The last pickup: a 2001 diesel HZJ79L

[John Young]

My time in Dubai is coming to an end over the next year or two. The last Land Cruiser on my bucket list was a big-cab 70 series diesel. Something promising came up on Emirates Auction which seemed to fit the bill. The uncertainty was that the photos really did not confirm anything about the status of the driveline. A lot of the surplus government pickups are picked over hulks. All I had to go on was the VIN and this photo:

There were several diesel pickups of varying years that came up over the holidays that had major pieces missing; things like front timing belt covers, radiators and diesel pumps. They all seemed to have been used for salvage to keep other trucks running. This one still looked like a gamble but it was of an age that it can be brought home to the US at the end of 2026 and I decided to take a chance and I bid on it and ended up being the high bidder in early January.

I got back to Dubai a couple of days ago and Emirates Auction came through with the paperwork. Despite being down with a bad case of the stomach flu I was very anxious to see what I had bought. I got in the troopy (now with turbo 1HZ diesel power!), which is my only operable vehicle at present, and drove to the municipal lot in Ajman:

And the engine was all there!

She is a little rough around the edges...

But unusually, the bed is in pretty good shape:

 

[John Young]

Sadly the troopy (now with turbo diesel power) overheated on the way home, which is another story.

I'm wondering if the shroud and radiator on the Troopy are the cause. They are legacy from the 1FZ-F that used to be in it. I think I will try swapping in the radiator and shroud from this beast and see if that fixes the troopy.

 

[John Young]

This morning I dropped by the shop to have a better look than out in the sun.

I have a flatbed 70 series, Iota, that I poured a lot of personal effort into but that really deserves more care on the welding/rust repair in the footwells. It is solid just not what I would like, and honestly, I don't have the heart to pour more effort into that truck. BUT, unlike most all 75 series pickups in the Middle East, this one has both heat and aircon (because I found boxes and added in the heater bits). I want a heater in all my vehicles, even in Florida. And I REALLY like the solid, old-school flatbed on it.

The new 79 has only aircon and aftermarket at that. I've seen this a lot with 75s from this timeframe. Not sure if the aftermarket was better or if industrial buyers just did it for cost savings. My cunning plan is this:

Step 1: pull the dashes on the 75 and 79.
Step 2: swap the HVAC systems between the trucks;
Step 3: ship the flatbed pickup to the US:
Step 4: swap the bed of the diesel pickup in Florida for the flatbed coming in on Iota from Dubai.
Step 5: sell the previously flatbed pickup to some nice person allowing them to carry on with it as a nice FZJ75/1FZ-F truck that is pretty solid

Steps 1 and 2 are underway:

79 series

75 series

I've asked my usual paint and body shop to evaluate whether they can save the existing paint on the 79 doing touch up and paint where necessary but saving the old muni livery. I think it would be very cool to drive around Daytona Beach in a Ajman Municipality truck. My son and I already get questions every time I drive the diesel 75.

 

[gilmorneau]

I think it would be very cool to drive around Daytona Beach in a Ajman Municipality truck

Definitely!

 

[John Young]

Definitely!

Just corrected the video of my first time spotting her.

And because I may not publish elsewhere today I went out on the sand and immediately got stuck in the troopy.

Buddies to the rescue!

Then I overheated on the way to the cookout

All's well that ends well.

 

[prwillard2]

Glad you are able to rescue another one John!

 

[Greek Cruiserhead]

"I think it would be very cool to drive around Daytona Beach in a Ajman Municipality truck".

I would do the same John!
IMHO Arab liveries/scripts/logos/stickers are kind of cult on Cruisers...

PS. A MENA Expat too, couple of years ago.

 

[John Young]

Big long day in the troopy. Hot too, with no AC and intermittent full heater going to cool engine. But no rest for the ....

My goal was to get to a salvage yard that sells dismantled new parts off of 70 series trucks destined for light armor. As usual it was difficult to stop buying things. But I more or less stuck to critical items.

I am told these are locally manufactured. Not too terribly heavy and they are wider than the 6 inch OEM steelies I typically see. Waiting for pricing on them.

Got a new rear mat for the troopy:

In that box is a new rear bumper. I also got a battery tray that turned not to be correct, but that happens.

Then I drove back down to Jebel Ali to deliver the items.

That is a new rear window.

 

[John Young]

The existing window is actually not in bad shape, but the gasket is a bit aged. And the complete window is not expensive from the salvage yards.

We suspect this was used for labor shift timing, but we are just guessing.

The firewall is pretty much stripped down now.

 

[John Young]

So it has been 5 months since I last updated this thread.

A lot has happened, but I am going to skip all that and just give some pretty pictures of where we are today.

In summary-

• Body and paint are done
• Frame is done
• Front and rear diffs are done
• Engine bay wiring harness has been refurbished
• Many new parts have been bought
• The steering column is getting close to being done

For the past couple of months the truck cab and bed have been a the body and paint shop. Both are now complete as mentioned above.

This photo is from last week. They put the bed on another 79 series to make it easier to work on.

I spent the last couple of days hunting up body mount parts that we were having trouble getting new from Toyota. Done now.



One thing I did last night was paint the exposed metal of the body mount bushes.

I dislike rusty body mounts.

This morning I also labeled the front bushes in particular to try to make sure they put them on correctly.

And we tied them off with zip ties so they won't get lost.

 

[John Young]

And today was a red-letter day. We got ALL the body mount hardware complete and sent the chassis to the body and paint shop.

 

[John Young]

Later in the day after driving to a place I do not like to drive to to get bearings for the steering column, I dropped by the body shop.

 

[John Young]

One thing we have not replaced are the little pads under the bed. I do have new fiber washers but not these things.

They seem to be ok. I am not going to worry about it.

Here is the cleaned up engine bay harness set:

I've got to get one of these whatever it is:

The body shop says they will have everything aligned and the paint polished by Monday afternoon and will deliver the truck back to us.

 

[gilmorneau]

Looking great!
Are you planning to reproduce/replace the cool Ajman Municipality stickers?

 

[John Young]

Looking great!
Are you planning to reproduce/replace the cool Ajman Municipality stickers?

I am @gilmorneau but I will not put them while the truck is in the UAE. I think that might be pushing it a little too far.

Turning to the engine, thats pretty close too.

Pay no attention to the paint inside the oil cooler water jacket.

The old camshaft was toast.

So this 600k km 1HZ got:

• complete machine shop machining
• polishing the crankshaft
• new pistons with new rods
• new valves
• new waterpump, oil pump, etc.

I am choosing to redo this engine as a completely stock 1HZ. So the pistons, etc., came from Toyota. The water pump is from Terrain Tamer because it has a metal impeller and the Toyota version has plastic internals. Probably fine, but while we are at it.

 

[John Young]

Regarding the transmission...

It came with a medium duty R151. This is just fine with the 1HZ--or at least I don't hear people complaining about it. With this relatively light vehicle that ran over 600k km on that transmission I kind of am going to go with "it's fine".

My current daily is a 105 with an R151 with TT 5th gear. Really comfortable on the highway with the engine going at only 2200-2300 at freeway speed in 5th. The issue with the 105 is that it now has a 1HD-T and this is too much for the R151. I pushed the truck a little out in the sand and blew up 1st gear. It got fixed and I'm not quite sure if I am driving on it now, but what I do know is that the R151 in Mister Blue the 105 is not a happy camper. It will pop out of 5th into neutral under certain circumstances and it will not downshift from 4th to 3rd. And the only way to start in 1st without grinding a little is to put it into 2nd and then downshift into 1st. In other words it is kind an annoying handful. But it is what I have to drive here in Dubai at the moment.

I had been using a75 series troopy with a turbo'd 1HZ and an H151 transmission and it is a joy to shift. It is just not a joy to drive a troopy as a daily. It has the turning radius of a lumber truck and I keep hitting things with the roof rack.

I mention all this by way of explaining that I have an H series transmission coming from Hassard Engineering in AUS for Mister Blue. This means that at least the 5th gear and countershaft can go into the pickup's R151 transmission.

I absolutely have to have the taller 5th. Can't stand winding up a diesel.