1988 HJ61 Sahara Restoration/Build 'The Taipan' (1 Viewer)

[plink01]

Took a break from the 60 and took the Kawasaki Jet Mate to Mallacoota for a weekend.
It went awesome. I thought i was in some trouble for a bit coz it wouldn't get up on plane. We'd been drinking at the pub for a few hours and still had to get it back to Gypsy Point which is probably 40 minutes away. I had to jump in the water and turns out the jet was full of sea weed. Once cleared we were off and running!

The misus fishing from the jet boat.

Everything back together! Wowee that turned out to be a much bigger project than anticipated.
I swore before I started I was just going to replace the essentials and not go to deep or paint everything like I did with my 40 series.
Well I went deep and painted everything again.

I really wanted it all back together before my trip to the Canada/USA. I fell short so I had to leave it in parts for 6 weeks while I was in America.
Putting it back together after being drunk for months overseas it was very hard remembering what went where!
It's lucky I did a good job taking lots of photos and bagging everything clearly. I would have been in a lot of trouble without the photos.
I documented my America trip in my 40 series build.

I found this genuine pad that sits on the bottom of the Ice Maker from PartsSouq. I can't believe they still had one in stock! It just dampens your cans/beers from bouncing around in the fridge too much. I had never seen one in real life and didn't think I'd ever find one.

 

[BrickRunner]

I was having goanna problems at the time of the build! He kept coming into the chicken coop to steal the eggs. He attacked one of my chickens and broke her wing. I had to keep leaving the shed to scare it away every day!


View attachment 3404903

I had my radiator re-cored by Bairnsdale Radiators. Came up really good.

View attachment 3404904

I bought a brand new condenser, genuine is no longer available. The outlet faced the wrong direction for some reason. The radiator man cut it off and re welded it for me.

View attachment 3404905

Brand new genuine battery tray.

View attachment 3404906

It never occured to me that a giant lizard would act like a racoon.

 

[plink01]

It never occured to me that a giant lizard would act like a racoon.

Haha yeah he gets up to no good. It's Winter so he's been hibernating for the last 6 months. He will be coming back out again soon and lizard wars will re-commence!
This is the smaller of the 3 Goanna's that hang around my house causing trouble. It's like having my own pack of little dinosaurs.

Chicken after we horse bandaged her broken wing. She had to live inside for 6 weeks. But it worked and she is a good as new!

Found a pretty rare item (I think) on Gumtree. Brand new genuine number plate light and surround.

Also got new stickers for the Ice Maker off Siege Overland. They're perfect.

 

[plink01]

These were some pretty satisfying fixes.

The bushings in the Automatic shifter were completely flogged out. I didn't really know any better as I had never driven it when they weren't flogged out.

Driving on corrugated roads the movement in the shifter was that bad it would shift out of whatever gear I had and almost into a no man's land in-between gears, causing it to cut out.

I replaced the bushings on the shifter and the linkages and it is now absoloutly rock solid and doesn't move a bit. I highly recommend doing it for anyone who has movement in the shifter, completely transformed the feel of it.

My fuse box cover the tabs had snapped off and was held on with sticky tape. I was unable to find a new brown genuine one, but i found you can still get grey ones. You can barely notice unless your looking for it that it's not the same colour. I kind of like that it's different.

I think the sticker was off Siege Overland as well. Again it looks and fit perfect.

Another satisfying and worthwhile fix. I bought genuine inner guard rubbers and clips from Amayama. Now my engine bay doesn't get covered in mud everytime I drive through a bog hole. My old ones were torn or had fallen off somewhere in the past, leaving a massive gap for dirt and mud.

 

[jclark]

Took a break from the 60 and took the Kawasaki Jet Mate to Mallacoota for a weekend.
It went awesome. I thought i was in some trouble for a bit coz it wouldn't get up on plane. We'd been drinking at the pub for a few hours and still had to get it back to Gypsy Point which is probably 40 minutes away. I had to jump in the water and turns out the jet was full of sea weed. Once cleared we were off and running!

View attachment 3404925
The misus fishing from the jet boat.

View attachment 3404926

Everything back together! Wowee that turned out to be a much bigger project than anticipated.
I swore before I started I was just going to replace the essentials and not go to deep or paint everything like I did with my 40 series.
Well I went deep and painted everything again.

I really wanted it all back together before my trip to the Canada/USA. I fell short so I had to leave it in parts for 6 weeks while I was in America.
Putting it back together after being drunk for months overseas it was very hard remembering what went where!
It's lucky I did a good job taking lots of photos and bagging everything clearly. I would have been in a lot of trouble without the photos.
I documented my America trip in my 40 series build.

View attachment 3404927

I found this genuine pad that sits on the bottom of the Ice Maker from PartsSouq. I can't believe they still had one in stock! It just dampens your cans/beers from bouncing around in the fridge too much. I had never seen one in real life and didn't think I'd ever find one.

View attachment 3404928

Was there a OEM part number or the number you used in Partsouq for the icemaker pad? I tried 88529-09A00 but no joy.

 

[plink01]

Was there a OEM part number or the number you used in Partsouq for the icemaker pad? I tried 88529-09A00 but no joy.

I'm going out for a ride on my dirtbike. I'll have a proper look when I get home.

I had a super quick look and there was one for sale on American Ebay.

88529-90A00 Toyota Tray, cooling box 8852990A00, New Genuine OEM Part | eBay

Check if this part fits your vehicle. We are always open to new opportunities and cooperation with everyone. ð¦ Need More?.

www.ebay.com

 

[jclark]

I'm going out for a ride on my dirtbike. I'll have a proper look when I get home.

I had a super quick look and there was one for sale on American Ebay.

88529-90A00 Toyota Tray, cooling box 8852990A00, New Genuine OEM Part | eBay

Check if this part fits your vehicle. We are always open to new opportunities and cooperation with everyone. ð¦ Need More?.

www.ebay.com

Cheers mate!

 

[plink01]

Cheers mate!

Ok I think your in luck, Megazip shows them having one! They are 10% off to till tomorrow so I'd buy it fast.

I'd be blown away if there was any more than a handful available oem world wide.

If you don't look at a parts diagram you wouldn't even know there was supposed to be one.

88529-90A00 - Tray, Cooling Box, Toyota OEM | Megazip.net

88529-90A00 - Tray, Cooling Box, Toyota. New spare parts Toyota from Japan with easy payment system and door-to-door delivery.

www.megazip.net

 

[zeeklafreek]

They are one of our Japanese customers...

 

[jclark]

Grateful they’re still supporting the Cruiser community.

 

[LTSR]

just started reading your thread last night and finally caught up, really enjoying the little upgrades. did you ever get the ice maker working?

 

[plink01]

just started reading your thread last night and finally caught up, really enjoying the little upgrades. did you ever get the ice maker working?

Yup the icemaker works!

The aircon had no gas left. I put in a brand new condenser, evaporator, drier and low pressure switch.
I replaced all the o rings that were easy to get to.
The evaporator was covered in heaps of leaves and dust.

As a fridge it works really well. It'll cool a beer from warm to cold in about half an hour. If you put em in cold to start with they are ice cold buy the time you arrive at camp.
I made ice for the first time a few weeks ago. I had it running full speed for 3 hours and it worked!
It's pretty impractical, the ice trays arnt water tight so if your on a dirt road or 4x4ing they leak everywhere and doesn't get a chance to freeze.
But if your on a smooth highway like I was it is possible!
I could experiment and silicone shut the hole on the lid, and change the lid gasket to something else but I'm hesitant to mess with them coz they are so rare.

I am miles behind on this thread. I'll start updating it over the next few weeks. I've done heaps of cool stuff since!

Toyota OEM genuine icecubes!

 

[jclark]

Yup the icemaker works!

The aircon had no gas left. I put in a brand new condenser, evaporator, drier and low pressure switch.
I replaced all the o rings that were easy to get to.
The evaporator was covered in heaps of leaves and dust.

As a fridge it works really well. It'll cool a beer from warm to cold in about half an hour. If you put em in cold to start with they are ice cold buy the time you arrive at camp.
I made ice for the first time a few weeks ago. I had it running full speed for 3 hours and it worked!
It's pretty impractical, the ice trays arnt water tight so if your on a dirt road or 4x4ing they leak everywhere and doesn't get a chance to freeze.
But if your on a smooth highway like I was it is possible!
I could experiment and silicone shut the hole on the lid, and change the lid gasket to something else but I'm hesitant to mess with them coz they are so rare.

I am miles behind on this thread. I'll start updating it over the next few weeks. I've done heaps of cool stuff since!

View attachment 3573004

Toyota OEM genuine icecubes!

Answering the real questions. I’m here for it.

 

[zeeklafreek]

Answering the real questions. I’m here for it.

I thought the exact same thing.

 

[greentruck]

For those in the US fascinated by this old beast, I just stumbled across a low mile, rather pristine example that Ottoex has imported for sale in the US. No connection to Ottoex other than drooling over some of the awesome JDM 4x4's they offer from time to time. Youtube of it is here:
1988 HJ61

 

[jclark]

a specimen of a rig. Wish he would have opened the sunroof but hey. Incredibly clean. And how about those cable lockers?

 

[greentruck]

I've gotten used to the amenities of the 80 series, but if I could pony up that sort of cash, I'd be all over that clean beauty.