The PooBus

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.

Attachment 67871

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.

Attachment 67874

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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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.

Attachment 67877

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.