What did you do on your 70 series today? (33 Viewers)

[jblueridge]

When I removed my Cruisin Offroad skid plate, I found it was bent or arched upwards.
The bend was not a crease and was undetectable by casual inspection.
That plate has been holding up the transfer case for almost 2 years.
The aluminum rib on the case has been rubbing the steel of the skid plate all that time.
Local machine shop bent the plate back.

The nub of metal near the drain plug in this pic is unworn metal matching up to a hole in the plate.
2 or 3 mm of the rib was abraded away.

Here's the top side of plate.

 

[Gun Runner 5]

That LJ looks very clean.

 

[Bazz]

Sprayed the trim panels I made with Raptor liner. First time I’ve sprayed bed liner so I’m pretty happy with the texture I got.

Next up will be the floor platform. I already have an L-track. Need to figure out where I’m gonna secure it towards the back. Anyone know if there is enough room to add a rivnut on one of the raised ribs of the tub above the fuel tank? I’ve been pretty nervous about drilling a hole there.

 

[jblueridge]

These are shots of my BJ74's tank (top side of tank) and the underside of truck.

 

[Bazz]

These are shots of my BJ74's tank (top side of tank) and the underside of truck.
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Alright I’m goin’ for it!

 

[dbug]

Thanks to this forum, I replaced the voltage regulator and brushes on my Hzj73 alternator; along with 2 new batteries. I had some charging issues and I think the worn brushes were the culprit. Intermittent lights not charging batteries. I’ll keep monitoring it but so far so good!

thank you!

 

[peterb]

Sprayed the trim panels I made with Raptor liner. First time I’ve sprayed bed liner so I’m pretty happy with the texture I got.

Next up will be the floor platform. I already have an L-track. Need to figure out where I’m gonna secure it towards the back. Anyone know if there is enough room to add a rivnut on one of the raised ribs of the tub above the fuel tank? I’ve been pretty nervous about drilling a hole there.

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What material did you use for your panels? TIA

 

[Muh2921]

Thanks. I think all JDM vehicles are supposed to have them but I could be wrong.

Yep, wouldn't pass inspection without it.

 

[Muh2921]

thoughts on the ride quality?

Feels brand new. Rear is stiff but still a decent ride... I was bottoming out over speed bumps with the stock springs.

 

[robmobile73]

Put in my new driver seat. It's a heavy equipment suspension seat. It does wonders for my back smoothing out the ripples and bumps in the road that normally transmitted straight through the original worn out seat.
It's it's a bit high I stacked the new adjusting rails on top of the old ones so now I have double the forward back movement if I want it. With the extra height and extra adjustability there's plenty of legroom now. my head would be too close to the ceiling if I was taller than 5/10. Also nice to have armrest that are also adjustable.
I like the construction and material of the seat very durable and utilitarian it fits with the 70. The seat folds forward completely which will work with my sleeping plan when camping as well as hauling big things if I decide to put one on the passenger side as well.
The wood block underneath the seat on the left side is a spacer 5/16 bolts go straight through from the seat all the way down to the mount on the floor. I'll paint that would block black to match at some point.
The seat was designed for heavy equipment not for a road vehicle. It has a headrest but it is a low back design so you can turn your head around and look behind you at the plow or implement you're pulling behind a tractor. I think this is great for off-roading and vision when backing up, but it lacks protection from whiplash if you get rear ended. I'm going to try to figure something out here but I haven't done it yet.

 

[Bazz]

What material did you use for your panels? TIA

I used some birch plywood. I think it was 5mm thickness, just went into Home Depot and picked up whatever was closest to what I had in mind. Wanted something a tad thicker than the oem mdf material, I knew I didn’t want to use mdf.

 

[robmobile73]

I used some birch plywood. I think it was 5mm thickness, just went into Home Depot and picked up whatever was closest to what I had in mind. Wanted something a tad thicker than the oem mdf material, I knew I didn’t want to use mdf.

I need to do that too. My door panels are floppy weak and secured by 1 time use plastic inserts. Your wood looks good coated with the bedliner.

 

[robmobile73]

Thanks to this forum, I replaced the voltage regulator and brushes on my Hzj73 alternator; along with 2 new batteries. I had some charging issues and I think the worn brushes were the culprit. Intermittent lights not charging batteries. I’ll keep monitoring it but so far so good!

thank you!

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That's really cool.....Rebuilding/repairing alternators, electric motors, power tools, wheel cylinders, master cylinders, getting tires recapped, getting clutch and brake parts relined, all used to be common before we had so much cheap stuff coming in from overseas. If you didn't do it yourself there was a shop somewhere in town you could drop it off to get it done. Things were also made better, made to be able to be taken apart and rebuilt, not just thrown away.

 

[Bazz]

I need to do that too. My door panels are floppy weak and secured by 1 time use plastic inserts. Your wood looks good coated with the bedliner.

Thanks. I am definitely happy with the way it came out. Do it while your current panels are a decent template, cause my quarters were not original, so making them was such a pain in the ass compared to the door panels which were original.

 

[22RJ70]

Truck looks great!
Where did you source the mat for your door panel? Would it work for replacement panels for the rear?
Thanks!

I tried to remember where I ordered those door panels but I don’t get the company name in my head. Originally, I was supposed to draw the pictures and order them laser-cut, but then I found a company in Poland whose selection included finished panels (all six pieces) powder-coated so cheaply that I didn't even bother to start modeling the panels.
---

Yesterday I went to spend quality time with the Cruiser driving along old logging tracks.

 

[Muh2921]

How many in

How many inches?

It's a 2" lift, got that in the rear and probably 1 1/2" in the front.

 

[robmobile73]

Put on 2" wheel spacers today to bring my new tires and rims a bit further out as they were rubbing the tie rods slightly and were tucked in a bit far. Should have gone with 1-1.5" instead. While I thought my rims all matched as it turns out 2 of them have 1/2" more backspacing.
Only had the tires mounted a few days now. I assumed the tire shop would inflate them to about 35 psi. I didn't bother to check them, just put them on and drove it. They are bigger tires than stock so I thought that 30PSI would be a good inflation to start from. I put the tire guage on and they were inflated 55-65PSI on each tire. I dropped to 30PSI all around and what a difference it makes. Between that and the suspension seat she rolls over the bumps and rides beautifully now. I will put in new bushings next which will likely help even more.

 

[NM Frontier]

Got out for a short drive:

I’m very pleased with how the grill and mirrors turned out.

 

[robmobile73]

Installed a new clutch master cylinder. The old one was barely disengaging as the pedal went all the way to the floor and fully adjusted out. It's a lot better now. The new slave cylinder does not fit I will have to send it back.

Decided to test the new tires exploring a right of way road. The fairly well traveled dirt road ended at a low spot where a stream crossed. Some atv tracks across the stream. I walked it and it felt pretty good. What I didn't realize was I was walking on top of Pierce steel plate that was under 3 inches of wet sand that the power company had thrown down at some point. Just off the peirced steel plate it was knee-deep soup. .....I buried the back tires trying to climb out on the far side..

Spent two hours doing manual recovery with a high-lift jack. Lucky for me I was able to dig up some of the old pierced steel plate and make use of it. to my surprise it is a lot harder to high lift winch a 4000 + pound landcruiser when you're almost 50 that it is to do the same thing with a Suzuki samurai when you're in your 20s.....yet the mind says "you can do it"... I will feel this tomorrow.

It was a good rehearsal for my kit.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Did some exploring with a friend in central Idaho last weekend. Made it up to about 8500 ft. then got stopped by a huge snow drift.

oop