LJ70 Build Thread!

[hairyguy4]

I think have it attached to the body, not as strong but looks much better and I'm sure with you building it it will be anything but weak

 

[Richard Jackaman]

Not sure whether to bolt the tube to the bull bar and rock sliders or just to keep it attched to the body only?

I think it's either or not both as the body is mounted on body mounts so will move slightly in relation to the bull bar and sliders which are bolted to the chassis.

Something will eventually crack.

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys, body it is.

Surely Ben, you can't mix the mounts between body and chassis, one or the other but not mixed, as they are separate entities. The body is mounted to the chassis on rubber mounts, with movement between, no? I'll stand corrected no prob!

I'm also a bit concerned the the front shock mount adapters will try to rotate about the fixing bolt. I see the adapter running down the back of the original turret to restrain any upward movement, but a downward pull from the shocker will try to rotate it. Can't you fix the back of it to the original turret, with an extra bolt?

There will be another bolt I just havent drilled the holes yet.

I did mention it a few days ago!

X marks the spot.

 

[hairyguy4]

After lining up a 37" tyre up against my 70 I have even more respect for your truck lol

Next to a 33" tall bfg km2! Holy crap!

 

[clivehorridge]

Thanks guys, body it is.




There will be another bolt I just havent drilled the holes yet.

I did mention it a few days ago!

X marks the spot.

Sorry Ben, I get 0/10 for not paying attention

Very nice fabbing anyway, looks strong and it's always good to see thicker steel being used, compared with the original set-up.

 

[Ben]

After lining up a 37" tyre up against my 70 I have even more respect for your truck lol

Next to a 33" tall bfg km2! Holy crap!

Its funny how quickly you get used to them and then they dont seem big at all. When I first got them I was like shit these things are huge! But then after theyve been fitted for a few weeks you think aww their not that big maybe I should get some 42"s!

Having not had them fitted for a few months now I got one down to test for clearance and was like wow these are big!

Sorry Ben, I get 0/10 for not paying attention

Very nice fabbing anyway, looks strong and it's always good to see thicker steel being used, compared with the original set-up.

No worries, thanks Clive.

If I'd had 4 or 5mm then I probably wouldn't have used 6mm. As standard there is no 6mm on the car any where!

But my choice was 1mm, 2mm, 3mm or 6mm and I'd rather it be over engineered!

If everything goes to plan I will be doing some pretty big trips in LJ.

 

[clivehorridge]

If everything goes to plan I will be doing some pretty big trips in LJ.

And there's plenty of us looking forward to the write-ups of those, Ben!

 

[Blown80]

Ben, if I may raise a point about the 'X' marks the spot. If you are drilling a hole here for a securing bolt, there will be little material left over top and bottom. Perhaps I have overlooked a previous post as well if you are considering remedying this. But this new bracket is no doubt very strong from 6mm plate but still mounted to a thin tower and that last locating bolt may fail without more material support, as previously noted about the leveraging effect (cyclic loading). Is there no way you can extend the bracket to use that other hole below the X. Just remember that this new shock mount is going to cop an absolute hammering with each shock absorber pounding away at this point. You no doubt have your reasons for wanting to drill that hole, but just worries me a little from this side of a screen. Great read again though.

 

[Ben]

Yes I can extend the brackets but it would have been nicer to have had it out of one piece of steel.

That piece of steel from the big hole to the top is about 50mm IIRC and my plan was to put an M12 bolt through it. Its easy enough to add a piece on now though before I get the brackets electro plated.

Lots of progress made on the build today in terms of sourcing things.

No update today though, just got in from another 16 hour day.

Oh well soon be holiday time!

 

[Paddler Ed]

You got a long weekend down there this weekend? My mission this weekend is fix the 4Runner as it's been laid up for 6 weeks now; got a mate coming up to give me a hand with the last of the exhaust manifold nuts and then off the heads!

 

[Ben]

Yeah mate!

Monday is a public holiday to celebrate the Queens birthday!

So I'm hoping to get the arches on LJ done. I've got tonight, tomorrow night, all day Saturday and then Monday so fingers crossed I get them finished.

Sunday will be spent recovering from seeing Armin Van Buuren on his world tour Saturday night!

Good luck with your 4-Runner Ed.

 

[clivehorridge]

We've got Monday off too, but it's not in celebration of Lizzies' birthday, its religious somehow, but don't ask me for any more details!

Anyway, a day off is a day off in any language, religion or creed and very welcome too, specially added on to a weekend.

Happy Armin Van Buuren's day on Saturday Ben, enjoy!

Totally different scene altogether for oldies like me but it had been such a long time since we went to any sort of live concert (Phil Collins in Dubai 2006), we went to see Peter Gabriel on 8 May in Bucharest. I guess he's in his sixties as well!

Anyway, superb!

It was a small gathering of around 3,000 and the quality of production was spot-on.

 

[Ben]

This will be my last decent rave now till next month when I'm back in the UK for Global Gathering music festival, then I'm off to Ibiza with Danny and Erin!

No time for an update tonight got far too much to do. I'm revising like crazy at the moment for my final theory exam which is in a few weeks time.

I have got a video for you though...............................

You may remember when I went to Tuff Truck I said the guy from the USA, Dave Cole AKA Ultra 4 Racing/King of the hammers had a spectacular last run and that I wished I'd kept filming as his throttle stuck open on his last stage and he shot off course and hit a tree.

Well this is the start of his run which I did manage to film. (He actually puts it on its side at one point and manages to drive it back onto its wheels. ) :



And this is a video I got sent this week which has an interview with the event owner, Pete. Then shows Dave Coles exit from the last stage.

 

[clivehorridge]

Great vids Ben, must have been a superb event!

 

[Ben]

Thanks Clive, definitely one of the best weekends of my life!

Cant wait for next year!

And in a few years time I want to build a truck and enter/win!

 

[Ben]

On Wednesday I had to drive for 5 hours in the mighty 60 series!





The hand throttle in the 60 series works really well as a crude, poor mans cruise control.

In the 70 you turn the knob to increase the engine revs then turn it the other way to back it off and it doesnt go high enough to increase the revs enough to cruise at 60-70mph.

But in the 60 you just pull the knob and the engine revs increase, and then to back it off you just turn is 1/8th of a turn and it pushes in and the revs go to full throttle!

So I'm planning on sourcing a 60 series hand throttle to fit to LJ as on long journeys it is much more comfortable to be able to take your feet off both pedals.





I finished the Suzuki winch bar I've been making.





I finally got around to converting one of my grinders from 4.5" to 5". All the grinders and discs at work and TAFE use 5" and I've got a load of flap wheel discs that I got from a carboot sale years ago that I want to be able to use.

So I cut my old guard and hammered the edge down flat.





Cut the ends off.



Cut and bent some 2mm sheet.



And welded it on with the TIG.














I called Chris at FNB and he was very helpful and gave me a great price on some 80 series rear shocks for the front of LJ. They got delivered less than 24 hours later, despite Chris being in a different state! Thanks a lot mate, great service.

Went for EFS after hearing good things about them from a number of people.





I needed to extend the shock brackets so that I could bolt them on lower down for more strength.





I cut some more 6mm plate and prepared the weld joint for a double V butt joint for maximum root penetration and strength.







Clamped the 2 pieces in place to avoid distortion.








Welded one side and then flipped it over.



And welded the other side.



I picked up some M18 bolts to secure the shock mounts in place bolted through the original shock mounts. I went for button head as I hoped it would give me enough clearance for the shocks.



Welds ground down and bolts in place.





Bolted in place.







Now I messed up slightly here in that I wrongly presumed that there would be enough room for button head bolts and the shock. But there isnt.





I'm now thinking I will extend the brackets down each side of the turret and bolt it on lower down and do away with those M18 bolts through the original shock mounts.

It would have been a lot easier had I just cut all the old suspension mounts off the chassis and axle and started again. But as I'm trying to keep it all bolt on so I can always return it to standard if I want to which makes things more complicated, but I'm still confident moving the front axle 50mm further forwards and mounting different shocks and springs will work.

I wanted to add some gussets to the panhard rod mount to make it stronger.







I needed to get a new bottom radiator hose as the old one I was using wasnt a perfect fit and had put strain on the bottom hose outlet on the rad and had caused it to leak.

I decided to cut up the genuine new KZJ70 bottom rad hose as the middle sections was just a little bit too long.



Taped it back together and it fitted perfectly.



Compared to the one I had been using its clear to see it was totally wrong. It also looked like slightly smaller diameter hose.



I took this to my local automotive parts shop.



And they let me behind the counter so I could go through all of their hoses so I could find something the same shape and size.



I found 2 hoses that looked like they would work and also bought some coolant.



One hose is actually a petrol 80 series top hose. I like the idea of keeping it Toyota and these hoses are Aussie made!







The other hose was a Ford one and I thought I could cut out the middle section
if the 80 series one didnt fit.





The 80 series one fitted perfectly!



So I will take the Ford one back and swap it for another 80 series one as I want to carry spare rad hoses in LJ at all times.

My boss very kindly said I could borrow the tube bender and a MIG welder.

Tube bender.









Started bending some tube up for the arches.











My original idea was to try and return the end of each piece of tube back to the edge of the inner arch, but one of my bends ended up at slightly the wrong angle so I tried heating it up to see if I could bend it slightly in the vice.





It didn't work so I opted to just cut it off and weld it back on.



I used a wire cup on the grinder to clean the paint off along the edge of the wing where I would weld the 2mm sheet steel on.



I cut and bent some 2mm sheet steel.





































I'm not 100% happy with this first arch and I may end up redoing it. I learnt a lot from doing it though which will make the others easier, quicker and better.

Next one.

drum section removed.



Bolted a piece of 2mm steel in place.













Started bedning some tube.









Started welding the 2 pieces together.







Very pleased with the welder its a great little machine.



I'm very pleased with how this one went.





I also needed to weld up the cracks in the passenger door.





Other rear arch next.



Bent some 2mm.













Started bending some tube.



Had to work inside due to the horrible Melbourne winter weather.









I wasnt 100% happy with this piece of tube, even though all the bends were good, it ended up being too short.



This is how the other side looks and what I wanted this side to be like.



So I bent another piece.



Which this time fitted perfectly.





Needed to trim the 2mm sheet steel back a bit.



















So this is how LJ is looking now.







Then it was time to go party!

Last night was an amazing night!

Dutch Trance DJ Armin Van Burren was amazing when he brought his world tour to a stadium in Melbourne!

























































































I'm hoping to getthe other front arch done on LJ tomorrow and finish welding all the other arches. I also need to weld the feet onto the roof rack.

Really need to get LJ resprayed and back together ASAP as I've got a load of building work to do for people to get some cash in before my holiday next month, which I will be doing at weekends.

And with just over 5 weeks till my trip I really need to get LJ back on the road.

 

[Paddler Ed]

LJ looks really good; those arches have turned out well; it looks like you had a more productive weekend then we did working on cars, although I did work in shorts and t-shirt as it was warm enough today... at least none of yours arrived on a tow truck and left on a trailer for a 700km trip to Canberra from Armidale!

I reckon you could shift those arches for a reasonable amount for the Land Cruisers (70's and possibly 60's) as a bit of extra income, little bit tougher than the rubber flares. Are they then getting welded to the arch as well as bolted?

 

[Ben]

Thanks Ed.

Yes bolted to the inner arch and welded to the outer arch.

 

[TonyS]

Great to see you're going EFS, Ben. It's a superb product, all they do is make their own suspension, back it with an excellent 100,000km warranty. Far better than rebadged Monroe/ OME! ;-)
btw, only 14 weekends till we depart for the Simpson!

 

[Gary820]

Nice job on the arches. It's going to look great with some paint.