Builds LHD HZJ73 Refresh (1 Viewer)

[Kaderabek]

"Bending, shaping, elongating...." Sounds like yoga for Land Cruisers.

I'll be the guy out on I40 chasing my soft top across the median.

 

[wngrog]

"Bending, shaping, elongating...." Sounds like yoga for Land Cruisers.

I'll be the guy out on I40 chasing my soft top across the median.

Better wait till Miller gets home….

 

[Kaderabek]

Better wait till Miller gets home….

He's been sucked into the Mississippi vortex - thanks to you.

I'll get this figured out. Just need some dedicated time and dry weather. This rental house we're in while we build has a garage that envisions moped ownership.

TJK

 

[reddog90]

@Kaderabek did you get your soft top on?

 

[Kaderabek]

@Kaderabek did you get your soft top on?

Yes - if by "on" you mean on the shelf in my garage. I need warmer/dryer weather. Or the contractor building our house/garage to hurry the heck up.

 

[77CJ5]

Any updates or fresh pics of this awesome rig @Kaderabek?

 

[Kaderabek]

Nope. Waiting on warmer weather to work on the soft top. Have had it out in the woods a few times, does remarkably well. Headed to Windrock at the end of the month with the Kentucky boys.

 

[reddog90]

Alright you got that soft top on the truck yet??

 

[Kaderabek]

Nope! It's been a busy spring (which is good) and we still have this useless rental house/garage. However, that should change in June, which will make this process much more doable. I have been wrapping my pea-sized brain around the setup though and may have it somewhat figured out. I'm still puzzling over how the top latch for the passenger side rear door will work because that mechanism is attached to the FRP top. All shall be revealed with time though - apparently lots of time.

 

[Kaderabek]

I have a good news, bad news that is actually good news, no real news update.

First, we moved - so the 73 has a garage with plenty of workspace (in my terms anyway).

Those of you with sharp eyes will note that there is still not a soft top on this truck, which leads to the next bit of news. I had another spine surgery so can't lift anything over ten pounds for a few more weeks. But the pain has subsided so once I have clearance from the neurosurgeon, I can get to work on this project.

I'm still puzzling over how I retain my rear doors with the soft top on, in that the door latch mechanism is part of the hard top. I suspect the answer is "I don't" which means I don't have a spare tire anymore (or one rolling around in the back). But I digress.

You were warned - nothing to see here.

 

[Kaderabek]

I also have a question. I'm quite sure a dumb one but my manual is in Dutch so I have no clue what any of it says (but it looks cool).

What does this warning light mean? I've eliminated the usual suspects (in my mind). Belts are all new and tight - doesn't seem to be any problem with the electrical system. Fluids are in good shape. At first I thought it was RPM related - it goes on and off. But now I think it may be oil pressure related. My OEM oil pressure gauge doesn't seem real accurate but at the lower fluctuation on the gauge, the light blinks on. Blinks off when the pressure goes up a bit.

Thoughts?

 

[FJBen]

I have a good news, bad news that is actually good news, no real news update.

First, we moved - so the 73 has a garage with plenty of workspace (in my terms anyway).
View attachment 3087532View attachment 3087533

Those of you with sharp eyes will note that there is still not a soft top on this truck, which leads to the next bit of news. I had another spine surgery so can't lift anything over ten pounds for a few more weeks. But the pain has subsided so once I have clearance from the neurosurgeon, I can get to work on this project.

I'm still puzzling over how I retain my rear doors with the soft top on, in that the door latch mechanism is part of the hard top. I suspect the answer is "I don't" which means I don't have a spare tire anymore (or one rolling around in the back). But I digress.

You were warned - nothing to see here.

You can. I have them but….

It doesn’t necessarily work or attach up top. I took off the top latch on the soft top rear hoop. The whole mechanism on the door is too big and interferes with the upper rear hoop setup. On mine I had to cut that bump out piece and open it up a little. Still on the list to make look better.
The doors don’t fit as nice as they do on the FRP at all, but that’s in adjustment and how i think the rear hoop was modified to fit the 73/74 that was an FRP. Most of this is due to the fact the rear hoop shouldn’t be bolted flat to the body, there is a space on factory. It took me seeing @bottombracket awesome soft top thread to see that.

The whole top will take some adjusting and little mods to make it fit great. Again it’s also 1/3 the price of OEM.

I can take pics if that helps.

Get that back healed!

 

[Kaderabek]

I've been studying the photos I have of your installation and trying to figure out how you kept those rear doors on with the soft top. I'd finally concluded that we didn't have the same top. This is encouraging - thank you. It doesn't have to be perfect to suit me. I just need it to work. At some point when you're bored, if you could send pics of how you modified yours, that would be great. No hurry at all. I'll look for the bottombracket thread too.

 

[AirheadNut]

That warning light is for the brake system; it is triggered by one of three things: emergency brake engaged, low brake fluid or low vacuum.

 

[FJBen]

I've been studying the photos I have of your installation and trying to figure out how you kept those rear doors on with the soft top. I'd finally concluded that we didn't have the same top. This is encouraging - thank you. It doesn't have to be perfect to suit me. I just need it to work. At some point when you're bored, if you could send pics of how you modified yours, that would be great. No hurry at all. I'll look for the bottombracket thread too.

Sorry for the bad pictures but here is some quick ones. I had to run outside at work and put the sides on as it’s starting to rain here finally. (That’s another mod it needs)


Here’s the top. I removed the top bumper piece. Yeah I just slit it and opened it up for the latches to fit for now. I need to just weld it back. I do however have some 1/2 door possibilities lining up. A better fix would be to cut that out, then attach a hoop at the same distance for the doors to latch too. Someday.

Yours may not be like this. These should be spaced down a little bit. I’ve bent mine down and it’s much better fitting. On the other thread you can see the gap that should be there.

I see this as a compromise of how this attaches with Velcro vs how the oem top attaches.

I think the biggest omission of this top is the roll up sides. It’s nice to have a safari style top and it’s decently quick, 2-3 mins to out the sides on, it would be about 30 seconds to roll them down. Plus you don’t have to store them when they are off.

I’m going to get them modded to make them work like that. Better functioning and just cooler looking. Hoping to make it so that the sides can still be pulled off totally, or just rolled up.



I think it’s an awesome option for a soft top. Not perfect, but a great option At a decent value.

 

[Kaderabek]

That warning light is for the brake system; it is triggered by one of three things: emergency brake engaged, low brake fluid or low vacuum.

Got it - thanks. The parking brake is not engaged but as a side note, when it is, that light is not on (and the brake works).

Brake fluid is dead center between minimum and maximum. I could add some and see if this helps.

So perhaps we're at low vacuum. Why would I have a low vacuum situation?

 

[Kaderabek]

Sorry for the bad pictures but here is some quick ones. I had to run outside at work and put the sides on as it’s starting to rain here finally. (That’s another mod it needs)


Here’s the top. I removed the top bumper piece. Yeah I just slit it and opened it up for the latches to fit for now. I need to just weld it back. I do however have some 1/2 door possibilities lining up. A better fix would be to cut that out, then attach a hoop at the same distance for the doors to latch too. Someday.

View attachment 3087638


Yours may not be like this. These should be spaced down a little bit. I’ve bent mine down and it’s much better fitting. On the other thread you can see the gap that should be there.

I see this as a compromise of how this attaches with Velcro vs how the oem top attaches.

View attachment 3087640View attachment 3087641



I think the biggest omission of this top is the roll up sides. It’s nice to have a safari style top and it’s decently quick, 2-3 mins to out the sides on, it would be about 30 seconds to roll them down. Plus you don’t have to store them when they are off.

I’m going to get them modded to make them work like that. Better functioning and just cooler looking. Hoping to make it so that the sides can still be pulled off totally, or just rolled up.



I think it’s an awesome option for a soft top. Not perfect, but a great option At a decent value.

This is super helpful and thanks for taking the time out of your day. I would have assumed I had something incorrect before trimming that piece to make it fit. It'll be interesting to see if there are differences between your top and my top. Agreed on the roll-up sides. I had them on my Tacoma Softtopper and really liked them.

I may also have a line on some half doors and can keep you posted on it. Retailer in Aiken may import them.

Sorry if I've asked this prior but do you recall the size of those bolts?

Thanks!

 

[FJBen]

This is super helpful and thanks for taking the time out of your day. I would have assumed I had something incorrect before trimming that piece to make it fit. It'll be interesting to see if there are differences between your top and my top. Agreed on the roll-up sides. I had them on my Tacoma Softtopper and really liked them.

I may also have a line on some half doors and can keep you posted on it. Retailer in Aiken may import them.

Sorry if I've asked this prior but do you recall the size of those bolts?

Thanks!

Anytime sir.

I don’t know the bolt size, but I do know I’m using the same bolt from the FRP top in that location. easy Enough to pull to get size and Probabaly a little longer to deal with that gap.

 

[Kaderabek]

Anytime sir.

I don’t know the bolt size, but I do know I’m using the same bolt from the FRP top in that location. easy Enough to pull to get size and Probabaly a little longer to deal with that gap.

Got it - thanks!

 

[bottombracket]

@FJBen heal up soon, friend.

Regarding the half door latches, there is no upper latch. You just latch the door with the latch on the bottom of the door. The FST upper half door frames have no latches and sit against a bumper. Here are the part numbers:

I still haven’t put the glass in my new half doors, so I removed the upper latch and transfer bar. It works fine.

@Kaderabek the bolts for the rear frame to fender are M8.

My FST thread has all the little part numbers in it, so I don’t clog up your thread.

1989 HDJ74 FRP to FST conversion

Sometime early last year, I picked up another truck from my good friend @joekatana. It started life as a 1989 RHD BJ74. Over its lifetime, @rick_d converted it to left hand drive, dropped in a 1HDT or two, and added a few more things. It made its way to Joe, and then to me. Joe did a bunch of...

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