My HJ 75 series ute

[Ben]

Love it!

Great work.

 

[clivehorridge]

Such a lovely build, and to see all those new key parts going on to an "old" truck is a delight.

You must be proud of the result !

 

[Brett Mcleod]

Almost ready to order some aluminum for the canopy Iinstalled a sliding window with bug screens into the bed side of canopy.

picked up a front bar at the junkers

 

[Rusty Bottoms]

Great work! You really turned it around. Dig the sleeping arrangement. Would love to have a 75 or a troopy here in the UK, but lucky to have a decent LJ70 to be honest! Nice rig you have there.

 

[Brett Mcleod]

picked up a bullbar from the wreckers, makes the old girl look a little younger

getting closer to buying some aluminum for the outside of the canopy, I have fitted a small sliding window to the right side door & welded both of the two piece doors together so that they now each open as one door,

they used to have piano hinge running through the center of them & fold back onto themselves.

now they open as a one piece door

this is the window i got for the side the bed is on
modded the original door frame to mount the window.

still having fun with it
best barnsey.

 

[Brett Mcleod]

thanks Rusty, my computer has been playing games, think i just reposted similar updates, i couldn't see my previous posts but now i can lol
best barnsey

 

[Brett Mcleod]

I brought a smaller compressor off eBay for $67, works a treat pumping both front tires up from 10 psi to 32 in just over a minute & a half each, it has a built in flashing led torch as well as the normal led torch setting on the switch, it shuts off automatically when the set pressure is reached, its pretty compact & came in a nice bag with a few other accessories, notable difference in size between the new one & the typhoon one i got from bfc, so now i have a spare small compressors

 

[Brett Mcleod]

Built a floor into the bottom front of the canopy for the two 120ah house batteries to sit on & fabricated up some battery mounts to hold them in place.

 

[Brett Mcleod]

Also relocating the Redarc BMS from above the bed into the cupboard above the batteries.

 

[Brett Mcleod]

made a power distribution box to go in the cupboard as well, it contains 1 x 80 amp & 2 x 30 amp circuit breakers & a manual battery cut off switch. just waiting on my blue sea bus bars to turn up & my solar leads & adapters so i can finish wiring everything up, then i will be ready to put the insulation on & start cladding the outside of the canopy

The box will be mounted just above the batteries.

Photobucket is a pain these days, just took me over an hour to post these updates
barnsey

 

[Brett Mcleod]

slowly coming along finally got my photobucket to start working again although its still very slow,
been getting out in the shed in the afternoons and finally started sheeting the outside of the canopy, just the roof and rear of canopy to clad now & a couple of small doors in the front of the canopy, all the 12 volt power is hooked up and batteries are charging off the redarc bms, hopfully i can get it finished enough to get away camping for a week or two in July for a bit of a shake down and find any bugs, only driven it 180 kilometers since blueslipping and registering it in December 2015, its basically just been sitting in the shed while i have been playing with the canopy, it gets fired up once a week and thats about it so i am looking forward to getting it finished and using it,
anyway here are a few of the latest pics.

I brought all the alloy sheets to clad the canopy a while ago and finally got a day to take a couple up to the fab shop and had them cut to length and folded to fit the door frames.

I sanded the sheets with 60 grit then etch primed & coated them in hamertone black.

 

[Brett Mcleod]

 

[Brett Mcleod]

BMS is all hooked up and keeping the batteries charged, the 240v 15amp inlet circuit breaker lights and power and switches will be hooked up over the next couple of weeks

kitchen area is finished & the coffee machine makes great coffee in under a minute

 

[Brett Mcleod]

Brought a few 285/75/16 tyres

Had them fitted with the writing to the back to keep with my black and blue theme

Also brought some TJM front flares, haven't had time to install them as yet (photobucket is really slow tonight)

 

[Brett Mcleod]

Got some boss airbags, yet to install.

also have a few other goodies on there way, i brought a black bonnet protector, some slimline smoky window shields, a new black Grill with horizontal bars, some new front indicators and some 9"HID's
Got tomorrow off so i get to have a day in the shed, hopefully i can get something more done

 

[Brett Mcleod]

The new Grill & indicators turned up, they sent me two RH indicators instead of a RH & LH gave them a call and they have put a LH one in the post for me, The 78/79 Grill & indicators were pretty easy to install with no major hickups, the indicators use the same mounting holes as my hj75 so bolted straight up, only thing i had to do was cut the new plug off and solder my original plug on as the new plugs were not comparable, round verses square, so now my wiring still has original factory connectors
the grill was also pretty easy to install, the two top mount holes on the grill needed to be allengated about 2mm to get it sitting in the right position and the two lower mounting brackets on the cruiser needed bending down 5mm easily done by hand, the two center mount push in clips on the grill sit about 5mm too high, i just need to rivet a small piece of flat bar to the existing cruiser bracket & drill two holes the size of the clips in the grill and everything will be mounted as it was designed to be mounted, It definitely changes the look of the old girl

 

[Brett Mcleod]

painted the headboard today then moved the box into its final resting place ready to be bolted down tomorrow will prep and paint the rest of the tray after my new tail lights turn up and i finish the rear wheel carrier on the box and sheet the roof of canopy

 

[Brett Mcleod]

closest blue i could get to match the old paint was an old Volkswagen color code: LH5D

had to cut the middle bar out of the bull bar and move it down to fit my 9" HID lights, just need pull it back off to clean up the welds add a couple of aerial mounts and prep the bar for some satin black

 

[Brett Mcleod]

worked out a better way to mount the bar, the old bar used to have two bolts through the side of the chassis and one going vertical and was easy to mount as it was only C channel, the new bar is square tube that slides over the chassis horns and no access to put nuts on the horizontal bolts, I welded 4 nuts on the inside of both chassis rails to make it a lot stronger than the old bar mounts, it will also have the vertical bolt through the chassis as well as the two outrigger bolts on each side of chassis making 7 nuts and bolts on each side '

welded a couple more areal mounts to the bull bar today, hoping to get it prepped painted and fitted tomorrow,
well that brings us up to date, i lost the forum for a while but i am back again now, will keep this thread updated as i go, hoping to take a week or two off in July to take it for a shake down test run and sort out any bugs, still a bit to do on it but should be done for July

 

[Brett Mcleod]

bar is painted, just need to tighten the bolts