No idea what it is about Toyota 4x4s but, having had a spate of them in the last few years, I really love the things. If I had to do my top three about Toyota trucks, it would go something like this:
- They are tough! Reliability comes as standard.
- They are cheap – excellent value for money out there if you shop around.
- They are a delight to use. They do the job right, don’t cost fortunes to run and look OK.
I have three at the minute: my red LJ70 which is a SWB 3 door, my white 4runner 3.0TD manual and the latest arrival: a 1993 4.2 TD manual Landcruiser.
I’ve been doing some bodywork on all of mine recently. The 70 needed new sill ends and rear arches – their achilles heel – but is not good to go for another 20 years thanks to Rob Campbell at Raceresto in Worcestershire. Rob usually works on classic race cars like Bentleys and Allards, and WRC cars like the Escort Cosworth he is repairing at the minute, but he got stuck into the Cruiser for a week and did us proud. Here’s a pic pre-primer and paint:
The white 4runner has had the tailgate, OSR quarter, NRS door and arch painted and needs to go back together. Not going to get that done until next weekend, as this weekend the Golf is going – I hope. They cut it back a bit too so it looks well now:
The new one came via my buddy John Clonis at CTRacing. A friend had emigrated and wanted to sell his Landcruiser. It wasn’t all that cheap, but it’s a UK manual, the motor is smooth, there’s no rot and that’s all that matters to me. Few jobs to do including the big end bearings, service, change a few belts, get the right wheels and tyres on there and fix a few minor probs. Number one job was to lose the bull bar, then paint the bonnet and get some of the filler out of it.
It came back from paint today, this is it now (apologies for phone cam pic):
