Dogo’s Land Cruiser FJ  was built with parts from different cars 

Before the Covid-19 Lockdown in Uganda, Sherman Singh Dogo participated in vintage and classic car shows. He previously owned a vintage Mercedes which he sold off and was searching for another vintage car to buy. He had a Volkswagen Kombi in mind but when he visited one of his friends, Max, he was encouraged to buy an FJ Land Cruiser that was parked in Max’s compound.
“When I looked at the Land Cruiser, I loved it immediately. I was convinced it was the right car for me because it was manly,” Dogo recalls.

Nicknamed Zeus (Greek god) by his children, Dogo’s FJ Land Cruiser, a 1979 model is a short chassis with two doors and only sits two; the driver and co-driver. At a time he acquired it from Max, it had been parked for many years in Arua. He transported it by car carrier to Kampala for restoration. To put it in a usable condition, Dogo had to carry out a number of modifications. He replaced the original engine with a 1KZ engine type popularly used in some Mitsubishi Pajeros and some Toyota Hiace vans.  

“The original engine parts were difficult to source. I had to choose between importing a whole new similar engine from Dubai or find a 1KZ engine and make modifications. The original cylinder head was blown. I found one locally but upon fixing, it did not have power. I did an engine overhaul but the spare parts such as the piston rings and gasket were difficult to source. I decided to buy a Toyota Land Cruiser SX to extract the engine and gearbox and later dismantled the SX and sell parts I did not need,” Dogo says.

“The beauty with the 1KZ engine is that it is relatively common and is powerful. Its spare parts are locally available and easy to maintain. During restoration, one of the challenges I got was that most mechanics do not understand vintage car technology. When they notice you are clueless about certain components, they exploit you. I was lucky I got a mechanic who previously worked with Toyota Uganda, who now owns a garage. He did all repairs from home at his pace and made sure every trial ran perfectly,” he notes.

Away from engine mechanics, the FJ Land Cruiser’s body and frame are hard to repair. For example, if he got involved in a road crash, he would have to prefabricate it or import either from the US or Japan. The rest of the parts such as indicators and headlights and many of the small internal parts can be sourced online from Amazon or eBay. Other parts have to be prefabricated from motorists who own such cars.  

Maintenance
Dogo is a hands-on motorist who sometimes does minor repairs on his car by himself. It is only when he fails that his mechanic comes in handy for a car he drives once in a while to church and on special occasions. Restoring it to roadworthy condition is not something he can accurately put a price to.

“Restoring vintage cars is a continuous process. I intentionally did not take note of every expenditure I made during its repair because it was painful spending on a project that was not ending. 
At the start, I sourced for painters who worked on the body twice but it was not satisfactory. The last painter who worked on the car from home did a better job than the first two,” he says.
Fashionably, car can be turned into an open roof when you remove the rear part of the body. Unfortunately, some of the parts of the body where it got spoiled could not be modified so he decided to intentionally and permanently bolt the top part rather than open old and shaky clippers.  

Running on a 3000cc 1KZ diesel engine, Dogo has not driven the 44-year old car on any highway. The farthest he has driven it is Busiika and during these few times, because of its raised ground clearance, the FJ Land Cruiser never skids or gets stuck on murram roads, though some parts of the car still require tuning. Because of modifications that were done, the initial fuel tank of the car was removed and a new tank that meets the capacity of the 1KZ engine was fitted carrying about 55 litres.  

Insurance challenges
Dogo is among the many vintage car enthusiasts pleading that the government creates a provision for cars of a certain age designated as vintage to preserve vehicle history. 
“These cars are very unique and few. The challenge is having a vintage car fully insured because its vintage six character big number plates have to integrate with the URA number plate system that they refused to register. If I accidentally knock another vehicle or any other property, I have to compensate them. 

As a country, it is important we preserve some of our history in the form of vehicles for present and future generations as tourism attractions,” Dogo says.