Builds 1995 PZJ75 refurbish/build up (1 Viewer)

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crushers

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1995 PZJ75 refurbish/build up / PICS

I thought someone might get a bit of insight from a write up on refurbishing a 1995 PZJ75 that runs great but was beat, and I mean molested. every part needed either body work or replacing.

The project truck:
95 PZJ75
5 cylinder 1PZ engine with 14,000 km on it.
580 575 575 575 580 compression and excellent oil pressure.
R141 tranny
reverse pinion front 4.11
FF rear with 4.11 and Limited slip
12 V system.
interior thrashed
exterior thrashed

donor truck:
1987 LJ71 RHD
160,000 km
2L-T
R151 tranny
4.90 gears (yes it was very tempting to swap these into the PZ)
electric windows, door locks, mirrors, AC, Tilt, full gauges, carpet and nice buckets.

final goal for the truck:
new paint and refurbished bodywork
1PZ
R151
buckets, carpet
PW,PDL,PM, AC
Tilt
full gauges
2 1/2" SOFT ride lift
235/85/16 all seasons on factory gray rims or 33/9.5/15 on aluminum rims
light weight trayback
turbo
Propane injection
must have excellent visibility all around
must be quiet
must have all the creature comforts
must be reliable
must be fuel efficient
in the end must be powerful


as soon as I received this unit I knew I needed to try to refurbish this unit for a couple reasons. I had never driven a PZ. it was definitely restorable and very rare. I purchased a replacement front clip and doors from G&S cruiser parts for a wicked deal. now all I needed was a cowl cover (new), roof and rear roof section (from Gord in Ferine).
now, theoretically I should have all the parts I need to put together a fine unit.

I spent a day stripping the old pieces off, those front fenders are a bear to work with. it didn't help that I had 10 years of dust and dirt built up, I do not think this poor truck ever had a bath. I removed the mangled doors, the crunched top and the filthy interior and now I was ready to go to work.

I sent the tub to my bodyman to at least get a start on the refurbishing. while he was pounding out the dents and cutting and welding the small amount of rust that was hidden under all the dirt I had the hard time of choosing a colour to paint the truck. White was out since my 1997 HZJ75 is that colour. I have always wanted to paint a truck factory olive brown so I went out and bought a gallon of paint, picked it up, opened the lid and immediately changed my mind. my wife's favorite colour is elderberry blue so I pulled out the colour chips and started going through them one by one. in about 2 hours I had the colour in my hand and promptly bought a gallon. what a good decision, the tub looked fantastic, a nice rich colour.

now I had the tub back so I could start on the interior. when I gutted the interior I had left the steel dash installed but now with the new paint I realized I would have to pull the steel dash as well. it was badly scratched and faded. I had never gone into a 70 series this far so I was still having fun.

I pulled the carpet from he 71 and it is a close fit so with a bit of massaging I now have nice factory carpet to help quiet the truck down.

while my bodyman was prepping and painting the dash I was gutting the LJ71. Berni always hated the seats in my 97 HZJ75 so first on the agenda was a set of factory buckets. sounds easy, eh? just pull them from one 7* series and bolt them into another... nope. the floors are different between the 2 models, the 71 has a drop on the outside and the 75 is one level. for the drivers side it was easy, remove the bottom cushion and complete back and swap the new bottom and back on... simple. the passenger side was a PITA. the passenger side in the 75 was a split bench and level floor so I had to take the bottom of the 71, cut the drop support off and install a support level with the other side. after about 3 hours of monkeying around I had it done, it fit beautiful and looks great. I go to put the seat in and now I find out that there is a hole missing in the floor so now I needed to make a custom bracket to bolt the seat down. another couple hours wasted but not really, I went to my favorite custom shop and while getting the metal needed I picked his brain about a trayback for the truck. he sketched up a couple designs and we came to an agreement. so for about $2500 I will have an aluminum trayback with removable sides and headache rack.

now the seats are in so it is on to the steering column. I want tilt and the 71 has a tilt column, straight bolt up, I think. I think wrong. all in all it is but the wiring has the wrong plugs and the wiper and signal are on the wrong side so I tear into the columns switching wiring over. I go to install and the rod from the column to the steering box is too short so I have to switch them over as well... now the column is installed.

tomorrow I start on the dash. I have already traced the wires over form one dash to the other and finally told myself I will be happy with just a fuel and water temp gauges. I will use the factory idiot lights for the others. I will also be installing a full gauge setup once the turbo goes on.

cheers for now
 
Last edited:
The 75 series has the weld on nuts under the body for the seat rails on the passenger side such that the 2/3 seat mount can simply be moved sideways to allow mounting a bucket seat. The hole is simply not drilled. You need to remove the fuel tank to see them.
 
i was wondering about that but i didn't want to drill and find out i have a hole with nothing under it...
the bracket works excellent but if i ever have a reason to remove the tank i will drill it then... just to be on the safe side...
thanks Dave...
 
as you are expecting, pics pics pics pics!!!!!!!!!!!!

you have to show the before, mid and then when its complete the after.

it is a ih8mud requirement, :)
 
crushers said:
I thought someone might get a bit of insight from a write up on refurbishing a 1995 PZJ75 that runs great but was beat, and I mean molested. every part needed either body work or replacing.

The project truck:
95 PZJ75
5 cylinder 1PZ engine with 14,000 km on it.
580 575 575 575 580 compression and excellent oil pressure.
R141 tranny
reverse pinion front 4.11
FF rear with 4.11 and Limited slip
12 V system.
interior thrashed
exterior thrashed

donor truck:
1987 LJ71 RHD
160,000 km
2L-T
R151 tranny
4.90 gears (yes it was very tempting to swap these into the PZ)
electric windows, door locks, mirrors, AC, Tilt, full gauges, carpet and nice buckets.

final goal for the truck:
new paint and refurbished bodywork
1PZ
R151
buckets, carpet
PW,PDL,PM, AC
Tilt
full gauges
2 1/2" SOFT ride lift
235/85/16 all seasons on factory gray rims or 33/9.5/15 on aluminum rims
light weight trayback
turbo
Propane injection
must have excellent visibility all around
must be quiet
must have all the creature comforts
must be reliable
must be fuel efficient
in the end must be powerful


as soon as I received this unit I knew I needed to try to refurbish this unit for a couple reasons. I had never driven a PZ. it was definitely restorable and very rare. I purchased a replacement front clip and doors from G&S cruiser parts for a wicked deal. now all I needed was a cowl cover (new), roof and rear roof section (from Gord in Ferine).
now, theoretically I should have all the parts I need to put together a fine unit.

I spent a day stripping the old pieces off, those front fenders are a bear to work with. it didn't help that I had 10 years of dust and dirt built up, I do not think this poor truck ever had a bath. I removed the mangled doors, the crunched top and the filthy interior and now I was ready to go to work.

I sent the tub to my bodyman to at least get a start on the refurbishing. while he was pounding out the dents and cutting and welding the small amount of rust that was hidden under all the dirt I had the hard time of choosing a colour to paint the truck. White was out since my 1997 HZJ75 is that colour. I have always wanted to paint a truck factory olive brown so I went out and bought a gallon of paint, picked it up, opened the lid and immediately changed my mind. my wife's favorite colour is elderberry blue so I pulled out the colour chips and started going through them one by one. in about 2 hours I had the colour in my hand and promptly bought a gallon. what a good decision, the tub looked fantastic, a nice rich colour.

now I had the tub back so I could start on the interior. when I gutted the interior I had left the steel dash installed but now with the new paint I realized I would have to pull the steel dash as well. it was badly scratched and faded. I had never gone into a 70 series this far so I was still having fun.

I pulled the carpet from he 71 and it is a close fit so with a bit of massaging I now have nice factory carpet to help quiet the truck down.

while my bodyman was prepping and painting the dash I was gutting the LJ71. Berni always hated the seats in my 97 HZJ75 so first on the agenda was a set of factory buckets. sounds easy, eh? just pull them from one 7* series and bolt them into another... nope. the floors are different between the 2 models, the 71 has a drop on the outside and the 75 is one level. for the drivers side it was easy, remove the bottom cushion and complete back and swap the new bottom and back on... simple. the passenger side was a PITA. the passenger side in the 75 was a split bench and level floor so I had to take the bottom of the 71, cut the drop support off and install a support level with the other side. after about 3 hours of monkeying around I had it done, it fit beautiful and looks great. I go to put the seat in and now I find out that there is a hole missing in the floor so now I needed to make a custom bracket to bolt the seat down. another couple hours wasted but not really, I went to my favorite custom shop and while getting the metal needed I picked his brain about a trayback for the truck. he sketched up a couple designs and we came to an agreement. so for about $2500 I will have an aluminum trayback with removable sides and headache rack.

now the seats are in so it is on to the steering column. I want tilt and the 71 has a tilt column, straight bolt up, I think. I think wrong. all in all it is but the wiring has the wrong plugs and the wiper and signal are on the wrong side so I tear into the columns switching wiring over. I go to install and the rod from the column to the steering box is too short so I have to switch them over as well... now the column is installed.

tomorrow I start on the dash. I have already traced the wires over form one dash to the other and finally told myself I will be happy with just a fuel and water temp gauges. I will use the factory idiot lights for the others. I will also be installing a full gauge setup once the turbo goes on.

cheers for now



Me no like words...me like pictures...me lose focus after first paragraph...started thinking about donuts...
 
Stone said:
So...are you going to go with a trayback, Wayne? Thanks for the post...looking forward to the pics.
yah, i think so. i want the truck light and with clear visability. i am really hopeing that Berni will use this as her daily driver. if so then we will put the Luxury emblem on the doors and write it off as advertising...

i will get the pics up soon...
gotta get to work...

cheers
 
well, I never got much done today.

when you go with a RHD tilt steering column and swap the signal/wiper controllers over from a LHD the cover no longer fits so I took the original cover and traced the tilt opening into it from the RHD and then cut it to fit, of course now the colour wasn't the same so I had to fix that as well. time for a good cleaning and a rattle can.
next was the installation of new brake, and clutch pedals, the old ones were worn down to nubs and now I was ready to install the dash. piece of cake, it went together smoothly.
the seats are bolted back in and the dash is in place so once the paint dries on the cover I can reinstall that tomorrow. I am off to buy a CD player or a GPS system... not too sure since the boss isn't here.
I will hopefully be able to paint the rear part of the frame tomorrow since I have to wait till Saturday to get my doors, windshield frame, roof and back from the body shop.
plan for Saturday is to get the power accessories installed into the doors. the roof and cab back, frame and glass installed so I can park the truck outside and get my pit back...
wish me luck.
I promise to have pics soon.
cheers
 
so this is what i started with a couple weeks ago:
DSCN3293.jpg
the begining 1 interior.jpg
the begining  rear shot.jpg
 
the floor repaired and painted then tinted hippo liner installed. the sill on the drivers side was replaced and the places where the boot wore through the floor was cut and patched as well.
floor passenger side.jpg
floor under seats.jpg
floor drivers side.jpg
 
now for the dash reworking, removal of all steel for body work and repainting. removale of steering column for installation of the tilt steering
old dash.jpg
dash removed.jpg
dash and steering removed.jpg
 
note the shape of the pedals
test fitting the seats, not bolted down yet so they look crooked.
old pedals.jpg
test fit seats.jpg
fit seats.jpg
 
i finshed the dash today, install the CD player (darn near bought a GPS, DVD,MP3, etc with back up camera but thought when GBerni got back i might have a LOT of explaining to do) the doors, top, back, stringers, windshield frame all got painted today. pulled the PW,PDL,PM from the LJ71 ready for install...
if all goes well should have some more shots tomorrow or the next day...
what do you think?
 
i missed the painting of the back... not very good shots but you get the idea. i am using plastic plugs for the holes...
back inside.jpg
back drivers side.jpg
back pasenger side.jpg
 
notice the desire to add a turbo? imprinted on the seats...
still have lots of work to do before august 13th and when Pauls fibergalss parts arrive then that puts a stop to this project. i will be workign through the weekend...
 

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