It seems to be the perfect size for the 70-Series.
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Build a 1995/96 Omani Model 75 Troopy - kinda getting going on it finally
- Thread starter John Young
- Start date
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Great to hear back from this awesome build.
The tires look great. Love that skinny look.
What was eventually the culprit on the rear axle? Did you end up rebuilding it?
Cheers Ralf
The tires look great. Love that skinny look.
What was eventually the culprit on the rear axle? Did you end up rebuilding it?
Cheers Ralf
- Thread starter
- #83
I've almost got the Troopy back. It passed inspection but the guys found that the radiator was weeping. Rather than rebuild, I had a new all-aluminum radiator made with one extra row of cooling fins for good measure. It was about 1150 AED or 315 USD.
The grey color of the rims is really growing on me too:
The grey color of the rims is really growing on me too:
- Thread starter
- #84
So I have been using the troopy on and off as a daily driver when other trucks are out of commission (which seems to be a lot of the time--but it is a process, right?)
I've been thinking about getting a awning / sun shade for the desert. I happened to be in Sharjah looking for door trim for the 105 and I saw that a nice young man I know had a new and perfect roof rack for a troopy.
He said that the truck already had been sold but that I could have the roof rack if I wanted it. Logistically this was challenging because I was driving the Holy Truck (an 80) and not the troopy and I am leaving tonight for the US. But what the heck... I drove from Shajah to Dubia Investment Park and swapped the 80 for the troopy and drove back up, and even though it was the lunch hour the guys helped me out.
I've been thinking about getting a awning / sun shade for the desert. I happened to be in Sharjah looking for door trim for the 105 and I saw that a nice young man I know had a new and perfect roof rack for a troopy.
He said that the truck already had been sold but that I could have the roof rack if I wanted it. Logistically this was challenging because I was driving the Holy Truck (an 80) and not the troopy and I am leaving tonight for the US. But what the heck... I drove from Shajah to Dubia Investment Park and swapped the 80 for the troopy and drove back up, and even though it was the lunch hour the guys helped me out.
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prwillard2
SILVER Star
I miss UAE so much! The workers there will go to great lengths to make people happy.
I always tried to carry 20 Dirham notes to put in people's pockets when they provided excellent service.
Too many of the migrant workers get treated so terribly by the Emirati's. But the workers are terrific and trying to make a better life for themselves.
Awesome roof rack!
- Thread starter
- #86
Paul, I could not agree more. When I fill up on gas I always give a 5 or 19 dirham tip. It is not much and these guys... they work all day and night in the heat. Re the roof rack I definitely did add a bit and asked my friend who let me buy it off him to pass it to his laborer.
Here are a couple more photos:
- Thread starter
- #87
And the troopy is safely at home
It is really in very close to factory condition. And most importantly it is not too tall and is sized for the Troopy. Garage entries can be low in this country and the troopy is tall to begin with, I jumped on this even though I am flying to spend some time with my younger son tonight. It was just an opportunity that I could not pass up. I drove more than 300km today with all the running around. Home to Sharjah to look for 100 trim, which I found, Shajah to Dubai Investment Park to swap the Holy Truck for the Troopy, DIP to Shajah to get the roof rack, Shajah to Al Quoz to drop the trim at SebSports for the 105; and finally home.
Oh and the troopy now uas locking hubs on it.
It is really in very close to factory condition. And most importantly it is not too tall and is sized for the Troopy. Garage entries can be low in this country and the troopy is tall to begin with, I jumped on this even though I am flying to spend some time with my younger son tonight. It was just an opportunity that I could not pass up. I drove more than 300km today with all the running around. Home to Sharjah to look for 100 trim, which I found, Shajah to Dubai Investment Park to swap the Holy Truck for the Troopy, DIP to Shajah to get the roof rack, Shajah to Al Quoz to drop the trim at SebSports for the 105; and finally home.
Oh and the troopy now uas locking hubs on it.
So true!
Served in the area, can share your feelings...
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- Thread starter
- #89
I see it has been more than three years since I have updated this thread. A lot has happened.
The Omani Troopy got a stem-to-stern mechanical rebuild including both axels, brakes of course, driveshaft, suspension freshening, rebuilt transmission with taller 5th gear and a fresh turbocharged 1HZ with uprated pistons from Engine Australia. I will come back to this.
But at the moment what I want to share is what I did today.
The troopy currently is my daily driver in Dubai. Not a terrifically practical daily, but now with all the work done a surprisingly pleasant truck to drive. Yes, it still rides like a lumber truck, but it is a well-mannered lumber truck. That is what brings me to today.
Over the past week I've been sitting in it and my back has been complaining. The seats dated back to when the truck was new and albeit surface with new covers were tired, very tired. I have a bunch of projects going on in Dubai right now, including my first 79 series. As part of that project I had found some new OEM seats in the salvage yards and had put them aside. Unfortunately the cats had gotten to them.
There was some damage. Not enough to warrant recovering, but something I will notice, if no-one else. But I am getting better at this and sometimes it is good to just accept things and move on. Coincidently in the last day a friend, @janyyc had shown me what he had done with his AUS troopy in terms of seats.
(Hope you don't mind my posting @janyyc.)
Really nice and really fancy European seats well-suited to the Troopy. But they took a long time for shipping and besides now I had slightly damaged seats that I no longer really wanted to put in the 79 series. And the troopy is a daily, so....
The Omani Troopy got a stem-to-stern mechanical rebuild including both axels, brakes of course, driveshaft, suspension freshening, rebuilt transmission with taller 5th gear and a fresh turbocharged 1HZ with uprated pistons from Engine Australia. I will come back to this.
But at the moment what I want to share is what I did today.
The troopy currently is my daily driver in Dubai. Not a terrifically practical daily, but now with all the work done a surprisingly pleasant truck to drive. Yes, it still rides like a lumber truck, but it is a well-mannered lumber truck. That is what brings me to today.
Over the past week I've been sitting in it and my back has been complaining. The seats dated back to when the truck was new and albeit surface with new covers were tired, very tired. I have a bunch of projects going on in Dubai right now, including my first 79 series. As part of that project I had found some new OEM seats in the salvage yards and had put them aside. Unfortunately the cats had gotten to them.
There was some damage. Not enough to warrant recovering, but something I will notice, if no-one else. But I am getting better at this and sometimes it is good to just accept things and move on. Coincidently in the last day a friend, @janyyc had shown me what he had done with his AUS troopy in terms of seats.
(Hope you don't mind my posting @janyyc.)
Really nice and really fancy European seats well-suited to the Troopy. But they took a long time for shipping and besides now I had slightly damaged seats that I no longer really wanted to put in the 79 series. And the troopy is a daily, so....
- Thread starter
- #90
All the stuff that has not been changed over the years needs attention. You can see in that last photo that it needs new front floor mats. I'd added new rear mats from one of the salvage yards a few months back, so they are ok.
Several other items were pretty far gone.
But fortunately I have new seatbelts for the 79 series project that I could borrow to improve the troopy situation.
The new seats are from a 79 series pickup and the rails don't quite work. They are a bit long and one side is higher than the other, so what we did was pull the rails off the old seat and bolt them up to the new seats. The 10mm mounting points on the seat structure itself has not changed from the 75 series. And after some persuasion the seats did go in.
On Monday I am going to pull them out again and see about combining old and new parts of the seat rails. The new seats came with rails that were materially longer and it would be nice to have a bit more travel. Besides, the release lever is a little close to the seat itself.
I also have a pretty nice pair of 80 seats and I am going to see how hard it would be mount them on the 70 series rails.
The new seating position is a little higher than the old, but not a problem in terms of driving. It is a big improvement in terms of just driver comfort.
It was with great pleasure that I hauled out the old seats and put them in the skip.
Several other items were pretty far gone.
But fortunately I have new seatbelts for the 79 series project that I could borrow to improve the troopy situation.
The new seats are from a 79 series pickup and the rails don't quite work. They are a bit long and one side is higher than the other, so what we did was pull the rails off the old seat and bolt them up to the new seats. The 10mm mounting points on the seat structure itself has not changed from the 75 series. And after some persuasion the seats did go in.
On Monday I am going to pull them out again and see about combining old and new parts of the seat rails. The new seats came with rails that were materially longer and it would be nice to have a bit more travel. Besides, the release lever is a little close to the seat itself.
I also have a pretty nice pair of 80 seats and I am going to see how hard it would be mount them on the 70 series rails.
The new seating position is a little higher than the old, but not a problem in terms of driving. It is a big improvement in terms of just driver comfort.
It was with great pleasure that I hauled out the old seats and put them in the skip.
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- Thread starter
- #91
So now that I have got the new seats in I decided to change them.
The 1+2 is nice but one thing I've never liked is that you really have to get out of the car to get in the back. Also, I never have 3 people in the truck. AND I did originally buy these seats for the 79 series pickup. So with that as context I started searching for a new sets of good seats ostensibly for the pickup. I mentioned this on a local forum and one of the guys PM'd me:
These are 76 series seats and current generation pulls from a brand new truck.
Immediately the fact that one side comes down quite a bit lower than the other caught my eye so I knew I likely would have to do a little fabrication. But I'm trying to keep an eye on the budget at least a little and my friend from the forum really just wanted them gone and used for a good purpose. And I like that. And I like the look of stock seats and the idea of switching the troopy seats to 1+1 seating really appealed.
The next day I went and pulled the 1+2 seats from the troopy (which took about 5 minutes) and then took some measurements and photos of the troopy mounting points to get a much clearer idea of what I was dealing with.
The first bit of good news was that the troopy already had the front captive bolt provision for the bucket seats.
As you can see that captive bolt never has been used in the troopy. But it provided the 310mm or maybe 305mm rail-to-rail spacing required by the buckets and seemingly every single-width 70 series seat I've ever come across.
Now the back side does present some small challenges.
The current passenger back side has rail mounts at 470mm
With the seat belt mount (which pokes through the center of the +2 seat) is around 250mm from the rail mount point
I will have to come up with strong mount points for both the seat belt and the passenger inboard rail mount point.
The 1+2 is nice but one thing I've never liked is that you really have to get out of the car to get in the back. Also, I never have 3 people in the truck. AND I did originally buy these seats for the 79 series pickup. So with that as context I started searching for a new sets of good seats ostensibly for the pickup. I mentioned this on a local forum and one of the guys PM'd me:
These are 76 series seats and current generation pulls from a brand new truck.
Immediately the fact that one side comes down quite a bit lower than the other caught my eye so I knew I likely would have to do a little fabrication. But I'm trying to keep an eye on the budget at least a little and my friend from the forum really just wanted them gone and used for a good purpose. And I like that. And I like the look of stock seats and the idea of switching the troopy seats to 1+1 seating really appealed.
The next day I went and pulled the 1+2 seats from the troopy (which took about 5 minutes) and then took some measurements and photos of the troopy mounting points to get a much clearer idea of what I was dealing with.
The first bit of good news was that the troopy already had the front captive bolt provision for the bucket seats.
As you can see that captive bolt never has been used in the troopy. But it provided the 310mm or maybe 305mm rail-to-rail spacing required by the buckets and seemingly every single-width 70 series seat I've ever come across.
Now the back side does present some small challenges.
The current passenger back side has rail mounts at 470mm
With the seat belt mount (which pokes through the center of the +2 seat) is around 250mm from the rail mount point
I will have to come up with strong mount points for both the seat belt and the passenger inboard rail mount point.
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- Thread starter
- #92
Another thing I noticed was that the outboard mount points are maybe 10-15mm lower than the inboard.
So that will need to be factored into whatever I construct.
I then went over to the home of my friend from the forum and took a very close look at the seats and made what measurements I could.
The first thing I noticed is that the mount points on the seats are offset front to back. Near as I can tell the inboard mount points are shifted maybe 35-40mm to the back.
And then there is the height difference. The other 70 seats are more or less flat across the bottom, not so these.
The high side (outboard) seems to be about 110mm above the base.
The low side (inboard) seems to be at about 45mm. I am assuming for the moment that the front to back profile is the same as for the seats I am used to. We will find out.
So what I have to do is create a spacer for the inboard mounts that raises up that side roughly 65mm and pushes the inboard mounts 35-40mm rearwards.
And in addition I need to create a inboard rear attachment point as well as a seat belt attachment point. I need some more measurements for that so shortly after I post this I am headed over to the troopy to take some more measurements.
I should mention that all this will result in seats in the troopy being considerably higher than stock. I am fine with this and in fact even prefer it. I did that to the flatbed 70 series pickup in kind of a lame temporary way years back and and I found I liked the seating position much better in the 70. Certainly there is plenty of headroom.
So that will need to be factored into whatever I construct.
I then went over to the home of my friend from the forum and took a very close look at the seats and made what measurements I could.
The first thing I noticed is that the mount points on the seats are offset front to back. Near as I can tell the inboard mount points are shifted maybe 35-40mm to the back.
And then there is the height difference. The other 70 seats are more or less flat across the bottom, not so these.
The high side (outboard) seems to be about 110mm above the base.
The low side (inboard) seems to be at about 45mm. I am assuming for the moment that the front to back profile is the same as for the seats I am used to. We will find out.
So what I have to do is create a spacer for the inboard mounts that raises up that side roughly 65mm and pushes the inboard mounts 35-40mm rearwards.
And in addition I need to create a inboard rear attachment point as well as a seat belt attachment point. I need some more measurements for that so shortly after I post this I am headed over to the troopy to take some more measurements.
I should mention that all this will result in seats in the troopy being considerably higher than stock. I am fine with this and in fact even prefer it. I did that to the flatbed 70 series pickup in kind of a lame temporary way years back and and I found I liked the seating position much better in the 70. Certainly there is plenty of headroom.
- Thread starter
- #93
On Friday I started to hunt for some ordinary steel to fabricate what I need, but strangely I could only find stainless. But it was affordable, and I bought some stock.
So today I started to try to teach myself how to TIG weld stainless. Results were .... mixed.
So today I started to try to teach myself how to TIG weld stainless. Results were .... mixed.
- Thread starter
- #94
The first thing I did on Saturday was to try to lay things out more precisely, starting with an adapter to make up for the lack of a mounting point on the passenger inboard rear seat rail.
The distance is 470mm between the existing mount points for the rear of the passenger seat.
On the drivers side, the seat belt mount point is 125mm inboard and 45mm back:
And as near as I can measure the distance between the sides of the bucket mount points is about 306mm. I suspect it is actually 305 but 306 is what I measured.
Looking at the 50mm wide flat stock I got, it fit much better in the existing indentations of the floor if I offset the holes forward off center so the mount points would be about 15mm from the forward edge of the flat stock.
And that would put the seatbelt mount point for the passenger seat about here:
I got back to the shop on Saturday and basically practiced prepping and TIG welding 304 stainless with 309L rod. I was not good at it.
The distance is 470mm between the existing mount points for the rear of the passenger seat.
On the drivers side, the seat belt mount point is 125mm inboard and 45mm back:
And as near as I can measure the distance between the sides of the bucket mount points is about 306mm. I suspect it is actually 305 but 306 is what I measured.
Looking at the 50mm wide flat stock I got, it fit much better in the existing indentations of the floor if I offset the holes forward off center so the mount points would be about 15mm from the forward edge of the flat stock.
And that would put the seatbelt mount point for the passenger seat about here:
I got back to the shop on Saturday and basically practiced prepping and TIG welding 304 stainless with 309L rod. I was not good at it.
- Thread starter
- #95
Today I practiced a bit more and then reached the point of diminishing returns. I decided to try to actually make the adapter for the missing rear passenger side mount point. Again, it was not pretty.
But I got it pretty much to the point of being acceptable with two captive bolts facing upward for the seat rail mount and the seat belt mount.
It was pretty dang hot in the garage.
But I got it to the point where I can at least go see if it will fit the troopy, which I will do in the morning.
But I got it pretty much to the point of being acceptable with two captive bolts facing upward for the seat rail mount and the seat belt mount.
It was pretty dang hot in the garage.
But I got it to the point where I can at least go see if it will fit the troopy, which I will do in the morning.
- Thread starter
- #96
A new problem has come up. The way Toyota does the seat belts has the clips that only fit one buckle. The shoulder belt from the passenger side only fits the buckle that comes up through the middle of the split seat. The small belt that comes out of the middle of the split seat then clips into the buckle that has the hard plastic cover that holds it within easy reach.
- Thread starter
- #97
While mulling this over I went back to the garage and did some more welding and cleanup on the adapter.
It aint too pretty.
But you know what? Paint covers a myriad of sins.
It aint too pretty.
But you know what? Paint covers a myriad of sins.
- Thread starter
- #98
Here's what I am thinking to use to lift up and shift backwards the inboard mount points of the 76 series seats.
The rubber bushings are from leaf spring shackles. They seem pretty sturdy and I will put some compression on them with a couple of bolts.
The rubber bushings are from leaf spring shackles. They seem pretty sturdy and I will put some compression on them with a couple of bolts.
There are three different types of bottom plates and all have different seats:
-75/79 single cab
-75/78 troopy
-76/79 dual cab
All have the same base steel frame for the seat and all those thee different types are then manufactured by installing welded brackets for certain type. Same issue with left and right seat, they are actually same. Only difference is of course the bench seat, but it can also changed from left to right or vice versa. So you can take the old and new seats in parts and drill the spot welds of brackets and install old brackets to new seats. That's pretty easy and straightforward as you don't have to make any adapters or measure anything. Done it few times and doing that this weekend again to get better seats.
-75/79 single cab
-75/78 troopy
-76/79 dual cab
All have the same base steel frame for the seat and all those thee different types are then manufactured by installing welded brackets for certain type. Same issue with left and right seat, they are actually same. Only difference is of course the bench seat, but it can also changed from left to right or vice versa. So you can take the old and new seats in parts and drill the spot welds of brackets and install old brackets to new seats. That's pretty easy and straightforward as you don't have to make any adapters or measure anything. Done it few times and doing that this weekend again to get better seats.
- Thread starter
- #100
I'd be very interested in a detailed view of what you do this weekend; it would be great if you posted about it.
So if I understand you are talking about steel stampings spot welded to the bottom of the seat? If so, that makes some sense.
I'm pretty far down the road on these adapters but I would really like to get a much better understanding of all this.
One of the things I was looking at today was the range of movement of the sliders on each side of the seat
The non-locking side seems to have a bit more range of movement, but only towards the front. This is important because it informs whether I can offset front to back more in one direction or the other.