Builds 1986 RJ70 build thread (AUS) (1 Viewer)

[Cashed up bogan]

Well G'day everyone


Been on here a lot for information so I thought it was about time a made a build thread for a couple of reasons.

1. Give me motivation to keep working on my cruiser

2. Provide more information on the rare Bundera for others


Well to start, i am living in Queensland Australia, and in 2014 i bought a great 1986 RJ70 Bundera from a member on this forum ( Strick i think his user name was ). The Bundy was in excellent shape considering it's age, and had only 97 000kms on the clock. While looking around on this forum spotted a tidy little red SWB 70 series that instantly wanted one like it. I decided to look online at what they sold for and there was the exact car i was drooling over for sale. Well it was not long before i got the funds and had my brother pick it up for me.


well i'll let some pictures do the talking as i slowly catch everyone up on what's happened to the Bundy since I've owned it for a bit over 2 years.


This is the image that was online when it was for sale.

My brother tinkered with it for me while he held on to it for a while, put the original wheels on ( which are incredibly heavy for their size ) and drove it around.


He managed to do a few things mechanically to it such as

. LCE steel backed guide timing chain kit
. Cooling system over haul ( 30 year mechanic said it was the dirtiest coolant flush he has seen in a LONG time ) this brought the factory temp gauge from sitting at almost half to a quarter at normal operating temperature.
. Oil and filter changes through out as well as distributor replacement and leads.
. Swivel hub rebuilds

Once i got my hands on the rig i went into suspension, i had read about the 80 series springs giving a 4 inch lift so went straight for that. I discovered that the front 80 series coils fitted the rear of the bundy fine, but i ended up using a modern v8 turbo 70 series front springs for the front, as the 80s were to large. These springs gave me roughly 4 -4.5 inch lift. Which looked great, but handled terribly/dangerously. Soon after i thought 3 degree castor bushes sold on ebay for this model would fix the problem......it did not, due to the bushes correcting castor the radius arms hit the axle and the bushes could not be used, that was a very expensive exercise for me unfortunately.

to be continued

 

[Cashed up bogan]

So while i did the suspension i also had a few bit's from superior engineering installed Comp spec drag link and tie rod ( the tie rod that they sell for this car was to long and caused a severe toe in issue, though when i contacted them they were happy to modify it for me to suit ) as well as front and rear adjustable panhard rods. Plus i got a second hand set of 33x12.5 r15 tyres on 15x10 -44 steel rims, they were never used so were a bargain. And because the tyres stuck out so much i got some flares from ebay ( i was not really happy with them, not worth the fortune they charged).

Similiar time i installed a runva 11xp winch ( been pretty good, the solenoid did fail on me and had to be replaced ) as well i upgraded the sound system with a new head unit and some 4" and 6" speakers.

That sort of covers the first year of ownership, the bundy stayed like this for a while as i drove it and began learning to 4wd. I'll put up the next phase of mods a bit later.

cheers

 

[Cashed up bogan]

After a while of having the car like this me and a mate decided to do cape york, though as the bundy sat i knew it needed a lot of changes for me to be happy to travel up there for about 20 days.

first up was a snorkel, as some may know there is not a plastic snorkel for a 70 series on the passenger side in production to match the 22r engine. so that left me with going a stainless steel option, which i prefer anyway.

while the snorkel was done i had the rear bar designed and made for it. I wanted the big spare off the door as it was already causing the hinges to bend on the door, and i also wanted somewhere to store fuel cans to help give the thirsty 22r some better range. The bar is very solid, and has copped a bit of abuse and has done so faultlessly. Outcast offroad was the company i went through. Sorry for the poor quality picture.

I had my brother take the bundy to a mechanic so as i could have a load of work done before the trip, this included
. Hard candy diff breathers
. Nitro gears 4.88 diff gears
. Rear elocker
. TJM Dual battery system w 120 amp hour battery in the engine bay.

Unfortunatly after i flew down to pick it up and drive it from coffs harbour to townsville, the rear diff seal let go, and the second battery tray broke, so had to go straight to another mechanic to get that fixed just days before i was scheduled to leave for cape york. And also the head gasket was leaking so had him replace it and have the head checked, as you could imagine money and time was flying out the window before the trip. no pictures of those things though.

next i'll go into the camp setup i bought and used on the trip.

 

[Cashed up bogan]

I then proceeded to buy all my camp equipment for the trip such as
. Kulkyne big boy dome swag ( a really nice swag, and have had no dramas with it )
. Bushman 35/52 litre fridge ( an absolutely brilliant fridge, worth every penny )
. Superpeg 2.1m awning ( i wanted to maximise coverage with an awning and this thing is brilliant for that, though without 2 people setting it up its a pain, and a cheaper and almost just as effective solution would be a cheaper brands side and rear awning with a custom cut canvas joiner to join the two awnings creating a full wrap around awning ) can be done for a 3rd of the cost i paid for this awning.
. cookwear, tables, chairs and all that other usual stuff

following pics are a few places we camped showing my setup.

 

[Cashed up bogan]

Another change i did was to the suspension, the big lift i had done previously was just no good, the springs were to stiff and the car was all over the road due to the castor i think. I went with dobinsons 2.5 inch coils and tough dog 41mm shocks. This made the car much more enjoyable to drive. It still does a little bit of wandering on the road though. more on that later.

here is the car shortly after the new suspension was put in and i was on my way to townsville.

After all this i did the cape york trip and the bundy was faultless the entire trip ( except for a fuel line that got yanked off by a stick, which just pushed back on and all was good ) and had an absolute blast doing it. after the trip the car has been quite neglected modification wise, and the only major thing i HAD to do was fix some rust.

Now when i picked the car up it did not show any signs of obvious rust, but two years later the roof just up from the gutters and around the window was getting pretty bad, bubbling up the paint all along, even rust holes appearing. So got in contact with a hot rod body place and after a week he had cut all the rust out, and used a fiber glass putty to fill the gaps, and spray fish oil to try and prevent any further rust. The car looked almost brand new whn it was done. I don't have any pics of how bad the rust got just how the roof looked after.

And that about brings everyone up to speed on where the old boy sits, i have a list of jobs that grows everyday so i will keep updating as i go and answer any questions if anyone has any. I'll put a few pictures up of the bundy on various 4wd trips for you to enjoy

cheers

 

[Guu]

Looking good there mate

 

[Cashed up bogan]

Cheers mate, it's coming along slowly

Also forgot to mention that after the cape trip the exhaust rusted through in multiple places, causing it to leak onto the floor pan and heating the floor up, like really hot, so a set of new headers and a 2.25 inch exhaust later and she is breathing a whole lot better, especially with no cat and no EGR now.

Gunshot creek, on the old telegraph track, cape york

random creek crossing followed by what i thought was going to be something easy after my mates 80 walked over it.....

cheers

 

[Guu]

nice mate was the exhaust an off the shelf item or did you have one made up?

I've been trying to find an off the shelf jobbie for my fj73

 

[Cashed up bogan]

The headers were an off the shelf hilux set, but the rest is all custom done, you will be hard pressed to find a full off the shelf system for these older cruisers unfortunately.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Great build, thanks for sharing!

 

[Cashed up bogan]

No worries

Few more photos of cape york.

 

[Cashed up bogan]

To finish up, a few pictures of the 70 at landcruiser mountain park. Was a great few days with an abundance of difficult tracks.

The little bundy managed to keep up with the bigger 80s the whole time, however i did need to use my rear locker a bit as it does not flex that well, especially compared to the two other trucks i went with.

So that about brings everyone up to date, the list of stuff i want to do is long, so i won't put it up, but i should have the bundy back in April so as i can start some work on it.

cheers

 

[Cashed up bogan]

Well thought I would give a quick update

Now I'm reunited with my cruiser there are a few jobs needing doing.

First I have stripped all the interior door cards and are having them laser cut in black checker plate, old boy still carrying a lot of cape dust inside.

Also begun knocking up some rear drawers, as much as I would have liked to have gone the cheap 4wd super center draws, at 71 kilos are to heavy in my opinion, so decided to build my own, will probably work out similar in price, but I'm hoping a fair bit lighter. Still a while to go

And finally looking at putting on these lights, I have had the light bar since mid 2015, so well over due for installation.

I will post pictures of the completed work as I finish them, knowing how lazy I am might be a while.

Cheers

 

[Cashed up bogan]

Well managed to get the lights on and working, the wiring harness made the job incredibly easy, then just had to splice the light bar into the harness and was done.

The difference is massive, like day light now, though definitely does not have the greatest distance of light, though excellent spread.

 

[Calluco]

Hey matey great build youve got going and a very nice looking bundy to go with! ive got myself an rj70 too with 32" muddies but she really is a slug wearing those shoes...wondering how the 33s go on your bundy? do you find a lack of power and just deal with it or is it not very noticable? the 33s look awesome on your truck but the 31s look a bit...weak basically what im asking is should i check out other components of my truck to get more power or is it really a case of dropping down tyre size / is there really much of a noticable difference between the 33s and 31s? Hope that makes sense! thanks

 

[Cashed up bogan]

Hey mate cheers, love my little Bundy.

No matter how you cut it, the RJ70 is a slug, and yes 33s don't help being a large heavy amount of tyre, I manage day to day with it, but hills do see me at 3rd gear and 60-70kmh. Head winds seem to slow me down and over taking at high way speeds is hard. I have the 4.88 diff gears and an exhaust system and she is still slow.

I found it was more tolerable on 31s than the 33s, though not a huge difference.

If your bundera is just a weekend toy like mine originally was going to be, I'd just stick with the 22r and deal with the slowness. Personally I'm turning mine into a touring/camping vehicle so am looking at a 3rz conversion if I can ever afford it. I did look at mods for the 22r for more power, but for the cost a 3rz is a better choice.

Hope that helps

 

[Burbot]

Hey mate cheers, love my little Bundy.

No matter how you cut it, the RJ70 is a slug, and yes 33s don't help being a large heavy amount of tyre, I manage day to day with it, but hills do see me at 3rd gear and 60-70kmh. Head winds seem to slow me down and over taking at high way speeds is hard. I have the 4.88 diff gears and an exhaust system and she is still slow.

I found it was more tolerable on 31s than the 33s, though not a huge difference.

If your bundera is just a weekend toy like mine originally was going to be, I'd just stick with the 22r and deal with the slowness. Personally I'm turning mine into a touring/camping vehicle so am looking at a 3rz conversion if I can ever afford it. I did look at mods for the 22r for more power, but for the cost a 3rz is a better choice.

Hope that helps

Just wanted to say nice build. Here all the rust is lower esp in older models. Rockers and whl wells.

 

[Cashed up bogan]

Well my checker plate door card's are taking a long time so haven't been able to do much to the Bundy.

I did however mount some speaker's in the draw system which should work a treat when I can finally mount them in.

When for a casual Sunday explore of a local track, and the old saying of ih8mud rings true now.....

I'll be cleaning that off for months to come.

 

[Burbot]

Nah just let it harden till it's like cement lol

 

[Cashed up bogan]

G'day everyone, happy New year's

Been a while, not a huge amount has happened to the Bundy lately, not fun stuff any way.

My new year's eve and day was spent working on the old boy, swivel hub rebuilds. One side was leaking quite badly which was disappointing as I had a mechanic rebuild them back in late 2015. Because of that I decided to have a crack myself.

Now I have never done such a large job on a car before, so it was quite the learning experience for me, with only basic hand tools and a YouTube guide I managed to complete the job.

I used lock washers and thread locker where I thought necessary to hopefully make this rebuild last longer then the last one. I did notice that most the steering knuckle studs were loose while pulling it all apart so thread locked them tight and hopefully they stay like that.

It wasn't until after I was putting the wheels back on I realised I should have bought replacement studs for the rebuild. Oh well that's a later job.

Next is to figure out my steering issues. I have some pretty bad bump steer going on and the car can be a handful on the road. I had a wheel alignment done and all components looked over. This is the print out I got.

If anyone has their 2 cents on the read outs I'd like to hear them.

So I have just received all 4 new ball joints and 4 panhard bushes and will have them replaced along with shock bushes. Then get in realigned and see how it goes.

Though looking at the caster angles, I'm under the influence that from the factory it should be around 4 degrees? Not sure if that's an issue?

Anyway that's all I have so far, have a few busy month's coming up so shall see if I can do anymore on the Bundy or not.

Cheers