My Previous Ride: Toyota Kijang Pickup 1991

The Dog isn't my first car. I had two rides previously, both were Toyotas. The first was a '77 KE30 Corolla. My dad bought me that car when i was still in high school. It got funny problems like all the lights would turn off after 10-15 minutes turned on, AC was more like a heater and the brake was awkward. Even with all those problems, i was very proud of it since it was my first car. My dad got it repainted and slowly fix those problems.

This is a story of my second ride. My mom started a wedding decorations business when i was in university and needed a pickup truck to help her move all the decorations to the wedding places. We decided to sell my Corolla and get a Toyota Kijang pickup.

It was '91 Toyota Kijang pickup, the third generation of the Kijang family. From wikipedia, i found out that it was sold as Toyota Unser in Malaysia, Tamaraw in Philipines, Qualis in India and some other countries.

First time i got it, it was white and ugly. Unable to restrain myself any longer, i decided to do some makeovers. These are some of the things i did:

1. Painted it "Metropolitan Blue" color by Danagloss. This was the same color i painted my Corolla with. I guess i just love blue so much. Heck, maybe i'll paint The Dog blue also.

2. Attached a pair of tail-lights taken from the van version of my car.
3. Actually, i had 16 inch rims attached which was repainted to white (original color was silver) but one day i had an offer i can't refuse ... 18 inch Taiwanese rims with 95% condition used tires for only 3.8 million Rupiahs (which is around $400). The rims are what you see on the pics.

4. Also put on a new grille, front bumper, headlights etc which was also taken from the van version. I painted the grille bars black myself using spray paint.
5. As for the 5K - 1.5 liters engine, i didn't do much except putting Pertronix Igniter system, Pertronix ignition coil and Hurricane spark-plug wires. Actually i also oversized the cylinder by 0.5mm but i don't consider it as modification ... I just did it because i have to (c'mon ... you don't expect a 15+ years old engine to be running as it should be, do you?). I also removed the belt-driven radiator fan and replaced it with an electrical one.
6. As for the audio system, i put on a 5.1 system computer speaker set made by Philips. The speaker set was the MMS series. It has a power supply plug which needs a 13.8 VAC supply but, believe me, you can plug a 12 V DC car electrical supply straight-in. That is because actually the 13.8 VAC will eventually be rectified into a DC supply inside the speaker... Heheh, 4 years of college really did pay off. I used an MP3 player for the source which plugs straight in. However,that meant i only had a 2.1 system running ... I made a 2.1 to 5.1 converter but it ran on battery. I didn't have the time to change it to run on car battery. I was very proud of my soundsystem. The speaker set only cost me about $60 and the 1 Gigabyte MP3 player was around $50.You get a complete car soundsystem for only $110!

7. I put on a Tachometer from Autogauge. They are cheap but they didn't show the correct RPM. I had to set it to 8 cylinders so that it showed to correct RPM for my 5K engine.

8. I also put on an Air/Fuel Ratio meter from Autogauge. For those of you who understand that putting AFR Meter is not common for carbureted engine, then you know that it requires some trick. Usually AFR meter is put on a Fuel Injected car with closed loop system (having an O2 sensor). I just had to buy an O2 sensor and attached it on my exhaust pipe near the header, wire the AFR meter to it and it works! What good did it do? Well, i found out that i could reduce my primary main-jet to acquire the best AFR. That means less fuel and better mileage! I also know on what RPM i should run my car to get the best AFR and thus the best mileage also.

9. I put on Suzuki Jimny turn-signal lamps on Daihatsu Espass side-view mirrors. Granted, the lamps were too short but i didn't get any better candidate.

10. As you may have noticed, i custom-made a bed-cover for it. It was made from two 0.9mm aluminum sheets with iron bars as the frame. I used door hinge on the left side and two wing nuts on the right side to keep it closed. If i wanted to open the cover, i just had to unfasten the wing nuts. It cost me near $40 to make the bed-cover.
I kept the pickup for more than 4 years and sold it a few months ago. I was very sad when it was sold. So many memories were made with that truck. Even my girlfriend was sad also because it accompanied us on our dates. Well, sadly, keeping it would be too much hassle due to the way i work, moving from one city to another. Besides, i think it's about time for me to get my own car. So i made up my mind to sell it. Now, i am ready to make new memories with The Dog!