boozewz
SILVER Star
The first cruiser I ever rode in was when my folks bought a brand new petrol 80 series in 1991. It was white, had cloth seats, barn doors, flares, a 5 speed box, a cooler console, and a forward facing 3rd row seat. It was also the first time I learned to drive, along the beaches on the coast of Saudi Arabia. Thats when I got bitten by the 4 wheeling bug. A few years later, much to the dismay of my younger brother and I, our older brother totaled it late one night, and the insurance wrote it off. We were more concerned about the cruiser than the state of our brother, who actually turned out to be fine. There went our weekend beach driving, and our longing for a vehicle in our household with a manual box continued for many years as the 80 was never replaced.
22 years later, my younger drops a hint that we really ought to find one similar to it, and restore it. I had had my mind set on my next cruiser being a diesel, and with that, the search for a HZJ80 was on the cards. These are hard to find, as 99% of the 80 series' imported into Saudi were petrol engined, and most all of the diesels were used as work vehicles, hence in bad shape. I scoured the auction websites for several months but came up empty. One day luck had it, and a 1990 HZJ80 was located. I called up the owner and he turned out to be in the north, some 1800km away in a town called Al Majma'h. Thats some distance, and I really could not be bothered to make the trek, with a new baby now at home. I spoke to a colleague at work who loves his cars, and explained my predicament. He mentioned that his son's brother in law lives in Riyadh, and would be able to arrange to check out the truck and email me his findings. Great!
A week or so later, all signs came back that the truck is in decent nick, has a good motor, no body rust, and drives well. It had 470,000km on the odo. The owner was a 25 year old kid who works at the Ministry of Commerce, and had bought it from his uncle, who was the original owner, and used it mostly to commute weekly from Riyadh to his village near Al Majma'h. The central region of Saudi is arid, with no humidity, so vehicles that tend to come from there have minimal rust. Money was sent, paper work exchanged, and the truck was put on a transporter to Jeddah.
My plans were simple. (Arent they always like that!). Give her a good clean, a simple 2" OME lift, some new rubber, and perhaps a Safari snorkel. She's going to be my new daily driver.
And without further ado, here are the pics.
Here she was when I was sent the pics during the initial test drive
22 years later, my younger drops a hint that we really ought to find one similar to it, and restore it. I had had my mind set on my next cruiser being a diesel, and with that, the search for a HZJ80 was on the cards. These are hard to find, as 99% of the 80 series' imported into Saudi were petrol engined, and most all of the diesels were used as work vehicles, hence in bad shape. I scoured the auction websites for several months but came up empty. One day luck had it, and a 1990 HZJ80 was located. I called up the owner and he turned out to be in the north, some 1800km away in a town called Al Majma'h. Thats some distance, and I really could not be bothered to make the trek, with a new baby now at home. I spoke to a colleague at work who loves his cars, and explained my predicament. He mentioned that his son's brother in law lives in Riyadh, and would be able to arrange to check out the truck and email me his findings. Great!
A week or so later, all signs came back that the truck is in decent nick, has a good motor, no body rust, and drives well. It had 470,000km on the odo. The owner was a 25 year old kid who works at the Ministry of Commerce, and had bought it from his uncle, who was the original owner, and used it mostly to commute weekly from Riyadh to his village near Al Majma'h. The central region of Saudi is arid, with no humidity, so vehicles that tend to come from there have minimal rust. Money was sent, paper work exchanged, and the truck was put on a transporter to Jeddah.
My plans were simple. (Arent they always like that!). Give her a good clean, a simple 2" OME lift, some new rubber, and perhaps a Safari snorkel. She's going to be my new daily driver.
And without further ado, here are the pics.
Here she was when I was sent the pics during the initial test drive
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It's been rode hard and put away dirty a whole lot, but looks like she is ready for lots more adventure. A good cleaning will work wonders, although I understand the dust.
