1984 HJ47 Restomod (1 Viewer)

[Drabnov]

I send greetings from Africa. I recently purchased a 1984 HJ47 2H pickup. It has power steering and discs up front and 4 speed gear box. The diesel engine feels strong and the gears and 4x4 all work. It has much wear and tear. But all flesh wounds which can be rectified with a bit of surgery and some nips and tucks and hopefully not too much transplanting.

I am not doing a full restoration but a restomod which will include removing the main body panels, rear load bin and engine gearbox combo. The purpose of the vehicle will not be a concourse show pony, but merely to scoot around town on the weekends, load my bikes to take them to the enduro track etc. I will leave the cab body on the frame. I want to do a pretty decent paint finish on the vehicle, fix and replace all broken or worn parts on the suspension, diffs and brakes, and then freshen up the engine with new hardware or plate the original hardware if it is in good reusable condition. And that’s about it. This is the plan but as we know from experience this is not how it will work out.

 

[Drabnov]

When I picked the cruiser up it looked more like a farming implement than a Landcruiser. It is in quite a sorry state and the farmer tells me they used it as their fire engine to put out bush fires. A bit of rust here and there and I guess I will only know the true extent when I start the stripping process. I think a farmer’s answer to any repairs is welding to fix broken things and silicone to fix leaking things.

I have a small workshop area at my factory that also has a “pit” which will help for getting under the vehicle and attending to the important stuff like diffs and suspension and steering.

 

[Drabnov]

I have started the strip down process. Removing the doors. I had such a battle removing the glass, even after reading the procedure on this site. I removed all the rubbers and sealing strips and runners, mechanisms etc and still nothing. I also nearly cracked the glass trying to remove the bottom strip that the glass sits in. But never fear. The good news is that you can take this off after you remove the glass and don’t have to do it while the glass is still in the door. So, do everything you are told ie – remove all the bits and mechanisms in the door, then rotate the glass through 90 degrees (can’t remember if it’s the rear down or the front down, just try both ways), then the glass slides right out.

Next I removed the roof. Easy job. The roof is in a poor state on both front corners. It looks like the farmer rode into a tree or something because the roof is dented and all the paint was scraped off. This is where the cancer got in. He did a poor patch job which basically just let the cancer fester under the silicone and fibreglass.

After the roof was removed I removed the rear window panel above the cab. The glass came out very easily without breaking the glass or destroying the rubbers. I will probably replace all the windows rubbers with new ones. The back window has an aluminium frame and sliding glass. Not sure if this is standard but nice on those hot days to get a through flow because this machine does not have factory air-conditioning.
This is where I discovered quite a bit of rust between the rear cab and rear panel. Clearly it wasn’t sealed properly and moisture was allowed to settle and slowly over the years fester into stage 4. I will have to make up some new steel pieces and weld them in.

The next to come off was the windscreen. Also an easy process. The wiper motor and arm assembly came right out without any problems.

Next week I will start with the pick-up back loading section and the front fenders and panels and then start the media blasting process to see what else needs to be done before priming and paint.

 

[Indestructible 47]

nice rig there buddy. have fun.

 

[Drabnov]

Thank you. It's going to be challenging, but I must say that it doesn't seem to be in too bad condition compared to some of these vehicles I have seen on this forum. Those guys deserve medals : )

 

[Drabnov]

I started with some sandblasting this weekend. Trying to be careful not to blast the big flat sections because of warping. I will tackle those with the sander later. A few nice spots of rust, so those will need to be cut and welded up.

 

[Drabnov]

So I am not too sure what is happening here with the power steering. It is a Mercedes steering box and pump but it is all off-centre and nothing aligns. Arms and linkages have been changed and welded all over. Damn. I will search for the original power steering parts. If that proves to be challenging then I will just replace it with the manual box and shaft.

 

[Living in the Past]

So I am not too sure what is happening here with the power steering. It is a Mercedes steering box and pump but it is all off-centre and nothing aligns. Arms and linkages have been changed and welded all over. Damn. I will search for the original power steering parts. If that proves to be challenging then I will just replace it with the manual box and shaft.

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Looks like the issue is the steering shaft connects on top of the frame. Stock it's outside the frame. Being in the stock steering box location the angle is greater than other steering boxes that are further forward.

 

[Indestructible 47]

yeah, that's a bit rudimentary....

 

[Drabnov]

Thanks for the reply. I hope to strip it down in the next few weeks, then will be able to see what the hell is going on there.

 

[Drabnov]

I stripped the engine and gearbox out last week. Taking advice from you guys I left the gearbox and transfer case all connected to the engine and lifted the whole assembly out at once. This proved to be quite an easy job. I had a hand from a mate which made life a little easier when lifting and coaxing it out of the engine bay, plus an awesome straddle crane that we just wheeled in front of the cruiser. The bash plate and cover under the transfer case needed to be removed and the farmer had welded these to the chassis, so it was out with the angle grinder again : )

I then placed the assembly onto a trolley, rigged up some steel supports on the sides and now it sits perfectly for me to clean and strip the bits off that I want to recondition, paint, plate and polish.

 

[Drabnov]

 

[Drabnov]

The one universal joint on the prop-shaft had all the small needle bearing neatly lying in the bottom of the cup, as dry as a bone. I don' think it had ever seen the grease gun. I stripped the ones that seemed really bad and will replace then.

 

[Drabnov]

 

[Drabnov]

I did some reconditioning on the heater blower and also the speedo cluster. Results where not too bad.

 

[Drabnov]

 

[Drabnov]

There was a small rats nest inside the heater box.

 

[Drabnov]

The farmer fitted a radio onto the side of the heater box. He drilled through the casing and right into the heater core ????

 

[Drabnov]

 

[Drabnov]

Here is the reconditioned speedo cluster. I wasn't keen to restore the thing to factory and quite like the worn look on the numbers combined with the repainted bezel and clean glass. I removed and re-glued all the rubbers behind the face. I will try and source the brighter globes.