It started as a forgotten camper in a shed. Here's why a rare Toyota Chinook is worth an obsessive rebuild — and what it's going to become.
The Toyota Chinook is one of those vehicles most people have never heard of, and the ones who have never forget it. Built on an early Hilux platform and fitted with a fibreglass camper body, it was a rare, oddball adventure vehicle decades ahead of the overlanding trend.
This one is a 1978 model. When I found it, the body was tired but honest, and the running gear was well past its use-by date. The romantic option is a faithful restoration. The interesting option — the one worth filming — is something else entirely.
The plan is to keep the character of the Chinook body and completely modernise everything underneath it: an 80 Series LandCruiser chassis, a 6.0-litre V8, a six-speed automatic, a custom fuel system and a fully digital electrical platform. Vintage on the outside, modern engineering underneath.
This website is the permanent home for that story — the decisions, the mistakes, the fabrication and eventually the travel. The build is only the beginning.