Back in a Land Cruiser: 1978 HJ45 Build and Adventures

[Rodger]

Except that'd the headlight loom! Doh!

 

[Paddler Ed]

I love 40 year old wiring:

All the tape on the splices had dried, so that's come off to be replaced. First up on them though is to put 2x coats of liquid tape on, and then I'll re-tape. Where the wiring has completely melted/disintegrated, I've got fresh green wire to go in (closest I could get to Green w Red trace in town)

 

[Ben]

Whats liquid tape Ed?

I've never heard of that before!

 

[Paddler Ed]

This stuff Ben:
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Product/DynaGrip-Brush-On-Electrical-Tape-118mL/340189

 

[clivehorridge]

This stuff Ben:
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Product/DynaGrip-Brush-On-Electrical-Tape-118mL/340189

That stuff looks pretty useful Ed, says it can be used as threadlocker as well... handy that...

 

[Paddler Ed]

Bit of a delay since the last update - since then it's done a trip to Byron Bay with the camper trailer on the back (300km ish each way) and loads of firewood.

This weekend though is the beginning of the conversion to the tourer that I want to be:

Basically joining all these bits up properly:
Tray from a Hilux

Canopy from a 70 series

And all loaded Jenga/Hillbilly style on the Land Cruiser

 

[Paddler Ed]

Couple of hours work (it's a bit warm in the winter sun, although it was -3 over night) and I now have the following:

Frame fitted up to tray and pulling square to the edges, held in place with scrap bits of angle and some ratchet straps:

And then with the side boards on and the canvas dropped over:

 

[tonytoyota]

Hi looking good .

 

[Paddler Ed]

More progress: Back ute up to back of the yard, lift tray off with 4 of us, then 2 to lift it onto the wood blocks put in place by wife as the cab and chassis pull forwards.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Arse tit feck

The auto sparky used random wire colours when he did the tail-lights... so on one side I have 2 brown wires, and on the other side I have 2 red wires... and NFI which goes to which...

So, that means I need to find a test light and get it worked out the old fashioned way... May yet end up re-wiring it further using some 7 core I have spare, which then avoids the problem on the whole.

Flip side, I've just managed to get 5x Land Cruiser wheels from a late 40/early 60 which won't need tubes - not pretty but should fit quite nicely in with the appearance on the whole.

 

[Paddler Ed]

More progress, tray lined up and wired up, and new wheels fitted:

Should be all bolted down tomorrow and then it's sort the canopy mounting out

 

[Paddler Ed]

Got the tray bolted up today, now to sort out the canopy frame mounting out

 

[tonytoyota]

Hi it looking good keep up the good job .

 

[Paddler Ed]

3hrs chatting, playing with the dogs and some welding and I had some brackets sorted out for it - didn't get photos, but we've had to lift it about 60mm to clear the dog box.

Ratchet straps holding it all on the back for the 5km journey home:

That meant today I could spend the day doing rivets...

Used duct tape to mark the sides, and set the square to 120mm to get the rivets all level:

and the finished result looks pretty good:

Flyscreen down:

Canvas down:

Jobs for the rest of the week are to sort the stereo out, and to fit the dog box up (again) and work out where the toolbox is going to go.

 

[Paddler Ed]

October 2017:

June 2019:

She looks a bit different now, and the drought has really bitten, even here on the edge of the Godwana Rainforest

 

[Paddler Ed]

Headed to the coast for the weekend, so we took the swags this time as we weren't sure if we were going to stay or not.

Ended up staying, so rolled the swags out, ran a line to the tree and lobbed my (very lightweight) tarp over the top as it was trying to rain:

Dog slept under the rear diff pretty much - she's an outside dog so is used to sleeping out anyway (she dragged her bed out of the kennel and into her yard the other day... it was -5* overnight...) and as a pup was on a chain, so a 2m rope is fine.

 

[tonytoyota]

Hi that is one cool looking cruiser you have great love the old 40s from Tony.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Ended up doing some fire load reduction around the house; we've had a few fires over the last few years about 700m down the road, and that was when it was all still a bit green - now it's brown and dry as...

And that's a fraction of what I've got to clear

Loking out from where I've been clearing, there is a dam that should be full on the other side of the wooden fence - you can see the top embankment.

We've got a couple of big fires burning not far from here, so resources are a bit stretched so anything we can do to make things less of a hazard is a good thing.

Oh, and by big fires I mean over 95,000ha (234,000 acres, 366 square miles) burning or burnt in 90minutes of here - all areas we've been to or are near to where we go... and we're only 2 weeks into the "normal" fire season.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Appropriately we've had the HJ45 for another year now, and looking at the pictures above, we're about to light that burn pile - I'll get a picture of it before we do as the difference is incredible.

(Almost identical angle - and off to the left is after 3 cuts!)

A few months ago (nothing is ever done in a hurry) the brake master cylinder went on me one day in town. So I ordered a new one after an interesting drive home.

Well, that then turned into "I'll have a look at the flexible brake lines" at which point I realised they were the 42 year old originals....

(date of 7/78 and it was compliance plated 9/78!)

So, one new set of lines later:

Once I finished rounding off the old flare nuts (of course, one released fine, the other? Absolute mongrel)

I now have a master cylinder in situ, brake lines all laced up ready for final tightening and then it's re-flll the system:

And yes, I did mean to line up the label like that...