Steve's Hilux

[Steven]

Well as previously announced I am selling my Aurion and have just bought a 2005 Toyota Hilux 4x4 Turbo Diesel. The change was pretty essential due to taking up work in the construction industry full time and unfortunately an Aurion just isn't suited for carrying tools and materials.

I picked up the Hilux, seemingly in pretty decent mechanical condition but definitely needing a bit of TLC in regards to the cosmetic and interior departments. After getting her home and removing a trim panel to replace a faulty clip I saw virtually the entire guts of the dash was covered in dust which had started to be stirred up by the air con and simply got everywhere.

Not being one to do things by half measures, virtually the entire interior has come out and I'm in the process of cleaning it and every piece of trim in there.

More coming, including a photoshoot once I'm satisfied it's at least close to being in good stock trim.

[Kenshin X]

wow nice and clean :P good purchase mate :)

[Lawz]

Looks like a good buy Steve! How many Ks this one come with?

[trentmeyer23]

That dust is a sign there should be minimal if any rust.

[Defyant]

You won't be dissapointed! drove one of these for as a company car for the last construction company i worked for.

Built like a tank bullet proof. Alot more cabin room for guys like us over 6foot than the rodeo and bt's

Big improvements to be had just with bigger exhaust and DP chip.

Please please treat yourself and us to a real camera :)

[Steven]

There is actually some light rust around the body and tray in various places which will be getting address as soon as the Aurion sells.

Some more progress today, a thorough clean of every piece as it went back in the car slowed things down a bit. Hit a snag with the Dash top that despite best efforts by both myself and Andrew (aka Gordon Ramsay) could not be restored, hence some application of vinyl dye became necessary which means I will have to leave it a day before reinstalling it.

Several other bits of trim need painting as well, which due to the prep work required might keep the Hilux off the road for a least a few more days.

[dwee.]

Good buy mate! You won't be disappointed. Once you go 4x4, you won't go back! :D

Personally, I believe they are much better than the D40's as a package (wider but so many problems) and slightly better than BT50's, and it's a Toyota; bullet proof! :)

[Foss]

Nice buy. A mighty and faithful bus, is the ol' Hilux.

I have to question your sanity though. :P Taking a job in the construction industry?! I dunno about up your way, but its dead in the water down here. I'm trying to get the hell out!

[4ABHGE]

No interior. Why? Because hilux!

Tough truck youve got, they look awesome and they arent too bad on the rough stuff :)

All the best with tidying her up mate

[SecaBoy]

your attention to detail is amazing... i woulda seen the dust and said "meh" and put the piece back on.

i'm assuming there wont be any lift kits/ etc going on considering you actually need to get stuff outta the tray?

congrats again on the new car. :)

[dwee.]

Nice buy. A mighty and faithful bus, is the ol' Hilux.

I have to question your sanity though. :P Taking a job in the construction industry?! I dunno about up your way, but its dead in the water down here. I'm trying to get the hell out!

Come up to Victoria mate! It's starting to pick up again. :)

[Guest]

excellent... all you need is a lift and some nice chunky tyres.

[Steven]

It's already higher than stock I reckon as she sits much higher than other 4x4 utes.

Might have run into trouble with the diesel injectors acting up when she's cold. Fortunately I think I can claim them under the stat warranty as the guy I bought it from is a car dealer.

[1stKill]

sorry to see your Aurion go :( ...but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do.

hows the handeling of the Hilux compared to the Aurion? :P

[Steven]

Slowly getting things back together. After putting the dash back together (respraying the top half whilst it was out), I've had to rewire the stereo due to the dodgy nokia bluetooth system that was in there before, get a new drivers seat as the old one had broken rails, installed a Camry leather steering wheel (Cheers Mr. Ramsay), new rooflining and copious amounts of sound deadening I'm NEARLY happy with it.. Happy in that she still needs a thorough clean, I'm not happy with the job the roof trimmers did, the radio surround needs to be repainted (hence why it's missing) and the rear of the cab needs to be covered in SOMETHING (bare metal doesn't do it for me).

The sheer amount of work this ute needs to bring it to my standards is starting to dawn on me. I haven't even got to cleaning the door trims yet, let alone start fixing her up on the outside.

Work will progress rapidly though once I find a buyer for the Aurion and can afford to pour more money/time into the Lux.

[Steven]

The exterior has been cleaned up a bit, bull bar has new brackets (courtesy of Toyota) and the outside has received a bit of attention. This is probably how she'll ride for the next few months.

[k_san]

Be keen for a run up the beach?

[Steven]

Maybe, beach should be ok

[Jap]

Nice to see another hilux getting about

[Steven]

I've ordered a few parts to try and fix up the interior a bit. On my last car (Aurion) I tried to go the sporty look with carbon fibre (real and fake vinyl) but don't really feel the Hilux will pull it off.

So instead I'm going to class it up a little bit, not heaps but just enough that it feels nice enough inside for long trips.

As some of you know I've already changed the steering wheel to a Gen5 Camry sportivo leather wheel, which is nice but to take things a step further without blowing out the cost I've ordered a Lexus ES330 steering wheel with the dark grained wood finish - previous experience with wood steering wheels is that they're not as affected by grubby hands and dirt as much as leather is.

As luck would have it I'm very confident my current sportivo airbag will fit the new wheel (see comparison shots below), which makes the upgrade a dirt cheap one as these wheels are common place in the states.

Also ordered a wood style console panel + vents. This is a proper OEM style replacement part, not the tacky stick on ones found on ebay.

Wood gear knobs will finish it off, but they'll come later, maybe. Depends as I only want the wood as a subtle highlight, not an overbearing feature.

Also picked up some tailormade sandgrabba floor mats today, bloody great fit.

[Andrew357]

That looks very interesting!

[Steven]

Received the new dash panels the other day and finally got around to installing them. I still need the sticker for the air con dials which is currently on back order from Japan, ETA within the month.

Also new OEM CD player as the old one pretty much karked it, and painted the door trims in black to match the dash.

I used the VHT vinyl dye to do the dash, but have found it to scratch very easily and looks fairly patchy. The door trims were done with 3M vinyl paint, which goes on very uniform and actually seems to be extremely durable. Initial thoughts was that I could rub it off easily, however that was just the top layer of my skin - a wet cloth had it back to good as new.

Having a week off work around easter so I'll be removing the dash top and giving it a coat in the 3M stuff. As for the wood highlights, personally I like them but feel as though it should only be subtle feature and thus not everywhere, so depending how the steering wheel looks when it arrives I don't think I'll be getting the gear knobs, handbrake cover or power window switch covers. Steering wheel may also get the wooden sections painted in a gloss black or something unobtrusive.

Slowly getting the interior up to a semi-comfortable state.

[ben yip]

Looks heaps better than I imagine

why not put the steering wheel on?

I think u have to do more things to match the luxury.. lacking leather on the handbrake, gear stick

Edited March 28, 2012 by ben yip

[Steven]

The steering wheel hasn't arrived yet, other bits and pieces are in the planning stage whilst I see what's available and figure out where I want to head with it.

[Steven]

The Lux has been thoroughly cleaned, polished and just overall detailed by the talent local TOCAU member "Gordon Ramsay" (cheers Andrew)

Pictures show where the side badges were removed, and had to be wet sanded to remove all the old residue. A bit of work and the panels came up brilliantly!

Also removed the running boards as frankly they were weak as cat's ***** and were badly beaten up. Will probably replace them with custom built rock sliders down the track.