THE FRANK TANK

COULD THIS BE THE FIRST V8-POWERED PANEL VAN-CONVERTED 80 SERIES LANDCRUISER IN THE COUNTRY?

- EVAN SPENCE

MARK Boxer, the owner and builder of this unique 80 Series LandCruiser, is a car guy through and through. Not only does he love spending time getting his hands dirty building everything from his Ford Falcon drag ute to this V8-powered panel van-converted 80 Series, he also documents these builds through his company Hoon TV (we thoroughly recommend you check out his content).

Mark has had a few four-wheel drives over the years, including a highly modified Land Rover Discovery and a SWB Pajero, but decided he wanted to build an 80 Series LandCruiser this time around, after always being a fan of the 80 Series shape, overall ruggedness and reliability offered by the platform.

“Eighties have always been known for their reliability, and I always liked the shape right back to when my mate’s parents bought one brand new in 1994,” Mark tells us.

“I picked this one up, with typical 80 Series faded green paint and a few battle scars, from a retired couple who did lots of laps of Australia towing a caravan.

“It was pretty much stock, except for an alloy bullbar and LPG conversion, and had 450,000km on the clock when I decided to pull it all apart and begin the conversion. Not that you could tell that now, as everything is new or rebuilt – there wasn’t even a spec of rust in it,” he says.