Builds Ozzi, 2000 HZJ78 in Canada - travel/maintenance/build

[aussie75series]

The emergency start is a momentary switch which activates a solenoid to join aux and start battery. There will also be a duel battery solenoid as well ( prob in engine bay). The dash switches are cheap crap which is surprising . Not a compressor it is a vacuum pump ( think sucking blood and vomit out of mouth). Don't worry it didn't go through the part you have,sucked into container further up the suction line .Don't get rid of the charger yet, I think you can run it on 110v but will loose half the amp output. Ask around your electrician mates. The big round plug with thread on it is NATO military speck power plug. Don't silicone the holes cause it can be acidic use something like body panel sealer . I reckon your fine new vehicle was a private ambulance probably mines . check the gutter rail for any damage from roof racks.

 

[roscoFJ73]

That’s what I thought too... but it’s not OEM... which makes it stick out a bit. It’s quite solid. I’ll get around to posting some pics soon.

That door is a $5000 conversion. Troopys are a PITA when you want to retrieve something and the door will make it much easier.

 

[janyyc]

The emergency start is a momentary switch which activates a solenoid to join aux and start battery. There will also be a duel battery solenoid as well ( prob in engine bay). The dash switches are cheap crap which is surprising . Not a compressor it is a vacuum pump ( think sucking blood and vomit out of mouth). Don't worry it didn't go through the part you have,sucked into container further up the suction line .Don't get rid of the charger yet, I think you can run it on 110v but will loose half the amp output. Ask around your electrician mates. The big round plug with thread on it is NATO military speck power plug. Don't silicone the holes cause it can be acidic use something like body panel sealer . I reckon your fine new vehicle was a private ambulance probably mines . check the gutter rail for any damage from roof racks.

Hey! Thanks, I've figured out the emergency start since I posted last.

Vehicle history is pretty interesting, I'll probably post a full rundown sometime soon... Seems like it started out in 2000 for QES (Queensland Emergency Service) in Beaudesert. During a few years, it did about 30-40K and was regularly maintained by the Toyota dealer. Then it seems to have been transferred to some Emergency Response unit in Brisbane. I'm guessing at that point they ripped out part of the interior... When I'm back home from this trip I'll look through the documents I've collected and found.

That door is a $5000 conversion. Troopys are a PITA when you want to retrieve something and the door will make it much easier.

Yes I've come to appreciate the third door already!

 

[janyyc]

OK, we left off two weeks ago. I had a very busy week and then had to leave for some domestic (plane) travel. Only heading back today (on a plane as I write this).

Sunday two weeks ago was a bit of a bust. Had friends over for way longer than intended so I only got that rusty seat cover panel cleaned, proofed, and reinstalled.

Monday was trip day. Went to Airdrie to pick up the vinyl floor for the back
Had to go to the dump to dispose of all the garbage we accumulated from the interior of Ozzi.

Dump was a success. Only $10 and no punctured tires.
Headed further south to meet with our friend who will build our basic box setup.

With all the panels out the road noise was noticeably louder. We also encountered one death wobble after hitting a major pothole at ~70 km/h. Nothing before or since but something to look out for...

 

[janyyc]

Monday I started ripping cables out. I was loathe to start that part of the project due to my lack of experience with wiring... but I have to say I got the hang of it quite quickly. Luckily these cars are so user-friendly and can easily be disassembled and reassembled.

Took off the aux power plug, which was truly an Ozzie hack job.

The reason I removed all the fascia around the dashboard was to fully remove the handsfree system, which had been cut somewhere but not taken out.

 

[janyyc]

While I was removing the wires, my dad filled up the holes in the rear floor - automotive RTV sealant/gasket maker. The actual floor pan has 0 rust and clean white paint. There’s another layer beneath, which was used as a strengthening for the mounts.

Progress in the evening. The reason there was so much wiring was that everything was run back and forth. Power cable to fuse box behind passenger seat, cable back to dashboard switches, back to device, and in some cases once again back to front (flashers, siren, etc.) Luckily everything was nicely colour coded so once I found the theme I knew what was what.

 

[janyyc]

Ozzi luxuriating in the morning sunshine.

I started clearing out the wires. First I got them all out, labelled, traced etc. and only then did I attack with tools...

As you can see there’s a tarp in front - bull bad had extra light mounts removed and was repainted in the meantime...

 

[janyyc]

a peek inside as it’s pretty nice and clean...

getting better and better...

Bull bar repainted with Hella lights installed.

 

[janyyc]

That same day (Thursday if you’re keeping track) FedEx brought us floor mats, straight from Australia. A truly “luxury” purchase but they make me really happy...

 

[janyyc]

With the cabling brought to the best of my abilities and some larger issues (for me) found, we decided to take it to a proper electrician on Friday.
I removed everything for the rear (suction, siren, lights, etc), found the cable for the rear fluorescents lights, found two cables heading to the relays in front, and found how the headlights had been wired to the emergency lights and labelled it all... a few details I missed here and there but it was rather clean.
Dropped it off at the shop on Friday morning with a clear “wish list”:
- wire up the Hellas
- properly re-OEM wire the headlights
- fix the front chart light
- fix the CB radio
- fix the rear lights
Make sure nothing is dangerous.... leave everything else to me.
When I made the appointment I told the guys it had been an ambulance... I think they expected something much worse because they were genuinely surprised to see Ozzi so organized. Hah.
Early afternoon it was all ready, everything worked. Turned out what I though was a CB radio was a UHF radio (oops, should have checked the unit). Replaced the antenna and ordered a CB online (since we already have all the holes for it).
The chart light was acting up a bit, so I took it apart completely and narrowed it down to a loose ground attachment... fixed that and it works like a charm.

The dash still wasn’t put together because I’m working on a few other things - and fixing some surface rust on the floor pan was #1. With the rats nest of wires under the mat there was moisture in that area (it was even in the bunch when I was cutting apart the tape) so hopefully I’ll fix that now.

getting there...

 

[janyyc]

10PM on Friday night, all the dashboard items laid out.

Also finally got some proper rivnuts/nutserts/rivet inserts for the CNC panels which I ordered
and picked up on Friday.. Everybody here had been using M6... so I scoured our local stores, only to find none. None at Home Depot or similar regular hardware stores. Finally went to a “Bolt Supply Store”... and they had to order them in from Saskatoon (!). The next day they arrived... and they didn’t fit. Grrr. Went to take those back and maybe get M5, but they didn’t have M5 in any stores. Went to Fastenal to get M6 and M5 (none of the latter) and these (different) M6 also didn’t fit. Finally I just went onto Amazon and ordered a whole set. It arrived... M6 does not fit. Only M5. I don’t know if we have different standards or what but only M5 works for me. Just a PSA.

Here are the panels... didn’t even get a chance to fit them as they were picked up on Friday while Ozzi was in the electrical shop and taken to powder coating straight away...let’s hope those DXF files are accurate. I quickly learned how to use LibreCAD and edited the one panel which ends differently for my third door. Not too hard but not especially UI-intuitive either.

 

[janyyc]

Saturday was once again a social day, so I didn’t get as much time as I’d have liked. I hunted around for distilled water for the steamer...

and once I achieved success I removed the tinting from a few windows and some glue.

 

[janyyc]

Sunday I started working on the floor... not so easy. I think I’m getting the hang of it but it’s a bit of a “project”.

(It’ll all be one piece, I’m using scraps for fit, practice and as templates)

had to remove one piece of plywood to trim it for the panels - nice and clean underneath.

Also bleached out the seal for the power plug.

 

[janyyc]

Monday I was working 1.5h drive away and preparing to leave on Tuesday so not much accomplished. Only installed the CB radio (which arrived from Amazon - a “Warehouse Deal” for only $30) and reassembled (most of) the dashboard.

 

[roscoFJ73]

Hey! Thanks, I've figured out the emergency start since I posted last.



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Yes I've come to appreciate the third door already!

What's odd is that its on the RH side. I haven't seen a single door conversion that's not on the LH side. In oz having it on the LH side means passengers don't have to alight on the road.
That Uniden looks almost identical to my old 40 channel cb. They are long lasting items. I could have a clear conversation during the day with people 40 klms away on the other side of the city

 

[cannedcruiser]

After fitting the HZJ78 into the garage (yay!) we celebrated and came up with the name... Aussie misspelled as Ozzi. Troopy just sounds too... silly? (Sorry, not trying to get a TROOPY plate - though I have a feeling it is probably already taken - HZJ78 was (!))

The next day, went to the supermarket and Canadian Tire to get a light bulb for the dome light (burnt out) and the relay for the DRLs. Luckily the garage is 8" and I had a co-pilot to enter/exit the garage.

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Then I went about setting up the out-of-province exam... I had arranged insurance beforehand, all sorts of other things, but neglected to consider how busy garages are. Luckily the specialist shop here made it possible to do the Out of Province exam (OOP) on Monday.

Project for the evening was to remove the tinting from the front windows... I don't like tinting at all, and it's also something that would cause automatic failure on the exam. It was quite easy to remove - clothes steamer and exacto knife - a bit of patience and voila. Then a little more time with Goo-Gone and window cleaning solutions to get them nice and clean. What a beautiful sight - windows super clear (and what a huge difference!).

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The next day, I replaced the dome light. Again, a small thing but a nice feeling of accomplishment.

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I brought a 2003 HZJ78 over from Brisbane also, to Victoria last year. Mine is a former police vehicle with 200k on it. Not quite as squeaky clean as yours, but I got a similar comment from the mechanics when doing the provincial inspection, they raved about the lack of rust on it. Makes ya feel good.

 

[cannedcruiser]

After fitting the HZJ78 into the garage (yay!) we celebrated and came up with the name... Aussie misspelled as Ozzi. Troopy just sounds too... silly? (Sorry, not trying to get a TROOPY plate - though I have a feeling it is probably already taken - HZJ78 was (!))

The next day, went to the supermarket and Canadian Tire to get a light bulb for the dome light (burnt out) and the relay for the DRLs. Luckily the garage is 8" and I had a co-pilot to enter/exit the garage.

View attachment 2371326View attachment 2371327

Then I went about setting up the out-of-province exam... I had arranged insurance beforehand, all sorts of other things, but neglected to consider how busy garages are. Luckily the specialist shop here made it possible to do the Out of Province exam (OOP) on Monday.

Project for the evening was to remove the tinting from the front windows... I don't like tinting at all, and it's also something that would cause automatic failure on the exam. It was quite easy to remove - clothes steamer and exacto knife - a bit of patience and voila. Then a little more time with Goo-Gone and window cleaning solutions to get them nice and clean. What a beautiful sight - windows super clear (and what a huge difference!).

View attachment 2371329

The next day, I replaced the dome light. Again, a small thing but a nice feeling of accomplishment.

View attachment 2371330
View attachment 2371331

I don't like tinting either. All my windows had film too, but it wasn't tinted. It was strictly to block UV. I can drive all day in the hot sun without sunburning my arm.

 

[janyyc]

OK, it has been three months since my last post, and that's for a very good reason. My last posts were made from an airplane on July 31 (flying back home to Calgary). I had to leave Canada once again on August 13, only slightly after a month after picking up Ozzi in Vancouver. It's hard to believe right now, in retrospect, that I was able to accomplish so much in the span of a month.

So - I didn't update this thread at all because I was busy in the two weeks before leaving home (spoiler - we did manage to go camping) finishing everything up with Ozzi and packing/preparing to leave to Europe for an indefinite period of time.

After spending exactly 90 days away, and in the process visiting Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Austria, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Finland, I just got back to Canada again a week ago, escaping new lockdowns and an abrupt (second) shutdown of my profession. Luckily no 140day quarantine this time, but unfortunately just a few days too late to enjoy driving Ozzi again, as we (finally) have winter. He won't be a Garage Queen, but Calgary winters are (or rather, what is done to the roads to keep them drivable during the winter is) absolutely brutal on cars. You want to know what I mean? Here's a shot from a recent neighbourhood walk:

Yes, that's pretty extreme - but not unheard of. So he'll be in the garage - especially as camping at negative temperatures is no fun anyways.

I will update this thread with what we did in the two weeks before leaving - quite a bit.

But first, some 70-series p0rn.

Spotted this 78 in Nessebar, Bulgaria (actually was just parking my rented Skoda and could park next to it )

Unrelated, but I spotted this strange overlanding rig in Sofia:

 

[janyyc]

This 75 series was part of the Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg (quite an amazing place - I finally had the chance to visit, and had the place to myself since it was operating at something like 10% capacity). Awesome to see our family represented...

I did see another Troopy, a yellow one, in Salzburg right after leaving the airport in a taxi, and it turned before I had the chance to pull out my phone and capture it.

Lastly from the p0rn series, there were lots of nice BJ73s in Madeira (Portugal), my last stop before heading home. I only managed to capture one, there were others in nicer (more stock) condition.

 

[JDM Journeys]

Loving the stories in this thread. And we definitely need to get the rigs together when spring comes again. maybe by then things will be getting closer to "normal" too?

Will you be doing any work on it over the winter?