Land Cruiser #26 (COMPLETED) - Building and maintenance
Posted: June 4th, 2011, 12:08 pm
I always wanted to have a willys jeep CJ-5, in my opinion that's the most beautiful car ever created. Back in 2003 I had the opportunity to buy a jeep, and then I realized that the CJ-5 have a really bad engine, which is old, drinks much gasoline and hasn't repair parts.
It's not smart to buy a Wrangler here in Brazil. They're expensive and were never produced in my country, they were always imported. That means if a small engine piece break, I would have to import it from the USA and pay lots of money for it. I can't live like that.
Then I found a 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser J40 for sale. It has a wonderful diesel engine (Mercedes-Benz OM-314). The J40 series, which is called Bandeirante here in Brazil, is A LOT stronger, robuster and economic than the willys and wrangler jeeps. The diesel is a lot cheaper here where I live. And the one I found for sale was already grey. And that is good for my purposes, if you know what I mean. It is the best jeep I know. So I bought it in 2003.
In 2003 I just added the Jurassic Park decals on the doors. I didn't had money to customize the whole vehicle. Unfortunatelly I have only bad pictures of the jeep back then. Here:
In the beggining of 2005 I lent the jeep to my uncle. He lives 1400 kilometers from me, in the beach. Now (2011) I went to his home to get my car back. Look what I found:
My uncle was not careful with the car. The salty air destroyed the bodywork of the car. Now I have to spend a lot of money to put it back in one piece... but let's start. I'll intend for customize the entire jeep, making a JP jeep from a Toyota Land Cruiser.
First I thought I could make something different. The tour vehicles in the Jurassic Park novel are Land Cruisers, so I thought I could make the novel cars. But I give up because no one would recognize it... In Jurassic Park /// there is a scene in which we see a old Land Cruiser of Isla Sorna, but there's nothing special about it (color, decals, nothing...). Then I get back to the original plan of doing the Jurassic Jeep from the first movie in my Land Cruiser. I want to create something like that sketch:
I brought its remains to my hometown and it is now in the machine shop. Now the engine and frame are cleaned and we started the engine, drive craft, brakes repairs.
Later, after al the mechanics, I'll do the painting and customizing.
I'll update here as the work progresses.
It's not smart to buy a Wrangler here in Brazil. They're expensive and were never produced in my country, they were always imported. That means if a small engine piece break, I would have to import it from the USA and pay lots of money for it. I can't live like that.
Then I found a 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser J40 for sale. It has a wonderful diesel engine (Mercedes-Benz OM-314). The J40 series, which is called Bandeirante here in Brazil, is A LOT stronger, robuster and economic than the willys and wrangler jeeps. The diesel is a lot cheaper here where I live. And the one I found for sale was already grey. And that is good for my purposes, if you know what I mean. It is the best jeep I know. So I bought it in 2003.
In 2003 I just added the Jurassic Park decals on the doors. I didn't had money to customize the whole vehicle. Unfortunatelly I have only bad pictures of the jeep back then. Here:
In the beggining of 2005 I lent the jeep to my uncle. He lives 1400 kilometers from me, in the beach. Now (2011) I went to his home to get my car back. Look what I found:
My uncle was not careful with the car. The salty air destroyed the bodywork of the car. Now I have to spend a lot of money to put it back in one piece... but let's start. I'll intend for customize the entire jeep, making a JP jeep from a Toyota Land Cruiser.
First I thought I could make something different. The tour vehicles in the Jurassic Park novel are Land Cruisers, so I thought I could make the novel cars. But I give up because no one would recognize it... In Jurassic Park /// there is a scene in which we see a old Land Cruiser of Isla Sorna, but there's nothing special about it (color, decals, nothing...). Then I get back to the original plan of doing the Jurassic Jeep from the first movie in my Land Cruiser. I want to create something like that sketch:
I brought its remains to my hometown and it is now in the machine shop. Now the engine and frame are cleaned and we started the engine, drive craft, brakes repairs.
Later, after al the mechanics, I'll do the painting and customizing.
I'll update here as the work progresses.
