Hello hello,
I am Joe, I used to be in the UK but am now in British Columbia, Canada. The car scene is quite different here along with what is commonly available. There is no MOT or periodic inspection, which has some pro's and con's for sure!
Having spent the past few years doing the bare minimum of maintenance and spending as much time sideways as possible in a long suffering Volvo 940, I bought a truck. Tacoma's rule the roost out here and there is a heavy Toyota tax applied to the second hand market. Being a cheapskate and disliking American market vehicles, I bought a Nissan.
I picked Nori (short for Truck Norris) up on Vancouver Island, they see far less road salt than on the mainland and things are often a little cheaper as it's a ferry ride away. Conveniently I was going to a wedding 10 minutes from the seller so it was faily hassle free. The Island is referred to as Treasure Island by my friend group as the deals are often much better. It might be better than the mainland but Nori is far perfect or from rust free, thankfully the frame is in reasonable shape and most of the body rust is confined to the bed.
I bought the truck wanting a bit of a rolling project. The Volvo I had before served me incredibly well and was a blast in the snowy winters with the factory limited slip. I even did a local rally cross race before parting ways with it. However it had some significant body rust and was all round pretty used up. I would have another in the future without hesitation, it's a shame that they are basically all autos out here.
IMG-20230611-WA0009 by joe swann, on Flickr
IMG_20230610_124801472 by joe swann, on Flickr
This is Nori waiting for the ferry the day I bought him.
IMG_20230807_133832722_HDR by joe swann, on Flickr
It is a 1989 D21 Hardbody 4x4 with the 4 cylinder engine (Z24i) and manual trans. It had 414,000km when I picked it up (run in then
). There aren't many of these here and the few that I saw advertised got snapped up quick.
I had a list of things to do before winter set in that I have been ticking through. My aim is to have a somewhat reliable and gone through vehicle that I can cart my motorbike around with and explore off road to a mellow level. This isn't a big crazy build (I would love to swap a VW tdi engine in at some point but the reality is that is both unlikely and very far down the road) but I quite like having a thread to look back on myself.
One of the first things I wanted to do was pull the bed and properly inspect the frame. I flap and knot wheeled it back, used a rust converter and chassis paint. The cross members are a bit thin in places but the rails are decent.
IMG_20230921_134047308_HDR by joe swann, on Flickr
IMG_20230921_172312293 by joe swann, on Flickr
IMG_20230924_160759722 by joe swann, on Flickr
The dampers were old and one of the rears was blown. I got some slightly uprated replacements. I also changed the drive belts, removed a load of speaker, sub and trailer wiring.
IMG_20230924_171242673 by joe swann, on Flickr
The stock wheels it came with had some crusty old tires on, I got a set of 16" steelies with winter tires for a case of beers
IMG_20231005_195315415 by joe swann, on Flickr
I quite like the look of these but the larger heavier wheel and tire combo drives worse with the old steering components. It tramlines far more and feels more vague. The larger size is handy on the highway for gearing but a bit worse everywhere else. Lots of the trucks here are lifted on big tires with offset wheels. I quite like being the opposite of that with the stock wheels. I kept an eye out for some winter tires for the stock wheels to swap back.
The snow came and we had a bit of a play
IMG-20231125-WA0005 by joe swann, on Flickr
Imminent things to do at this point: UJ, centre support bearing, revive handbrake, cold idle issue, fuseable link, headlights etc etc
I am Joe, I used to be in the UK but am now in British Columbia, Canada. The car scene is quite different here along with what is commonly available. There is no MOT or periodic inspection, which has some pro's and con's for sure!
Having spent the past few years doing the bare minimum of maintenance and spending as much time sideways as possible in a long suffering Volvo 940, I bought a truck. Tacoma's rule the roost out here and there is a heavy Toyota tax applied to the second hand market. Being a cheapskate and disliking American market vehicles, I bought a Nissan.
I picked Nori (short for Truck Norris) up on Vancouver Island, they see far less road salt than on the mainland and things are often a little cheaper as it's a ferry ride away. Conveniently I was going to a wedding 10 minutes from the seller so it was faily hassle free. The Island is referred to as Treasure Island by my friend group as the deals are often much better. It might be better than the mainland but Nori is far perfect or from rust free, thankfully the frame is in reasonable shape and most of the body rust is confined to the bed.
I bought the truck wanting a bit of a rolling project. The Volvo I had before served me incredibly well and was a blast in the snowy winters with the factory limited slip. I even did a local rally cross race before parting ways with it. However it had some significant body rust and was all round pretty used up. I would have another in the future without hesitation, it's a shame that they are basically all autos out here.
IMG-20230611-WA0009 by joe swann, on FlickrIMG_20230610_124801472 by joe swann, on FlickrThis is Nori waiting for the ferry the day I bought him.
IMG_20230807_133832722_HDR by joe swann, on FlickrIt is a 1989 D21 Hardbody 4x4 with the 4 cylinder engine (Z24i) and manual trans. It had 414,000km when I picked it up (run in then
). There aren't many of these here and the few that I saw advertised got snapped up quick.I had a list of things to do before winter set in that I have been ticking through. My aim is to have a somewhat reliable and gone through vehicle that I can cart my motorbike around with and explore off road to a mellow level. This isn't a big crazy build (I would love to swap a VW tdi engine in at some point but the reality is that is both unlikely and very far down the road) but I quite like having a thread to look back on myself.
One of the first things I wanted to do was pull the bed and properly inspect the frame. I flap and knot wheeled it back, used a rust converter and chassis paint. The cross members are a bit thin in places but the rails are decent.
IMG_20230921_134047308_HDR by joe swann, on FlickrIMG_20230921_172312293 by joe swann, on FlickrIMG_20230924_160759722 by joe swann, on FlickrThe dampers were old and one of the rears was blown. I got some slightly uprated replacements. I also changed the drive belts, removed a load of speaker, sub and trailer wiring.
IMG_20230924_171242673 by joe swann, on FlickrThe stock wheels it came with had some crusty old tires on, I got a set of 16" steelies with winter tires for a case of beers
IMG_20231005_195315415 by joe swann, on FlickrI quite like the look of these but the larger heavier wheel and tire combo drives worse with the old steering components. It tramlines far more and feels more vague. The larger size is handy on the highway for gearing but a bit worse everywhere else. Lots of the trucks here are lifted on big tires with offset wheels. I quite like being the opposite of that with the stock wheels. I kept an eye out for some winter tires for the stock wheels to swap back.
The snow came and we had a bit of a play
IMG-20231125-WA0005 by joe swann, on FlickrImminent things to do at this point: UJ, centre support bearing, revive handbrake, cold idle issue, fuseable link, headlights etc etc
