BJ60 nears knife!!!

[Kon]

Well, after my last (1st) post i took all your advice on board. I started gettin tools and stuff together for the rust removal on my cruiser. So now she is completely naked. No bumper, winch, seats, carpet or even chrome!

yes it was vacuumed and cleaned! most marks on floor/insulation are PO speaker cable that melted. That took a while to rip out!

All that red dirt, its called "bulldust" and it is the least cool thing about outback driving. Vacuum wont pick it up because it is so fine, it needs to be wiped off. This is behind the cargo panels if ya interested, the streak in the middle is from my finger.

anyway, so i found some more rust (surprise surprise) and well, have a look.

this is the body mount behind (RHD) driver side seat.

this is the rear wheel well from the inside on passenger side (your drivers side)

this is the rear wheel well from the outside on passenger side (your drivers side)


so i was pretty pissed off, went and got a quote from a mate who does rust cut and paint. $AUD2500 that includes fixing all dents and rust most of which can be seen here.

wat do ya reckon? i think thats a pretty fair price, and i think she'll come out 10 times better than anything i can do... any and all comments welcome!!!

 

[bigbrowndog]

Bit of a job ahead of you there. Dam pests those little rust beatles when they get to hacking on your pride and joy. Should be a good clean truck when you are finished.You are on the right track doing as much as you can yourself. Not sure of the prices there so if you think you are not getting a good deal get some more quotes.Also hard to say from a couple of pics.Keep going and goodluck.

 

[roscoFJ73]

any and all comments welcome!!!

Sorry Kon but I say scrap it and buy one with a good body and swap the good mechanicals over. With 2 complete vehicles side by side it would be easy and more satisfying than patching rust
Plenty of cheap well loved FJ60 around Perth under $5k with a lot of them on LPG at 55 cents a litre.
Also lots of HJ75 around with decent bodies for 7- $10K.
I think your a student and I can understand your financial situation but the $2500 is throwing good money after bad. I think the rust will come back 1st time it rains.

Those tyres and bullbar will look good on another 60.
I hope I havent offended you,but in the long run I think you will be better off.
Just advice from someone who went down the rust repair and resto road many years ago.

 

[crushers]

unless you are doing this for the enjoyment and the experience i have to agree with rosco on this one, if you have access to rust free bodies then this is an endevor in frustration. the rust will come back, next year of 5 years, sooner or later it will come back. mind you down there you don't have the salt that we do, correct? so it might last much longer.
here in Canada we don't really have a choice in the matter, rust free bodies are either huge money or not found. i have done restorations/refurbishings on cruisers for many years and the rust does come back. usually 5 years for a real proper body job and a year for a crappy one.
but if you are doing it for the experience, please post the pics and history. best of luck in your endevor.
cheers

 

[Island Moose]

I thought Perth was the sunniest city on Earth...what's causing the rust...poor drainage in the body panels for the water that does make it in?

 

[roscoFJ73]

I thought Perth was the sunniest city on Earth...what's causing the rust...poor drainage in the body panels for the water that does make it in?

I believe Kon's 60 was imprted as its a BJ60 and they were never sold here.
We still have our local rust buckets though. We dont have many rivers so a lot of cruisers are used to drop boats into salt water.
We also have access to all the beaches outside the metro area which means a lot of beach driving/fishing goes on.
Also there are lots of dried up salt lakes in the wheat/sheep belt

 

[roscoFJ73]

I thought Perth was the sunniest city on Earth...what's causing the rust...poor drainage in the body panels for the water that does make it in?

Another theory put forward by Landpimp is that cruiser's have such good rubber seals it traps moist air inside the car which condenses around the roof gutter area on metal roofed models.
As the condensation drops get bigger they run down the internal surfaces and lay at the bottom causing those areas to rust
Its possible that rust free cruisers had their windows left down an inch to ventilate the interior.
Looking inside the door panels and rear panels of my cruiser I can see streaks where rusty water has stained.

I make a habit of opening up all the windows after rainy periods and ventilating the interior.
On warm days after the rain the humidity is worse than the tropics.

And yeah,Perth does have lots of sun but also has a higher yearly rainfall than Sydney or Melb

 

[crushers]

now that explains the rusted gutters that i hav seen on some trucks from Japan...
thanks..

 

[Kon]

Sorry Kon but I say scrap it and buy one with a good body and swap the good mechanicals over. With 2 complete vehicles side by side it would be easy and more satisfying than patching rust.

yeh thats very true, but i should mentioned my future plans

iv got 2-3 more years of university, so my plan is to keep my BJ60 in as good as condition as possible for that time for a max resell value, given i paid 5 (+2.5 if i do rust) i reckon it is sellable for 7 easily. (upto 9 if i find the right buyer). During the rest of my spare time iv got a HZJ75 (it was rolled in an accident, no1 seriously hurt!) lined up to purchase during summer, and im lookin for HJ45 in any cond, so there can be some transplanting to get me HZJ45!!

So for me to spend the 2500 to get it back to top condition for atleast 2 years, it seems (to me) worthwhile!

Thanks heaps for comments and if i was to keep it for life, then i definately agree, for the bodies you can get round here rust cut might not be worth it.

 

[bigbrowndog]

You would be flat out getting a paint job on the east coast for $2,500 never mind the rust. More like $4,000 for a paint job. cheers .

 

[Kon]

this quote is from a "friend of a friend".. so yeh im gettin a good deal.

i did a few walk-ins and they ranged from "ooh $3000 if we bondo and fibreglass" to "hmm prob $5000, as long as its staying white"

just a bit off topic, im staying white, but i really like the idea of dark blue/navy blue.. anyone got pics?

 

[bigbrowndog]

white is easy to retouch up yourself later on, more serviceable and cooler.On a hot day here if my cruiser and senator [ cardinal red] are side by side in direct sunlight you just can't hold your hand on the red car,dark blues, greens,browns,greys and black are the same.Also go two pack not acrylic paint.