Jeff's 1989 Toyota Hiace Supercustom TC24 build

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Around a month ago I made the call to sell the cressida project. We decided to move to south island and I decided anything that couldn't drive there was going to be a headache and id barely touched the thing in a year of ownership.

This supercustom has lived two streets over from me for around 5 years and I've always been keen to bother the owner. In January I saw it out driving and grabbed a photo of it to bother a previous customer that knew the owner. Didn't hear anything back for a while then it popped up on marketplace. I was away for the weekend and hoped no one would snake it but kind of thought there aren't too many van weirdos like myself that would be that interested. 

Viewed it Sunday afternoon and it wouldn't start, left the guy my battery charger and plans to come back Monday evening. 

Still wouldn't start. 

Sounded like starter motor was stuck so gave it a tap and it cranked over and fired up. 

Clutch wouldn't work. 

Tried to push it out to start in gear and handbrake shoes were siezed.

I figured quickly that recent flooding was the culprit as liteace did the same thing after getting wet in those areas. 

Made the guy an offer based on these problems and putted the 500m home in second.

Myself fizzing, my girlfriend definitely not fizzing. 

 

 

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Following day I spent emptying random trash and vacuuming interior to make it a bit more presentable.

Theres digital dash, hot/cool box with ice maker,dual aircon, floor shift 5 speed, electric front windows, powersteering, digital clock and dual sunroof!

This was the one vehicle I wanted to replace the 4age liteace as something bigger that the whole family could enjoy with a few more added luxuries. It's kind of at the same point of needing that minor rust and panel/paint that the liteace was so it made sense to jump ship now and invest in something I definitely will keep. 

Exterior is a bit tired, looks like side windows have been in and out a few times for body work and the rubbers are pretty wrecked as a result. There's scrapes on both sides and rust around the dual sunroof inserts. 

Since I've been interested in these for a while I keep an eye out on yahoo auctions Japan to see what parts availability is like and it seems like there's multiple vans being wrecked and every single item listed so it will be easy to pickup missing or damaged interior bits.

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I'm pretty keen to remove the enkei rp01 from it for something a bit more classic. 

picked up these gzg50 century 16x7 +45 alloys. Sadly I didn't check center bore of van first which is 66.1 and these are 60.1 so the foul on hub, they also look pretty close to front upper arms. Trying to decide if I invest in getting hubcentric spacers machined to fill the guards a bit more or move them on for something that's an easy fit. 

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After a piss around with a freight company I decided to drive this thing filled to the absolute brim with a coupe 60s mopeds and other possessions including almost 2 year old son to Christchurch. Got to Taupo and got the old canceled ferry with no rescheduling available. I'd already booked accommodation at foxton beach and a flight home from Christchurch Wednesday morning so decided to push on through and see what I could organize. I wasn't going home when i have to do the trip in 3 other vehicles over 16 days.

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I thought it best to check water and oil since I was halfway. The rpm gauge doesn't work at all and the temp gauge usually doesn't but occasionally pops up usually at a 3rd or one bar under halfway. I needed to put about a litre of water in the radiator and also noticed some of the overflow seal was missing. Topped it up and saw water leaking from somewhere on the ground. 

Took it to these fellows to have a look

they popped it over the pits, put a new cap on and couldn't see any more water leaking. They mentioned it has a new looking headgasket, radiator and alternator and various steering links also. Cruised back to my accommodation and had a look underneath. Another leak. This was from lower hose join to hardline.

Took it back and put it on hoist, they reckon the hose clamp was loose. Filled it up again. No leaks. 

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Soonest ferry booking I could get is next Tuesday so made the call to park van in Wellington and fly home. 

Stopped in at the south ward car museum with the young fella, let the van cool down and checked water again. This time only about 100ml to top up radiator and no fluid on ground. 

I had forgotten how big the hills into Wellington and surrounding towns are, definitely had the stressed butthole feeling and heater on full blast on hot just in case. Temp never went higher than half when it decided to show up so hopefully all good. Parked up indoors by the airport ready to deal with it another day. 

The park n fly looks to be a workshop as well so I might ask him to check fluids etc later in the week when I regain some interest 

 

[Jeffs_Emporium]

Completed the last half of the journey without issue on Tuesday. Parked up in Christchurch untill I return in the liteace on Sunday 

 

I've secured a late model 1gge engine which will make way into this once I tend to the rust/bodywork issues. I've been holding onto a g-w55 bellhousing for a while which will bolt up to the g55 gearbox in this and will order a lightened flywheel from Japan.

I assume the factory intake and crossover pipe will foul on seat so will require front facing plenum, carbs or itbs much the same as the liteace.

Have shipped the century 16s down without tyres so might put some more effort into getting them to work. Not sure if it's more cost effective to machine center bore on wheels and use a generic spacer or get a spacer machined that accounts for difference in center bores. 

 

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My friend Scott who was looking after this was that enthusiastic about it that he decided he was keen to browse on down to Toyota festival at highlands the weekend just gone 

It was great following it in my Mark ii, really affirmed I had made the right call seeing it on the open road and still have that lust for it from the past 5 years.

Scott even continued on down to Dunedin before making his way home.

Stopping at a second hand shop in Temuka yielded this $30 early twin headlight grille!  Good spotting 

Quick look on the usual sites in Japan and I'd missed the matching corner lights/bezels for ¥8000 by 3 hours, I'm sure more will pop up. 

 

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Team sticker added with a bloody good colour match to the side decals 

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I sold the 17" enkei rp01 over the weekend. Tried some of my friends 15" 5h wheels on untill I can find something suitable 

In this light you can see how bad the colour match is on passengers rear quarter after recent rust repairs.

I think I prefer the fin style wheels on this. 

Trying to find some tidy steelies for now from crown or the likes. Must have decent rubber and a 67mm centre bore and 5x114.3 if anyone in Christchurch has something? 

Had panelbeater friend look at rust in top half and he didn't seem to scared so once liteace is gone we will get it booked in. New moon roof skin is showing as available to buy new so may try get that ordered also 

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I've been busy 

not in the intended way either. I suspect this has always had a minor leak into cylinder 4 which got to the point compression was coming out radiator cap. 

While I've secured the late model 1GGE that will replace the 3Y now isn't the time to pull it so I've dropped the head off to get checked and resurfaced to keep it going while I get some rust/bodywork sorted. 

I've also dropped the radiator in to get a 3 core upgrade over the rotten 2 core in anticipation for the 2 extra cylinders. 

It feels like pissing in the wind fiddling with the Y but hoping I can recover some costs when it comes time to part with it. Water doesn't seem to have made it to the sump fortunately but will give everything a good flush out. 

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In positive news I have dropped the hoodlining looking for rust and it appears OK. 

The sunroof cartridges are pretty impressive taking up the entire ceiling space front to back with drains in each corner. I'll be looking at getting these both operational again. Both sunroof skins have unsurprisingly come back as discontinued  

 

 

[Jeffs_Emporium]

While the hoodlining is out I'll also be doing a pretty extensive period-ish Carrozzeria/Pioneer audio install on this and be looking for mounting points for two or three of these light up ceiling units

Ive managed to find a head unit that should be here any day 

A stack of speakers 

There are some rear pods for factory audio that my van wasn't optioned with that are perfect for the surface mount ts-44.

A light up subwoofer that ill find another one to pair up with 

 

 

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Wheels have been a bit of a headache. I actually had some 15" 5H focus racing mesh in stock but sold them 3 weeks prior to buying the hiace in a 6.5 and 7.5j

The 15" focus use a 14" centre that's even cast 14" and step lips but for some reason they went for bigger m8 hardware and less fixings 8 not 12 m6 like the 14s. 

This bothers me enough that I've started buying 14s one by one.

If I end up stepping them up to 15s with 12 fasteners or not I'm not sure yet but I've bought 3 of the focus spoke and 2 of the focus mesh to play around with, all in 14" 5H

 

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Picked up the head from Cliff Bond on  Friday morning 

 Hardness test was all good so they skimmed it for me. 

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Kiwi cylinder heads gasket on 

Put the head back on and Torqued up to 30-60-88Nm in 3 stages as per specs. Put the rocker shaft back on and located pushrods. Turned over by hand a couple times to make sure they were locked in. Rocker cover back on with new gasket. I see waterpump is on clearance at repco for $21 so I'll grab one of those. Tested the thermostat in boiling water and it barely opened so I'll definitely replace that also. 

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Radiator back from A1 Automotive cooling 

weighing in at 10.4kg she's pretty grunty now

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While I was awaiting some other parts I popped out the digital dash and took it to Get electronic down here to see why tacho wasn't working and temp seems temperamental

they didnt seem to find much other than a couple of suspicious solder joints so hopefully that sorts it

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Got this back up and running yesterday 

Still looks like a heap of shit. Seems to be holding all of its fluids. Picked up the dash cluster yesterday and plugged it back it and still no tacho or temp which is pretty gutting after a $457 bill. I'd replaced the temp sensor on engine, all three radiator hoses and thermostat for a high flow option while I was there. Will run it for a week or so and flush cooling system a few times before putting actual coolant in. 

 

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Ts-x4 mounted to factory holes for the missing roof mounted heater unit 

the pioneer speakers even had the correct mounting thread coming out!