Builds Beast to Beauty - 1983 HJ47 (1 Viewer)

[BigWesty]

So having been a classic lurker for about a year I've bitten the bullet, joined and have dived straight into a rebuild thread...

Having driven 40s for years on the farm where I work, I finally decided to pull the trigger and buy one for myself. I initially went out looking for a tidyish ute for a good spruce up given HJ47 utes had always been the extent of my experience with 40 series cruisers. Plenty of them around the area I live, not a lot of farmers want to part with them. Most are still used as daily work vehicles and the rest were used for so long they've become part of the family.

After a few months of poking around, a mate referred me to a local fellow selling his 1983 HJ47 Troopcarrier. He'd already knocked back a few offers from blokes wanting to part it out and scavenge bits of it. He'd owned it for 21 years, done a few laps across Australia in it, done the top end and his wife learnt to drive in it. He didn't have the money to restore it and was getting complaints from the local shire about storing it next to a creek bank behind their small town property. I went for a look and a chat and assuring him she would be well loved and tidied up, took possession of her for $1000.

 

[BigWesty]

She was a non-runner, so we loaded her up and took her back to my place. One new battery, an oil change and a fresh clutch master cylinder later she was up and running for the first time in 6 years!

Having always had my heart set on a ute and never having intended on acquiring such a massive 40 (and massive amount of work..) I was as surprised as anyone when I fell in love with her on the spot and even MORE surprised when my wife did as well!!

We both decided there was a future for this beast in our little family and having the approval of "the finance minister" I started to pull her down to see how deep a rabbit hole this project was going to be..

Six years parked next to a creek, a bit of plant life starting migrating to higher ground.

First things first. Roof rack and roof both off just so I could reverse her under my tiny lean to...

 

[BigWesty]

I realised pretty fast, this project was going to turn into more than a quick paint job. I really wanted to save the old girl and the wife and I had always dreamed about doing up an old land cruiser and driving up to Kununurra to visit her folks up there, then maybe continue on for the big lap of Aus..

We needed something very well built, reliable and perhaps a touch comfier (purely for the wife of course...) than a stock standard 40. So a plan came together where the best elements of the Troopy would remain, the character, the looks, all the original steel (or as much as could be saved) while some improvements would be made to the drive train to make her a true family tourer.

The pull down commenced, while I set about sourcing a HJ61 to steal a 12HT to replace the Troopy's tired 2H heart.


One last lap of the block before she gets parked up.

and off she goes to the sandblasters!

 

[Cribbsy]

Awesome mate! good to see another one getting saved. Where abouts in west oz are ya? I'm just in the process of dropping a 12ht in mine too. can't wait

 

[BigWesty]

Picked up a donor 60 series with a half million km 12HT fairly quickly and decided on a full engine rebuild to sit at the centre of the project. I was lucky enough to bump into a bloke selling a factory 40 series 5 speed box at roughly the same time and made a quick decision on giving the old girl an extra gear. With the drive train decisions made and the project gaining depth and speed a lot faster than I intended I had to make some big decisions on budget, timeframe and how this build was going to fit around very busy farm life. Did I want to do it all myself and take my time with it? Or get other people involved with the build? With work dominating most of my life I knew a realistic timeframe for a quality solo build would be 2-3 years. We've rebuilt cars on-farm before and it didn't take long to learn the difference between how long a rebuild should be taking and how long they end up taking are usually worlds apart. It was going to be a big decision, dollars vs time.


First new bloke at the party. The 12HT arrives!

His 5 speed mate wasn't too far behind.

Engine out time

Quick test fitting before the rebuilds begin. Since I couldn't find a straight answer anywhere. It was nice to check the new gear all cleared the tubular crossmember on the chassis.

 

[BigWesty]

Awesome mate! good to see another one getting saved. Where abouts in west oz are ya? I'm just in the process of dropping a 12ht in mine too. can't wait

Cheers mate. I'm down south in Margaret River.
Yep there's nothing much better than a 12HT for these old girls I reckon.

 

[BigWesty]

Shortly after I'd gotten to this stage I got a substantial pay rise at work. Which also meant more time at work.
Two weeks after that my main offsider at the farm quit with no notice.
Another month later the owner semi-retired and stepped back from the farm which left me and his son to run the show. Our workforce had nearly been cut in half and my decision was made for me. I simply didn't have time to work on the Troopy in any sort of meaningful way, so it was either shelve the project or start farming it out. (no pun intended)

I was just too in love with the car to park her back up for another 6 years. She deserved more and she'd waited long enough. I sunk most of my new pay rise into the rebuild budget and got 2 fantastic blokes involved from South West, Western Australia:

Alex Griffiths from Westside Metal Restoration. A young bloke still finding his feet in his new business that lives and breathes old cars

and

Allan Rice from Harry's Hoist (hopefully soon to be rebranded as The Cruiser Station) an ex-army heavy duty diesel mechanic and spraypainter who exclusively services, rebuilds and revives old landcruisers.

Feeling a little sad to let go to much of the build to others, but happy it was the right choice I forged ahead in more of a managerial role on the build, ordering and sourcing all parts myself, transporting chassis and parts between workshops and spending my nights restoring the smaller internal items.



Loading up the chassis at my place ready for a trip to Allan's workshop.

A quick pitstop at the farm on the way to pull the old engine and gearbox out. Can never have too many spares for the old cruisers we run there.

Chassis stripped and ready for a sandblast

Trying to keep my hand in at night sprucing up switch internals.

 

[airon23]

looks good man keep it up.

 

[BigWesty]

The further I dug into the car the more I realised she was in a lot better shape than she looked initially. After finding her sitting on four flat tires next to a creek line, parked out for six wet, south-west Australian winters without so much as a tarp thrown on her I was a little surprised!
Only one of the rear barn doors, a few pin holes on the front of the bonnet, two small sections on the top half of the sides and two or three patches on the tub needed to have rust repair and the only totally non-salvageable parts on the whole build were the bib and the steel roof gutters.

All other doors, fenders, aprons, windscreen surround and chassis were just a sandblast, prime and coat of paint job.


Blasted and primed.

Work starts on the tub

Hard to believe I was scraping a wasps nest out of these doors only a week before this photo was taken...

 

[BigWesty]

The wife was already on board with the build, but I took this photo within seconds of her walking in and seeing the roof. It's only blasted and primed, hasn't even had paint yet. This was the first bit of the car she'd seen that had been fixed up. I was surprised enough when she said she wanted to come to the panel shop at all let alone how stoked she was when she walked in and saw the roof!

I know I wouldn't be the only bloke around to feel a little thankful to have a partner that gets on board with a car rebuild. Even if all they do is tolerate it! In my little corner of the world down here, for every bloke doing up a car there's another one selling his project because the missus is sick of it chewing up space, time and money. So get them involved if you can guys and even if they don't want to take part, make sure you let them know how much you appreciate them supporting your build.

 

[BigWesty]

Work continues on the tub and new gutters get bent up for the roof.

 

[David70FJ40]

Subscribed.

Where did you get the gutters?

The wife is a keeper. Mine isn't a fan of my 40 and if I told her how much it cost for the repairs and parts, she would have a coronary.

 

[BigWesty]

Subscribed.

Where did you get the gutters?

The wife is a keeper. Mine isn't a fan of my 40 and if I told her how much it cost for the repairs and parts, she would have a coronary.

Haha, I might hang on to her then. I still might be a little "rough" with the figures on the build when she asks.... I round down a lot..

Gutters are totally custom, I used a local bloke who does a lot of fabrication for us on the farm. He's very pricey, but very good. I got him to bend me up a set from scratch. I think he used an English Wheel to do them if memory serves, most shops around where I am didn't have the gear to make them.

 

[BigWesty]

Things start to get exciting.. Chassis blasted and done in new industrial paint. I used a big fencing and construction company, they've painted it with the same stuff the use when painting jetty and dock pylons. Suffice to say it's designed to take water, salt, sand and ships rubbing up against it all day. So should last a fair while. The factory 5 speed gets a rebuild and a tidy up as well..

 

[eman375]

Great work! At the rate you're going it doesn't look like it's going to take 12 months. Keep us posted.

 

[BigWesty]

Great work! At the rate you're going it doesn't look like it's going to take 12 months. Keep us posted.

Haha. I should have put a disclaimer. I'm backdating my posts a long way. I started around November, so I've only got 5 months to go! My posts will be up to date soonish and then they'll slow down for a while. To a "normal" rebuild speed. Hoping to have her done just before Christmas this year.

 

[D21FJ60]

Love this thread. Are you going to keep that gnarly roo guard on the front?
Keep the pics coming!

 

[BigWesty]

Love this thread. Are you going to keep that gnarly roo guard on the front?
Keep the pics coming!

Thanks man! Sadly I think the roo bar will go. Was an absolute weapon though wasn't it! Had taken on a fair few roos in its time and was twisted on about 5 different angles. Wouldn't pass registration in my state these days in a million years anyway.

Still trying to decide on what I'm going to go with bar work wise on the build. I love the look of them with just a bumper but not very practical where I live, I dodge about 10-15 roos a day on my way to work and back. Usually hit at least 1-2 a year. The troopy also came with a Thomas PTO winch, so I'm trying to retain that which limits my bar choices.

Input/suggestions welcome!

 

[D21FJ60]

How would it not pass inspection? How exactly do they inspect those things?

 

[BigWesty]

How would it not pass inspection? How exactly do they inspect those things?

Car was unregistered when I bought it. So once it's rebuilt will have to pass an engineers inspection and then also go to a mechanics for registration/roadworthiness appraisal. We are an absolute nanny country mate. Bullbars have to meet a whole bunch of boring criteria nowadays. Without boring you with all the details, something that looks like it came off the set of Mad Max just wouldn't get ticked off. I wouldn't mind something a touch cleaner and less banged up anyway so I'm not too stressed. Haha