Sunday, July 15, 2018 - 09:23 pm, by: Justin Prewett(Buzzbox)
So i guess i should start a thread about my UZZ31 Series 2 rebuild that i've embarked on.
I never really wanted a v8 soarer however after collecting ol'crusty for 2 slabs of beer (uzz31 limited with all the gear inc tow bar) i've quite enjoyed the more luxurious cruiser.
After having a black on black jzz30 for a long long time (and still do - 2nd black on black, latest is a 97 1j vvti variant) i thought about searching for a nice black on black uz with a sunroof, airbag suspension, emv, electric steering etc.. all the goodies as a great daily and weekend cruiser.
The search began, i found a strange series 2 uzz31 and went to investigate this odd soarer production machine
Original purchase - weird pov pack UZZ31 with no EMV, cloth seats, manual steering, but has a sunroof, parking pole, late model factory 3 button keyless entry and A01B LSD Outcome - to have a fully fitted out uzz31 with all the goodies (some i still don't have)
From this strange pov pack uz (which had no engine when i purchased it as the guy bought the car for the engine) i've fully stripped it down ready to rebuild into the limited beast that i've always really wanted.
The list of items i've managed to collect for the upgrade to date: - An excellent original wood grain EMV with a clear screen and good backlight (how now accumulated a few spares for backups) - A Vlad modified radio and tv tuner module for AUX input to the EMV and AUS radio stations direct from the EMV screen - A good condition (non broken) CD stacker for the boot - A series 2 tilt/telescopic steering column with rear wiper and fog lights - Courtesy light sun visors - LCD rear view mirror (series 1 unfortunately - not the special 2 button version - still looking for that) - Both driver and passenger ultrasonic/heated door mirrors - Black (vinyl re-trim by the looks - more on that later, they came with the car) electric seats - to be swapped with memory and heated seat bases (ready to go) - A huge amount of airbag struts ready to select the best of the bunch once the engine is ready to go in - A low kms 1UZ-FE from a series 2 - with a series 2 engine ECU (recapped) - Factory reversing camera and controller
So what started out as what i thought would be pretty straight forward, remove pov pack gear and install fancy stuff became this huge job of basically stripping down the entire car, removing every piece of wiring i could find and replacing it all with the limited spec series 2 wiring looms.
I thought it would be simple, i was very very wrong.. but nothing i couldn't tackle over time.
I will post the photos of the transition from purchase through to stripping it down and then putting it all back together. It is still an ongoing project which i hope to finish this year (2018) at the same time i'm renovating my house and trying to keep 2 other soarers on the road and a 71 kombi for the wife.
It was basically a mint black on black series 2 uzz31 when i bought it, just pov pack internals. i then found another series 2 uzz31 with the limited spec options and began the process of swapping the pov pack out with the limited spec goodies including ALL the wiring harnesses.
To further complicate things the donor car was an early series 2 and the host a late series 2 - to which there are differences in the wiring.. being that i don't mind electronic gadgets i quickly went searching through the wiring diagrams, found the differences and began to make the changes. Lucky for me it mainly related to the late model 3 button keyless entry which used almost all of the same wiring as the early series 2 with a few extras (it has boot open on the key fob).
The most difficult part i found was getting the cabin frame harness out, it goes behind the heater core and as the engine was already out it wasn't that bad to remove. I have also replaced all the broken plastic clips that attach to the wiring with non-broken one's, this was tricky in itself trying to find replacement parts.
The drivers side ultrasonic/heated door mirror was purchased off yahoo japan as i just couldn't find one here in AUS. I'll probably do the same thing to try and find a late model series 2 LCD 2 button rear view mirror, won't be easy but i'm sure there will be one out there somewhere.
Oh and when i bought it, the guy who i bought it off someone had tried to steal it, smashed the passenger side window, broke the drivers door lock and stuffed the ignition barrel - lucky for me i had spare window glass, spare black 202 drivers door and spare ignition locks.
To start off with, here's some pics from when i first picked it up in Nov 16 (and yes, i towed a soarer with a soarer).
Thursday, July 19, 2018 - 04:14 pm, by: Mike Beck(Gold_40gt)
It's always interesting the variations of specification these cars came with. Soarers are pretty odd unless nearly or fully spec'd, pov spec JZZ30s for example don't interest me at all.
This will make for an awesome, fully optioned UZZ31 once you've finished it!
Peter Nitschke Junk Filterer South Australia UZZ30 UZZ31
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