LJ70 Build Thread!

[clivehorridge]

I like those arches Ben, and I recon the first one will come easy now you've had better results on the other three.

 

[Chas]

Those arches are looking really good Ben, I bet they'll look 10 times better when they are painted.

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

Cant wait for the Simpson trip Tony, it will be an amazing trip!

8am here now so time to go wake all the neighbors up grinding and hammering!

 

[Blown80]

8am here now so time to go wake all the neighbors up grinding and hammering!

Ben, shouldn't you be out working on LJ instead.


But the new flares do look better, and you made it all. Even better.

 

[Ben]

I cant wait to buy some land where my nearest neighbor is a few k's+ away! I want to be able to make as much noise as I want at any time of the night or day!

Living in the city is convenient but I don't belong in suburbia, I'm a country boy!

 

[tonytoyota]

Hi it,s looking good a top job thanks for the pics Tony.

 

[kzj78]

cool looking flares. You will be happy with EFS thats what i use in my 70, they are great. About the 60 hand throttle, most older hilux's have a hand throttle aswell, ln65, ln106 etc..

 

[froggy Steve]

love those arches, looking very very good...clever boy!

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

Tonight is my only free night this week so just about to go out and do a few hours work on LJ.

I really need to have her ready for paint this weekend and ideally in primer!

 

[Ben]

Update time!

Work stuff first.

I got the Suzuki winch bumper I made back from the shot blasters.



Before it could go for powder coating i needed to weld on the aerial mount that I'd forgotten to weld on before blasting.





I made a start welding another batch of Ford Ranger/Mazda BT50 trays up.

This is how I get the trays, laser cut and folded.



I had to weld the other piece onto the trays.



Using the jig I made.





Then its ready to be turned around and welded the other side and the 2 corners of the box.







My ex house mate had booked his new 80 series in for me to do a load of work on it.





Although its a 1993 model the original owner must have specified ABS as an optional extra. Michael had had the brake pipes altered to allow me to fit a battery tray in the corner of the engine bay.







I cut a section out of a standard 12" tray.



Drilled and bent some steel and bolted them in position.







Positioned the tray on my brackets.





All welded up and ready for electro plating.







I designed and made a bracket for 2 kill switches.











I then set the bracket for electro plating.

I made some brackets to mount one of our power shower, heat exchangers.







I had to mount 2 amps in the rear quarter panel.









I got the bits back from electro plating.



And bolted it all on.









I had to modify the brake booster canister mounting brackets and find a place for it.







It lined up perfectly with the top shock mount and a hole in the shock mount turret.



I also mounted an air tank underneath.







The Jimny that came in to be wrecked that I pulled the body off is destined to be an awesome project! My boss has said I can design and build a full cage for it and turn it into a buggy. I'm going to build the cage out of chromoly tube and TIG weld it all. It will then have a few light weight alluminium panels and floor pan.

The idea will be to keep it quite low, stable and light.

This week we fitted a set of wheels I found in the Suzuki parts warehouse which have got a ridiculous amount of off set.













These wheels have widened the wheel base by over 200mm which should make it nice and stable.



Sadly its unlikely we will be starting that build this year as we need to build the air boat first and the world record attempt project.

I converted my other grinder to 5" this week.









Got them both painted.



And now they both take 5" discs.





LJ next...........................

I needed to modify the shock mount brackets.

I cut some more 6mm plate.



Ground the ends at 45 degrees for a double bevel butt weld joint.



I then tack welded them on at the correct angle.





After bringing it home and checking it would work I modified the other one.





I needed to weld 2 wedge shape pieces of metal on to the panhard rod mount to ensure the bolt head and nut would sit squarely.







I got it electro plated silver.





I got it fitted.











I got some more MIG wire.





And carried on welding the arches.



I had to use the compressor.



To extinguish the constant flames of burning dinitrol.



I used the high lift to clamp the new tube arches tightly against the body work.











I swapped the Ford rad hose for another 80 series one, that will go in the spares kit I'm going to build to carry in LJ.



The super strong rare earth magnets I ordered turned up this week, these are for the magnetic rear mud flap project. The idea being to have mudflaps so LJ is road legal, then when I go off road they can easily be removed.



Which reminds me...........I need to sort out the latch for the swing away wheel carrier so I can get the bumper shot blast, electro plated, and powder coated. Then I can make the magnetically mounted mud flaps.

This morning I finished the welding.







Next I wanted to finish the shock mounts. I found that there was a bracket in the way on the rear side of both shock mounts. I'm guessing it is something to do with the electronically adjustable shocks/ride found on most Jap spec 70's.





Cut it off.



The bracket wouldn't quite fit as the corner was hitting the steering column.





marked it ready to cut off.



Almost fitted.



But also needed to trim the corner off the other side.



Fitted.





I wanted to cut some steel to fill in the corners and help tie it all together.



I cut some more 6mm steel and to ensure full root penetration I ground the edges for a V butt weld joint.















I drilled some mounting holes.





Test fitting and hole marking.





Drilled the holes out to 18mm.





Ready to be bolted on.







Mounted a shock.





Decided to drill a hole above the shock to allow me to get a socket on the nut on the top of the shock.









Other side.

















I removed both shock mounts and will take them to work and fully weld them and then get them electro plated.



I did some more welding and grinding on the arches.







Then got LJ out of the garage so I could clean up and finish welding the roof rack, which I needed floor space for.

With LJ parked with one wheel on a rock I could bounce the suspension up and down and check clearances.



I was concerned about the new panhard rod mount hitting the diff.



But I'm 99% sure it will miss.



The other area of concern was that the tyre might hit the bullbar as the suspension compresses.



But again I'm pretty sure it will be OK but I will know for sure when I get it to work and use the forklift.

I parked LJ on the lawn so I could get you some better pics of the arches.



















I could then have a bit of a tidy up.



I could then finish welding the feet onto the roof rack.



First I welded the 2 ends of the feet.



And then flipped it over to weld the sides.







I then hung it up out of the way. At some point I need to take it to work and clean all the welds then get it powder coated.



I picked up some primer.



Removed the bullbar.





Removed the rock sliders next.





With the rock sliders removed I could finish welding and grinding the arches.





I had a dent to weld up on one of the arches from the tube bender.















With the welding and grinding finished I set the compressor up.



Water trap.



Wiped all the bare steel with thinners.



Mixed some primer and thinners.



And got painting.













Tomorrow I have lots of filling and sanding to do.

I'm hoping to get LJ painted and back together next weekend.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Looks good Ben!

You seem to have had a more productive couple of days than I have... after I went to work at the wrong time yesterday I decided that doing nothing on Friday the 13th was a good idea, and then today we've actually had some rain... and my car is only under the carport and the side I need to work is on the exposed side of course...

 

[hairyguy4]

Arches are looking fecking brill B) when are you gonna get your new 35s? Some km2s will look good under her, always makes me feel lazy after seeing your thread with how much you get done, broke the rear hub bolts on my new 80 last week and still ain't fixed it

 

[Gary820]

Arches look great Ben.

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

Hoping to get my new 35" BFG KM2's within the next month or 2.

The end of the financial year is the end of this month and Ive got over $5k in receipts I'm going to claim + a few thousand km's worth of fuel.

 

[clivehorridge]

Looking great Ben, it was for sure the way to go with the arches, they're brill!

Will you keep LJ the same blue?

 

[Ben]

Thanks Clive.

Yes I'm hoping to stick with the Toyota Midnight Blue.

Still not sure what paint to use, originally I was thinking of using 2 pack but I might just use enamel or acrylic.

 

[Craigmorley]

Hey Ben looking good mate awsome job!!

Also I personally would use 2pak as more durable and longer lasting. Polishes up so much better as thicker Than base pat and laquer. Good job Ben

 

[Gav Peter]

Looking good Ben - the flares have turned out really well

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

 

[Ben]

Just spotted this and I'm really tempted!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/PZJ70-SW...=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35d823b4c4