So I thought I'd start a new build thread, actually not a patrol, but another interesting creation by our friends in Japan, an old 3cyl Daihatsu Charade. This is from the era before Toyota bought Daihatsu, so it's not sacrilegious, don't worry 
The story behind this car is fairly interesting,
For the entirety of my P's up until now, my daily driver has been a 2004 Holden Calais (Slightly fancier trim of Commodore, not much to mention really, probably the most noteworthy feature is dual-zone aircon with digital controls in degrees Celsius, not just a simple hot-cold knob, and almost 20 years ago), which funnily enough was built the same month of the same year I was born, so we're almost exactly the same age. This isn't actually my car, it's the spare car that I've been driving, always with the knowledge that my brother would eventually get his P's and the car would then be his to drive until he got one of his own. Recently it dawned on me that he would be getting his P's in only a few months, and I needed to seriously look at getting myself a permanent daily, as the old MK isn't really suited to driving every day, it would be both uncomfortable and expensive.
So for a few weeks I browsed marketplace, looking for a cheap car that wouldn't give me any trouble, like a Getz or something of the sort, but I also kinda wanted something different, as some of you may have figured out I don't really like fitting in and being the same as everyone else
. When I did my short cert ii mechanics course at Tafe one of the cars we worked on was a G200 charade, and I kinda fell in love with the charade as it was so easy to work on and just generally a cool little car. So one of the things I ended up searching for a lot on marketplace was a charade. Every time I'd look, there was this one that caught my eye, a little G100, in very nice condition, not running, but it was always too expensive. But I'd go back and look at it constantly, scrolling through the photos at the pristine interior and clean white paint. Eventually it came down to a (still to expensive but more reasonable) price where I decided to actually message the guy and go look at it, and took the trip down to Brisbane in the Patrol, actually it's first long trip since I swapped the gearbox out.
Got to the place and had a look at the car, and just liked it even more, I noticed a little panel damage here and there that didn't show up in the marketplace photos but it didn't make me like it any less. So I went home, and a while later made the guy an offer, he made a counter offer, and I accepted.
Went down with Dad (@trev zd30) and towed it home behind his GU, no trouble at all of course, the Charade weighs 800kg lol. And now I had a project daily alongside the Patrol, although the plan for the Charade was to get it running, registered, and then spend as little money on it as possible, as a much cheaper daily than the 3.8 V6 Commodore.
More in the next post...
The story behind this car is fairly interesting,
For the entirety of my P's up until now, my daily driver has been a 2004 Holden Calais (Slightly fancier trim of Commodore, not much to mention really, probably the most noteworthy feature is dual-zone aircon with digital controls in degrees Celsius, not just a simple hot-cold knob, and almost 20 years ago), which funnily enough was built the same month of the same year I was born, so we're almost exactly the same age. This isn't actually my car, it's the spare car that I've been driving, always with the knowledge that my brother would eventually get his P's and the car would then be his to drive until he got one of his own. Recently it dawned on me that he would be getting his P's in only a few months, and I needed to seriously look at getting myself a permanent daily, as the old MK isn't really suited to driving every day, it would be both uncomfortable and expensive.
So for a few weeks I browsed marketplace, looking for a cheap car that wouldn't give me any trouble, like a Getz or something of the sort, but I also kinda wanted something different, as some of you may have figured out I don't really like fitting in and being the same as everyone else
Got to the place and had a look at the car, and just liked it even more, I noticed a little panel damage here and there that didn't show up in the marketplace photos but it didn't make me like it any less. So I went home, and a while later made the guy an offer, he made a counter offer, and I accepted.
Went down with Dad (@trev zd30) and towed it home behind his GU, no trouble at all of course, the Charade weighs 800kg lol. And now I had a project daily alongside the Patrol, although the plan for the Charade was to get it running, registered, and then spend as little money on it as possible, as a much cheaper daily than the 3.8 V6 Commodore.
More in the next post...