Another HJ61... from Finland this time

[HoJo 61]

Thanks.
I haven't test drive it yet, today was a busy day and didn't really get anything done with Cruiser.
I'll keep you guys updated, that's for sure!

 

[HoJo 61]

Sooo... i started to mess with rear brakes yesterday. Everything was good until i snapped both springs that holds the brake shoes in place.
No wonder they snapped, both are barely existing. I should have ordered the hardware in advance but of course i didn't. However, i should have new hardware HOPEFULLY by tomorrow, i really hope.
Well, as i really could not do anything to brakes i took the rear diff lock actuator cover off to find out how badly the mechanism is seized.
Not that badly a hammer and loads of WD-40 won't solve. Works like a champ now. Sprayed some CRC multilube everywhere in and on it to prevent seizing anymore.
The cover was somewhat, more or less rusty, as expected... so i wire wheeled and re-painted it. Both sides. Should last a bit longer now.

I couldn't really do anything "productive" to the Cruiser today so i wire wheeled both brake drums, rear hubs and patched PS rear wheel well rust spots.
Took out some exterior parts prior huge sanding project and found some rust under license plate and light. Rear wiper motor and washer had to go out forever.

I really hope to get the brake hardware by tomorrow so i can finish them, then start disassembling body parts and get the sanding going on.

Heavily rusted brake parts, new parts are in order.

Not a best two pics showing the dilemma but what can cause my brake shoes wear that unevenly?
Front brake shoe is completely gone from the bottom, rear brake shoe is in pretty good condition compared to front.

Wire wheeling... Both drums were in STD spec.

And painted black. Looks a lot better than before even the surface is what it is.

Can i plug these holes? This is one of those time when i wish i had a sandblaster.

This is how the diff lock mechanism looked when i took the cover off. Pretty dirty. And seized.

Cleaned...

...and painted. Blue stuff is the CRC lubricant.

License plate, license plate light, wiper motor and washer nozzle out. Time to do some rust repairs.

Bye!

 

[HoJo 61]

Lets update this thread a little. Damn internet problems..

Rear brake hardware didn't show up last friday so i started the bodywork in the meantime.
I emailed the shop yesterday to ask what is the matter and they were like "dunno about your parts" the f***?? but i got a message from Post office today that they got the part and is in deliver.

Ordered the paints today morning also.
Paints and colors will be a little surprise.

So, i have been sanding, welding, grinding, sanding.. body and tailgates for the last 4 days now.
It's pretty amazing how "little" the work is compared to time used. I today used almost 7 hours sanding left rear quarter and rear door and didn't even get finished on them. Of course, i'm not a pro by any means and this is like, second time i'm doing "real" bodywork. Everything is self learned most part.
What slows down some is an excessive amount of bondo used. It's almost everywhere. And it's at places where you won't expect it to be, or then there's tons of it. Sometimes on a perfectly flat surface where it is totally unnecessary. Not to forget some of the previous owners rust patches under that bondo.

But what would you expect from a 26 year old car.


This is where i took the tailgate off as it turned out to be a bigger project than it looked. The whole license plate area was heavily bondoed and had to be sanded to the bare metal.

And glad i did. This is what i found, patch panel glued and tack welded over a huge hole and rust.
Same area on the other side is already fixed in this pic.

Patched the hole with new steel.

Tried to replicate original shapes.. Again i'm a complete novice. But that is a lot better than an open rust hole i guess.

This section is still in works.

Patched this.

Somebody has been here before. Huge amounts of bondo was used to hide it of course.

Same here but without any patches, somebody must have had too much bondo or loved working with it. I mean there is completely flat steel under this bondo. I sanded it all off as it was cracked and shoved signs of starting rust.

Weather has been rainy and windy for the last 2 days. Due to that i couldn't finish the tailgates as i have to weld and smooth the welds outdoors.
So, i started to sand down the body.
As you can see, bondo is strong here too. This time they used blue bondo instead of white.

Well, i moved all the way to the rear door and found some more bondo, i first thought it's just a thin layer and tried to sand it off but that was a no go. I hit it with a chisel once and got a piece off.

Okay, let's try again. Boom! Sh1t load of bondo woohoo! I got off all i could with chisel but in the end wire wheel took care of the rest.

Got this much done in 7 hours today. Rear window will come out of my way tomorrow. Door handles probably too?

 

[mongoose2231]

Great work, im so afraid to start on my rust on my truck beacuse of what i may find as well

 

[hj 60]

I have the same amount of bondo s*** so it must be factory specs, no problem.

 

[Paul07]

Hi Hojo
I am just doing the same and yes it is a fxxxing long and dusty job.

 

[HoJo 61]

HA! Looks like i'm not the only one with bondoed panels!
Are you going to keep the same color? I really liked it.

 

[Paul07]

Yeah I liked this color but it was a s***ty 1k paint wich was not good with the sun and crcked after 6 years.
This time I will paint it in RAL 1011 brown beige matt in 2k industriel paint.
The epoxy primeur and the paint just cost me 170 Euros

 

[HoJo 61]

Okey.. i have been away from Mud for the last 3 weeks due to PC failure, GPU broke down.
Got new GPU installed Friday and i have been reading threads since then, took some time to catch up with new posts.

But let's get to the topic.
Whole body has been sand down and bare metal spots covered with spray primer. I had to use spray primer to prevent it from rusting as i don't have real garage and air humidity is HIGH this time of a year.
I still have to figure out how to take out the outer chrome weatherstriping from doors and sand the underneath, then i'm officially done with sanding body. I have also finished rear brakes except for bleeding them. Had to buy new brake cylinders too so everything is new there now.

Some minor welding is still to do, screw holes there and here, patch old welds, patch antenna holes and rear quarter rework. Figured out the fuel leak too, filler tube was rusted through. That's welded and painted now, ready for install.

Oh, almost forgot, i have to prep fender flares and grille for painting too...

Bumpers will have to wait as we have to get the Cruiser back on the road by end of this month, hunting season starts!

Some pics next:


This is a good pics to show the amount of bondo used. I'm not lying when i say it was everywhere and it was always a good load of it. 5mm thick on a perfectly flat steel...

Sometimes the bondo was hiding surprises like that:

Or applied just for fun?

Hmm...

Real nice work from somebody. I tried to straighten it with a hammer but that didn't make a huge difference.

All the hard hammering resulted in this. There was a good amount of water inside the rocker panel.

To be continued:

 

[HoJo 61]

When i started to sand down the PS front door i found some of the old decals..

Guess what i found later. K enough of bondo pics.

Old crappy window tint had to go too. Will see if i re-tint them in future.

There was the leak.

And patched. Pretty corroded pipe.. hope it lasts.

New everything here, both sides.

Just to show how uneven the old brake shoes was worn.

And the current status. Lots of "temp" primer was used. I will apply real epoxy primer once i get all the bodywork done. Friend was kind enough to let me use his warm garage for painting, hopefully by end of the next week.

That's it. Glad i'm done with super boring sanding, and unreal amounts of dust.

 

[Jentuh]

good progress!
I remember the welding on my filling neck, took me three runs to get it water tight for one night. I filled it up as a test..

 

[Kaasdief]

You need fingers like a monkey to work on the brakes!!

 

[HoJo 61]

Okey.. let's dump some pics because....


Old "design" .

And my creation.

Drivers side was bit more trickier. Had to lower and narrow the panel quite a bit.

Little rust under chrome trim, each door.

Rocker panel welded on by PO, but nothing that a cutting disk can't solve.

Found some rust. Actually it was on both sides on same spot.

Dunno what happened here but it was fixed.

Nice wiring by the PO. This was also fixed with new connectors and some zip ties. Ofc no after pics.

And lastly, my welder got some love too, about time.

To be continued...

 

[HoJo 61]

Guess who is excited today.

Masking, cleaning dust... all the normal stuff you know.

And more masking..

And today it finally happened.

Yep, that is Raptor liner. RAL 6003 is the color code if you wonder.

Six bottles (= 6 litres) was barely enough to paint the whole thing.
I applied only one but thick coat of Raptor and two coats of epoxy primer under.
I'm balancing between buying another kit to paint a second coat or not, is it necessary?

Weekend will be spent on assembling things back on the Cruiser and probably fixing/sanding/prepping the fender flares for black Raptor. Front grill/headlight doors/license plate light assembly will be paint too... Also, steering has to be aligned and brakes bled again it seems.

I will take better pics once i have the Cruiser out of the garage.

 

[HoJo 61]

Short update..

Cruiser is finally reassembled mostly and back on a daily use. Actually been for 2 weeks now...
Still missing fender flares but i'm working on them currently, little fiberglass work left to do.
Front grille and headlight doors need some sanding too if i'm going to Raptor them.. will see.

Got the sun visor installed, finally.
New wiper blades also. Local dealer had only one in stock so i had to buy one aftermarket blade but whatever. Toyota blade was 10 euros and Britax was 7 euros.

By the way, the new turbo really kicks in when it wakes up.
I still would like to have more grunt below 1900RPM but not sure if that is possible, gotta re-check fuel screws..

 

[Kaasdief]

Is everybody in Finland a talented racing driver?

 

[HoJo 61]

Not me.

 

[HoJo 61]

Little something again..

Bought used front door weatherstrips and steering from almost local Cruiser guy yesterday and installed them. Reason i didn't use the old weatherstripping was lack of plastic clips, new clips were 3€/ea at local Toyota dealership. And i needed 7 of them, that would make 21 euros on small plastic clips.
I got the used steering wheel and weatherstrips for 20€

As i said earlier:

By the way, the new turbo really kicks in when it wakes up.
I still would like to have more grunt below 1900RPM but not sure if that is possible, gotta re-check fuel screws..

I took a look on the fuel screws.
"Under boost" fuel screw was pretty much screwed out already, which is good.
"Off boost" screw was still sealed from factory. No wonder there was no low end power.
Cut the wire out of my way and screwed the fuel screw in two complete revolutions.

What a difference! Much better now, boosts more and earlier.
Black smoke increased some but clears as the boost increases. Don't take me wrong, i'm not "rolling coal".

Some pics next.

Old steering wheel broken right at where you hold your hand.

Much better.

These too.

"Under boost" fuel screw.

"Off boost" fuel screw behind the IP. This was still sealed from factory.

 

[mongoose2231]

Holly crap, I love your truck. Mine needs rust repaired as well. Hoping to begin soon.

 

[HoJo 61]

Thank you.
Rust repairing is damn time consuming if done right but will pay off. Rust is what kills these things.
Good luck!