Changing of the Guard - A New Beginning

Before After



Well, we finally have a new vehicle. We found our 2004 Hilux dual-cab at Pickles (an auction house) on Christmas Eve, and put in an offer of $14000 on it. The engineering company that owned it accepted our offer pretty much on the spot (they'd originally wanted around $17500 but it had been there for over 3 weeks and hadn't attracted any interest at that price, so they were happy to sell it), however we had to wait until the following Monday for it to get a roadworthy, before we could get it registered and take it home.

The top picture is how it looked when we purchased it - oxidised paint, steel tray, plain steel wheel rims, covered in red dirt and dust...oh yeah, and complete with orange rotating light !
The engineering company did a lot of work for mining companies, so we discovered it had a few other features designed to comply with mining workplace health and safety regulations - internal roll bar (we're keeping this), headlights wired up so that they are on whenever the engine is running (day or night) for extra visibility, and an extra loud reverse beeper - no, not the sort old fogies buy from Supercheap to put on their cars, I'm talking about the sort you find on large trucks, heavy vehicles... or in fact, on mine trucks!

Less than two weeks later, and it looks like a totally different vehicle (second picture).

Steve's first mission was to give it a polish. The paint has improved, but as it is quite oxidised, this is still a work in progress. Then he fixed up the headlight wiring so that they can actually be turned off during the day. This also included plugging the dashboard lights back in and replacing dash bulbs (clearly unplugged so that they weren't on during the day annoying the driver) - discovered this little "feature" the first night we drove it and couldn't read the speedo in the dark! Then, of course, the reverse beeper was disconnected - no more waking the neighbourhood backing out of our garage late at night...

Next began the serious search for wheels and tray. Steve is a tad obsessed with the aesthetics of his vehicles, to put it lightly, lol. They simply are not allowed to look ugly. I must admit though, the alloy tray is not just for looks. It has a practical side, being that it will not rust from frequent beachwork, unlike its steel counterpart. Ditto for alloy wheel rims, versus the original plain steel ones. Luckily he found both a suitable alloy tray and a near new set of sidesteps at a wreckers and they gave him a discount because he was buying both items. A bit of hard yakka, a whole lot of adjusting and a fair bit of swearing later, and the new tray (previously from a Holden Rodeo) and sidesteps were fitted to his satisfaction. The old steel tray was advertised in the Trading Post and a bloke drove all the way from Biloeila to buy it!

The wheels are a bit of a saga. We were checking out prices for rims and tyres at Fourby's and they had a secondhand set of alloy rims that would suit the Hilux. We said we'd take them and ordered a set of new tyres to go on them. When we arrived to have them fitted, the tyres hadn't been delivered yet. While waiting to hear back about our ordered tyres, we bought a secondhand set of the tyres we preferred (but didn't order because they are too expensive these days) from a friend. We had these put on the rims and fitted to our Hilux. They look great, but scrape the mudflaps a little on full lock, so of course, he's not 100% happy, and is still looking until he finds a better set of rims.

He's just installed a new stereo mp3/CD player with new speakers, and a UHF radio. The window tint will need to be redone as well. It still needs a bit of a cleanup, but we're going to get a detailer to do the seats and have another go at the paintwork. Next on the list is rust-proofing and then a canopy for the tray, but that can wait until the next serious fishing trip in July.

It's not the turbo we were looking around for, but it isn't the "standard" diesel either. It is an EFI diesel, which apparently has power/performance somewhere in between the standard and the turbo. As long as it can handle towing the boat, fully loaded up with camping gear, that's all that matters.

Who cares! It's still the newest car we've ever owned (at just 4 years old), it has low klms (only 85000) and we got it for an absolute bargain price.

You've gotta be happy with that!

(Sorry for the "marathon" post, people!)