Bringing out the best in off-road vehicles

The Toyota “Hilux Surf” with its harsh bumpers and matte body color was impressive. tires and open country, Mr. Tomonori Ono’s car stood out from the crowd of Japanese off-roaders!

A DIY off-roader after enjoying J-Lugs from drifting

The tires installed were TOYO TIRES Open Country, size 305/70-16 inches. It is not enough to call it a trendy lift-up type. The atmosphere of a hard off-roader was everywhere in Mr. Ono’s car.

The vehicle was a Toyota “Hilux Surf. Although not officially sold in Japan at present, the first generation (N60 series, 1983-1989) was born in 1983 as one of Toyota’s representative SUVs, followed by the second generation (N130 series, 1989-1995) and the third generation (N180 series, 1995-2002), and this vehicle is the fourth generation (N210 series, 2002-2009), officially becoming the N215 series due to its 4WD.

“Right after I got my license, I enjoyed drifting in an R32 Skyline Type M. I was a bit of a freak. As is often the pattern, I decided to switch to a 4-door when I got married, and I got an N160 series Hilux pickup, double cab, which I admired at the time. However, when I tried it, I found it difficult to use as a family car because it did not have centralized door locks or power windows. From there, I switched to the N130 series Hilux Surf.”

The “Hilux Surf” (N130 series), which had been converted to an off-road style that came as the Ono family’s second-generation family car, eliminated all the inconveniences of the pickup double cab. As a result, it has been a family favorite for about 11 years. In fact, during that time, it has evolved from the off-roader style when it was first purchased to the J-lag style, which is the exact opposite of the dress-up genre.

From the glaring 20-inch wheels to the off-road style again

J-lugs are a custom genre that became popular more than 10 years ago. Simply explained, J-Lag is a style based on Japanese cars to create a “luxury” look, using large-diameter wheels and sometimes flashy graphic paints. Luxury sedans and sports cars sold in the U.S. were often used as a base, but the Hilux Surf was popular among some fans as a 4WD J-Lag base car. So Mr. Ono was enjoying J-lugs as a family car with 20-inch wheels on his beloved N130 series.

And even when he switched to the Ono family’s third-generation family car, the N215 series, his current beloved car, he initially followed the J-lugs. However, as his J-lug friends gradually dwindled and he was searching for the next dress-up style, he discovered Hawaii’s off-road style on Instagram and other sites. He was inspired by this and thought, “This is the next step!” with this inspiration, he decided to go back to off-road style.

“The first thing I got when I left J-Rag was a welder and a cutting machine. Buying all the parts would have cost a lot of money, so I tried to make as much as I could myself. But I didn’t have a bender machine (a machine for bending pipes), so I cut up the exterior bumpers into small pieces and welded them. I didn’t make any drawings; I made the shape by repeatedly cutting and joining the pieces to match the actual ones. The pipe holes were covered with covers and welded again. Where we couldn’t get it right, we puttied over the welds to cover up the messy weld marks.”

The exterior of the car is also painted in-house. The undercoat with a rough texture used on the back of the fenders was used as a base for the body, and the paint was painted in French Gray by Takara Paint, a well-known car paint manufacturer. He also tried his hand at stenciling the doors.

“I used a whiteboard marker as a test, thinking it would disappear if I wiped it off, but contrary to my expectations, it didn’t disappear. There was nothing I could do about it, so I decided to leave it as it was.”

Though we went through a lot of trouble, we have completed the current style. It is now the Ono family’s car, and it is also very active with their other hobby, the outdoors.