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

[John Young]

To continue to answer your question, EC--

Re smell.... well... it smells like a Land Cruiser. Same smell as my rust bucket mistake back in Virginia. Nothing else comes to mind.

Re sand, it does get into the interior, but I have not noticed anything in particular--certainly cleaner than mud. Were you thinking of something in particular? You get used to the sand in everything. But it's pretty clean sand in the desert around here.

 

[El Cid]

If the smell isnt' a problem, then it's all good. I don't want to know what was spilled on mine previously, but it certainly stayed in the back carpet. I took mine to Arizona/Utah/Vegas on a trip and somehow accumulated small amounts of sand that stuck in corners. Just couldn't imagine how bad it would be if it were in the Middle East.

The idea of camel leather is just kick ass. I think that would work well here in Texas too. I just replaced my seat covers today for the front but I think I'll nab the back soon enough. Nice leather will make you forget the minor things that need repair.

 

[John Young]

I decided to repaint Dhanno while I was away in the US. In case you are interested the cost of this is 4000 AED = 1,100 USD. The quality looks good to me--I'm just back in Dubai and will see the truck shortly in person. PAB Auto Maintenance is doing the work for me. Good guys.

Here is an album with a bunch of photos: Dhanno repaint

 

[nodaksn3]

You're doing what I dreamed of when I worked in Abu Dhabi. Spent a lot of time prowling the industrial areas (very few minor fender benders, lots of thoroughly crunched cars) of both AD and Dubai. I saw your parts place and one other in Sharja and Dubai, but as I didn't speak Arabic and didn't have a friend who did, they were hard to deal with. My dream was to bring in my 80 and upgrade it to a "fully loaded" mid east version, with winch, rear a/c, subtank, etc. Found a donor in AD for around $15,000 (asking), but then I got laid off so the plan went out the window.
Good job on yours. You are showing us the "LC dream".
Ned

 

[John Young]

Thank you ND. It's been fun. I don't speak Arabic either. I've had to resort to sign language and photos on my phone to get across what I am looking for.

 

[John Young]

Hi all,
Well Dhanno is out of paint and on... er... was on the road! Before I start I should explain a little more about the name 'Dhanno'. It is the name of the most famous Indian screen horse and from a famous Indian movie 'Sholay'. In the words of one commentator: "Dhanno was not only Basanti’s buddy, she’s also witness to Veeru and Basanti’s love affair and the life-saver who carries Basanti away from villainous goons. Remember “Chal Dhanno, aaj teri Basanti ki izzat ka sawaal hai”? Well, Basanti, Dhanno did her bit. So much so that every horse-riding location in India invariably has at least one horse named Dhanno."

Back to Dhanno the 1998 model 100 with locking center and rear differentials:

About a week from my last post I came in to go over the truck in detail and point out the paint items that needed more work. PAB had started but not finished the post-paint rubout. Here are a couple of photos as I found the truck:

Mr. Jobin, PAB's shop manager, whatsapped me to suggest that I paint the little vent at the rear some other color for a little contrast. About a week later I came back and I decided he had had a great idea:

I think it looks fantastic!

While I was there I found a few more items. I'm not going for perfection. I'm going for a truck that I don't mind getting dirty, but still, I'm still a bit particular. Fortunately the guys at PAB don't seem to mind. There was a little miscommunication about the wheels. I had gone back and forth about painting them. Jobin thought they should be gloss black like the vent. I thought that was going to be a little too dramatic for the overall look I was going for. Ultimately I whatsapped to say I did not want to paint the Rays Wheels, and that I would leave them the way they were. Unfortunately the message did not reach the shop floor and so this is how I found my wheels:

The guys had already started scuffing them in preparation for re-spray. They offered to just clear-coat them again, but I decided to ask them to go ahead and paint in the same body paint as they had used on Dhanno. If I did not like it I would just have them sprayed again. Here's how they turned out:

And a couple of photos showing how Dhanno looked when I arrived:

I bought those new black lug nuts on Amazon as well as some copper anti-seize compound and carried it back to Dubai in my luggage. The old lug nuts were shot. I made sure that they used the anti-seize because this truck is going back to the US for use as a daily driver for me when I'm in-country. (Yes, I know financially it makes little sense, but what about this hobby does?) Anyways, more photos:

These guys work hard and they know what they are doing.

Pretty slick, right?

I will stop there for the moment and see what kind of reaction you all have, especially to the painted Rays Wheels.

 

[MattThompson]

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.

It's crazy to think that anyone would import a US spec Cruiser to a place already stocked full of them! lol Funny thing is, I bought my 99 because it was spec'd more like the poverty pack trucks in other markets, and had never seen one. I have no sunroof,cloth interior, no third row, no rear air, no rack ever,and no running boards..I live in OKC and wouldn't be surprised if your truck was sent overseas by a local dealer called A and G Auto..

 

[John Young]

Crazy, yes. Can't really dispute that. But I live in Dubai and I'm having fun changing the truck around to exactly the way I want it. Financially, it makes no sense, but to paraphrase Garret Morris, 'crypto been berry berry good to me' lately and I'm feeling a bit flush. Plus it gives me something other to do than go to a bar, etc.

I did look up the VIN before I bought Dhanno. And yes, as it happens, the truck started its life in Oklahoma.

I have a couple more projects in mind for the truck. Notably doing up some of the interior trim in camel leather, and possibly adding a winch to the front bumper from the local truck salvage yard:

I took this photo last weekend at the local 80/100 boneyard. Some of them look to be factory, which would be kind of cool.

I'm also going to add a model 100 oil or trans cooler (which I got accidentally from the seller of the Gulf Spec model 80 which I hope to import as it is 25 years old now). I like tilting at windmills.

And MT, I actually prefer the LC's without all the luxo stuff. Good on you for getting one which must have been a special order. I've been thinking about replacing the seats with manual, for example, but I probably won't because they work fine and they are covered in some really interesting heavy locally-fabbed cow leather:

 

[tacoduck]

enjoying your story... Love those "saddle leather" seats. looks good. What happened to your roof rack? looks like gulf spec trucks don't have em...

I enjoy reading about these capable trucks in other countries... keep it up.

 

[MattThompson]

Crazy, yes. Can't really dispute that. But I live in Dubai and I'm having fun changing the truck around to exactly the way I want it. Financially, it makes no sense, but to paraphrase Garret Morris, 'crypto been berry berry good to me' lately and I'm feeling a bit flush. Plus it gives me something other to do than go to a bar, etc.

I did look up the VIN before I bought Dhanno. And yes, as it happens, the truck started its life in Oklahoma.

I have a couple more projects in mind for the truck. Notably doing up some of the interior trim in camel leather, and possibly adding a winch to the front bumper from the local truck salvage yard:

I took this photo last weekend at the local 80/100 boneyard. Some of them look to be factory, which would be kind of cool.

I'm also going to add a model 100 oil or trans cooler (which I got accidentally from the seller of the Gulf Spec model 80 which I hope to import as it is 25 years old now). I like tilting at windmills.

And MT, I actually prefer the LC's without all the luxo stuff. Good on you for getting one which must have been a special order. I've been thinking about replacing the seats with manual, for example, but I probably won't because they work fine and they are covered in some really interesting heavy locally-fabbed cow leather:

Very cool! Yes, I would love to know the story on mine..I totally understand why your doing it, those seats remind me a bit of "King Ranch" seats Ford uses in its trucks. An OE winch would be very cool, i've run across some of the factory winch bumper covers online, but never the full mount.