2008 Land Cruiser Prado: My purchase, restoration & ownership story

The landed cost so far including all of the above is ~ 15 Lakhs and my bond with the silver Rhino is growing stronger with each passing day!

BHPian raj_1787 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I start writing this saga as I sit on a plane from Mumbai to Delhi. I will try to make you live through the journey of rebirth of my “SILVER RHINO” as I have experienced over the course of the last few months. Please bear with me as this is going to be a long story.

This was somewhere around mid-June 2022 and I had been driving a 2016 XUV500 W10 AT for almost 3 years now. We had just completed a Mumbai – Uttarakhand – Mumbai drive with a group which had 4 cars – Land Cruiser Prado 120, Range Rover Evoque, a rental XUV500, and my XUV 500. While I was quite satisfied with my XUV 500 after returning from this trip, I felt that I should start looking for an upgrade if I had to plan for such long road trips so that these trips could be more comfortable for the family.

On a Sunday evening, while I was casually window shopping on the classified page of team bhp, I saw this very special post about a Land Cruiser Prado 2008 VX (2nd owner, 137000 on ODO, 4L V6 Petrol) which caught my attention and I sent a mail enquiring about the vehicle and shared my number in the mail, and I had almost forgotten about it. The next morning, while I was driving to the office, I got a call from the owner of the vehicle.

We spoke for a few minutes and exchanged notes on the details of the vehicle. Based on initial inputs collected over call and looking at the pics of the car, this seemed to be a genuine deal and the current owner was selling due to the 15 Yr NGT rule in NCR. I was, fortunately, travelling to Delhi in the same week, and we decided to fix up a meeting to have a quick look at the car and discuss further.

The First Encounter:

Based on a quick drive and initial evaluation my observations were the following:

The bodyline seemed neat, with a few scratches here and there but no major structural damage or rusting. Multiple panels were painted but that was expected given the age of the car and NCR traffic. Paint jobs were not that great though. The front glass had been replaced at Toyota ASS.

Though the drive felt nice (had to be – it is a Land Cruiser with 4L V6 petrol under the hood), the following were a bit worrying:

• Power Steering pump needed replacement – This was a known issue and the current owner decided to skip this as he had to sell the vehicle anyhow and was not keen to invest further.
• The steering Rack had a very minor play, possibly linked to the steering pump.
• Slight vibration in the brake pedal while applying the brake at triple-digit speed. This was possibly due to a non-OEM brake pad replacement which was done recently or a bad disk skimming job.

The interiors had aged well, but not maintained very well. The leather seats had cracks and the leather had faded at some places. Fortunately, none of the patches was torn. The head unit was aftermarket and OEM HU was preserved and available, trims around the AC vents on the dashboard were broken.

The right Rear Bumper fog light was broken, one wheel hub cap was missing, and one roof rail cover was missing.

Tyres were almost new, but were All Terrain and hence a bit of road noise.

The car was originally owned by the MD of Apollo Tyres, and the current owner was a CEO at an IT company in Gurgaon who himself is an enthusiast.

Documents were complete, including the original invoice and tax receipt which are required at the time of reregistering the vehicle in Maharashtra. The current owner agreed to get the NoC issued through his agent at his cost.

Overall, I got a feeling that the deal is genuine, and I decided to proceed further. Since I had to fly back to Mumbai the same day, I did not have much time for further evaluation. Hence, we both agreed that a friend of mine who is also an enthusiast will have a quick look at the car and we will decide on the next steps.

In a few days, my friend planned to meet the owner and further evaluate the car. My friend upon a quick inspection was impressed with the car, and we decided to close the deal. While we agreed on the commercial terms and handed over a token amount, we wanted to take a professional opinion before taking the plunge.

We did the following as the next steps:

1. My friend helped me in getting access to the vehicle history from Toyota. We were able to get a complete history of the vehicle since the car came on the road to date. One thing was sure the car had been maintained at Toyota ASS, and while the regular maintenance schedule was done with a few minor repairs, nothing was seriously off in the car. There was a list of observations in the remarks section of the history which were primarily related to the steering, suspension, and brake work (which was performed outside ASS)
2. Another friend (who also owns a 2007 LC 120) recommended getting the car evaluated at AutoMarc in Okhla as they are a Land Cruiser specialist in the NCR region. The car was checked by Mr. Virender at AutoMarc and as per him the only immediate thing that needed attention was the steering pump, rest all the observations from Toyota ASS could be ignored as the car was driving quite well. As per him even if we did replace the OEM steering pump and did regular maintenance, the car will be mechanically fit in under a lakh rupees. As a worst case, If we were to address every observation mentioned by Toyota ASS, the estimated cost could be ~ 3-4 lakh rupees. As per him, parts can be arranged either at Toyota ASS or from suppliers from Dubai/Thailand

The above two gave me a lot of clarity on what I am getting into with this project. Next was to evaluate TCO and the following were the components:

1. Cost of car ~ Deal was closed at 10.25 Lakhs
2. Cost of shipping/driving the car to Mumbai from Gurgaon. This was coming to around ~ 30K – 35K whether I was to drive the car to Mumbai (considering fuel, toll, hotels etc) or ship it through a car carrier
3. Cost of reregistering the car in Mumbai and Insurance. I had gone through this process for my Nissan Sunny XLD 2012 just a few months ago and reasonably confident that this will not be challenging to execute. As per my agent, the cost of transfer was estimated at ~3.25 lakhs including tax of reregistration in MH, Green tax as the car was completing 15 years soon, agent fees etc.
4. Mechanical Repairs ~ 1 lakh as per feedback from AutoMarc. While I had reasonable clarity on the cost of repairs, some parts of my brain still had a “what if” doubt. I budgeted another lakh for this "what if" element
5. Cosmetic repairs, paint job and upgrades ~ while this had no limit, I was ready to spend around ~2 lakhs to make it look near perfect.

This was totalling ~ 15 – 16 Lakhs with a reasonable degree of confidence on the landed cost with a 10-15 % variability max.

All of this took about 6 week’s time and it was around July end when I decided to proceed with this project. By this time, we also had a new member in our family – our newborn son. We took it as a sign and there was a lot of excitement in the air. We decided to proceed ahead with this project.

The NoC Story:

After a discussion with the current owner, I made a partial payment to him and he agreed to apply for the NoC. Balance payment was to be made once NoC would come, and we could conclude the transaction. The process started around 1st week of September and was a roller coaster ride, with all that could go wrong, with the original RTO (HR 55) being shut down, Agent losing the original RC in the process, Agent Tantrums and whatnot. I had plans of getting the car before Diwali as it was also my birthday around that time and who would not want a Land Cruiser as a birthday gift, but god was testing my patience and there was still no sign of this getting concluded. I was losing patience and started following up a bit more aggressively with the current owner to put pressure on the agent and get the documents straight. While the NOC came in, the agent lost the original RC in the process. To get the duplicate RC issued, the NoC had to be cancelled and this was about to get into an infinite loop. I discussed this with my RTO agent, and he suggested a way out where we could get B Extract from the RTO instead of getting the duplicate RC. The existing owner discussed with his agent and after some to and fro he finally had the B extract in hand. We finalised a date to meet up in Delhi and conclude the transaction.

The Transaction and Shipment story:

While the date to meet and conclude the deal was final, a big question was how to ship the car. My heart wanted to drive down to Mumbai, but my brain suggested holding on and getting the car in the best of shape before taking such a long trip, especially with the current state of steering – it was quite hard due to the pump issue and the brakes juddering at high speed. I finally decided to ship the car through Agarwal Packers. We met in Gurgaon and concluded the transaction, thereafter I parked the car at the hotel where I was staying in Gurgaon. While my schedule was quite busy due to work, I decided to meet my friend who had helped me during the evaluation of the car. We drove the car a bit around in the DLF complex itself and called it a day post-dinner. Two days later the car was to be picked up by the movers, and that morning I decided to make a quick early morning trip to Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi before the packers pick it up. It was a pleasant winter morning in the first week of Dec and I could even enjoy the heated seats. It was a breeze to drive the “Silver Rhino” on the smooth tarmac of NH48 from Gurgaon to Delhi. The car was finally picked up by the movers and I flew back to Mumbai. It took the movers roughly 6 days before they could deliver the car to me in Mumbai.

The Assessment and Refurbishment:

This was the real test, where the actual assessment had to be done, quotations had to be taken and some more decisions had to be taken. I had established a connection with the service manager at Madhuban Toyota, Mumbai through the service manager at Randhawa Motors, Mumbai who used to maintain my XUV500. I got the car assessed at Madhuban Toyota and established a good equation with the service advisor and the service manager. The Advisor had worked in the middle east in the past and was very well-versed with Land Cruiser and this was a huge relief. A thorough assessment of the car was carried out and the feedback on the car was positive.

Following was recommended:

1. Power Steering pump replacement – This was required, and I had known this from day 1. I asked them to check if there was a possibility to repair it, but the replacement was the only choice offered. Repairing was not recommended. The cost was ~ 70K
2. Steering rack assembly replacement – There was a very minor play in the rack and no leakage yet. As per recommendation, this could be done a few months down the line and wasn’t the need of the hour. The cost was ~ 1.5 Lakhs. Repairing the rack could also be explored but that had to be at a FNG
3. The upper arm ball joint boot was wearing out. The ball joint was healthy, and only boot replacement was required. Though a pair of upper arms was ~ 70K, replacing the ball joint boots was ~ 3K
4. Front Brakes – The previous owner had recently changed the brake pads (non-OEM) and had also skimmed the disks, but this was done at an FNG and there was a bit of judder while applying brakes at triple-digit speeds. It was recommended to go for OEM brake pads as the brakes were underperforming due to the quality of brake pads (also blame it on the size and weight of this Rhino. The discs had no further room for skimming to eliminate the judder and were suggested a replacement. While there was no risk at city speeds, this had to be done before I decide to take this for a long road trip. I decided to postpone this expense till the next service. Estimated cost ~ 35K including front disks and pads.
5. Scheduled Maintenance – A service schedule for 140K ODO mark was proposed and the following was to be replaced – Oil, Oil Filter, AC Filter, Fuel Filter
6. Ornamental elements – A few ornamental elements were missing which the previous owner had ignored as he anyways parting with the car. The wheel hub cap on one of the wheels, and one of the Roof rail cover was missing, Both put together ~ 7K

The parts were not readily available and had to be ordered for which I had to deposit an advance. I deposited the advance, and the parts order was placed by Madhuban Toyota.

It took ~ 10 days for the parts to arrive and an appointment was fixed with Madhuban Toyota. The car was left at Madhuban Toyota and it took them 2 days to complete all the jobs that were agreed upon. Post repairs the car felt great, the steering was smooth, no whining sound from the steering pump and no unusual revving while turning the steering. The minor play in the steering rack also vanished, maybe because the new pump was providing adequate pressure in the rack.

Now was the time to address the cosmetics, although it wasn’t very bad, both the right doors which were repainted were showing up air bubbles in the paint, and there were a few scratches here and there on the body claddings. Before I planned further on the cosmetics, there was something that needed immediate attention. There was something wrong with the audio and the driver door speaker was jarring badly. I fixed up an appointment at Megasounds, Malad and met Ravi. I was very clear that I wanted to upgrade the audio in a staged fashion.

Currently, it was running on all 4 stock speakers and a Blaupunkt HU, which was a basic Android touchscreen unit – no Android Auto/Apple CarPlay. The previous owner had replaced it as the OEM HU did not have a Bluetooth/Aux jack and was a Pioneer unit with a cassette player and a 6 CD changer. The owner did hand over the original HU to me in case I wanted to switch back to the OEM unit. Ravi suggested that we replace the front two speakers with components, and then go for an amp and a sub later as required. His recommendation was Helix and I went ahead with the pair that he recommended.

The OEM speakers were Oval 6X9 inch units with a special frame, and the components were 6.5 inch round, hence a custom frame was created out of plywood to carry out the installation. The installation was done neatly, now was the time to test the output. The output was quite disappointing as the sound was muffled. And the rear OEM pair was sounding much better. Ravi tried tuning the setup using the equalizer but couldn’t do much about the output. The Helix pair will probably need a suitable amp to fire them up nicely, but this was not happening immediately. The good thing was that at least I was getting clean sound now and there was no jarring.

Now was the time to focus on how cosmetics can be improved. I took it straight to Jatin at Wagenwerkz, Marol. Though I wasn’t too happy with the quality of work that was done by his team on my XUV500, I was a little unsure if I will go ahead with him with this project. Having seen him deliver some excellent projects in the past and knowing that he does have an eye for detail and owns up to the outcome and does the job again if need be, I decided to take a leap of faith and trust him with this project.

I was not planning to do anything major on cosmetics and had initially thought of repainting the right side/front bumper and left side body claddings. When I Met Jatin, he proposed that for a much better outcome and a fresh look, we should consider an overcoat, but I wasn’t sure. Anyways, I had some time at hand to decide as Jatin was finishing the Alpha Romeo and Impala which were due to participate in a show in Baroda. He had asked me to give him the car in the first week of Jan as he will be done with the current projects by then. It was perfect as I was to go on a vacation with family around the same time.

After some more discussion with Jatin, we decided that we will go ahead with a full overcoat including alloy wheels repaint and Ceramic Coating. Jatin indicated that the car should be ready by 14th Jan. I was happy and started imagining a quick trip around Mumbai in Prado as my wedding anniversary was approaching in Jan third week. Things usually don’t go the way when you desperately want them to go your way – it was already the third week of Jan and the car was still being prepared to be painted. I was in no mood to put pressure on Jatin and wanted him to do things right. Jatin asked if I wanted some variation in the silver shade and gave a few ideas from the Mercs that he had finished in various shades of silver. I also discussed with him if we should explore a dual-tone option, where we choose a darker shade for the bumper and claddings and a lighter shade for the body panels. I started exploring if I could see any reference images of LC120s painted in dual tone but could get only one reference pic which wasn’t looking very appealing. We sampled a few shades and decided to proceed with Skoda Brilliant Silver. I also suggested that we paint the alloys in black, but then Jatin suggested we keep them silver as silver will make it look more sophisticated. Finally, the car was painted around 20th Jan and I received some initial pics. The shade had come out nicely, and I was glad that I could not see any waviness in the panels which was my biggest worry as they look ugly and give the car a very aged look.

It was then time to paint the alloys, bumpers and other external trims, which was also carried out in the next few days. The paint job was over in the next 4-5 days and now was the time to put the car together and start the finishing work. The process had slowed down a bit but I was glad that with every incremental update, the Silver Rhino had started looking better. The most challenging part of putting the trims back was the cladding around the car. Toyota has a very complex variety of clips which holds these claddings together. Every cladding has at least 5-6 types of different clips which are different shaper and colour depending on the placement. I was able to finally crack the code and ordered the required set of clips from a marketplace in Dubai. In the meanwhile, Jatin proposed that he fabricate the clips with screws and metal sheets and proceed with finishing the car and he would replace them with OEM clips once the shipment arrives from Dubai.

An additional light bar, dash cam and led projector fogs were also retrofitted while the car was being finished. The broken AC trims which I had sourced from Amazon US were also replaced.

Finally, after about 40 days of hard work, the car was ready to be delivered back home. I was travelling for work while the car was getting ready, but Jatin’s team kept sharing updates with me and I was glad the outcome was shining more than I had expected.

Waited for about a week for the ceramic coating to curate, and subsequently went to a 3M outlet in Mulund for a foam wash and rear windshield polishing as it had some wiper marks and scratches.

Now was the time for some more tender love and care for the interiors and I decided to go with the following:

1. Steering wheel leather wrap by Orchis, Powai – A very well-executed and neat job done by Orchis. It took 3-4 hours to remove the steering wheel, and then fabricate the leather wrap and hand stitch the entire thing.
2. Seats cleaning and refurbishment – While the interiors had aged well and looked graceful, I wanted to just give it a basic cleaning and try to polish the faded-out areas to make it look neat. After a bit of research, I zeroed in on a product by Furniture Clinic – Leather recolouring Balm which was available on Amazon US. In a few days, while a friend was visiting Seattle, I could manage to get this product delivered to his hotel and he was glad to bring it from me. Along with it I also ordered a rubber seal refurbishment oil by 303 which was much needed for a 15 yr old vehicle. Once the product came in, I decided to spend a weekend cleaning and polishing the seat and the results were quite good I must say. The faded white patch disappeared, the cracks were less visible and overall the interiors were looking fresh and beautiful.

The transfer story:

This part was rather smooth, though a two-stepped process as the car first had to be transferred and re-registered in Mumbai, and then I had to wait for the RC to be delivered to me so that we could submit the application for part 2 which was to submit green tax for lifeline extension. As I am writing this story the car has been transferred to Mumbai with a new identity and has also been given a lifeline extension till 2028.

The landed cost so far including all of the above is ~ 15 Lakhs and my bond with the silver Rhino is growing stronger with each passing day!

Stay tuned for some more stories about the Silver Rhino which I will share soon.

Meanwhile, sharing some pics in chronological order: Receiving the car from the previous owner, Work performed at Wagenwerkz, and the final outcome.

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