Builds BJ43 1979 “Save the beauty” (2 Viewers)

Economist LC76 · May 23, 2017

Hi, here is a story about BJ43L- KCJW restoration.

From very beginning I started the search of the rare examples such as medium wheelbase cars (FJ43/BJ43/BJ46). In addition to the rarity such cars are the best compromise between comfort and manoeuvrability.
FJ43 are not common in Europe, so my plan was to search for the car 1979+ within BJ43/BJ46 league. Production numbers for Europe for this period (1979+) BJ43 ~ 510 cars, BJ46 ~ 1618 cars. Not much... Majority cars were heavily used...To find the car from the first owner is almost impossible.
6 months searching, every day, all sites. I nearly gave up.

But once I've found the beauty! BJ43, build in November 1979, one owner, first registration in Germany in 1980. She appeared on few sites (such as mobile.de), the same day I've asked the owner of the restoration company to call and reserve the car. When he called he was number 20 in the list. End of the day the car was deleted from all sites. I will leave the battle phase away - as a result we've got our Queen.

BJ43 - wheelbase 2430mm, length 4275mm.
"B" 4 cylinder diesel (2977cc, 80hp)
4 speed gear box, 4 drum brakes, no Power steering and no Air Conditioner (in Europe it was available much later).
BJ43L-KCJW (Soft top, Roll bar, Production for Europe)
~170 000 km
Frame BJ43-0900267
Engine 0320729
Color 653 Olive
Trim LP11

As I realised further the first owner is the Ih8mud club member 45 & 43 diary Nov,2006-Feb,2019/July 28,2019

When emotions cooled down we've realised several cons. The life of the beauty was not very cloudless. The car was used as a daily car for many years and stored outside in the city. Several small accidents around, body “renovation” by unprofessional welding, oily underbody coating above rust, non original plastic fender flares with a radical body surgery, very tired engine, "saving mode" service support, few non oem "upgrades": additional insulator activity killed the original rare hood insulator, Webasto stand heater, catalytic converter, wide tyres, lifted suspension, welded box inside of the car, heavily repaired soft top. Having said this all these might be expected from old car even from Germany ("Ordnung" unfortunately became the legend). Besides this the frame was good, the seats were original, main parts were stock.

So I was happy at the moment of purchase

.

My idea was to bring the beauty into the factory condition. Full nut & bolt restoration. As to the upgrades I would like to add the mechanical winch (it was the option in 1979), OEM fog lights, "darth vader" light, two tire sets ("vintage original up to 1978" non split 7.00R16 + hub caps; correct for 1979 split rims 7.50R16), two type of the rear seats (original and Japanese BJ44 bench type version for my family members).

Few photos before & after as a teaser of the restoration

Economist LC76 · May 23, 2017

It was my first restoration. No experience, a lot of ideas.
Based on my search there are several companies that can jump into restoration:
1. Authorised Toyota dealer with old-timer background (owner hobby etc). It's supposed to be a good quality for a lot of money.
2. Land Cruiser repair station (+shop+club). Sometime might be helpful, but usually take e lot but do not much, especially when the owner have some special wishes! Delays are very often here, the station put regular Land Cruiser in priority...
3. Specialised companies for land cruiser restoration. They work for several projects simultaneously, that usually have 1-2 years queues. They know a lot, but usually specialised in assembling. Its good if they outsource engine & body work, otherwise the quality suffers!

I found the restoration company in Germany (#3 type) that agreed to do my project in 6 months! 4 pages contract, 5 instalments, some pictures with my wishes - so we can start.

Disassembling... Not very easy for the nerves. Frame and frame number is the most important, original engine block, documents & vin plate; some important expensive original parts (seats, Roll bar etc). The rest you can buy and restore. You need to make the pictures before disassembling!!! Its important for assembling, for contract execution and for restoration database (next buyer). Now I would strongly recommend to put documentation as a part of the contract (each stage payment only after full stage documentation).

Each part, each small piece, each bolt & nut have to be stored carefully! It's important to have enough boxes, not to lose anything. Clean parts have to be saved from dust, grease, and paint. All parts have to be checked - to restore or to replace. The list of oem parts will grow!
Unfortunately if the company runs several projects your parts could become the donor parts. That is why documentation helps!

In our project much rust & non oem upgrades & greasy sticky coating

Economist LC76 · May 23, 2017

The frame stage. Washing, sand blasting, cleaning, antirust priming, repairing, final paint.
It was a small discussion regarding full frame hot zinc - we decided not to do it. It's hard to clean all acid from the frame plus the frame has to stay flexible. As a final paint we agreed the "flexible" underbody coating "Brantho-Korrux"

Its important to double check that all small parts and bolts are unscrewed before sand blasting. Sand has to me properly cleaned!
In this section I made some mistakes. The company was not very happy to repeat blasting - cleaning.
You need to check the geometry of the rear frame part. This part as a bumper takes all energy from small accidents. Mine one had a slight propeller shape.
Apart from mudguard welding and small repair - the frame was in a good shape!

Economist LC76 · May 23, 2017

Engine.
The basic idea of the project was to stay original; replacing the engine with a more powerful one was not supposed (3B/13B/15BFTE) . When I study the basic B engine until 1980, I came to the conclusion that I can increase the volume and power of the engine to the level of Japanese 2B without visible changes. The engines differ only in pistons, piston rings and cylinder liners. In the event of a major overhaul of the engine, these parts will be replaced by new. 5-7 additional horsepower will be always helpful.

A wise idea was to send the engine for overhaul to a specialized company in Germany. Repairing an engine in a restoration workshop would have negative consequences. Before disassembling, I made a scan of the necessary pages from the original manuals. I also clearly described the design requirements and sent original photos from brochures.
Just before starting the engine I had great luck to buy a new Diesel Pump!

Being an optimist, I hoped that if not with the body, then at least with the engine I would not have problems. Naive ...
Disassemble the engine

The pictures & list of spare parts required from the engine made me sad.
Rockers, valves and camshaft, crankshaft, Cylinder head (cracks). Taking into consideration that the car run less than 200 ths km, such list usually is a result of "oil & filter saving policy".

In addition, when the old sleeves were pressed out from the diesel engine B (tons thick-walled), it turned out that there was a slight ellipse in the block itself at the place where the sleeve fits. If you press thin sleeves from 2B, they will take the form of a block and will have an ellipse. Then, by brainstorming, we decided to order also a set of thick-walled sleeves from B and, having pressed in, then later to bore the installed sleeves to the 2B motor.
Great thank to www.engineaustralia.com.au. They could send me new camshaft, valves, cylinder head, Piston & rings, sleeves from B diesel. This is not the original , but made specifically for Engine Australia. All other parts I bought original from Amayama or around the World.

After assembly, the engine was started and run in at the stand for several hours. Then they changed the oil and sent it to the restoration company.

PS More about B&2B diesel here

B to 2B upgrade

Hi, I restore BJ43 03/1980 close to OEM standards and try to discover opportunities to overhaul B diesel with slight upgrade in hp but without visible changes (so no 3B, 13BT, HT, HZ etc). So the only theoretical invisible solution is upgrade to 2B diesel. I compared late B diesel (March 1980)...

forum.ih8mud.com

Economist LC76 · May 23, 2017

Body.
Work on the body was separated from the restoration project. Body repair was done by one talented person in his garage. Instead of three months, the project took more than six. The budget has also grown.
The body scheme

Rust and holes everywhere... You have to pay if the car stands outside...

At the beginning we had the idea of using the 1/2 half from Teseven. But after receiving a half from Teseven, we mutually came to the conclusion that this part is not related to the restoration, the deviations from the original are dramatic.

Therefore, centimeter by centimeter, cleaning the body from sticky coating, it was necessary to restore the body in pieces.

Economist LC76 · May 23, 2017

In order to be able to use both the original seats and bench from the Japanese market, it was necessary to find the right location and weld the nuts.

Separately I dig into the body bolts and nuts. You need to find the exact part numbers and paint according to the factory scheme.

Painting work was carried out in a separate specialized company. Color matching 653 took more than three weeks - scanning, painting check.

As a result, we have a painted body, which went to the place of assembly in the restoration workshop.

Overtaking the body on the autobahn

With such a delay, there was a risk that the restoration workshop would not accept the car back. But the restorers agreed to begin assembly in a couple of months

Economist LC76 · May 23, 2017

Final part.
Car assembly.
This part took a couple of months.
By this period, I had accumulated a bunch of spare parts that I had to look around the world. 56 boxes with drawings, photographs and assembly instructions. In addition, I found a large number of catalogs and brochures to know how it should be in the original.

It happened that I had the opportunity to spend time around restoration workshop in order to assemble the car together with specialists. It was a very nervous affair at the beginning, the guys were very jealous and we were a couple of times close to continuing the project separately. Thanks to mutual patience, the project was completed!