LJ70 Build Thread!

[Ben]

Clive thats awesome!

I like it.

 

[clivehorridge]

Sorry it was a bit of a hi-jack, but I'm well pleased with it so far and had the impression you'd be the only one on here that would appreciate it! Thanks for the "Like"

Are you up early, or am I late to bed? It's 00:50 here in Qatar... My phone tells me it's 08:50 in Melbourne and Sydney, are they on your longitude?

 

[Chas]

Didn't realise you had a log cabin Clive.

 

[Ben]

Nah its cool Clive. Its been a while since weve had any nice carpentry pics anyway.

Yeah thats the right time, and yes the same as Sydney. Its only when you get further North, North East and West that the time zones change here.

I'm up reasonably early for a Sunday but today I'm going to a big music festival in the city, so just having a few beers.

 

[clivehorridge]

Nah its cool Clive. Its been a while since weve had any nice carpentry pics anyway.

Yeah thats the right time, and yes the same as Sydney. Its only when you get further North, North East and West that the time zones change here.

I'm up reasonably early for a Sunday but today I'm going to a big music festival in the city, so just having a few beers.

Good on yer mate! I'm bl00dy working, its been 7 days a week for months now, not happy.

 

[clivehorridge]

Didn't realise you had a log cabin Clive.

Not my place Chas, but I have a neighbour across the valley with this place...

 

[Chas]

Not my place Chas, but I have a neighbour across the valley with this place...

I like the look of that.

 

[Ben]

OK guys a few pics for you.

Sadly nothing 4wd related.

Last weekends music festival first.

It was a beautiful sunny day!









Inside the Techno tent. (I'm not a fan of Techno, its far too slow!)













We were only really there to see the Worlds #1 DJ Hardwell and Erin wanted to see Eric Prydz.





Beautiful scenery.



Aerial advertising for Armin Van Buuren who is here in a few months, Cant wait!























Stupid sunglasses..........Check









Hardwell was amazing!



























We saw Trance legend Paul Van Dyke next who was also pretty amazing!









He handed out LED colour changing glow sticks which looked pretty cool when everyone had them in the air.











The Melbourne wheel looked awesome all lit up on the train journey home.







OK thats enough rave nonsense.................

Welding next...............

I was back at TAFE today doing more TIG welding.






I love how TIG welding results in virtually no heat distortion.

To weld all of these:-



All I did was put a small tack each end without any filler rod, like this:-





Had I done that with MIG they would have all twisted and bent over like bananas when I welded them.

After a few hours practicing horizontal fillet welds I was really starting to get the hang of it.



So next I went onto vertical fillet welds.





I really really love TIG!

It is so much nice than MIG, theres no sparks and splatter shooting off every where, no nasty fumes and smoke, no heat distortion and it really feels like your fusing the metal together rather than just firing MIG wire/ARC rods at it.

I'm pretty sure you could train a monkey to MIG its so easy, but TIG involves a lot more skill.

I'm going to design and build an auxiliary fuel tank, and TIG welding it will be the best way to weld it as MIG welds are invariably porous.

 

[Doodle]

I was taught how to TIG and oxy weld many moons ago, it's a fantastic art. Annoyingly I've probably forgotten most of it, and I can't justify the expenditure of a decent AC/DC TIG welder now.

 

[Ben]

I've been house hunting the last few days. Trying to find one with a double garage is proving tricky, especially one that is also near a train station.

What is interesting is that it appears to be common practice for real estate agents here to photoshop pictures of houses. On some they even photo shop out power lines!

This one looked OK online and ticked all the boxes.



This is what I saw when I got there.



OK.......................

Finally got to do some more work on LJ!





I wanted to make a scale model of the auxiliary fuel tank that I want to build.

The space I was thinking of fitting it into is between the 2 round chassis cross members.





While under there I spotted the rear diff has started leaking. Its been fine for the past year but has now started leaking between the diff and the casing.





Another thing I'm thinking of doing is changing the radius and trailing arms for ones that will give me more articulation and hopefully I will be able to stretch the wheel base slightly at the same time. That should make LJ a lot more stable off road and not as twitchy on road.



The bushes on the chassis end are currently the limiting factor as they bind up so quickly.





Anyway.................back to the fuel tank.

I did also consider building a long thin tank along the sill to fill the space between the chassis and the sill, but decided it wouldn't give me enough extra fuel capacity, unless I maybe made one for each side.





So I decided the best place was above the rear diff, even though I wasnt convinced there is enough space for the sort of size tank I ideally want.

So I jacked the diff up off the ground to give me some idea of clearances above the diff.





I took some measurements and began building a model.





The cut out is for the exhaust.





I thought it would perhaps be difficult to calculate the volume inside the tank with it being an irregular shape. But sitting a 20lite and 10litre container next to it I'd say its only going to give me about an extra 30 litres of fuel.

Ideally I want 60litres to go with my main 90litre tank. That should then give me enough fuel range for the trips I want to do without having to carry jerry cans of fuel.



I worked out I could add another bit on to give me roughly another 10litres, giving me a total of 40litres roughly.







So that got me thinking.......................

If I build this 40 litre tanks and then adjust my rear swing out wheel carrier on my rear bumper, I could maybe mount a swing out jerry can holder on the other side, giving me the 150 litres of fuel range that I want without having to have fuel cans inside LJ or on the roof.

I also need to decide whether I fit a pump in the new tank to pump into the main, or if I fit an inline solenoid to switch between the main or aux like the factory 80 series ones over here.

Opinions please.

 

[Chas]

I don't think that cardboard will hold up for very long Ben and are those taped joints leakproof?
Joking aside, terrific job you're doing there, as usual.

 

[hairyguy4]

The tank will be sweet as when made up in metal B) the chassis end of your radius arms aren't limiting your flex, its the 2 bushes per arm on the axle end, on my rear end set up I have the same chassis mounts and I can get this much flex without binding





It will droop another few inches but only running 8" travel shocks on the rear in the pics, if you can get away with it I would go with a 3 link + panhard setup on the back

 

[Ben]

Thanks.

That looks awesome!

Have you done anything with the front end?

I'm really keen to get more flex out of the front as then it wouldnt keep lifting wheels as much.

Have you got any pics of your rear setup?

I'm sure I've asked you that before.

But I'm serious about getting this all setup now. Need to order new shocks and front springs soon aswell.

I don't think that cardboard will hold up for very long Ben and are those taped joints leakproof?
Joking aside, terrific job you're doing there, as usual.

 

[hairyguy4]

Cheers, no mods to the front end, haven't even removed the anti roll bar, I'm going to fix up the red truck and sell it on eventually so no more mods for that, as I've picked up a mega cheap kzj70 to mod and properly offroad, that will get the 3 linked rear as well, for the front end I'm going to be doing something similar to the rear end on an 80 a 4 link + panhard rod,
there's a build thread for mine here, not sure if the pics are working as I'm on my tablet, also you may have to register

http://www.hpoc.co.uk/community/index.php?showtopic=27243

 

[Paddler Ed]

I've been house hunting the last few days. Trying to find one with a double garage is proving tricky, especially one that is also near a train station.

What is interesting is that it appears to be common practice for real estate agents here to photoshop pictures of houses. On some they even photo shop out power lines!

This one looked OK online and ticked all the boxes.



This is what I saw when I got there.

Just a bit of a difference...

Were some of the others a bit better than that?

 

[Ben]

Cheers, no mods to the front end, haven't even removed the anti roll bar, I'm going to fix up the red truck and sell it on eventually so no more mods for that, as I've picked up a mega cheap kzj70 to mod and properly offroad, that will get the 3 linked rear as well, for the front end I'm going to be doing something similar to the rear end on an 80 a 4 link + panhard rod,
there's a build thread for mine here, not sure if the pics are working as I'm on my tablet, also you may have to register

http://www.hpoc.co.uk/community/index.php?showtopic=27243

Awesome.

I signed up for the forum but no the pics arnt working.

Just a bit of a difference...

Were some of the others a bit better than that?

Yes some of the others were much better!

Some much worse though.

A couple looked perfect on paper/website but when we got there they were on busy roads so were noisy and the idea of struggling to get on/off the drive because of the traffic isnt very appealing.

Quite a few on sub divided blocks where they've demolished the original house and have built in some cases 10 small units on it. Parking is often an issue with these properties, and I don't like the idea of having neighbors that close!

So really I want a 3+ bed house with garage and off street parking for 3+ cars on a reasonably quite street, and Erin's requirement is it needs to be close to a train station.

I keep finding perfect looking properties online but the agents havent got any open inspections arranged on a lot of them, so I have to wait until they arrange an open inspection, and then often they arrange them for odd times like 2pm on a Wednesday.

Its certainly a lot harder to get a rental property over here than it is in the UK.

Need to find some where ASAP though, don't want to stay here any longer.

I've worked on the house to cover the rent for about another month, but if I find some where before then then great!

 

[Paddler Ed]

Yes some of the others were much better!

Some much worse though.

A couple looked perfect on paper/website but when we got there they were on busy roads so were noisy and the idea of struggling to get on/off the drive because of the traffic isnt very appealing.

Quite a few on sub divided blocks where they've demolished the original house and have built in some cases 10 small units on it. Parking is often an issue with these properties, and I don't like the idea of having neighbors that close!

So really I want a 3+ bed house with garage and off street parking for 3+ cars on a reasonably quite street, and Erin's requirement is it needs to be close to a train station.

I keep finding perfect looking properties online but the agents havent got any open inspections arranged on a lot of them, so I have to wait until they arrange an open inspection, and then often they arrange them for odd times like 2pm on a Wednesday.

Its certainly a lot harder to get a rental property over here than it is in the UK.

Need to find some where ASAP though, don't want to stay here any longer.

I've worked on the house to cover the rent for about another month, but if I find some where before then then great!

Glad that there were some good ones; with the rentals that my brother went for in Melbourne (he lives in Albert Park now...) he pretty much went suited and booted to get a look in at them as they make a decision based on how much they like you as well. We were lucky with our place as the owner showed us round (he's one of the estate agents, but doesn't manage his own property) so he could make a decision on how much he liked us when we met him.

With the sub-divisions (I know you're avoiding them) watch out for strata rules, they might have a limit on how cars can be parked, and how many are allowed.

Yep, real estate agents are much more interested in selling a property (which they do at the weekends) via an open house, than renting one... just got to keep persevering with it.

 

[Ben]

Interesting, thanks Ed.

If I have more than 3 car parking spaces I can look at increasing the fleet!

I found one place that I thought looked perfect!

It was obviously lived in by an old lady and now the family must be renting it out. So the interior isnt amazing but with all the old person tat out would be ok.

Anyway.........................

Its got a huge long sweeping drive that goes round the back of the house to a big double garage. I went and looked at it and I reckon you could have got 10+ cars on the drive!

Sadly its a 20 minute walk to the train station and Erin says that is too far.

Here it is:

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-blackburn+south-412521439

You cant even see the garage from the road as the drive is that long.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Also use Google Streetview to see what the area is like.

Can you set up an RSS feed for New rentals from Domain and RealEstate?

 

[sae70]

Buy Erin a really nice push bike