if you’ve ever searched for toyota chinook online, i’m sure you’ve seen this. this amazingly detailed scale model remote controlled chinook. there’s lot’s of photos and descriptions on the scale builders guild forum. and take a look at the videos below. it’s hard to tell if it’s a real chinook or a model!

“I originally bought my Chinook in march of 2003 and could not pass it through a safety inspection so it sat till mid march 2010. For the next three weeks ( afterwork and weekends) I switched the Chinook over to a 1980 Toyota longbed chassis , upgraded the suspension and set off on a 5 week vacation around BC s interior and coast. I had a few repairs to do during this time but after that its been all good and I have had a few great adventures in it without incident .”

Blew 4×4 Custom 75 Toyota Chinook Motorhome

This is another one of those projects that started with an idea and slowly progressed. Its a 78 Toyota truck with a 75 Chinook body, with all 82 Toy 4×4 running gear, sports a 7″ lift, power steering, AC, power windows, the rear camper section will  have the roof mounted permanent (no pop-top) the small rear door will give way to a single large swing up rear door, all the side windows and compartments will be removed and finished out, and the rear interior will be just an upholstered open shell for hauling stuff.  The old saying turbochargers are fine but I’d rather be blown applies, it will run a built 22R with a side mount supercharger. Just another play toy to keep me occupied.

read more about blew here

When I bought it, worse shape than an abandoned crack house

Off comes the shell

old cab was trash, not many parts worth keeping

I had this truck patially done so figured it was a good candidate for the shell but need the frame lengthened

frame cut off

rear half rolled out of the way

lengthening the frame

welded together, now just needs filled to make it the same all the way

rolling chassis again

the shell back on

starting on the floor replacement

grinding off all the old glass connection

what the original floor constuction looks like under the top layer

removed the stock wheelwells and built smaller ones

rear step up area was boxed in and made into storage compartment

working on rear door

paneling walls, you can see the steel frame work on roof area, has similar in walls

door hinges built and gas shocks mounted

door fits and body lines look the same

moved gas filler down below floor level and added door lid

filling holes

cut the roof lip out

glassing in the roof and molding it to the same profile as body

building door panels

finished door panels

rewiring

wires, wires, everywhere wires

built a new fuse panel with blade fuses to handle all the added electronics, more fuses under the hood along with many relays

seats

some of the gauges plus quick release steering wheel

more gauges and flat screen monitors for tv ect.

rear door finished

rear interior

dual rear shocks and axle torque arm

front dual shocks and remote oil filter setup

fenderwell cutout to fit supercharger

motorvation

says it all

oil cooler

fuel filter canister and transfer case

dual mufflers

wrapped exhaust system to help noise

no more hood rod holder upper

headlight upgrade, got lotsa light now

out Chinookin

out rock digging

out rock digging again

more rock digging

and again, another rock digging trip

spiffed up for car show

brownie & blue

the 1977 toyota chinook owner’s manual! everything you ever wanted to know about how to operate and enjoy your chinook! did you know there was an option of fold out bunk beds? i wish my chinook had those. be nice if there was a higher resolution scan of this manual, but this is all that’s out there right now. enjoy and download it here.

Nolan’s 1976 chinook 4×4. here’s some timeline photos from the build and some of the story. you can read the whole story here on toyotamotorhomes.com

“I started cleaning and tinkering, removing broken pieces, worn out pieces, loose pieces, etc. to get down to a starting point, within 3 days of purchase I had a bare frame sitting in the driveway and Chinook parts scattered everywhere, OK now theres a place to start “ha ha” By this time the wife was starting to give me that look, but HEY, if I’m going to do it I might as well do it right, and if we were going to actually camp, sleep, and travel in this thing I wanted to make sure it was safe, dependable, reliable, and looked half way respectable. A few trips and many calls to RV parts sources quickly revealed that these old Chinooks are beyond the point of finding parts for so my many needed pieces that I thought would be easy to replace now needed a new strategy to restore it. So strategy became “I’ll just build it the way I see fit and do what I can” To make things more exciting a friend had wrecked his Toyota 4×4 truck, and I got this great idea that maybe I could incorporate some of the pieces into this project, so along with a completely dismantled Chinook I now had a wrecked 4×4 to add to the collection. By now the wife had figured I had totally lost it and was beyond sanity. Told her if she needed me I would be in the garage for the next few years. With the bare Chinook frame as a starting point I cut the frame in half, grafted on the front section of the 4×4 frame, from there the reconstruction process began.”

the chinook got a nail in the rear tire as i was backing it into the shop yard to work on it. so then i had to take the tire off. the lug nuts were not easy to get off. the rust i guess. and with these wheels you gotta loosen the nuts just slightly in the right order, or one ends up being impossible to get off, cause it’s got the whole wheel wedged against it. might have sucked to do this by the side of the road. but i was at the shop and i had the impact driver.

my collection of toyota chinook, gazelle, round tripper, mpg, newport and omega ads. this is what i’ve been able to find online so far. can’t wait to see more!

there’s a small hole in the exhaust right before the catalytic convertor. it’s not a rust hole. it’s deliberate. it must have had some purpose? but right now it’s an exhaust leak. it’s right below the cab so you can smell the exhaust, and it’s louder than it should be. so for now it’s getting this 2″ clamp to cover it up. seems like a simple enough concept. but i’m not a expert on toyota trucks, or any cars. so this is all learning for me.