New to the Island, Have some Questions! (1 Viewer)

[Niguy]

Good evening all,

Been lurking on IH8Mud for a while but better late than never to post.

I've been daily driving a '90 HZJ77 for almost 2 years mostly stock. I'm a recent graduate from U of A and up in Edmonton was lucky to have a garage to do most of my own work and one of the best shops for the cruisers in 4 wheel auto for when I had to do any major work.

But now I'm on the island and have none of the above so I have a couple questions. I have moved to the Victoria area and am looking for any shop recommendations for basic shop work (greasing, oil changes, etc.) and maybe some more demanding work (AC rebuild, Parking brake rebuild, panel rust work are high on my list). I checked out RADD cruisers and saw Marigold as a recommendation. I was wondering if anyone could share some experiences with them or if there were any where else that would be worth checking out?

Being in Edmonton I could get away with pretty minimal rust protection due to how cold and dry it was up there. I'm assuming here in Victoria rust is a bit of an issue? Luckily my frame and underside is in decent shape with minimal surface rust but I am thinking of adding a protector so I was wondering what the recommendation was for rust protection. My go to has been fluid film. I have some rust spots on my body panels that I would like to get fixed eventually, but that would be something I discuss with a shop.

Thanks for reading! Looking forward to living on the island for a bit. Oh here's a couple pics from my travels.

 

[fireball25]

Nice rig! I’m from the US, been living on the island for the past two years. I found Simoes Automotive the place to go for all my maintenance work; 2003 Landcruiser. There is a separate thread for diesel work, but didn’t see too much additional info. EBI cruisers is another shop I hear, but they are in Vancouver.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Welcome to the island. I’m a DIY’r mostly not familiar with Victoria shops. There are
more than a couple of 77’s running around. Sure we will see you out and about.

 

[seapotato]

Nice truck. I like those ones.

There's a few diesel shops around, they seem to have a tendency to get a little high on themselves, or maybe it's just the standard LC price gouge.

This thread has a few suggestions

Victoria Diesel shop recommendations

Hi everybody. I’m looking to get my leaky injection pump serviced on my HZJ73. Any reccomended diesel shops in Victoria? The shop I normally go to doesn’t have the tools to time the injection pump after getting fixed. Thanks for the help! PFA

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Welcome! Nice cruiser!

One of the mechanics at Simoes owns/owned a BJ60 and was in this club for some time. If he can wrench on a diesel 60, a diesel 70 is not much different. From what I've heard I'd trust them over most other shops on the island. Really, an old Toyota IDI mechanical injection diesel should not be a hard thing to figure out. Very similar tech to an old VW IDI diesel for example.

Regarding rust, here is my experience over the last 20 years here. They salt the highways overzealously (IMHO) through the winter months. In the Victoria core they salt also, but quite bit less. And at lower in city speed limits, it doesn't spray as much. So, if you live in Sooke, up the peninsula, or up highway 1 a bit, you will see quite a bit of salt. If you want your truck to stay as it is, I wouldn't commute it if I was you. However, if you live in Victoria, just give it regular rinse/wash through the winter; especially when you notice salt on the road, and it'll be fine.

I drove to the interior in winter a few years ago. On that one trip my truck rusted about 5 times more than it had the other 8 years I owned it here in Victoria!

 

[Niguy]

Thanks for your kind responses! I am living in Oak Bay and now commute by bike so I will only drive it a couple times a week.

As for the shop suggestions, I'll take a look through those and see what they say. Simoes seems quite promising. I know Steve at EBI cruisers pretty well. He fabricated and installed a custom 3 inch exhaust system after my stock one fell off because of a rowdy road trip. I would rather not go onto the mainland for cruiser work unless it's a major job and there are no options on the island.

I agree with the salt. Before I moved to Edmonton for school I grew up in Nelson and as you see on the body panels that's where most of the rust began to develop. In Edmonton because it is so cold and dry they only sand the roads as salt is almost ineffective at those cold temps.