Jamie Winsloe’s 1993 Toyota Hilux has been reborn several times.

Built for hard farm work back in the early 2000s in Christchurch, it went to a farmer near Lake Hood in Canterbury.

It was used to cross a river on the property almost daily, avoiding a longer commute down to the state highway to use a bridge.

It had an on-board air compressor to positive-pressurise the starter motor and diffs to prevent water getting in.

Next, it was sold to a new owner in Gore, where it got a new low km engine. It then went to another new owner who fitted a new transmission, before being bought by Jamie.

“The previous owner was a good friend of mine. He had the truck for years, using it as a highly capable club truck completing many runs all around the South Island including Nelson and West Coast trips, even a couple of team winch challenges and 24-hour challenges where I navigated and set winch lines multiple times.”

When Jamie’s mate moved to a bigger farm, and with the truck needing a lot of maintenance, “I made an offer on the old Hilux and it made its way home to the shed. As it had been trailered a lot to and from events it still never missed a beat with a few minor setbacks such as belts or manual hubs playing up.”

The first few months were used figuring out what wearable parts needed replacing.

The base running gear mainly stays unchanged because the truck was certified in its current format.

“I was mainly just tidying up a lot of the mounts and conversions. With information being limited when I purchased it, I’ve had to track down a fair few bushings and other parts.”

Jamie owned a modified 80 series Land Cruiser in the past and had always wanted to compete in more 4WD challenges. The 80 was always too heavy to be competitive but the Hilux was just right.

“I had always wanted to compete in the long-standing Mainland winch series. However once most of the build was complete, I enquired about competing and due to low entries the last few years it had been put on hold.”

When 4x4 Events advertised a ‘give it a go’ enduro in Methven, “we headed along and had a blast”.

“We’ve attended three more events there. It is so well run, always changing around and the team are awesome to deal with! They also hosted the 25-year Mainland anniversary on-site.”

Next up was the Mud and Steel event in September with Friday night stages and Saturday stages and an NZ1 enduro run on the Sunday.

So what’s been done?

Bar work. Jamie set about replacing the old farm flatdeck and the pressed steel bumper.

“I decided to tube the front, rear and have an exo-cage for the likely rollovers.”

The current winch set up is a Runva EWS10000 with twin 7.2hp motors in the front with a 108:1 ratio and a Runva EWB9500-Q with a 7.2hp motor and 80:1 ratio in the rear.

“This is a beast of a winch, a super-fast line speed and still plenty of power.”

The battery was upgraded from a 700cca to twin 1000cca red top with 95mm cabling using a 2500-amp isolator in the cabin. He also moved the battery from the engine bay and mounted it on the rear deck.

The alternator was replaced from an 85-amp to a 140-amp output model with mounts and wiring altered to suit.

Jamie converted the old leaf spring diffs to coil using custom mounts welded to the factory chassis and diff housings. The front diff is running generation one Mitsubishi Pajero rear trailing arms as radius arms with GQ Safari Panhard rod and 79-series coils with four-inch lift 80 series Land Cruiser rear shocks mounted inside the coils.

The rear diff is five-link with custom arms using GQ safari bushings and rear Springs of unknown origin. Like the front, the rear uses four-inch lift 80 series rear shocks.

The diffs are 5.29 ratio chromoly Hilux crownwheel and pinions with limited slip diff centres.

“No budget for lockers just yet!”

The heart of the truck is a generation one 3.8-litre Buick V6 engine out of a VP Holden Commodore, bolted to a TH700 transmission and a Hilux transfer case using a Mark’s Adaptors mount and retaining the factory crossmember. The engine also features a Mark’s Adaptors wiring loom. Custom driveshafts send power to the front and rear, both with double Cardan joints.

In the cab, the original Hilux dash and gauges have been retained.

The truck uses a generation two Toyota Surf steering box through 60-series Land Cruiser steering joints to high steer arms.

Tyres are twin block Simex 35x10.5x16 on -28 D Window beadlocks for competition; 35x12.5x16 Goodride M8085 for coast/road and club trips on ROH Blactracs; and 34x10.5x15 Simex Jungle Trekkers to run in classes that require tyres under 840mm.

Jamie says a lot of basic maintenance was required to get it back to road-worthy standard.

“It had been trailered a lot to and from events, all the bushings, bearings and serviceable parts had to be sourced and replaced. The bar work was completely removed and remade including the cage, flat deck and front bar. The front winch cradle is removable, and the rear winch can bolt-in in about 20 minutes if needed.”

Is it finished? Jamie says any build is always ongoing.

“The power steering is not a strong point with the set up running off the factory Holden engine steering pump it’s not a good match for the Hilux steering box so I need to adapt a Falcon pump to the engine in the future.”

Later, he wants to build a later model Ecotech 3.8-litre V6 with a tweaked cam and a stand-alone computer to make a bit more power.

All of the work has been carried out by Jamie’s own auto engineering company, J R Winsloe Limited with products supplied from Adventure Autos.

The Hilux has been on multiple west coast day trips and longer adventures with Reefton and Haast being highlights.

Jamie says he plans to continue to use the truck for more club trips and competitions.