SHED BUILT CRUISER

RICHARD SWINDEL-HURST STARTED A PROJECT TO KEEP HIM OCCUPIED DURING LOCKDOWNS, AND THE RESULT IS THIS EPIC BARRA-POWERED FRANKENCRUISER

- MATT RAUDONIKIS

FOR most young blokes, their first 4x4 will be something cheap and cheerful that they can jump in, turn the key and hit the tracks. These days, we’re seeing plenty of first timers able to shell out for a brand new vehicle and then equip it with all the trimming, but Melbourne’s Richard Swindel-Hurst took a totally different approach for his first real 4x4 project – he didn’t even start with a complete vehicle.

TRAY
Plenty of the owner’s handiwork at the rear of this rig; 300mm was chopped off the back of the chassis and the fabricated tray was fitted on custom mounts. Two fabricated fuel tanks each holding 100 litres of 95 octane unleaded went under the tray.

“The 40 Series is my favourite shape of LandCruiser” Richard told us. “While it’s the best-looking LandCruiser, it’s a little light on for features, so I decided to modernise it and make it a modern car that looks like a 40 Series.”

BATTERY
A 110Ah lithium battery is mounted at the back of the cabin and controlled by a Redarc DC-DC charger. Starter battery is an Optima AGM unit.

Being a mechanical engineer certainly helps when you want to undertake such a project, and it gave Richard the knowledge to come up with a plan to achieve his goals. To say he started the home-built project from scratch is an understatement, and the first step of the project was building the shed to house it in.