The PooBus

[clambeard]

Well, I suppose I'd better get some info up now I've had her a month.

While looking for an 80 series (I know, I know...), I came across a full on "My Family" sticker speced 4.8 auto ST.
While I've always been a Toyota man (a product of growing up next door to a Toyota 4x4 guru and workshop owner), I've always liked the look of the GU.
What the heck, it's 5k cheaper than other comparable ones, with less kms, I'll go have a look at it.

She was a little rough.

Carpet stained, filthy interior, a few carpark dings and dents and she ran a little rough.
Regardless, I saw a lot of potential. My mind was made up after a test drive anyway.

I decided to take my chances, I parted with the princely sum of 9k.

Here's how she looked the day I picked her up.

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[clambeard]

Not being the type of bloke to leave things the way they are for very long, out came the daisy wheel and drill.

I've always been a fan of the minimalist look, so gone were the ST stickers and the "twincam 24valve" stickers on the side.

I also removed the Genuine Nissan window sheilds and headlight protectors (they had gone cloudy and when removed, revealed a brand new looking set of headlights)

A Kenwood deck, Pioneer front splits, Pioneer rear 6 inch speakers, JVC 4 channel amp (for the splits/6 inchers) and a Sony sub/amp combo were all fitted.

While I was at it, a pair of lightforce XGT 240's and Narva H4 plus 120's were fitted too.

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[clambeard]

Next on the list was somewhere to sleep.

All you GU owners know, the rear seats fold up to reveal a horribly uneven floor unlike my old surf that folded perfectly flat.
I decided to build a draw system/aux battery storage/bed device.

I started off by making up a basic frame out of some formply I picked up cheap.
It needed to fit my Waeco CF50 on top, but achieve as much storage space as possible.

I also added a bi-folding panel, that is folds up and is stored behind the rear seats when not in use.

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[clambeard]

POWAAAA, I NEED POWWWWAAAA

The following weekend, I purchased a deep cycle, fully sealed, 130Ah gel battery and a thunderpower DC-DC charger.

I needed to fit this inside of the cab due to the gas injection system sitting right where the traditional aux battery tray is located.

I ran a fused 8 gauge wire from my main battery, to the DCDC charger in the rear. I cut out an access hatch and mounted my battery. Off of this I have a 600w inverter and my waeco running.

Please excuse the messy wiring and RED earth cable (when the cable is free, you cant be fussy). I'm still playing with the setup a little and I'm waiting for some power outlets, a fusebox and voltage gauges off of fleabay to arrive. When I've installed these and am happy with the setup, it will all be hidden and routed through convoluted tube.

I also added some whings with piano hinges.

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[clambeard]

Next was to build the actual draws.

These were not fun.

I am no carpenter, I work with metal, I didn't even do woodwork in highschool.

After much cursing and a fair few beers, I managed to get them to work.
I really don't want to say much more on this matter, it involved a few re-makes and was traumatizing for me.

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By now, I had nutted out a few of the running rough issues. A new pair of O2 sensors @$150 each, new set of plugs (wow the old ones were f***** and a massive pain in the bum to change) and a recalibration of the fly by wire throttle sorted this out. This also bought my LPG economy from 28l per 100kms down to a much more acceptable 21l per 100kms. I suspect there is more in it with a MAF sensor replacement (don't think the lpg system actually uses it) and running on ultimate 98.