I

HAVE been a big proponent of apprenticeships

ever since I failed my own spectacularly. While their

primary purpose is to teach the ins and outs of a

specific trade, they more often than not equip you with

a set of skills you’ll use almost every day of your life.

From knowing when to shut your mouth and when to

point out those more qualified are doing it wrong, to

hands-on skills and the ability to make a few hundred

bucks for a Saturday’s work. But, without a doubt, the

one skill that’s universal across every apprenticeship

is learning how to achieve your goals with barely two

cents to rub together. While the Hilux you’re looking

at now might have had a few key upgrades when

apprentice electrician Taylor Shaw got his hands on it, it’s that

can-do attitude which turned it into the off-road beast it is today.

When Taylor first took the keys two years ago, the live-axle

conversion had already been undertaken by a local fab shop – with

a few loose ends left to tie up. The custom 4x4 shop had sliced

and diced the OEM independent front end away from the chassis

and grafted into place a custom live-axle housing based off an 80

Series Cruiser. It runs an 80 Series diff centre, axles and steering

knuckles, but the whole lot has been shoehorned into a one-off

sheetmetal housing with the pumpkin flipped to the passenger

side to suit the Hilux’s transfer case drop. The arrangement is

held in place with a set of off-the-shelf 80 Series radius arms and

a Panhard rod, all going to custom-fabricated mounts on the ’Lux’s

frame. While the hot-glue gun was out, an 80 Series steering box

was added to the arrangement, with extensive plating to reinforce

the chassis.

Links are great, but all the links in the world won’t keep your

4x4 off the bump stops. To that end, the ’Lux is running a set of

10-inch travel Fox coilovers with a 2.5-inch diameter body giving

72 http://www.4X4australia.com.au

CUSTOM TOYOTA HILUX