latest picture: August 31, 2007
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- The deteriorating condition of our LandCruiser, model 1982, has been weighing very
heavily on us since quite a while. After numerous calculations, much debate, endless
arguing and some sleepless nights, we finally decide in Ranong in Southern Thailand that it doesn’t deserve to end its adventurous life somewhere on a scrap yard here, having been our
loyal travel buddy for nearly 22 long years through every kind of terrain in 153 different
countries of the world and didn’t let us down one single
time. We will grant it a well deserved rejuvenation before it reaches its 25th vintage
anniversary in a year’s time, thus enabling us to be on the road together for many
more years to come and extend our world record in the Guinness
Book.
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- Our LandCruiser in its original look
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- Yung Lee Auto & Painting Workshop
- in Miri/Sarawak will do the body work
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- The LandCruiser's home for
- the next couple of weeks
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- From right: Boss Lance Lau, office
- lady and translator Lynn with daughter Sherlyn, Emil and mechanic John
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- The heavy roof rack
- is lifted and taken town .....
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- ..... and the de-rusting starts immediately
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- Automatically, the question pops up: Where? Though there is no lack of Toyota dealers
and garages, mostly they don’t have the spare parts of our old car anymore on stock,
and to let them fly in from Japan can take months.
Then, our limited budget shouldn’t be overstressed too much, i.e. the price level
should be lower than in most of the Western countries. In addition, there should be a
genuine interest to do still “repairs” – we don’t want to throw away
everything by doing simpler replacements. But a certain quality of work should be
guaranteed too. And last, but not least: We don’t want to be hampered by a too big
language barrier – we would like to be able to get along in English. To juggle all
these conditions isn’t an easy task, but we think that Malaysia
is matching pretty well. It isn’t anymore a third world country where not much is
available, but it isn’t yet an industrial nation either, where unfortunately the
throw-away mentality prevails. Thanks to the many Chinese living there, not only the
readiness to work abounds, but also the necessary knowledge to do it. Unfortunately, our
type of LandCruiser is very rarely found in continental West Malaysia,
but through our friends living in Borneo in East
Malaysia, we surprisingly learn that in that region they are circulating still in big
numbers – in Sarawak as well as in Sabah.
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- The electrician takes care
- of the incredible “wire mess“
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- Shocking view: The roof .....
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- ..... and the floor
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- The engine is out: Emil inspects
- a little bit lost, what remains
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- Liliana in front of the engine, our
- trouble-maker after 381’800 miles
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- Our stripped LandCruiser
- – now a “ghost” car!
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- So just let’s go! We leave Thailand on May 18th,
2006, and in Malaysia we drive immediately to the first
port: To Butterworth near Penang. Three days later, our “friend” is already
stuffed in a container and sails to Bintulu in Sarawak,
while we take the budget airline of Air Asia to Miri,
where our friends live. The following month we invest in organizing: Dealing with work
shops; asking for quotes; checking references; finding spare part shops and a place to
stay, because “housesitting” at our friends place is only foreseen for the month
of August during their holidays (but luckily, we are offered to unload and store all the
content of our car already at our arrival); and finally to look for a reasonable rental
car until their departure end of July.
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- Not much left from its old "glory"!
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- Body welding makes steadily progress
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- Now, it is the engine’s turn
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- Valves and pistons
- don't look too bad
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- Emil is studying the pistons
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- To find new pistons for our
- European model is all but easy
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- After days of never ending intensive work, our car is finally freed from its incredible
load, and on June 21st, 2006, we drive it trustfully into ‘Yung Lee’s Auto and
Painting Workshop’ in Miri. But it
isn’t without emotions and worries when we hand it over to the Chinese owner, Mr.
Lau, with 381’800 miles on the clock. (B.t.w.: The local Toyota dealer of the big
Malaysian distributor “UMW Toyota Motor” refused to accept the considerable body
repair work!). During the following weeks and months, we put our entire confidence into
the hands of the “specialists” of this workshop. Nearly every day, we show up
and follow attentively the different tasks – stripping, welding, soldering, cutting,
beating, bending, replacing etc. Sometimes adjustments have to be applied; as a result, we
often are panic-stricken and automatically, the fearful thought crosses our mind:
“Will this whole ‘face lifting operation’ come once to a good end? Will
this dilapidated skeleton ever be a roadworthy car again? Will we “inseparable
three” ever be able to be on the road again, through more new countries of the world?
Will we make it into the 154th country of Brunei at all
– being only 20 miles away? There are moments where the mere thought of it puts us
into despair and we don’t dare to think that our entire future lies in the success of
these extensive, delicate and also relatively expensive repairs. What, if something goes
awfully wrong? What, if something becomes irreparable? So very much is depending on it
– the continuation of our whole adventure around the world!
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- Incredible that such a piston is able
- to perform during 16225½ hours
- 4 billions of movements
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- Slowly our LandCruiser
- becomes a convertible !
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- Welder Ah Nam repairing a pillar
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- Front before the repair .....
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- ..... after the repair
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- Our LandCruiser slowly looks like a
- car again - Emil gives new directions
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- But it isn’t only the body with its rust we are concerned about, but especially
also the heart of our buddy. How does it look inside? The worrying moment comes on July
5th, in the same workshop: For the first time ever, the engine is completely dismantled.
The first impression is very good: The cylinder block and the crank shaft still look
surprisingly well after 16'350 hours of running. Now, we need only to be able to find
somewhere in the world the necessary genuine spare parts. We are confident because we
don’t trust at all the “grey-market” ones, originating from China and
Indonesia. We didn’t know in the slightest back then how difficult it really will be.
Soon we have to realize: Pistons and piston rings for our European model gasoline engine
(dome form) are nowhere available anymore, because Toyota worldwide doesn’t keep them
on stock, after the production of this engine stopped after 1986.
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- Work is now done in the interior
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- Cables and wires still a mess .....
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- ..... but getting hidden again
- behind the dashboard
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- Small cosmetic closing rust holes
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- Very colorful - all the
- different primer layers
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- Now is filling time
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- Intensively, we start to search everywhere – in Malaysia
and in the neighboring countries, also in Switzerland, Germany, Gibraltar, Japan, Australia, Guyana, in the United
Arab Emirates and USA, where we still have good contacts with the local Toyota
distributors. Unfortunately, the result is always and everywhere negative. Automatically,
we start dealing with the local spare parts shops in Miri with names like Tung Fang, Tung Huat and
Namthong, but they aren’t able to help us either, although they are all very
friendly. Therefore, we are searching for them for hours on the internet, but not anymore
for the original European pistons, but for the flat ones that are used in all the other
parts of the world. However, with this compromise we will have to accept a minor loss of
power of the engine, but this doesn’t worry us too much.
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- The engine spare parts
- finally arrive on August 11th
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- Work can start:
- Grinding of the valve seats .....
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- ..... boring of the cylinders .....
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- ..... polishing the crank shaft .....
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- ...... and grinding the cylinder head
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- The roofrack is adjusted
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- Finally, we discover the parts at some dealers in the USA. But just before ordering them
by DHL, excellent news from Toyota Gibraltar reach us, letting us know, that –
according to the European Toyota central stock – they are still available in Japan, totally in contradiction to what we were told
earlier by the local Toyota dealer in Miri
only a few days ago. To cut an already long story short: Quite upset and pissed off we
show up immediately again at the Miri Toyota
and make a huge fuss about it with an elevated voice (despite that raising one’s
voice is actually taboo in Asia!). At least it helps to attract the “After
Sales” manager’s attention, who is getting involved personally and takes care
that the parts are ordered immediately at TMC in Japan.
He gives us also the assurance that they will be delivered within two weeks time. From
that very moment, we finally can sleep again without all the nightmares about pistons and
piston rings!
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- Boss Lau and Emil discuss
- the assembly of the engine
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- The overhauled cylinder
- block from both sides
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- Emil is looking for "goodies"
- in his spare part box
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- The engine is
- being put back
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- And ..... on August 17th,
- the engine runs again!!
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- The interior is fitted out too
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- And on August 11th, the promised parcel with the engine parts really arrives from Japan and work can start: Grinding of the valve seats,
boring of the cylinders, polishing of the crank shaft and grinding the cylinder head.
Then, the engine gets assembled, and on August 17th, it runs again. But unfortunately not
as properly as it should – a knocking, metallic noise isn’t to overhear. To find
out the reason isn’t easy and gives much headaches to all parties and puts our nerves
onto the edge once more, because we know that we don’t want to continue our adventure
with this new uncertainty.
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- After the preparations, the LandCruiser is getting its gray undercoat
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- In the spray booth .....
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- ..... at work .....
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- ..... slowly getting blue again
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- After days with many serious discussions and hectic moments, one morning the loud
knocking noise is nearly gone. “What did you do?” we ask curiously Mr. Lau.
“We only readjusted the valves” is his a bit shocking answer. How many worries
could they have spared us by doing this job correctly in the first place! However, we are
adverted to the fact that the camshaft will have to be replaced somewhen in the future,
which they say is still the cause of the remaining minor noise. The engine problem being
solved, the main activity is now shifted to the body work: Leveling out, priming and, of
course, spraying. It is a pleasure to follow all the daily progress, and on Saturday,
August 26th, at 2.30pm, the phone is ringing. It is Lynn from the ‘Yung Lee Auto and
Painting Shop’ telling us happily that the work on our LandCruiser is finished. A
quarter of an hour later we are there. The sense of delight to see our buddy in its newly
painted blue splendor is enormous. The two of us can hardly compete now! Supervised by Mr.
Lau, the Chinese boss, and us, his personnel achieved true wonders with the rusted body in
the past two months. Everybody was always highly motivated and attempted to provide our
car its original look again. And today, everybody is as happy as we are about the
surprisingly successful work.
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- On August 22nd, like new-born!
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- Now its time for high polishing
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- But a strange noise from the engine
- requires a serious
discussion
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- The completion of the body:
- The grills are arranged
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- Aug. 26: Ready to go - a heartful
- THANK YOU
- to Boss Lance Lau and his
- team for the beautiful job
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- Our LandCruiser in his new
- look after the "rejuvenation"
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- August 29th, 2006: There were a few "after sales" jobs to do.
- The departure from Miri in Sarawak is on August 30th, to country No. 154 - Brunei - and afterwards to Sabah
in Northern Borneo
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- Besides the rear universal joint of the
- drive shaft, various other small repairs
- are to be done, which showed off while
- driving around in Northern Borneo
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- Difficult decision: We leave hesitantly behind
- our car’s heating device, as the connection
- between the two parts is missing – what
- will happen once it should get cold again?
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- After having finished also all the “after
- sales”-repairs, Mr. Lau invites us
- generously together with his mechanics
- and his friend to a nice lunch
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- Appendix (9/17/2007):
11 months and almost 12’000 miles later we come back to Sarawak from Indonesia.
Because in the meantime, the gearbox and the transfer started to “sing”
considerably, we decide to do an overhaul of the transmission at the same workshop. During
three weeks, some gearwheels, bearings and other parts are replaced for a total of nearly
US$ 800, which we were able to find in the local parts shops, however to some extent very
arduously. We have been never sure whether we received always genuine parts, or sometimes
just fakes at genuine prices.
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- The transfer is already disassembled
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- The gearbox is dismantled
- and is getting checked
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- After the worn out gears and other parts
- have been replaced, assembling can start
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- September 28th, 2007: The trip goes on towards the 157th country.
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- Today (11/30/2008): –
End of November 2008 in Vanuatu: 2¼ years and almost
25'000 miles later – we are able to say the following: The effort and investment of
about US$ 5'600 for the engine and the body work was well worth it. The engine runs
smoothly and fine, the oil consumption is about 1 quart in 2'000 miles, the compression
measures about 130 psi (9 Bar); new rust keeps within a limit. The welded parts
didn’t crack until now, probably because we didn’t face any extreme driving
conditions (torsion/twisting). The transmission’s overhaul hasn’t been done
(anymore) with the same quality, as just recently the first gear dropped out while
descending very steeply – already after only 11'000 miles.
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