My previous Hilux Surf was a 2nd generation 1990 SSR Limited 2.4 Turbo Diesel Manual.

I already half-owned a normal Hilux pickup, but due to much off-road abuse it was only good for off-road use when we take it to organised 4x4 days. I also half-owned a Classic Range Rover, but it was a 3.9 Supercharged V8 and not surprisingly was simply too thirsty for long journeys.

I wanted a vehicle to enable me to lug a lot of gear around, do a bit of off-roading and also enable me to carry my motocross motorbike around.

I first started looking at pickups, but single-cabs were not practical enough for my needs and there were no twin-cabs available within my price range.

Then I found that I could get a tow bar mounted motorbike rack, so I started looking at vehicles such as the Mitsubishi Shogun, Isuzu Trooper and of course the Hilux Surf.

I chose the Surf because of its great looks, 4x4 potential (good ground clearance, no leaf-springs) and the fact that it had an under slung spare wheel (rear-mounted would have got in the way of the motorbike rack).

This is how it looked when I bought it (still with the Japanese auction/import writing on it).

I did not like the wind deflectors on the front doors, so they were the first thing to go.

I also did not like the side graphics so I removed them (carefully) with a paint stripping heat gun and removed the glue residue with some tar remover and some manual labour.

The reflective rear window was a bit annoying at night as it is difficult to see out of, and car headlights diffuse in it, but at least you can slide the window down if you need to see out to reverse.

I did not like the dangling fog-light and I knew it would be torn off sooner or later when driving off-road, so I decided to remove it and convert one of the reversing lights to a fog light.