Swiss Poverty Pack Barn Door HDJ80 (2 Viewers)

[gilmorneau]

I've been lurking here in the 80-series forum occasionally, but up until recently I mostly spent my time in the 70-series forum. Anyway, I've got an 80-series now, and thought I'd introduce it and myself here.

I’ve been working on getting a car like this for quite a while, and now that I finally have one, I figured I’d start a thread to document the acquisition process and my upcoming build. (warning: long, multi-part post. Some people might find it an entertaining read, others might think it’s just a bunch of bloviating. If you just want to see photos of my new HDJ80 and some other cool Landcruisers, scroll through the wordy bits.)

This is my new HDJ80:

Some of you may have seen it listed for sale in Switzerland about a year or so ago.

 

[gilmorneau]

The Story:

The 80 series is IMO probably the zenith of Landcruisers, but I could never get on board with the plush versions that were sold in the US. I get it that Toyota were pandering to the US market for luxury SUV’s, but by now all those vehicles are 25+ years old. The leather has usually aged terribly. The power accessories tend to break. The fuel consumption is atrocious. I’ve never liked older automatic transmissions, I think the two-tone paint schemes look pretty dated, and to my eye, the fender flares spoil an otherwise elegant design.

For the last several years, I was driving a 75 series Troop Carrier that was fantastic. Basic white exterior with a gray vinyl interior, diesel motor, manual transmission, roll up windows-- I loved the plainness of the thing. Here it is:

Drove it 30,000 miles while I owned it--coast to coast, deserts and mountains—and had zero problems. Eventually though, the rudimentary leaf spring suspension and primitive naturally aspirated diesel got the better of me. I grew tired of the rough ride and slow-lane hill climbs. It was so clean and original that I didn’t want to mess it up by modifying it too much. It was cool, but I want a car to take me places, not just a garage dweller or collector piece. So I sold it. While I was sad to see it go, the money I got for it took some of the sting away.

 

[gilmorneau]

I thought if I could get an 80 series that was as plain and simple as my Troopy, but with more sophisticated suspension and engine, it might be the ideal Landcruiser for me. I knew about the “poverty pack” versions that were commonly sold overseas, like this one in Australia:

This one has the 1HZ diesel, 5-speed, vinyl floors and seats. This type of "poverty pack" was certainly appealing, but the 1HZ, while a good motor, is a bit underpowered for such a heavy vehicle. I wanted a car that would cruise along with traffic, not one that would be in the slow lane for every mountain pass. If I lived somewhere flat, a 1HZ “poverty pack” 80-series would probably be good. But I live in Colorado. I needed a turbo.

 

[gilmorneau]

With a little research, I discovered that Toyota did build an 80-series with the options I wanted. My wish list looked like this:

Left Hand drive (RHD is a complete non-starter for me for a car here in the US)
1HD-FT turbo diesel (I could live with a 1HD-T)
5-speed manual transmission
Vinyl floors
Vinyl seats (I could live with cloth instead, but the one I found has vinyl)
Crank windows
Manual door locks
Swing out back doors (had 'em on my Troopy and loved them)
Factory differential locks (nice, but not necessary)
No sunroof
No fender flares
and it has to have a/c (for WAF)

The only market I have easy access to where such cars were sold is Europe, specifically Belgium and Switzerland. I believe you could get similarly optioned ones in parts of Asia, and maybe Russia. I’ve never seen them anywhere else. If I count on one hand the cars like this I’ve seen offered for sale in the last several years, I’d have fingers left over. But, of course, I had to have one.

 

[gilmorneau]

The One That Got Away:

In March 2019 I was surfing some European websites, and found a 1996 Poverty Pack barn door HDJ80 in Belgium. Original paint, only 100k miles from new, relatively unmodified, no rust, well maintained. Decent price. I Inquired. I Pondered. I finally decided to buy it and store it in Belgium until it was old enough to import, but it was already sold by the time I got back in contact with the seller. Bummer. He who hesitates is lost. Snooze, you lose, and all that.

Here’s a couple photos from the original ad:

Fast forward to a few months later and I’m at Overland Expo 2019 in Flagstaff talking to some German guys at the Maltec booth when the topic of 80 series Landcruisers comes up. I mentioned the one that got away, and one of the Germans says: “I think I know that car. That guy over there bought it”. So I walk over and start talking to the other German. Sure enough, he’s the one who bought the car out from under me before I could close the deal. Small world. I spend the next 2 years trying to get him to sell it to me. No luck. He still has it. I did get a friend in Germany out of the deal, though. Here’s a photo of him putting “my” car to good use in Italy:

 

[gilmorneau]

The Search Continues:

So I’m back to searching European “for sale” ads. Months pass with no luck, but eventually I find another one. It had originally been a Belgian car, now residing in France. Inquiries were made, and arrangements to view it. Didn’t look too bad: 1996 with reasonably low km’s, good color (Moonglow Pearl), swing out rear doors, 1HD-FT, 5-speed, plain vinyl interior. Here are a few photos from when we went to look at it:

When we saw it in person, it became obvious that the car had been sitting for a while and had seen some rough winter conditions during its life. If the seller had been willing to negotiate on the price, I might have considered it, but he was a very stubborn Frenchman. He wouldn’t budge on his too high price, so I passed on it. Here’s what we saw underneath the car:

Needed too much work for the price. I’m old. I’m sick to death of dealing with rusty, seized fasteners. Didn’t want one with fender flares anyway.

 

[gilmorneau]

Finally, I find another Landcruiser equipped like I want, this time in Switzerland. It was being used by an exotic car dealer as a tow vehicle to shuttle around their Ferraris and Lamborghinis. It has just 95k miles from new, (mostly) original paint, no rust to speak of, it’s well maintained, and is completely original and unmodified except for the towing equipment. This one even has air conditioning, which for some reason, none of the others I’ve seen has. Bonus. Here’s a couple of photos the seller provided:

And what we saw when we went to go look at it:

 

[gilmorneau]

The car is a 1997 model, so it wasn’t eligible for import to the US until mid-2022. If I had found the car anywhere in the EU, I’d have just bought it and stored it in Belgium until it was old enough to bring to the US, but because this car was Swiss (Switzerland isn’t part of the EU), I couldn’t do that. As it turns out, a car from Switzerland can transit across Europe, but it needs to be immediately loaded onto a ship and exported to somewhere. It supposedly can’t stay in Europe un-imported and unregistered. It wasn’t old enough to legally come to the US, so…Canada to the rescue! While the US requires imported cars be over 25, Canada only requires them to be over 15.

Thus was hatched the plan to buy the car, have it shipped to Canada, and store it until it was legal to import it to the USA. So on October 15, 2021 I had the car picked up in Switzerland for delivery to the shipping port in Zeebrugge, Belgium. Here’s a couple of photos of it waiting to board the ship bound for Canada:

 

[gilmorneau]

The ship sailed on November 15. Fun fact: You can track a ship’s progress online for free. Here’s a screen shot of the ship (MV Grand Orion) at the port in Zeebrugge:

And another as it passed through the Panama Canal:

And, finally, arriving to Canada December 27th:

 

[gilmorneau]

On December 28th, my car (along with Canada’s allotment of Sprinter vans) is unloaded at the port in Nanaimo BC. Amazingly, I have documentation of the moment it drives off the ship (thanks, Ryan):

And parked at the port:

 

[gilmorneau]

On January 5, 2022, my wife and I flew to Seattle, rented a car, and drove to BC Canada on a mission to retrieve my new Landcruiser from the port and put it into storage. Lots of red tape to cross the border with COVID and all, but if you follow the guidelines and provide all the necessary information and documents, it can be done. We arrived at the border at around 9pm, in the snow, and were the only people crossing. The border guard seemed pretty bored. He checked our papers and wished us a good visit. That was it. To give you an idea of the weather:

 

[gilmorneau]

Next morning, we took the ferry over to Nanaimo. First stop was an Autoplan broker (BC auto registration and insurance office) to get an A-B permit (temporary operating permit) and 2 days’ worth of insurance so I can legally drive the car from the port to storage. Of course, the person with whom I had arranged everything had the day off, so I had to start over with someone else, but after a few calls to headquarters and some counsel from a supervisor, she got me my permit. Next stop was the port of Nanaimo, which is the most chill port I’ve ever dealt with. Super nice folks. Super smooth process.

Here’s the car when we picked it up:

 

[gilmorneau]

By this time it was mid-afternoon, and we still had a long drive to get to the storage place, so off we went. Arrived after dark, in the snow, but found our storage unit and put the car to bed. Disconnected the batteries and did a few other things, then closed and locked the door.

 

[gilmorneau]

6 months later….

The manufacture date for this Landcruiser is July 1997, and I had originally thought I’d need to wait until at least August 1, 2022 to go get it and legally import it into the US. In talking to my Customs Broker about another car, I discovered that it could be imported any time after July 1, which is great—I get my Landcruiser a month sooner than expected and I save a month’s storage fee.

So on June 30, 2022, I took a flight to Vancouver, BC with intentions of retrieving my new Landcruiser from storage. Because the Port of Nanaimo is on Vancouver Island (not mainland Canada), I had elected to put the car in storage nearby. This meant that in order to go get it, I needed to get back over to the island. Easiest and most direct method I found was by seaplane, so that’s what I did. Here's my ride:

De Havilland Otter. Good plane.

When the seaplane dropped me off at the marina, I called a taxi to take me to the storage unit. CDN$20 and about 10 minutes later, I’m there. The taxi driver asked if I wanted him to wait until I knew that the car would start after having been in storage for 6 months, but in a burst of confidence, I told him there was no need.

This is the car after 6 months.

Only difference is that there's no snow on the ground, and a small tree had started growing in front of the storage unit.

When I reconnected the batteries, I noticed that the dome light came on—a positive sign, but hardly conclusive. Did a quick pre-flight check of some things, then turned the key. Started instantly. No cranking at all, it was just going. Amazing. Backed it out of the space and was impressed to discover that not a single drop of anything had leaked out or dripped on the floor of the storage unit during its hibernation.

After a long day of planes, trains, and automobiles, I found a hotel for the night.

 

[gilmorneau]

The big mission for the next day was to get it across the border, but first I needed to get back to mainland Canada. I had pre-booked a late-day passage on BC Ferries from Nanaimo to Vancouver (Duke Point to Tsawwassen), thinking that if I needed to do any work on the car before heading out I’d give myself some time. Since the Landcruiser needed nothing, I arrived early to the ferry terminal and was able to get an earlier sailing.

Absolutely beautiful day, BTW. The Pacific Northwest is soooo nice when the weather's good.

 

[gilmorneau]

Before leaving home, I had prepared my import documentation: DOT HS-7, EPA 3520, Bill of Sale, Vehicle Title, and a slew of other stuff that I thought Customs might need to see. On the advice of a Canadian, I elected to use the border crossing on the truck route just east of the Peace Arch crossing at Blaine, WA. No idea if it made any difference, but it went smoothly and I was legally in the US with my Landcruiser within an hour of arriving at the border (could have been quicker, but there was a very small wrinkle that needed to be ironed out). Sorry, no photos of Customs--it didn't seem like a good idea at the time.

From there, it was just a matter of covering the miles across Washington, through the panhandle of Idaho, across Montana and Wyoming, and home to Colorado. Through it all, the Landcruiser performed flawlessly. Not a single hiccup or issue of any kind. I never encountered a grade it wouldn’t pull easily in 5th gear at 70+ mph, and I got an average of about 25mpg on the trip. Pretty pleased, I must say.

 

[gilmorneau]

Now that I have it home, the plan is to clean it up, remove the horrible European trailer hitch, and baseline it. After that, the build will commence.

I hope to be able to keep it simple—I don’t want a bunch of stuff stuck to the outside spoiling the “poverty pack” look. Bumpers will stay original. Tires will be skinny and tall. I plan to add some essentials (in no particular order) like a compressor, extra fuel filtration, suspension upgrades, extra fuel capacity, recovery points, two way radio, updated lighting, refrigerator. I’m undecided about a roof rack, but I’ll probably need something because I’m sure I’ll want an awning at some point. We’ll see where it ends up.

To be continued....

 

[sedonut]

Love the story. Thank you .

It goes to show you can do almost anything with persistence. Lets see, France, Switzerland, Canada, Colorado, Canada, Colorado. Just the air travel costs and time involved are impressive.

 

[Desert Dino]

Now that I have it home, the plan is to clean it up, remove the horrible European trailer hitch, and baseline it. After that, the build will commence.

I hope to be able to keep it simple—I don’t want a bunch of stuff stuck to the outside spoiling the “poverty pack” look. Bumpers will stay original. Tires will be skinny and tall. I plan to add some essentials (in no particular order) like a compressor, extra fuel filtration, suspension upgrades, extra fuel capacity, recovery points, two way radio, updated lighting, refrigerator. I’m undecided about a roof rack, but I’ll probably need something because I’m sure I’ll want an awning at some point. We’ll see where it ends up.

To be continued....

Hi lovely story, @gilmorneau can you say what tell us what was the original coat to the Swiss Ferrari dealer and all the other costs?

Unfortunately we can not Import diesel cars to Israel and it needs to be 30 years old.

 

[DivByZero]

Great story, looking forward to see where this goes. I've got a HZJ80 with the barn doors here in Aus. Good choice with the 1HD-FT, that's a great engine. Hoping to see some engine bay picks soon!