About Garage 31
The Garage 31 story
Garage 31 was founded back in 1987 by two friends – Rusi Rusev and Vladimir Milev.
At the time they were students at the mechanical-technical school in Plovdiv. Their work began with restoring two old Mercedes and getting them running again – a 1952 Mercedes-Benz 190 and a 1978 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE W108. After that the garage took on many and varied projects and repairs on all kinds of vehicles, especially between 1990 and 1995, while the two friends studied automotive engineering at the Technical University of Sofia.
Garage 31 has built two cars that became Bulgarian champions.
In 2012 Rusi Rusev happened to buy a green 1978 Land Cruiser BJ40.
That is where the new story of Garage 31 begins.
Once the green Cruiser was restored, the interest in these vehicles — loved the world over — took hold.
Garage 31 currently holds a collection of more than 30 Land Cruisers across different models — BJ40, BJ42, BJ43, BJ45 Troop Carrier, HJ45 pickup, FJ40, FJ55, HJ60, HJ61, FJ62, KZJ78, KZJ73, HZJ73, HZJ74, HJ80, VDJ76, VDJ200.
The collection of Toyota passenger cars is not small either — Corolla (several models between 1973 and 1982), Celica T40 convertible 1975, Cressida 1975, Starlet 1980.
We also have a soft spot for Toyota's legendary vans — the Hiace 4x4. For now only two are in the collection: a Hiace Super Custom 3.0D and a 1985 Hiace 4x4.
Garage 31 also keeps classics from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford Transit, Jaguar, Datsun, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Fiat.
Alongside maintaining and working on its own collection, the garage gradually took on interesting customer projects too — full restoration and tuning, but only on Land Cruisers.
Import, reconditioning and sale of engines for the Toyota Land Cruiser — 1HZ, 1KZ, 1KZ-TE, 1HD-T, 1HD-FT, 15B-FT, 15B-F, B, 3B, F, 2F, 3F, 1KZ-T, 2L-T, 3Y, 4Y.
Since 2021 Garage 31 has been an importer of new vehicles from Toyota's heavy-duty range — Land Cruiser GRJ76, GRJ79, GRJ79 DC, Hilux and FJ Cruiser.
From the collection
Visit the workshop
- Address
- Eastern Industrial Zone Iztochen, bul. "Maritsa" 196, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
- Opening hours
- Monday – Friday: 9:00 – 17:00 Saturday: 10:00 – 15:00 Sunday: closed
- Phone
- +359894777042
- office@garage31.eu