JD Cruiser's 1981 BJ42 Body Repair & Restoration (1 Viewer)

[JDCruiser]

Hello,

Been meaning to start this thread for awhile no. In 2007 I became a new proud owner of a blue 1981 BJ42 Land Cruiser. This vehicle was bought new by a family friend and he was the single owner of it (shown in one of the pictures below). It was primarily used as a hunting and bush truck in Northern Ontario and only has 80,000km on it. Everything on it is original, including hubcaps, took kit, and even the brake pads and shoes (yes, never even had a brake job).

Because the PO was aging and couldn't work on the truck anymore nor could he ride and enjoy it, he sold it to me with a promise that I would take could care of it, repair it, and enjoy it with my family. About a month after I transported the Land Cruiser to my home in South Western Ontario, the PO passed away.

I have been slowly working away at that the truck in the past couple years because the rust has completely eaten the rear floor (see pictures). Just recently, I have started working on the truck with more intensity and a goal of getting it road worthy and passing a safety inspection within 1 year.

This is my repair thread, enjoy.

 

[JDCruiser]

Rust Pictures

Here are pictures of the rear floor where 30 years of Canadian salt roads and weather have eaten away at it.

 

[johnkappus]

Wow!

The rust doesn't look THAT bad.

Good luck with it!

 

[JDCruiser]

Thanks John, from the outside it looks ok because the PO had body work and a paint job done about 6 years ago. However, the body shop did all the outside stuff and not the structural stuff. The rear floor cross members are completely toast as well the bumper is rotten. The front floor as well has holes in it. It isn't bad enough to warrent a frame off but bad enough that a few of the major panels need to be completely replaced. The body guy also loved bondo!!!

 

[KY Longhunter]

Subscribed

 

[JDCruiser]

Hard Top Removal & Storage

After getting the doors off it was time to take off the hard top. I knew that it was off once because I remember the PO saying that he took it off so that it could be painted but when it was put back on again it leaked so he had to put sealer in there to stop the leaking. Not a good choice, should have sourced new weatherstrip rather than lathering it up with butyl.

I rigged up a pulley system in my garage because I knew I wouldn't have enough room to store it on the floor and do the resto. So I put together a 3 pulley system with parts that I got from Canadian tire. I originally thought that I could put a little lift on the pulleys tie them in place and then with a utility knife cut the butyl off and it would start to peel. No go.

With a buddy of mine putting all his weight into the 2 rear pulleys and me using a pry bar we finally broke the seal and was able to peel it back off the truck. That thing definitely wasn't leaking but it certainly wasn't coming off easy either.

Here are some of the pics of my hardtop removal and rigging system.

 

[JDCruiser]

Hardtop Removal Pics Continued...

Here are some more pics of the hartop removal and rigging. 1.5years later the cheap rigging system from canadian tire is still holding it up and it hasn't budged and inch.

 

[Sno Dawg]

great looking truck

wow - great looking truck - it doesn't look like it needs that much work and with the deisel engine, it should run for another 200,000 KM

where are you in Northern Ontario? I work in Temagami all summer as a canoe guide. It is amazing country - we have been spending every summer working up there for the past 15 years.

Teeth to the wind,
Sno Dawg

 

[Michael Hanson]

Keep us posted. MIke

 

[JDCruiser]

Hey Sno Dawg, thanks for the comments on the rig. It is a lot more ugly looking from the bottom. Rear bumper, gussets, shackles, floor and floor supports are all delaminated and rotten. But it is all fixable, was a common thing with the Canadian cruisers.

I live in Southwestern Ontario, near Kitchener, but I got the Land Cruiser from a family friend that lived in Elliott Lake (about 1.5hrs northwest of Sudbury). My wife is originally from there. We used to go up there all the time during the summer, play with the ATV's and Land Cruisers but since the PO passed away and my mother in law moved down here haven't been up much. I miss the north though.

 

[Ambrew]

Nice ride. good luck with the refurb!!! I have the same year and model as you and am in the middle of my resto. enjoy!!

 

[JDCruiser]

Fuel Tank Removal

After several days of fighting with the fuel tank it finally dropped. I am so glad a site like this exists because there is no way that I would have believed just myself that it could drop without dropping the rear axle or taking the floor out, but like everyone said with the right combination of twists, suspension compression / sag, it came out.

I don't recall a lot of the detailed positions becuase I tried so many different twists that I got lost in the positions and sequence. I basically need to to walk the thin portion of it (Passenger side) to the right rear corner of the truck as much as possible and spin it almost 90 degrees to get the driver side to drop in between the diff and the frame tube cross member.

It was joy when it did finally shift and fall out, never mind that it almost crushed my head becuase there was still a half a tank of diesel in it.

 

[JDCruiser]

Rear Tail light removal

Last week I wanted to get the last few bits and pieces off the rear tub so that I can cross brace and then start wiring wheeling and grinding.

The rear tailights had to go. Gaskets were completed cracked and shot, it is a wonder how these things didn't short out with all the water that would have gotten in there. I had her pretty deep in some puddles the few brief runs I had it running after getting her.

Pictures below also show the kind rust that I am dealing with in behind the rear frame crossmember, very delaminated.

 

[JDCruiser]

Bracing is Complete

Today I finaly got the cross bracing finished. Wanted to make sure that nothing critical would start moving around when I cut the rear the floor out and start taking bits and pieces of the tub out to patch and or replace.

I used the door striker tapped plates as good datum reference point for the mid and the rear ambulance door bracket tapped plates for the rear.

This should do the job and gave me a good opportunity to practice welding with my newly acquired Lincoln Electric 3200HD 120V Mig Welder. Works quite well, wouldn't want to weld much thicker than this angle iron which is 1/8". Was only using fluxcore but will be getting it setup for full MIG before welding on the truck.

Let me know what you think and if there is something that i am missing and should brace before I get too much further.

 

[JDCruiser]

Bracing - More Pictures...

Some more pics of the bracing

 

[JDCruiser]

Back at it again!

Hello,Been almost 5 months since I got progress done on the cruiser. Lots of excuses why, wife got sick, new trailer as a camping toy, and raising a 4 and 2 year old, however, enough with delaying.This weekend, cleared out the garage and got going at it again, starting to grind and wire wheel it. Also started marking the floor cut lines. Found out that the angle grinder can't reach most of the spots I need to access for cutting the rear floor out so went to princess auto yesterday to pickup a mandrel and cutoff blades for the electrical drill.Focus now is to get the rear floor cut out so I can get a good look at the rear members and dimension them up for fabrication. Also getting setup to remove the rear axle becuase it is in the way and the rear shakle perches, bumper, gussets, and tie plates are shot. Going to be a busy winter.

 

[John McVicker]

Subscribed.

Excellent project. Please keep taking pictures.

John

 

[JDCruiser]

Grinding It Down - Bondo Everywhere!!!

Started getting some of the rear floor ground down, had no idea how much bondo was used by PO. It was everywhere, I think it was holding the whole rear floor together. Below are some shots of the rear grinding work.

 

[JDCruiser]

Cutting The Floor Out

Today I started cutting the floor out. The idea was basically to cut out the entire section from just in front of the rear sill to just behind the main cross member seam in the L direction and to both wheel wells in the W direction.

As you can see from the pics below, the Driver side didn't need much cutting along the wheel well becuase of how rotten it was in that area.

I have decided to cut right through the body cross members that lie underneath the floor. My thinking is that with the floor out I can better measure and analyze the rear cross members to determine what I should make the news out of. It is really hard to measure accurately underneath the truck with rust falling all over you. The only risk is positioning them later but I have taken dimensions and I will also be able to tell based on the next pads for the mounts.

I was able to get the 2 cuts at the wheel well done and the cut at the front by the rear cross member. I tried to use the cut off blade on the angle grinder but couldn't get as close as I wanted to by the wheel wells so I went to princess auto and picked up a drill mandrel and set of cut off blades. It works very well hooked up to my electrical drill. The disks don't last that long and all it takes is catching one rough edge, the wheel bucking and it destroys the cutting wheel.

 

[JDCruiser]

Cutting the Rear Floor - More Pics

Here are some more pics of cutting the rear floor. The next step is to mark out the rear sill cut line, get that cut and then the floor should come out.