Builds 1997 LX450 Ute (1 Viewer)

[yohavos]

Took a break from yard work today to turn the ute over. I had been worried about how long she's been sitting, so I threw a gallon of premium in, hooked up the fuel pump, and she fired right up.

I took her around the block for fun... rear springs are going to be a priority. The 6" lift coils with no body on the back are way too hard.

After parking, I saw a puddle forming too quickly.

Seemed to be coming out of this hole. Am I looking at rear arch? Rear main?

Ugh...

Other than that, she's running like a champ.

 

[yohavos]

Sealing her up. Taking my time on these corners, though bondo and liner will hopefully forgive all in the end. Lots of little cuts and tacks.

 

[landcruiser80]

Great to see some more updates!

 

[1973Guppie]

leak could be from many places, are you sure it is coming from that hole? I had a similar situation and most of the leaks were coming from the front end of the engine......

 

[maat]

leak could be from many places, are you sure it is coming from that hole? I had a similar situation and most of the leaks were coming from the front end of the engine......

This.

When I first bought my car it had a fresh h55f swap and it started a month or two into me owning the car.. I thought it was rear main for sure but I had a receipt for the rear main being changed during the gbox swap.. I degreased the engine and watched it like a hawk, and it turned out to be a leak near the turbo oil line but it ran down to the end of the block/bellhousing.. I hope it's an easy fix for you

 

[yohavos]

Thanks fellas, I'll cross the leak bridge when I come to it... for now a possible change of location for the summer has me trying to ramp up closing the cab so I can whip out the bondo and monstaliner sooner than later.

Of course, I was too distracted and tired to weld very much, so I decided to dabble.

First, I welded up the corner:

Then decided to see how my Volvo seat comes apart. It turns out that there are four 12mm bolts to take the monstrous seat mount off:

Which is wonderful, because my FJ80 seats also only have 4 bolts holding them on... this should be a simple weld job with some scrap metal to get these power heated volvo seats onto my manual brackets. I'll run power for the heaters and the tilt and the should be riding in style.

Of course now I regret not grabbing them both, but meh. Tan leather Volvo 850 wagon seats are everywhere.

No cool pics, but here are the manual seat brackets waiting for bolt in and some tacking:

Dirty cab, dirty brackets, dirty Betty...

 

[yohavos]

More seat distraction today. After some test fitting, I went ahead and tacked these up:

And what do you know... they fit!

I still need to get power to the seat back so it can recline, but I'm happy with my progress so far. The heater wires are simple enough and will be hooked up to an OEM switch of some sort.

 

[yohavos]

Then, still distracted from my primary task of welding and grinding, I swapped in some stock rear LX springs I had left over from my other truck. I had to disconnect the shocks and swaybar to get the axle far enough down to remove the Slee 6" springs.

Not that you can really tell how much lower the rear is from these pictures, but it sits about level now. I'll probably go to a mild rear lift spring once I get some weight on there.

 

[yohavos]

We need a plan.

Cut stuff

It's cut

Little bit of the notched tube trick and a mallet, followed by some booger tacks.

And, that's all I got done today. I spent 17 hours total driving to Bend and back yesterday to pick up another tent that will sit nicely on a rack over the bed of the ute and i was beat today. I'm picking the boss lady up at the airport in a bit then we're off to a BBQ. I'm hoping to spend all day tomorrow with Betty to make up for lost time.

This is the first Memorial Day weekend I haven't been camping out of the back of a land cruiser in years...

I hope no one sees this until Tuesday because you're all out enjoying your cruisers!

 

[yohavos]

Finished welding up everything on the cab except the rockers, they'll be last.

Removed the side rails

Then I started the long task of grinding... I'm excited to get a few solid evenings in this week then rally this weekend.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

Ooohh, the grinding. I still haven't figured out if I like to weld a little then grind a little or if I'd rather weld all day then come back and grind the next day. However, it gets pretty monotonous. Build is looking great!

 

[JackZilla]

Looking good. The closing on my house is being pushed to the right a bit. Maybe she'll be ready in time for the house warming. Fingers crossed.

 

[JasHook]

Remove ARB?
Remove Snorkel?
What's the drive behind those bits of the to-do list?

 

[yohavos]

I'm removing those as well as the lights and grill for Monstaliner. I'd love to re-paint the ARB while it's off, but we'll see.

After some thought, I don't think the brush rails are going back on the side, and now is my chance to find a Toyota grill that fits the aftermarket lights as well. The sidesteps need gussets in the very least, and I may trim them down to cab length (though they're nice steps and will probably offer storage for water or fuel cans under the bed).

 

[yohavos]

Closed up my rockers:

PSA: choose the bedliner you want wisely... removal is a b*tch. I decided to take it all off so my liner looks more consistent.

And, my foray into the world of bondo:

I despise it. So. Much. Work.

Little by little, she's getting closer. I would love to apply monstaliner this weekend.

 

[1973Guppie]

Hey how did you remove the existing bedliner on the side of the truck? I have to do this soon so was curious......

 

[dcguillory]

This sort of thing always amazes me! Definitely inspiring. Very cool.

I am getting ready to monsta line my LX and I notice your trim holes are present after removal of the old liner. Did you just line over the open trim holes and that was good enough?

 

[yohavos]

These had body tape over them that ended up bubbling and peeling, even with the liner on them.

People have used aluminum tape in the past successfully.

I went with a suggestion from someone earlier in this thread and grabbed a braided wire wheel for my grinder to take the liner off:

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

I'm almost looking forward to getting serious rear quarter damage for this very reason

 

[dcguillory]

Aluminum tape, hmmm. Applying Search-Fu