Now that I had given the drive line a good freshen up, I started on the outside. First up was a roof rack from Powerful 4x4. I think this mod is essential for touring with more than 2 people. It allows you to carry so much gear. Then I fitted up a Snorkel I bought from a friend from work for a lazy $50.

 A little bit of a nervous fit up with no template.

Next I fitted a rear bar from Superior engineering. One swing out wheel carrier and dual jerry can holder. Now I could take the spare tyre of the roof rack.

 

Finally I installed a ARB Bullbar and Roo Systems 12000 lb Winch. Very straight forward stuff if you are thinking of doing it yourself.

 Crazy thing with this build is.... I come home form work for a week every month, work on the 4by, then back to work for another month. I never got to drive it!

Once we towed the van all the way to Victoria and back and with a good run up the high country under our belt we decided that we needed to do a bit more work on the old girl to keep on top of the maintenance.
So the first thing I did was to put a set of 33in Mickey T MTZ's on some Sidebitter alloys, Lifted the Truck 2in with Ozteck springs and threw on a set of Koni Heavy Track adjustable Shocks. (OK the Mickey T's are not essential but shit they look good.)

Once she had the new shoes I went to work fixing the oil leaks by pulling out the rear diff to replace the pinion seal, while  I had it out I though I might as well replace the carrier and Pinion bearings as well.
Also popped in a new set of jap bearings in the rear hubs and whacked it all back together.
How good are You-Tube tutorials.

Next I made my way to the front of the car and striped down the Swivil hubs for a rebuild with new seals and Bearings.

While I had the front apart I thought I better put a new set of brake calipers on as the old ones had seen better days and I didn't have the time to rebuild the old ones.

Bloody messy job, if your thinking of doing your swivel hubs make sure you have plenty of degreaser and rags.

Well I suppose I should start at the beginning.
I was in the market for a new tow vehicle for our Windsor Rapid caravan, Months of looking for a Turbo Diesel GQ Patrol that was not  flogged out or need me to mortgage the house again was proving very difficult.

Then Sharon came home from work with the story of a guy from Sector 7g, He had an old Land cruiser in his shed just collecting dust, It was his daily driver for about 10 years and he had lost the motavtion to give it new life and was looking at selling it.

Evan though I was not looking for a Cruiser I thought we might take a look, so down the road we go.
When the bloke opened up the shed to revel this extremely well looked after straight as die, Original condition, 1989 Landcruiser Sahara my eyes just about poped outa my head. Then he started it up and it just hummed, I was sold on it right then.

I new that it need a bit of work done to bring it back to life but it was nothing major and I could do most of the work my self, so we ended up buying the ugliest (according to Sharon) 4wd ever made.

That was over two years ago now, It was my first 4wd and I had a lot to learn. Full oil dump and brake pads where first up, then a radio, new Radiator and a thermostat. That was about all I did before our first big trip.

We hooked up the van and drove it to Victoria, Yeah it still needed a few things done, like  swivel hubs and pinion seal but it would have to wait as we had a date with the high country.