Our 'classic' 1987 4wd Lwb 2.4 diesel hiace workhorse...

Edit: I have re-linked some of the missing photos where I can but some others are lost to the company that was tinypic. Oh well. You'll have to just picture what I'm explaining in some sections

Read on...

This is our workhorse since January 2010 and what a beaut it has been. It has carried so much stuff for our housetruck build, been shelter while out camping with mountain bikes, taken us on long trips about south Island and not missed a single beat. But it has always used alot of oil- like one pint per 200 miles and its getting worse.

The day we bought it...



Inside



In use camping..







Built a little wood burner for winter trips. Works a treat. Whiskey is optional...




Its definitely an earlier robust agricultural Toyota and I love it. Ok its not quite as agricultural as my old landrover but for a 'modern' vehicle its quite basic.

We were going to get a newer van 2 weeks ago and actually won one on trademe but the fella failed to mention a severe rear main seal leak which he had tried to hide with silicone on bellhousing plus a small matter of the 4wd system not engaging. I fixed the 4wd on the spot- its silly vacuum operated 4wd engaging system had a hose missing. Not sure why Toyota had to change and add complexity? What was wrong with the lever like ours ? it just has to travel 3 inches further.

Anyway, all this left us not that keen on buying another and instead sticking with what we know. So we decided to keep old faithful and spent some decent money on new shoes for it to celebrate.

Now some of you may well say "its just a toyota van- why bother with a thread?" And I agree- up till today when I realised how cool I think this van actually is. Its a rare thing now to find an older 4wd hiace- most are all the next series ' the 100 series- from '89 on. In fact I have yet to see another old 60 series like ours on the road. I have seen two for sale on trade me. We only got ours by chance when a backpacker from the Czech republic was leaving and advertised it locally. we were smitten with its looks, long wheelbase, simple mechanics and clean condition bodywise but not ots performance nor noisy cv joint or the oil burning tendency. But we knocked him down to a nice price and it began its long suffering service for us.

For the next WOF test I cut out the only bad rust along the bottom of the rear side windows and welded in fresh steel. and that was it. Its simple, very very cheap to run and but for the noisy cv joint (split cv boot has let it go dry) it is a very capable 4wd. Unlike the later full time 4wd hiaces this one has high and low range transfer box and manual front hubs which we can lock by reaching down from open door not even getting muddy.

The oil burning feature has been a pain though and we thought about fitting a new engine but couldnt swallow the price. Then hannah spotted a van just like ours for sale in local paper by a friend of mums. It had a full big money engine recondition about 9 years ago and has only done 29,000 k's since. Body was rough and it is a short wheelbase but we went to test drive it and two days later its on the drive for a bargain price! sweet. It shall be called van number 2.

So the last day and a bit has been spent removing the engine from it and cleaning it up. Tonight we finished up by almost getting the engine out of van number 1.

Its has been a drama to say the least. This is the first time I have ever removed a engine from a forward control van and toyota have not made it easy. The engine is bloody heavy, gearbox pretty bloody big and there is a design fault I have had to modify.....


We had been advised by a 'real' (does it for a living) mechanic friend that they will come out through the door but they usually just drop the lot on the floor and hoist van up- nice if you have a 4 post lift or bloody big trolley jack. We borrowed a nice engine hoist from another friend but soon found out that the hoist did not have a long enough boom to reach the centre of engine. Even if it did the crossmember between the seats was in the way.


I ummmed and errrd about what to do. We lowered engine as much as possible and I managed to wiggle box off- boy its heavy compared to the more usual mazd rx, vauxhall or Triumph boxes I have dealt with in the past.


After a nice strong afternoon coffee I came up with a solution...

so simple- why didn't Toymoter think of this?... probably because they expect most people get a garage to do stuff lkike this. But not in deepest Africa, Iran. Bolivia...or Blenheim

-Pics missing-

I will either weld the member back in or even better make it so it bolts in place for future work (hopefully never!...)

And out the engine comes- easy peasy.

-pics missing-

Tomorrow we lift the other old tired engine out and then begin big cleanup of all the caked on oil and dirt in engine bay. Nice. I hope its sunny again. The hardest bit I think will be tring to line up box to engine under van and wiggling both together. Not looking forwards to that bit. But once that is done we will be on the home straight. We also plan to raid van 2 of anything we can store that may be needed (like the working heater matrix) for the future and then get shell taken away by a bloke with a truck and hiab.

So did you just turn the speakers up and blow the bits off?

Don't think I have ever seen one in the UK

Yeah- the speakers certainly blew some cobwebs out. unfortunately they wouldn't blow away all the built up oil and dirt.

Whilst living in blighty I never saw many older hiaces let alone 4wd ones either.

Like the pot belly and the bottle of internal warmer Pretty country mate.

cheers- yep a nice bit of whiskey never goes wrong camping in winter!

New (old) update before I post some updates on latest activity.

2011 - The old van has been running sooooo well. Now with a heater its fantastic and cosy on long trips. We thought it deserved a treat so while I fettled with the Viva today Hannah sanded the Hiace back. She had stripped it all down yesterday. Time for a fresh colour ;D....





Its a rough as paint job just using enamel. The original paint is all cracked everywhere so the new coat is more a about protection. My first coats were a touch heavy and unfortunately lots of runs in places.

Brilliant!

All about it!!
Tough as.
Rad as..
Perfect .

- 11 years later -

Wow

Vinny the Hiace van is still going strong and used often. We'd be stuffed without this van as it does everything the cars do and soooo much more. Its taken us on many many camping trips, winter ones kept warm with that fireplace. Hauled all manner of trailers and loads. Shifted loads of timber for all the various builds that have taken place here- I'm amazed how well the cheap old roof rack has lasted.

More recently it was visited by a friends lovely 60 series camper with poptop roof...



But it was getting a bit frilly around the edges and that green paint was showing its age. A mini rolling restoration was on the cards. Then another van came along.  We bought a 100 series 2.8 high lwb 4wd - cheap because it had stuffed front pulley and broken bolt in the crank. Lovely van with a really great condition body and it had only just had its injector pump reconditioned.

Lined some vans up (my mates similar 100 series that was in for work)



Put the new van on the hoist..



Broken crank pulley bolt..



Machined up a quick jig so I could drill it out straight and not stuff any threads.  Win...



I machined out the stuffed pulley and machined a stepped shim to suit the flogged crank nose. It all bolted together with a brand new bolt from Toyota and worked fine. Much relief !! 

I also machined up some bushes for the drivers door which had comical levels of drop. I guess 600,000 kms will do that.



The van was then cleaned it up, painted a few patches and it came up pretty sweet...





We used it for a while. The 2.8 was a gem- it ran so smooth and has a good deal more ompfff than vinnys old 2.4.  Hmmmm- which van should we keep. This new one was quite refined and much quieter. Almost felt modern!

But we love our rattly old vinny, its classic looks, the fact its now a pretty rare van being an early high/low range 4wd model. Plus it's alot more nimble and handy offroad then the later one. Due to that extra long wheel base the new one cant even do a U turn on our road.

So we started stripping down Vinny in preparation for a light restoration - the main priority being the rust removal.

In pics. Rust be found,cut out and replaced with nice new steel..







funky old sticker..





We popped the new van (Vicky - since you ask) up for sale on trademe for $7500 and got a heap of interest. The mileage put most off but the exceptional bodywork was a drawcard. Its sold promptly and we were now stuck with no van - vinny still getting worked on.

Big holes appeared and disappeared..





Hannah had fun remove several layers of paint and some impressive levels of filler hiding a few dents..



more rust cut out...



Painting the bare steel in Durapox 2 pack primer as we went...



We also had this old 60series darling come in for some serious rust work and it gave us an idea for a paint colour...



Vinny moved outside for filling and sanding...







Before top coats went on Hannah removed the headlining and foam by using her head...





Then masking and top coats - no expense spared- we used the finest oil based enamel from Mitre10



First off a darkish grey, called Gothic Romance, chosen for its ability, we hope, to not show up too much of the dusty roads we have about here.



Then it was orange. 'Pumpkin head' to be precise. Chosen because it matches a bicycle I had built last year which I really like plus after seeing the other van. Felt like a time for change from green. This is definitely a change...





With bike..



We had scored this rare badge off a similar aged 50 series hiace from the wreckers ages ago and had been waiting until after the inevitable restoration to be able to treat ourselves and 'affix that badge'

Its the little things in life.



Looks perfect..



But its needed a partner and I had a badge in mind - found on 80's landcruisers of the same era with the same font as our hiace badges. I jumped on Aliexpress and this treat arrived in the mail in a record 7 days later!





That's about it for the outside. I'll get some more pics of it now its built up.

We will be breaking up the mass of orange on the tailgate with some grey and adding a white pin strip along the side but no urgency. Its back into service, fresh wof pass from a very impressed wof tester. The interior is next. We've already been to spotlight looking at various cloths and materials for the headlining. 

Mechanically we are after a 3L (2.8L) or 5L (3.0) engine to replace our 2l (2.4)* so we'll keep a look out. But in the meantime this old van will just keep trundling along...






*Toyota really failed when it came to naming this series of engines with any sense of logic.

Thanks for making the post. Really great to see this.

Various events have got in my way for progressing with my van in recent times. I also need to do a bit of vehicle shuffling during the winter (been very wet so far) so am working on a mechanism to move my van about without wheels (or front hubs / suspension). Will update my section, but I'm still specifying steel for fettling. A big 'thing' should be arriving tomorrow and associated parts arrived last week, which the steel will join to. Not trying to be deliberately obscure but a sense of drama never hurts!