going to tell you to go to " junk yard" in Sharjah. Heard lots of things about it. You can find almost anything there with great price.

Hi Looking4LC, do you have any specific locations in Sharjah I should try? I have driven around the most obvious car areas without much success. It was not until Dhanno's seller actually took me to this one place that he has used in the past for parts that I had access to any used parts. For reference here is the place he took me to:

Here's a link to google maps:
Google Maps
Never in a million years would I have found this place by searching by myself. Take a look at the street view of the surrounding streets. And google itself is useless for finding wreckers. Smaller businesses in Sharjah just don't have any web presence by and large.

 

[gnarlynick2072]

I wonder if that breaker has any LHD 105 frames...

 

[nissanh]

What is the difference between the US and Gulf specs? The one you bought has the winch cover but no spare wheel carrier. Yes, I noticed the front tint. How can one drive with it?

Great looking truck and I like the color. Do you happen to know the color code?
Thanks for the information and great pictures!

 

[El Cid]

I am no fan of the LC carpet and came up with my own solution. I bought square amounts of truck rug and, which is soft carpet on one side, firm rubber on the other. I added padding underneath, painted the trim pieces and replaced the entire back half carpet.

Eventually, I'll replace the front with a marine product. Bottom line, with a good upholsterer* carpet replacement is straightforward and there are better products out there.

 

[John Young]

What is the difference between the US and Gulf specs? The one you bought has the winch cover but no spare wheel carrier. Yes, I noticed the front tint. How can one drive with it?

Great looking truck and I like the color. Do you happen to know the color code?
Thanks for the information and great pictures!

To answer your questions seriatum, anecdotally most manufacturers have 'gulf spec' versions that reputedly have uprated cooling and AC systems. Re the model 100, there was a greater range of LC's sold here than in the US, where basically all you could get was the V8 with sunroof and all the trimmings. My gulf spec 100 has the I6 in it, which I like very much, and no sunroof, no seat heaters, cloth seats, manual seats, etc. Basically a 'plain jane' except for full rear seat AC. One way to tell at just a glance I can illustrate with the following photo 0f my 2001 gulf spec 100:

Just behind me is a small amber running light. This is absent in the US model. Another difference is that almost all the gulf spec 100's seem to come with that god-awful fiberglass spoiler thing at the rear. It does shade the interior a bit, but I just loath it.

Re the tint, I could not drive safely with it. I had it removed by the garage. The eyeline of the former owner was slightly lower and I don't think he had a problem with it, but it drove both I and my tall Singaporean female friend crazy.

Re the color, interesting that you bring it up. The former owner likes that color and it is actually a respray from dark green it wore in Oklahoma before coming to Dubai. I'm partial to white myself. I'm debating having it resprayed again. My body shop is quoting me 4500 AED for a quality job, that's about 1,250 USD. But that's with all trim removed and, as I say, a quality job. Funny thing is that the tan is starting to grow on me. It's almost an identical shade to the tan of the FJ Cruiser my friend (the former owner of Dhanno) bought after selling me the truck. I believe that it might be called 'quicksand'. So if you google 'FJ Cruiser Quicksand' I think you might find what you are looking for.

 

[John Young]

I am no fan of the LC carpet and came up with my own solution. I bought square amounts of truck rug and, which is soft carpet on one side, firm rubber on the other. I added padding underneath, painted the trim pieces and replaced the entire back half carpet.

Eventually, I'll replace the front with a marine product. Bottom line, with a good upholsterer* carpet replacement is straightforward and there are better products out there.

Hi El Cid,

I think your solutions are very interesting--and I know exactly the carpet squares you are talking about. Really great idea!

My challenge was somewhat different. I visited several low-cost carpet places and all they were capable of doing was this very odd felt-like product--just like what is in the truck now. Don't know why, but that is what they seem to use here a lot. And I didn't want to shell out big bucks for a restoration shop job--and there are quality resto shope here in Dubai--they just cost a bomb.

So... to continue my story, one of the main reasons I went to the breaker in Sharjah was to see if I could get a salvaged carpet set. The breaker hat two sets:

It did not look all that promising once unwrapped:

But the breaker only wanted 200 AED (a little over 50 bucks) so I figured why not. My friend (the former owner who brought me to the breaker) then took me to a auto cleaning/detailing place nearby in Sharjah and I agreed to spend another 100 AED (25 bucks) having the carpets cleaned. This is a photo at the auto cleaning place a few blocks away:

I picked up the carpets yesterday, and I have to say I was really surprised. Here are a few photos:

In this last photo you can see the existing next to the OEM. The salvage carpets are by no means perfect, but they definitely are acceptable for a fun truck. Besides I likely will get some OEM mats for front and back seats. I did on my 2001 LC and it's been a good investment.

Today I took the carpets and Dhanno back to PAB to have them replace the carpets with the cleaned salvage set. Should be interesting. Driving around today I saw a lot of other trim items that need changing. Likely I will go back to the breakers on Saturday. Besides I also bought just a rear mat (all the breaker had) and it is being cleaned (for 5 bucks). Incidentally, I traded the breaker an OEM 16" rim plus the two fold down seats from Dhanno for a center console, a replacement rear area speaker grille / trim piece and the rear area mat--and he gave me 70 AED. Communication is hard, but hey, that's part of what makes this interesting.

 

[El Cid]

Those carpets are in pretty good shape, if you're happy with the price, that's a win.

I used this product, believe I paid $100 for the truck rug and then $100 for labor.

Bedrug

 

[John Young]

Thank you for that El Cid. I actually saw this product when I was searching for a solution and thought it was really cool. If I were in the US I might well have tried it out. Being here, the logistics of getting something special like Bedrug would be pretty hard to manage.

 

[John Young]

I wonder if that breaker has any LHD 105 frames...

Is there a difference between the 100 and 105 frame Nick? I thought the IFS and solid front axel were interchangable. BTW the breaker did have a -beautiful- LX570 frame just sitting there. Rust free. Relatively clean. I asked about it (just thinking about my ebay misadventure) and he said he wanted 500 AED (135 USD) for it. But how to get it anywhere? You'd have to get a 20 foot container and that's at least 3000 USD to ship.

 

[Layonnn]

Is there a difference between the 100 and 105 frame Nick? I thought the IFS and solid front axel were interchangeable.

,

Yes, they are different. The 105 frame like the 80 series, narrows at the front. The 100 series frame stays nearky the same width throughout.

 

[John Young]

The guys at PAB Auto Maintenance are now in the process of removing the old carpet. Here are a few photos:

 

[John Young]

So now I have a couple of photos of the new old carpet installed:

The only fly in the ointment is that the rear right carpet does not go all the way to the edge:

I suspect this is because the carpet set is from an LX470 instead of a LC100. The carpet looks more like LX carpet and perhaps some of the LX owners on here might comment. My intention is to cover this with a fitted woofer, so it is not a huge issue for me.

 

[jhanley]

Nice work, cruiser looks great. Funny you removed the factory side-decals - I've been thinking about adding those to my truck to give a middle-east spec look!

 

[John Young]

Hi JH,

Thank you for the kind words! Actually the side decals were not factory-applied. The former owner here in the UAE added them as a personal preference at the time he repainted from green to the tan you see today. I prefer the plain look. I'm debating having it repainted. A pretty decent job here is about 1500 USD.

 

[El Cid]

John,

If they don't do it, you can soak all those trim pieces and they clean up quite nicely. I spray painted mine black and....I was shocked that it worked. I also overfilled the sound deadener. While it worked, I would have used less. Be careful not to hammer that plastic. That's a specific Toyota blend. It doesn't play nicely.

I am guessing sand may be your biggest challenge?


This may sound odd, but how does it smell?

 

[John Young]

HI EC,
I'm having the garage do the heavy work with the idea that I can do some of the light. I live in an apartment here so heavy work is not really an option. Cleaning up the various trim is something I can do on my own time and pretty much anywhere. Or I will take it to a detailer--which is quite affordable here. There are a bunch of things that I want to consider now that the truck is in pretty good working order and the big job of replacing the carpet has been done. Some of the speaker grills are mismatched; the driver side sun visor is a bit torn; the seat leather needs attention. All stuff that I can do a bit at a time.

The seats bear some special mention. Here are the seats as I first saw them:

This is cow leather and something that my friend the prior owner had done. It's got some scrapes and stains but it also has character. My initial thought was to recover in camel leather, which I have used for various projects. The Abu Dhabi government has a camel leather tannery about 2 1/2 drive from here and their quality is quite good. To give you some idea, here is a current project:

This stuff is really nice. I mean REALLY nice. A little pricey but that's ok. Here's a link to the Al Khaznah national tannery if that is of interest:

Biodegradable and chrome-free high-performance camel leathers

Anyways I had been intending to replace the cow leather in the land cruiser with camel but as I've looked more closely at the seats, I like them more. I'm first going to try to put some leather conditioner on them and see how they turn out. If they work out I will just keep them as is--preserving a little of the history. And it is a very unique look. Similar to saddle leather or a baseball glove. I might do some camel leather trim.

One item that goes bad on every LC I've ever seen is those nets behind the bucket seats. I'm trying to think of what to do with that. One idea is to make a camel leather pouch behind the driver and passenger seats to replace the stretched-out netting, perhaps with a fold-over lid. I have not seen any good solutions to this very common problem.