Busted knuckles: DIY-built Toyota HiLux LN106

Stick around the land of 4x4s long enough and you’ll notice trends come and go. Retro graphics made way for matte paint jobs, but now they’re cool again.

Slide-on campers were replaced with swags and awnings, only to be replaced with decked-out canopies. Polished alloy wheels faded away for white and then black steelies, now we’re back to alloys again. But unlike flashing LED headlights and headboard-mounted subwoofers, some trends stand the test of time.

From the earliest days of hot-rodding, through to the pioneers of 4x4ing, long nights in the shed, ingenuity, and plenty of DIYing on the business end of a welder is something that has never gone out of fashion.

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The HiLux you’re looking at here is the perfect epitome of everything that hard graft can create.

A total build sheet that’d cost less than the price of some canopies but infinitely more capable, and absolutely timeless. “My mate bought it a few years back,” Haydn tells us.

“I was super keen on buying it off him if he ever went to sell it. It was super clean and tidy for its age. When he eventually advertised it, I jumped on it straight away and picked it up that arvy. He didn’t realise I was serious about purchasing it!”

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When Haydn picked it up with nearly 400,000km on the odometer it’d already had a handful of modifications made; a set of 33s, a 4-inch lift, and an uninspiring turbo setup. But Haydn had far bigger plans than that.

While the front live axle in a sea of rudimentary independent setups is something that’s made the LN106 platform legendary over the last 30 years, it’d be an understatement and a half to say it was more than a little flawed.

Poor articulation, woeful steering, and a track width far too narrow for any serious angles meant Haydn had some serious work to do on the tools to see out his vision.

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Stretch and lift

The first thing to go was the factory front leaf springs; in their place Haydn performed a mod known as RUF (rears up front).

The longer leaf springs from the rear were re-set in Haydn’s press and moved up front with a new heavy duty cross member known as a ‘dropped hanger’ providing a solid mounting point. A pair of longer ‘banana’ shackles were required to fit the longer leaves without fouling on the body mounts, and to help give the ’Lux a 50mm bump in ride height over stock and a 40mm longer wheelbase for a better approach angle.

Haydn fitted up a Rampt Customs chassis brace and a set of trick plate steel shock towers from TM Fabrication to allow the fitment of Superior Engineering shocks originally designed for a GU Patrol.

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One look at the factory HiLux steering made it abundantly clear serious upgrades would be needed and Haydn has more than delivered.

Sitting high above the leaf springs Haydn has fitted a set of Trail-Gear’s forged steering arms to the top of the knuckles with ARP studs holding them down. They’re linked together with a heavy duty drag link and tie rod with beefier 80 Series tie-rod ends.

An IFS steering box was fabricated into place with a steering shaft extension and this allows the live-axle to max out those 13.5-inch shocks without bump steer.

Eagle eyed readers may notice the front end looks a whole lot wider than any 30-year-old HiLux has the right to.

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The secret sauce is the IFS hubs Haydn fitted up to the live-axle spindles; paired with a set of spacers to bump the brake rotor back to its stock location it adds a huge 80mm of width to the front axle.

A set of stock-looking Aisin free-wheeling hubs send drive to the front wheels through chromoly hub gears, linking up to Trail-Gear chromoly CV joints. Haydn left no stone unturned with upgraded hub studs, Knuckle Felt Protectors, extended diff breathers and even upgraded oil seals spec’d up on the build sheet.

If your head isn’t spinning yet with the endless list of front-axle upgrades, wait’ll you see what’s been done down the back. A rear axle from an IFS N60 HiLux has been swapped in to match the track width increase up front.

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Haydn’s got it hanging in place off a set of mega-sized leaf springs from a US-spec 2008 Toyota Tundra with custom hangers up front and 200mm TM Fabrication shackles in the rear.

A second set of Patrol-spec Superior Engineering shocks have been fitted with the upper mounts canted inwards to allow for more shock travel without eating into the tray, while 80 Series bump stops reign in both front and rear axles, although more on that later…

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Power to the ground

Under the bonnet, the ever-reliable 2.8L four-cylinder-diesel is still chugging away, although Haydn has managed to screw slightly more power out of it.

Follow that eBay snorkel down through the K&N air filter and you’ll find a “budget friendly” CT20 turbo blowing directly into the inlet manifold; no intercooler needed. Haydn slung it off a secondhand exhaust manifold sourced from an imported Toyota Surf, and he had it surface machined before bolting it in place with an MLS gasket and high-tensile HD Automotive studs.

There’s a 3-inch turbo back exhaust shooting spent gases out through a simple hotdog style muffler. Haydn’s pushing around 18psi through the combination with driveability the goal over outright power.

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An upgraded 10-blade fan and tweaked fan clutch help the 2.8 stay cool in low-range crawling.

Sending that power rearwards, an Exedy heavy duty clutch in the factory five-speed cog-swapper links up with the legendary HiLux gear-driven transfer case. The factory 2.28 low range gear set has been swapped out for an oh-so-low 4.7:1 Trail-Gear Creeper reduction set, allowing Haydn maximum control and endless climbing power.

Out the rear, a 30mm longer one-off chromoly driveshaft links up to the 4.3:1 diff centre and ‘Lokka’ auto-locker combo. Up front, an 85mm longer shaft features a huge long-slip extension sending drive to a second Lokka in the front axle.

All up that combination not only gives Haydn insane articulation and uber control off-road, it also allows fitment of oversized 35x12.5R16 Nitto Trail Grapplers, a full six inches taller than the factory fitments. Haydn’s got them wrapped around a set of bona fide YiLi beadlocks allowing for good looks and low-pressures without breaking the bank.

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Keep it simple stupid

Moving onto the outside and Haydn’s continued that theme of budget friendly and bad-arse DIY to give the ’Lux its functional looks.

Up front, the same steel bar the HiLux came with still takes pride of place. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? It’s now sporting a 12,000lb Kings Domin8r winch wired up with in-cab controls for quick deployment. Hiding underneath the winch a 22-inch LED light bar provides ample forward-facing light, while a set of Raybrig headlights and full suite of underbody lighting take care of on-road work and night-run fun.

Following along the flanks and a set of Outlaw Kustoms scrub bars tie the TJM bar into the Shires Fabrication rock sliders to protect the soft sheet metal, while underneath a Shires Fabrication high-clearance crossmember has had more than a few tickles by Haydn to make it suit his needs.

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Don’t expect any big brand names for the killer 2000mm long tray though, Haydn and his good mates Wayne, Luke and Kyle pieced it together out of nothing more than box tube and flat sheet, including the trick integrated scrub bars.

When it comes to touring mods Haydn has opted for the old KISS approach. A simple 120Ah slimline AGM battery powers the fridge he throws on the tray, a couple of space cases, and an Oricom UHF are about all he needs. Well, that and the endless patience of his wife Rach for all the hours in the shed.

At first glance Haydn’s LN106 may seem like any other old ’Lux in the lineup but it really is something special. It’s one of the first 4x4s we’ve seen in a long time where the creativity and hard work far outweigh the budget. Hopefully it inspires the next generation of 4x4ers to spend less time keeping up with the Jones’s and more time spinning spanners with mates.

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Smooth criminal

The concept of a bump stop is pretty simple. Stop one expensive metal thing hitting another expensive metal thing, normally with a piece of rubber.

No matter how good your rig is, eventually it’ll run out of suspension travel and something will hit something else. If the bump stop in between those two bits of metal is a solid chunk of hard rubber the result will be physically and literally jarring.

So how does fitting bump stops out of a heavier car help smooth things out?

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Toyota 80 Series bump stops run a unique Christmas tree like design.

A cone shape with relief cuts means that despite being initially very soft the more the bump stop is compressed, the harder it gets. Think of it like catching a cricket ball with your arm locked out to full extension, vs catching it and absorbing the energy with your arms.

The end result is what’s known as a ‘progressive’ bump stop, and for $40 a corner and a few custom mounts it’s a simple DIY way to make your 4x4 cop even the hardest hits like a smooth criminal.