G-Unicorn the Y61

[BrazilianY60]

Hello everyone. I am very proud to show you my new-to-me GU4 Patrol!

This is e VERY rare car over here. Official records shows 3 of them, and I have personally seem them all. One of them is heavily armored and cannot be sold to civilians once its diplomatic duty is done, so it will have to be repatriated when the time comes. This bring the total number down to two...

I like to give all my cars names and for my own and my kids amusement, we prefer to name them after animals (although there has been some exceptions). I have started teasing my kids with drops of information about the car maybe some 15 days before I got it home, inciting their curiosity on how rare of a car this was, etc, when then out of thin air my daughter said that it seemed easier to find an unicorn than figure out what the car would that be. We instantly looked at each other with a smile, saying "that's the new car name!". Jinx! So forcing the GU model name into it a bit, we got the G-Unicorn

The car came from UN, so it is UN spec: white, bare-bones exterior, 6' wide steelies with bicycle tires (235/80r16), 7 seats. Mine came with a (severely knocking) TB45E, factory rear locker, no sub-tank. This is how the car would look like when it was still deployed:

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[BrazilianY60]

Car was manufactured in Dec-2005, year model 2006. Bought it from the guy who got it on an auction in 2013. The ONLY thing he did other then putting gas was to change the cloth upholstery to synthetic leather (vinyl based fake) and wrapping the bubbled dashboard. And I REALLY MEAN "ONLY". He never changed ANY fluid on it. Some four years ago the knocking started, a mechanic condemned the engine (without unscrewing a single nut) and the guy put the car away on his property, under a tree first, then under an open shed. I tracked him down a couple of years ago and he had no intention of selling. More recently, with a spare silvertop TD42 in my hands, the idea of getting a non-running GU started to grow on me and we started the conversations that ended up in this acquisition.

This is how it was the day I bought it, 1000km from home:

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A friend that lives there promptly offered help, and there we went with a very "generous" toolbox, air compressor, new battery and tow straps. Ready for war! LOL. There was oil on the dipstick, new battery in, a few cranks and the TB45 started on 4 years old gasoline and idled! The first revs after first sparks were darn scary, with something on the bottom end of the engine banging all over. A few seconds later, oil pressure built I suppose, and the noise was gone at least at idle. When I revved-up a little, I could listen the knocking but now very fainted. We aired up the old tires and drove out the property on own power.

The plan was to tow-strap it out of the property and have a flat deck tow truck carry it over to my friend's place, but I got carried away and decided to drive it instead. My friend was driving right behind me and fully equipped, if anything went wrong I was covered. But the car drove ok other the some sputtering and hesitation most probably due to old gas. I could see zits over the windshield and we had nothing to wash it so I drove it "Ace Ventura" style

[BrazilianY60]

On the next day it was time to give the GU it's first TLC in years. It started with a quick wash, mostly to clean all the windows and to wash out all the spider webs and the creatures responsible for them under the frame.

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Then took it to an Oil Change place where we changed every single fluid on the car. Coolant, brake master, clutch master, diffs, manual trans, tcase and engine. Even the wiper fluid and wipers

When we took off the engine oil filter is when we suspected of no service type of maintenance under the old owner. The filter was OEM made in UK, nothing we find over the shelf here. And the oil was cooked. I mean, the oil that came out of the pan anyway. Although we had dipstick oil on the day before, only about 1L of oil came out of the oil pan. I suspect there will be some 4kg of black gel when I drop the oil pan at home. The specific oil was 10w30 if memory calls but I had it replaced with 20w50 to see if a slightly thicker oil would change the knocking noise a bit.

While the car was being serviced, I took the chance to get a bit acquainted with it. The upholstery was magnificently done, perfect stitches, gave the car a very "refined" look. Very nice "cream" color, although I would personally pick "tan" color if I were to do it myself. It is actually a shame the material is fake leather; the level of craftsmanship deserved some legit skin.

First row
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Second row
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Third row
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The third row has this curious flexible reading light. For the soldier back there to read a map? To check on his gun? That got me curious.
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OEM rear locking diff
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The only REAL rust is on the disk brake dust covers and surroundings. Oh, and the GU has rear disks! That is a first timer for all my cars!
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Oh, and the 20w50 engine oil really helped with the knocking. I drove it some 40km there before loading it to a semi and flying back home.

[MudRunnerTD]

That's Awesome!!! I look forward to your build. That Cream Interior looks bloody good!!

[mudski]

Yeah loving the interior. Really nice. Keen to see it come along...

[BrazilianY60]

I am honestly still unsure if it is about the size of the LC105 or smaller. It seems about the same size externally but I have a feeling it is smaller inside, both cabin space and trunk size.

Side by side with my friends 105, it looks kind of same size, despite the bike tires.
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[BrazilianY60]

After just two weeks the car was finally delivered and was revealed to the kids
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Other then the bottle jack, only these tools came with it. I have later realized the extended crank bar on the picture does not belong to this car and I am actually missing the extension. Thinking about it, the small red pry bar probably is not part of the "toolkit" as well.
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90k's on the clock. The instrument cluster is kind of poor, isn't it. Both my 105 and my GQ have voltmeters and oil pressure gages.
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Kids got curious about that "slot" on the radio, LOL. I have even searched around the house for an old cassette but no luck, I think I gave them away some 30 years ago when CD's were the thing.
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PTT holder, ball head support for some equipment, maybe a keyboard? Some holes here and there for something UN folks had use for. Despite that the dashboard fascia is in tip top condition. The roof has been drilled for an aerial and the base support is still there. I suppose the coax cable would still be there as well. Will check sometime when I have nothing better to do than to tuck behind the dash.
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[mudnut]

90k's on the clock. The instrument cluster is kind of poor, isn't it. Both my 105 and my GQ have voltmeters and oil pressure gages.
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The UN and other agencies vehicular usage is based on driving simplicity.

Extra gauges, even though very useful to a private owner, are just not considered a necessity for staff that sign for the vehicle, drive it and sign out.

[BrazilianY60]

I agree. But other GUs have a more complete instrument cluster? I don't know why but I was under the impression this was all you could get.

[BrazilianY60]

I took the necessary precaution measures (protecting MAF, dizzy, alternator, etc) and gave the engine bay a good wash. It came out very good.

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Left the engine idling for a while to check if I had screwed up any sensor and to help it dry. This is how it is sounding on its current situation. It is a bit loud engine I suppose, but it don't seem bad at idle.