I broke my own rule again with a 1994 petrol pickup "Iota"

[John Young]

My humble opinion is that either will bolt on, just if one is made for a 79 they will be 4” too long, in the front. Have fun there.

I was sort of hoping that with a tray bed I could just have it hang over the back end by 4 inches. I'd have to either make adapters for the mount points or actually move the mount points.

Tomorrow I'm going to go have a look and make a few measurements on the candidates. Early, before it gets too dang hot.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

I was sort of hoping that with a tray bed I could just have it hang over the back end by 4 inches. I'd have to either make adapters for the mount points or actually move the mount points.

Tomorrow I'm going to go have a look and make a few measurements on the candidates. Early, before it gets too dang hot.

Chopping 4" off the front and having everything else line up has to be much, much, easier than trying to modify everything else. Just my 2 cents.

 

[John Young]

Well, I went ahead an bought the steel tray today. It was quite an adventure and an ordeal. I went to the salvage yard and the guys swore up and down that it came off of this truck:

I'm by no means confident in my knowledge of the distinctions between the pre and post 2000 70 series, but it does seem that most of my success comes from finding donor trucks that have the little plastic bump-out turn indicators. Sometimes you just have to trust.

I did have a good look at the tray finally:

The condition is really, really good. And the thing is sturdy as hell. I paid 1200 AED plus 230 for transport (the seller kicked in 200 AED), so my cost was 1430 AED or 390 USD, delivered.

Just a word about the poor donor truck. Something really bad happened here....

 

[John Young]

When I saw the donor truck I had a sudden hunger for it's bull bar. Sadly, they would not pull that off the truck. It was beautiful. Really nice looking. It got me thinking. I had the transport truck bringing the bed. It would not cost me anything more to get some other stuff. So I told the driver to wait and went hunting for a bull bar for the pickup, or maybe the troopy. Not sure at the moment. I'm also hunting for the inside aircon boxes--I'm missing a set. I went around to the usual places and hiding behind a bunch of front clips was something that looked workable.

(Yes, those are a couple of 60 series front clips in front of the half-cut with the bull bar on it.)

Oh, and I was trying to think of all the bulky items that I could transport and remembered that I needed a new hood for the Omani diesel 80. Someone had stood on it and there were a several dents. I figured it was easier for the guys to start with a hood that had no prior issues, so I bought this for 250 AED or 70 USD.

And there she is--the hidden treasure!

The guys got to work and it took a long, long time in the incredible heat. All the while the transport guy was waiting there. The ended up having to cut the actual frame to remove the bull bar. One of the bolts was just spinning. And the guys said this was a 16mm bolt which I don't recall Toyota ever used.

I'm really partial to OEM Asin/Toyota winches but when they unearthed the thing it was obvious we were dealing with something else.

I'm definitely ignorant of all but the OEM winches but I kind of suspect this is Warn winch. It looked extremely serious. The contactors under the plastic cover were in good shape and this had the look of a real industrial winch. I did not have a chance to look at it closely. The nice thing about this is that instead of the contactor being under the hood (with somewhat complicated Toyota wiring), this winch seems to handle all the heavy power in that little plastic box. The guys ended up having to cut the positive line (very close to the contactor, at my instruction) because we could not access under the hood. Later the guys did access under the hood and get the remainder of the wiring for me.

Here is the pickup tray and the winch in the transport truck.

Gotta love that longhorn on the bull bar. Is that the way it came? I wonder....

 

[John Young]

I gave the driver the location on whatsapp and said I would meet him there. I tend to drive a little slower than your average person here in Dubai, so I expected he would have arrived before me. It was a 57 km distance that had to be traversed. I waited, and waited and waited, mostly in the sun out in front of the warehouse because I was concerned that he might drive past, even with the GPS.

it was damn hot. Luckily I had cold water and a cigar.

`
It was damn hot. I waited from 12:15 to 1 pm in the sun. It felt like a LOT longer. The weather site reports it reached 38 degrees c or about 100 degrees F. It felt hotter. When the guy did come, it was just him and me horsing this thing around, and it did not initially go well. I was holding on to the tray and when the guy asked me to let go, the tray flipped.

I will continue this story later...I'm kind of exhausted candidly.... Thanks to you all for having a look!

 

[John Young]

Somewhat recovered today, I continue. Eventually we got the bed under control and off of the truck without any damage I could see. Must have been well over 100 degrees in there. As soon as the transport driver had left I went and got gas and more importantly a bag of ice, water and diet pepsi, and went back to the warehouse and caught my breath. After that I did some rough measurements trying to confirm that the bed would work for Iota.

The new tray is 250 cm long, the old bed was 225 cm long, making the new tray 25 cm longer than stock. Not all that much. About 10 inches. The distance from the back of the cab to the center of the rear hub is about 105 cm. You probably cannot make it out in the photo but that tape measure has been pulled out to 105 cm. And the wheel arch is a bit wider than need be, so I think this really was off of a 75 series pickup. Very glad to conclude that.

The stock bed's outside dimension is 169 cm. The new tray is 186 so the tray will stick out about 8-9 cm wider than stock on each side. Again, not too bad.
It looks like it has stock tail lights.

The tie downs look very strong.

The only marking I could find on the tray was this:

I'm pretty happy with the acquisition. Cleaned up and painted I thin kit will great on the back of Iota.

I'd really be interested if any of you have any idea who made this. It would be great to be able to find some technical info on it.

 

[Indestructible 47]

UNI-LOCK is a company that makes fittings, tool boxes and other things like locks ect here in aus. Won't be the tray manufacturer. Highly unlikely to find any manufacturer marks on a tray like that.

The bulbar sticker is an R.M.Williams sticker that is very common out here is aus. You can look up their website, they make nice boots and clothing.

Crazy how many of our cruisers end up over there in one way or another. I would avoid buying any ex aussie trucks that are found there, they lead a brutal life out in rural aus.

 

[TonyP]

Nice! Looks like that donor was from Queensland? Are many of the UAE rigs shipped from Australia?

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Nice! Looks like that donor was from Queensland? Are many of the UAE rigs shipped from Australia?

I think it's mainly parts and parts vehicles that are shipped in from all over into UAE. Doubt you would see many, if any, RHD vehicles on the road there.

 

[John Young]

I think it's mainly parts and parts vehicles that are shipped in from all over into UAE. Doubt you would see many, if any, RHD vehicles on the road there.

Yes, that's right. With only a very few exceptions, which don't include old 4x4's, RHD vehicles are not registerable here.

 

[John Young]

To continue a little bit further on yesterday's adventure...

Once I had gathered steam again from the heat and some not insignificantly racing pulse from the badly handled crane, I had another cigar (a small one) and decided to take a walk around Iota to assess some priorities. My plan for this truck is to get it operating and registered as soon as possible and to actually use it to support the other on-going efforts. I really don't enjoy sticking bulky and dirty car parts in my daily driver LX470, as I did yesterday:

(That is a 'new' rear barn door for the Omani diesel 80. Went to four yards to find a decent one with a decent card. Cost 250 AED or about 70 USD.) I just noticed my sticker is out of date...

So once Iota is safe, registered and has aircon, it is the truck that will be going back and forth to Sharjah. This is really the first time I've had a close look at the truck when I wasn't rushing around doing something else.

First thing is the drivers side mirror:

The one on the right is a spare I happen to have, but it is supposed to go on the troopy. So I really need another one. Interestingly the mirror on Iota is electric but was not plugged in and there is no indication of a switch on the dash, and it does not quite match the mirror on the passenger side, so I'm pretty sure it is just a replacement that found its way to the truck at some point in the PO's possession.

But these are at least real Toyota mirrors. There are a bunch of really shabby non-Toyota mirrors on the market that are basically unusable.

The next thing is the passenger side turn indicator:

It is not in terrible shape, but the studs are pulled out of the plastic and I'd just as soon replace both sides, rather than try to fix, although in a pinch I think these could be salvaged.

 

[John Young]

One of the reasons I bought this particular truck was that it had aircon--I could see the compressor in the auction photos. Now that I look a little closer...

The truck has some kind of crazy aftermarket aircon in it.

I think I can do a little better than that in terms of insulation.

Here's the control box:

I had thought maybe it was a radio or something, but nope, it is for the aircon.

Here's the HVAC panel:

I'm not particularly troubled by the lack of a heater. Even in the US I suspect it will be going to a warm climate; aircon is a must. I'm going to be interested in seeing how good this aftermarket unit is. I've been trying to get the OEM 3 HVAC boxes for some time and they are really, really hard to find. So IOTA may stay sans-heat. Although I will continue to keep an eye out and grab the OEM boxes if I can.

 

[John Young]

With that I climbed back into the LX and went back to Sharjah, both to pick up the wiring for the winch I had bought and to do some more hunting (the aforementioned rear barn door for the Omani diesel, for example).

A very nice man who had sold me a 70 series mechanical winch had said he had moved his yard to a new location in Sharjah. I had wandered around there looking for it and thought I might have found it. I don't think I did, but there was another yard that was pretty interesting.

The outside had some interesting 80s and 70 series, but inside a kind of large warehouse were these:

That fire truck chassis was mighty interesting.

Then there were new split rims and tires:

 

[John Young]

A boat load of springs:

New jump seats:

New-ish 70 series door cards

And cool fire engine spot lights:

The young man helping me wanted 1200 AED for a pair of door cards (which I kind of need), but that price is way overblown. That's about 330 USD for some fiber board covered with vinyl. WAY too much!

Later at another yard I did find a broken mirror that I can strip for unbroken glass to fix Iota's mirror. Might do that tonight. Still feeling the effects of overdoing it yesterday.

 

[Honger]

I would avoid buying any ex aussie trucks that are found there, they lead a brutal life out in rural aus.

The honest breaker yards in Sharjah will tell you if the donor is Aussie or Japanese market... and charge you accordingly. They say the same thing as you.

 

[John Young]

I went over to the warehouse this evening and saw that the pickup truck had moved!

Checking under the hood I saw that the guys had put in a battery so I decided to just try to start it. And very pleasantly, it did start! Here's a little clip of it running. You can hear that it is not running well, but if you gas it it smooths out some. I'm just thrilled it is running at all.

I also learned that the shop foreman had taken it out for a spin and found no issues with the transmission or steering. Just the rough engine at idle in particular. So this is amazingly good news. With these auction trucks mostly you have no idea what you are getting.

 

[Honger]

I went over to the warehouse this evening and saw that the pickup truck had moved!
View attachment 2690190
Checking under the hood I saw that the guys had put in a battery so I decided to just try to start it. And very pleasantly, it did start! Here's a little clip of it running. You can hear that it is not running well, but if you gas it it smooths out some. I'm just thrilled it is running at all.

I also learned that the shop foreman had taken it out for a spin and found no issues with the transmission or steering. Just the rough engine at idle in particular. So this is amazingly good news. With these auction trucks mostly you have no idea what you are getting.

If a petrol engine was making that sound I’d say bent connecting rod... but I’m unfamiliar with rough-running diesels.

 

[John Young]

If a petrol engine was making that sound I’d say bent connecting rod... but I’m unfamiliar with rough-running diesels.

Honger, this one is a gasser. To me it just sounded like it badly needed a tune up. But it has been a long time since I fiddled with a carbureted engine with a distributor. What was it about the sound that makes you think of bent connecting rods. And how does that happen?

 

[Honger]

It reminds me of the knocking when I bent the connecting rod in my 1FZ. But... maybe it isn't knocking and it's just a gasket.
Before you do anything else and keep running it...
1. Check the coolant for oil and the oil for coolant.
2. Check your compression.

 

[JDM Journeys]

Just loving this thread. Seeing all the spares in that part of the world is fascinating, and the stories around this truck's day to day progress are fun to be part of.

Looking forward to more IOTA adventures.