The 4-Door Rangie
In 1998, we went up to a really lovely rangie, custom sunroof, plush seating, walnut trim and Trocadero Red.
It had quite a few problems with the gearbox, which we had supposedly fixed by someone who was supposed to know what they were doing but didn't...and it continued to make a really loud noise in third, fourth and fifth. Having parted with several thousand dollars for the clutch and reconditioning of the gearbox, we were truly impressed to find that the source of the increasing rattle and vibration was caused by the same mechanics, a small outfit, doing the unthinkable and not replacing the locktight nuts with fresh ones. Big DUH! The rear drive shaft had nearly come adrift and it was amazing that I hadn't had a severe accident. F%$#ing dickheads.
The problems we had with my car were not bad enough to warrant what this truck driver did, captured by David on camera.... :-)
It says HOW'S YOUR TOYOTA 80 SERIES GOING? MINE BLEW UP AT 84,000 KMS
We gave up on gearboxes after that and I said Please can I have an automatic? So David found a great almost-new 98 Discovery automatic transmission and the brilliant Fred Smith did a fantastic job and we cursed not having gone to him in the first place! He also put in a lovely full chrome exhaust system and fixed up some rust caused by the previous owner's modifications - an H frame to improve stability had caused rust pockets and also a protective plate to protect the petrol tank had caused major erosion, due to water pooling and sitting on top of it, to the petrol tank which one day SUDDENLY emptied!
Here's an example of the congestion in our carport before we sold the old Series III (behind)